The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-07-25
REMARKS OF GEN. McGowAN.-At the

REMARKS OF GEN. McGowAN.-At the
reunion of Orr's Rifles, at Walhalla, on
the 21st, Gen. AIoGowan spoke as fol-
lows:
COMRADES: 1t is good for us to be here.
1t is now ten long, weary years since the
surrender of AppomattoX-a decade of
that the survivors Of the war should
occasionally have such reunions as this.
They are pleasant, they are proper, and
they may be made useful. Such meet
ings as the present are we'll nigh all TINT
is left us. The cause for which We
fought-a separate government for the
South-wns not triumphant. The incl
pient government under whose banners
we marched went down, and in conse-
quence 40 power exists to reward the
poor Confederate soldier for his tolls and
sufferings and heroism. His condition
is that of orphnnage. The government
for which lac struggled cannot honor
and reward with pensions the survivors,
imposing cemeteries, and erect over
them splendid monuments to their
heFoism. The Confederate dead lie in
lonely and unknown graves, from the
Rio Grnnde to Gettysburg, for the most
part without monuments to mark the
place where they lie; but not without
love-
"Sleep, angels, hither from the skies,
There il no lovelier spot of ground
Than where defeated valor lies,
BY mourning beauty crowned"
The tolls and sufferings of the Confc-
derate soldiers were great, but they have
none of the rewards usually enjoyed by
n patriotic citizcn-soldiery. On tho con-
trary, their struggle was considered re-
bellious. and their efforts, instead of
honors and rewards, to deserve rather
that punishment which was thought ne
oessary to make 'treason odious" No
public hospitals rise in the land for tho
purpose Of caring for the. manned and
disabled in the war. On oil sides may
be seen heroes with empty sleeves, or
hobbling about on one actually jost-
ling and struggling in the dust and heat
of active life for bread. The spectacle
is sud one; l never see It but my heart
is touched. This forlorn, uncared- for
condition Of tho poor Confederate soldier
should only bind us the closer together
1t reflects back and gives an increased
interest and sadness to tho great strug-
gle in which they followed their honest
convictions, and fought with heroism
and fell without dishonor. My comrades,
if our services in that war deprive us of
all else, we have left to us, OF least, the
consciousness of rectitude and the pure
pleasure of such reunions ns this. The
heart is still untrammelled. Let us make
the most of this privilege. Let us in
peace and in quiet, without malice or
hatred to any, hold sweet converse one
with another, talk over the past with all
its hopes and fears, joys and sorrows;
, recount the stories Of the bivouac and
! campfire, and rs we pnss, drop n silent
tear over the sweet memory of some
comrade whom We buried on the battle
field, and recall the long marches and
bloody battles in which we suffered and
struggled, hungered and toiled, and
fought and blcd together. Here, Mt least,
as at the parsonage of the deserted
Village"
''The broken soldier, kindly babe to
stay,
Sat by the fire and talked the night
away;
Wept DER his wounds or tales of sorrow
done,
Shouldered his crutch and showed how
fields were Won"
But, my friend, you must allow me to
| make one remark: This reunion of old
| soldiers is not intended, and we must
not allow it to have the effect of rckin-
ding again the old fires of strife. BY no
means. This meeting is only social
and kindly renewal of old ties, nssocia-
tions and friendship. It is we'll occa-
sionnlly to recur to first principles to
recall the past md take our reckoning.
1t sustains our sclf-rcspcct. The soldier
who did his duty in times of war was
not actuntcd by malice, and is always
ready to do his duty in times of peace.
It is not the soldier who has smelt gun
powder, but the selfish politician, who
wishes to pcrpetnate strife between the
parties to the late contest. Tho true
soldier is always just, liberal and mag
nanilnous. If the difficulties between
the sections had been left to the soldiers
mt AppomnttOX, the "bloody chnsm'
would have been crossed mt once by nn
improviscd pontoon bridge, the work OF
both armies. We are now all one peo.
pie, ana able TO remain so. The fntcs
have so decrced it; and it is the part oi
1