The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-06-12
In Memoriam.
sTREwING WITH FLOWERS THE GRAVES
OF THE CONFEDERATE DEAD-PARADE
address REPORT OF PRESIDENT OF
THE ASSnCI A rInN &c

IKE ASoOClAIION, CtCs
The annual custom of decorating wi
flowers the graves OF our soldier dead tn
lie buried in Thornrose Cemetery, was o
served on Monday last. The demonstrate
was in striking contrast t, that Of last yea
and that contrast we think happy one.
Those who assembled on Monday were #
the most part endesred by ties OF kindrt
or friendship to the silent sleepers on Il
green hill side, and approached their lab
of love with something like that reverend
which is due the dead. And when the sin
pie yet eloquent office was performed, the
returned to their homes to take up the dali
duties of life, and perhaps recall the sacre
memery OF those whose dust now rests be
meath the sod. Was not this tribute fs
more appropriate than the festive seaso
which marked the occasion last year?
At an early hour in the morning person
from the county began pouring into tow
from all directions, and by ten o'clock tn
streets were crowded with men, women an
children, many of them bearing wreath
and bouquets OF flowers and evergreens
whilst the citizens of the town joined then
loaded with floral offerings.
In front Of number of the stores OF
Main street, flags and bunting were hung
and from the house tops long,streamers sus-
pended.
THE PROCESSION
was formed on Main street under the com.
mand of Marshals John N. Opie, C. B
Coyner, E. A. Fulcher, c. S. Arnold, S. H
McCue, Carter Berkeley, j. N. Mcfarland
and J. H. Waters, and moved to the GENE
terry in the following order:
Stonewall Brigade Band.
West Augusta Guards, Lieut.. McQuaide
commanding.
staunton Artillery, Lieut.. Theo. Long,
commanding.
Carriages containing President OF the As
ISOLATION, Orator, Chaplain and -distin-
guished citizens.
Fire Department Of the city, under CON-
mand of Capt. Cox.
Fire Department of the D. D. & B Inst,
under command of Capt. Moon.
Citizens in carriages and on horseback.
Arriving at the cemetery the companies
were formed around the speakers stand.
from which, after music Rev. DR.. Hough,
of the Methodist Church, offered an earnest
and impressive prayer. Col. Skinner, Pres
;lo,,t of tho NIonoriaI c,oo;ot;on in fskt;pn
terms, then introduced the speaker Capt.
Jas. Bumgardner, jr., who delivered the fol-
lowing address, which we think one Of the
most beautifully appropriate that occasions
of this kind have ever brought forth
THE ADDRESS.
ADDRESS OF CAPT. JAMES BUMGARDNER, JR.
Mr.. President. Gentlemen of the Memorial Asso-
citation, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Whether it be Westminster Abbey, the chap
Ell Of Henry the Seventh, under the dome of the
Invalides, a village churchyard, or spot like
this; whether the tenant be King. Black Prince
a mysterious and reverential emotion in the
bosom of living man attracts him to the silent
home of the dead.
A nations monuments are the brief epitome
OF its history. They record at once the annals
of the dead, and the character and faith of the
living.
Whatsoever has been achieved of greatness,
whatsoever in the character, spirit, and pur-
pose of the dead that challenges the reverence
and admiration OF the living, is recorded on
the tomb.
Whatsoever is believed or hoped in regard to
that life which is to come after death, is written
in the epitaph.
A brave, noble, patriotic, devoted, and wise
people perpetuate in bronze and marble the
memory, OF Its heroes, patriots, saints, mar
tyrs, and sages.
Hence the traveller in a strange land exam
ines the cemetery with as much interest as the
Twin aft far ma 600 vic oil Inf
a country's past and all of Its present.
If he learn there that the dead-brave are for
gotten, he knows that the living are brave no
longer. If he sees that the patriotic, the virtu-
Gus, and the sanity of the past are not hon
ored, he knows that patriotism. virtue, and
faith have sought some other cline. But where
the graves of heroes are kept green, and where
the foot of the pilgrim still seeks the shrine of
the hH RGs ii that Fifth
By the monumental record which we make
for the men who sleep here, who were of our
blood, and who died as martyrs in our cause,
will we, their survivors, the guardians of their
name and fame, be known and judged as long
as memory of their deeds lives in the history
Of man.
1t is said that we come here on this annual
memorial day to do honor to the memory of
the Confederate dead. Do we not rather come
to perform a sacred duty to ourselves?
How dare we, as we are to be judged by fu-
the contemporaries, comrades, fathers. brothers,
children Of these men, imperishable evidence
who saw how nobly they lived, and how grand
ly they died, loved, honored, and reverenced
them, whom history and song will ever proudly
cherish as the brightest examples of faith,
courage, and devotion that this world has ever
seen; to whom aliens and strangers have erect-
ed mon uments, to whom enemies have brought
tributes Of admiration and for whom, from be-
yOnd the sea, have come chaplets and laurel
wreaths, and praise in words like these:-
1.-THE knightliest of the knightly race,
Who, since the days of old,
Have kept the lamp of chivalry
Alight in hearts of gold"
Let us imagine that some three generations
have past, and that the survivors of the tre-
mendOus struggle in which these men fell have,
like these, been laid each in his marrow
home =" and that some stranger comes in thrO
yOnder gate to learn the lessons that aspot like
this will ever teach. We follow him as he
history OF each tenant Of the tomb.
On most of the monuments which will then
crowd the thickly peopled spot, he will read but
1.-The short and simple annals of the poor" q
name, a date, q brief tribute OF sorrow, graft
tude, or affection. He may pause here and there
to note the yaid 81 wealth ana pride
leum.
He will linger at the record of life begun in
high purpose, spent in noble acts, and closed In
honor and reverence. And not long will 1t re-
quire for him to learn whether the living who
there buried their dead out Of their sight, held,
in honor most, the achievements prompted by
selfish pride, grasping avarice and earthly lusts,
or those purer, better, nobler deeds, which find
Jn6lr reward III rest Oh sdlnt, III martyrs croWQ,
or soldiers grave.
And reaching the place where we now stand,
though he see no column, shaft, or statue, and
read no name craven on stone or bronze, he
will see from shade and turf and flower, that
the spot Is a sepulchre and a shrine; that the
cherished relics of a country's noblest BEST
and bravest, are gathered here.
He will ask some bystander, "Who were
these seventeen hundred Confederate SOL
from the city near?"
mo, they came from all over this Southern
land, from the Potomac to the Gulf-from the
Atlantic to the Rio Grande."
"Were they gathered from some tremendous
field of carnage near and buried here 2" mo.
they died, 1t may be, on hundred fields or in
the cherries hospital ward, after. the long tor
consuming fever" Belonged they, then, to
some immortal Band, Household Guard, or Lee
gion of Honor, picked from the veterans of a
hundred fields, covered with honors, and gilt
tering with orders and decorations, splendid
with shining panoply, and reserved in pam
pered ease, to rush to the front in a desperate
crisis to conquer a doubtful victory or cover
disastrous defeat? Alas, no. they knew moth.
ing Of the pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious war; nothing of its prizes, honors, and
rewards; to their share fell ony1ts trials, TOLLS
privations. dangers; but clad in rags, spent
with march and watch, worn with famine, they
stood in battle storm, firm as Roman legion, or
Macedonian Phalanx-died with the devotion of
an Immortal Band, and rushed into the deadly
charge as freely as Household Guard. what,
then, was their peculiar history?" They had
no peculiar history. Their history is the his
tory of the Southern cause, and of the soldiers
who upheld it.
The Confederate soldier needs no eulogy his
devotion and deeds will speak for themselves