Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1872-06-13
FLORAL ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT WOODSTOCK,
BY WRIGHT G.. CAMPBELL,

- W hIO L >JI1MI
When the snowy banner of the Sou III
wen down in blood upon the field Of
in 1865, one gem from out
the glorious crown Of Liberties for which
we fought. was left us. One little flow
err of all the beautiful we thought to gath
CT escaped the un timely frost
"a violet by messy stone
Half hidden to the eye"
One privilege that the strong arm OF
the victor could not take away-the right
to mourn our dead.
"Ah tits holy right
Remembrance of the dead
That will not let oblivious blight
Around the graves be shed
Of those in heart in life reyered
The loved, she honored, the endeared.
''Oh Ills blessed thing
Remembrance of the dead
That round the sorrowing heart can bring
FOND moments which have fed
And make the love which dwelled of yore
Spring up within our hearts once more.
1t is to cherish tue sad right we meet
to-day, to show by our presence here that
we have not forgotten, aye that we new
er can forget their glorious deeds and
their glorious lives. 1t is the language
of Father Ryan. the priest poet of the
South, that, IA people who forget the
memory of their dead deserve to be for
gotten themselves
And surely if any people have had
cause to remember their fallen Braves,
we Of the South should not forget them,
for where. in all the history of the past.
can we find record SO pure, cause SO
just, fame SO untarnished or devotion
so intense as that which marked the char
acter of the Confederate soldier.
The annals of the world furnish no
parallel to their unselfsh devotion.
The heroic endurance of the veterans
of1776 at Valley Forge in the dead Of
the Northern winter challenge our admit
ration and the invincibe fortitudo of the
French army in Russia commands our
respect, but oh . we love the ragged vet
Grams whore torn aud weary feet kept will
ling step to the music Of the Sunny
South.
As we follow them through all the
hardships of the war, the daily and night
ly paint full march, the perils of the field,
the pestilence of the camp. the tattered
clothing and the ravage of hunger we
ask what principle i'll the heart Of man
has God implanted there to nerve and
sustain them in this terrible ordeal but
when We see the veterans eye kindle in
the glory of the fight and the limbs that
but an hour ago were weary, grow strong
again, when we see the bright eyes Of
boyhood close forever with a SIN lie upon
the lips and sturdy manhood fall without
a murmur save prayer lifted On high for
his country's good, we know that Patri-
otism is the principle that God has plan
ted there.
Other soldiers have marched into tie
jaws of death as proudly as these. Who
does not remember the charge of the Six
Hundred at which the whole world shud-
dered and the face of Europe's chosen SOL
diery blanched, or who does not remem-
Der the proud march Of the Crusaders as
they thronged the highway of death in
support Of an idea?
Other men have fought as desperately
and against such odds, but there have
been few who died so nobly.
The soldiers of "merrle England" and
sunny France poured out their blood as
freely but Ambition like a guiding star
cleaned proudly over them and they
followed biindly where it led unmindful
as their eyes were turned upward that
their feet beneath were trampling on the
hearts of soldiers wives and the sheen of
that star was Lighting the wreck of un-
hallowed battle fields.
x X X y = X
With such an ambition Michael Ney
in the baptism of the fire and carnage Of
battle was christened the Bravest of the
Brave" by him whose star of destiny
afterward sunk forevee on the blood
drenched plains of Waterloo.
These were the devotees of Ambition
and as such they lived and died.
But there are nobler principles than
this and humanity is proud to feel that
there are yet sparks of divinity enshrined
in clay and that the milk of human
is not all dried upon the breast
of "mother earth''
There have been some, and to the
glory of humanity be it spoken. there
have been many whose minds transcend
ed the narrow limits of self and devoted
their energies to the advancement Of
science and Freedom and the happiness
of their fellowman.
Realizing that doing good is the
highest calling many have nobly sacrl-
feed their labors and their lives in the
c,,1G T. / ok IL IT