The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-05-18


| to the Rio Grande, every city, town and ham
! let vies with each other in the establishment
of it's cemetery, state that a handful of van
| dals we're found recently to enter upon this
| ancient cemetery, without consultation, with
/ axe and mattock, and, in a few hours. left it
| as blasted as the Desert of Sahara? You will
appreciate their action, when l inform you
[ their only estimate placed on trees or shrub
| berry in cemetery is for the quantity of the
lumber, firewood or bark they might yield.
They are pacavenues in wealth as in society,
| and notwithstanding their young pastor, with
| folded arms and head cast down, stood by,
| they were not abashed. They had the hardi-
hood to SANDER lady Of the vicnage, by
claiming that she countenanced, if she did
not insligate, the vandalism. Shame where is
| thy blush And seeing, too, that this lady had
once threaded the walks of that lovely ceme-
| terry on the Schuylkl, and had passed under
| its portal, ornamented with that unique statu-
| ry, "Old Mortality" his pony, and the i'm
| plements of his loved calling. Would any
believe such SANDER Of lady? They would
Danish the idea of Old Mortality i'll the future
having anything to do, and would substitute
the mop, and brush and soapsuds, and some
one with red face and sleeves rolled up, scour-
ing away on the tombstones of their loved
ones, in the blazing sun, like the housemaid
in Philadelphia, hopping her front door steps.
You will readily understand that the adopted
father of the soldier sympathized, aided and
sustained this movement. You and Jour
readers would expect as much. How striking
a contrast does all this present to the taste
displayed in the adornment and preservation
of the handsome cemeteries near your city, as
we'll as the noble generosity of your honored
citizens in the act referred to.
Yet pardon me if I give you, as an interest
ing contrast to all this, what occurred not
twenty miles distant, and which has been
achieved through the instrumentality, in great
part, of a single lady. She began, immediate
ly at the close of the war, TO have the remains
of our Confederate soldiers properly cared for.
Many died in the hospitals of her town, where
she nursed them assiduously, when in person
she gave attention to their names, date of
death, regiments to which they belonged,
States they were from, being distinctly mark
ed OH the headboards to their graves. When
Sheridan entered the town, his soldiers ex-
hbted demoniac pleasure in either destroy
ing these boards or in piling them up proms-
Cuousy, so that, with a few exceptions, all
had to be put in that large list that preponder-
ates in all the cemeteries. Confederate and
Union, unhnown. She got up theatricals. and
took prominent part, and kept it up some
time, and realized a considerable sum. She
wrote to that large-hearted man of Chicago,
late of Virginia, c. H. Mccormick. He pre-
sehted her with reaper. She put it up at |
rattle with the farmers of her county, and |
realized handsomely. She continued her
efforts in season and out of season, visited |
Baltimore several times, and within a year
past had the satisfaction of seeing block of
marble she purchased in Baltimore, as the
most economical plan, wrought at home by
a home workman, who, besides doing it hand
somely, gave her fifty dollars, in his labor.
erected on Il handsome limestone base, with
the marble shaft rising to the height of tventy
one feet. at a cost of over one thousand dollars.
This is the inscription on the soldiers monu-
ment at Woodbne Cemetery, Harr;sonburg,
Virginia
North side-s'This monument is erected by
the Ladies' Memorial Association in grateful
of the gallant Confederate SOL
1ers who lie here. They died in defence of
The rights of the South, in the war between
The States, from 1861 to 1862
West sde-''1S76. In memory of men,
who with their lives indicated the principles
II l776.''
South side-'Battles of the valley of the
Mcdowell, Piedmont, Cross
Keys, Port Republic, Kernstown, Harrison
burg, Winchester, Harper's Ferry
East side-''The Southern soldier died for
lis country"
''Success is not patriotism,
Defeat is not rebellion"
OCCASIONAL.