The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-28
LETTER FROM MOBILE.
Description Of the Monument to the Con-
federate Dead.
The Ceremonies of Memorial Day.
Noble Tribute OF Respect from Federal
Soldiers to the Dead Heroes OF the
South.
A Drive on the Bay-A Night in the
Country.
MOBILE, April 26, 1875


MOBILE, April 26, 1875.
Dear Bulletin Awaiting the arrival OF the |
train for Mobile on the evening Of Friday, the |
23d, found myself gazing in melancholy con- |
upon the evidences of decay and
desolation in our once proud and prosperous
Crescent City, presented in the worm eaten
and much be-whittled benches and cob
webbed windows of the ladies' stting-room-|
God save the mark of the Mobile and Texas
Railroad. My mournful meditations were
suddenly scattered to the winds by the hoarse
cry of fire within, apparently. few yards OF
the door.
Starting hastily to my feet I reached the
passage-way in time to see slight wreath OF
smoke curling upward from the after por-
tons Of the steamer John Kyle. The smoke
was soon tinged with lurid red, and fierce
flames almost instantaneously enveloped the
Inflated vessel. 1 saw the two adjoining YES
sells moving slowly eff, and supposed for q
moment that they were happily about to es-
cape from their too close proximity to the
burning boat. Soon, however, they too were
shrouded in smoke and fame. and as the
train bore me onward toward the Gulf City,
I gazed behind upon the smouldering wrecks
of the three vessels that but o few moments
before were proudly floating upon the waters
of the Mississippi, freighted with the riches
the hopes, the lives Of many men. 1t was
not until the folio wing morning thai learned
the terrible loss of life that added to the hor-
rors of the disastrous coDfiagration.
| found the Mobilians especially the fairer
portion in state of mournfully pleasurea-
ble excitement, in preparation for the cere-
monies Of Memorial Day" My friends in
the city being all too deeply cnsrossed In tneir
| "labor of love to either make or receive
visits. I made a little excursion out into the
country in the evening, visiting the busy little
village of Whistler, five miles out on the Mo
| bile and Ohio Railroad. The workshops OF
| the railroad company furnish employment to
large numbers of industrious, hard-worklng
men. whose rows Of neat cottages, embow-
cred in roses and honey suckles, form long.
rambling streets, radiating from the central
point to the workshops.
At six o'clock we sat down to real old
fashioned country tea-table, loaded down
with pies and doughnuts, homemade bread
and butter, fresh laid eggs. and other country
dainties, delicious to city stranger, who had
not seen the like in many long years. When
bed-t came, we were ushered into the spare
bedroom, where under gorgeous rising sun
beduuilt of rainbow hues we sunk down,
down, down, into the depths Of q feather bed.
the like of which did not suppose had sur
vived the invention of spiral springs, woven
wire, etc., etc.
| hov to Ar1Sn ofo I1Q1 L.
ing the invigorating saline breezes Of Mobile
Bay, which were rendered exquisitely fragrant
by the commingling vines, which almost con-
ceal the fronts of the lovely cottages over
which they are trained in profuse luxuriance.
Mobilians are justly proud OF their she'll
road, which winds for miles along the beach,
past q succession of elegant villas and bower,
like cottages. The white shell dust fairly
CLEANS in the sunshine, and the road is as
level as q church. floor and as hard as sold
rock.
In the evening Father Ryan, the poet
priest of the South" preached OF the Cathe-
dral with his usual poetic eloquence and terse
logic. failed to discover the flaw in the
Iargument by which he apparently proved con-
clusively, il man be Christian at all, ne
cannot consistently be otherwise than Catho-
lie.
To-day, the 26th Of April, is Memorial Day.
corsecrated to the decoration OF the graves OF
the onfederate dead of Mobile, whose re-
mains have been gathered together from the
various battle fields where they were hrst
rudey inferred, to repose beneath the shadow
of the magnificent monument erected to their
7 memory BY the ladies Of the Memorial Asso-
citation.
From the lofty summit of granite shaft a
Confederate soldier, resting upon his gun, IN
the attitude of mourning, gazes down upon
the grassy mounds which mark the last rest
ing place Of nine hundred and ninety. nine OF
his comrades, who gave their lives in the
sacred cause of liberty. Each grave is marked
by Q simple head-boerd, on which is inscribed
the name of the hero who lies beneath, and
the name and date of the battle in which ht
laid down his life. A beautiful shaft of gran
tie marks the last resting place of the soldier
. :" who fred the last gun in the defense of Mo
bile"
bouquet of white roses lying on the grass.
/. and a wreath of evergreens and immorteile
+, encircling each head-board, bore witness to
the labors of the ladies Of the committee
. while the countless flowers and crosses scat
. tered here and there, showed the reverence II
which their memory is sld by the thousand!
, who gathered round the speakers stand t
listen to the fervent and eloquent address o
the orator of the day, Hon. ID. Il. Scott, Q
Russell
At the close of the Grafton, Major Stephel
: Groom came forward and recited IN cu
: tured manner the following poem, written o.
4 Col. Scott in reply to the ott-repeated calumn
;. that the Confederates were rebels and traitors
The Rebel Dead.
BY COL. S. s. SCOTT.
True.-rebels they were, firm and strong,
= but not as pitiless foe
Portrays them in history and song,
PortrSys them and sun les at the woe
d Their death in its train brought along;
y Not rebels to honor, not rebels to truth, -,
eN Not rebels to faith. and not rebels to ruth
g But ON. they were rebels TO wrong.