Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1879-06-10
MEMORIAL-DAY AT STANTON.
A FINE DAY AND LARGE NUMBER IN ATTEN
DANCE-A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY AND FINE
PROCESSION,

PROCESSION.
On yesterday, our city was filled with thou
sands of persons assembled to participate ia the
ceremonies of paying tribute to the memory
of the Confederate dead buried in Thornrose
Cemetery.
AS no special effort was made to attract per-
sons here on this occasion, the number present
was much greater than was expected, showing
that there is no abatement in the disposition TO
pay honor to the memory of the Confederate
dead.
Main Street was decorated with flags waving
over the street, and hanging from roofs and
awnings. 1850 |
For the want of time and space we are COM
PEELED to make our notice of the proceedings as
briefas possible, and cannot give such notlce
as the occasion deserves.
The Stonewall Brigade Band, and the militia
ry and fire companies in their beautiful uni
forms. presented in the procession magnifi- |
cent spectacle.
The procession, under the charge of Chief
Marshal, John N. Opie, and his assistant Mar
shals, Capt. C. B. Coiner, DR.. Carter Berkeley
Capt. Chas Arnall Capt. E. A. Fulcher, S. ID.
McCue and 1t. j. N. Mcfarland, was formed
on Main Street at II o'clock, and, headed by Lac
Stonewall Brigade Band, discoursing SWEEP
music marched to the cemetery and formed
around the speak er's stand.
The West Augusta Guard was under the
command of list 1t. Johu McQuaide.
The staunton Artillery Company was under
command of LIST 1t. ]. Thee Long
The Augusta Fire Company was under Tue
the command of Capt Michael Cox.
The D. d. & B. Institution Fire Company
was under the command Of Capt. E. r. Moon.
After the procession reached the cemetery
the companies formed around the speakers
stand when the following exercises took place;
The StonewalI Brigade Band played tune,
succeeding which, Col. Jas. H. Skinner, Presl-
dent Of the Augusta Memorial Association,
made the announcement that the exercises OF
this sacred occasion would be opened with
prayer, and then introduced Rev. DIR. r. X. s.
Hough, Pastor Of the NJ. f. Church of Staunton,
who delivered an earnest, eloquent, and appro-
pirate prayer.
The Band then favored the audience with mu-
sic, after which Col. j. II. Skinner made a brief
address, in which he spoke happily OF the I'M
provement in the condition OF the soldiers
cemetery, and the duty to contribute to keep 1t
in proper repair-that it was a school which
taught the highest lesson-the sacrifice OF self
at the call of duty-and all should repair 10 tnat
sacred spot as often, at least as once a year.
He then introduced the orator of the day
Capt James Bumgardner, Jr.-whom, he said.
he knew to be one of the bravest OF the brave,
and one OF the worthiest of the worthy sons OF
Augusta county.
Capt. Bumgardner then delivered in good
style, and in that earnest and energetic manner
which characterizes him, the following graphic
and eloquent address which commanded the
undivided attention of the vast audience that
was within reach of his voice.
ADDRESS OF CAPT. JAMES BUMGARDNEK. JR.
Mr. President, Gentlemen Of the Memorial ASS0-
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
or Emperor, hero or peasant, woman or child,
mysterious and reverental emotion in the
bosom of living man attracts him to the silent
home of the dead.
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 in the character, spirit, and pur-
pose of the dead that challenges the reverence
and admiration OF the living, is recorded on
Whatsoever is believed or hoped in regard to
that life which is to come after death, Is wrltten
in the epitaph.
A brave, noble, patriotic, devoted, and wise
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
living city; for he there at one view, all OF
country past and all of its present.
If he learn there that the dead-brave are Tor
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 foot Of the pilgrim still seeks the shrine OF
the martyr, he knows that courage, truth, faith,
Rv the Monumental record which we make
for the men who sleep here, who were OF our
generation, of our country, of our kindred and
Il rl,N ]jpd1 DC
will we, their survivors, the guardians of their
name and fame, be known and Judged as long
memory of their deeds lives in the history
of man.
1t is said that we come here on this annual
memorial day to dc honor to the memory OF
the Confederate dead. DO we not rather come
to perform a sacred duty to ourselves?
tnre rev Senerations omit to leave behind us. as
the contemporaries, comrades, fathers, brothers,
children of these men, lmperlshaole evldence
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 m on 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:-
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 ire
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
passes slowly on, reading step by step the brief
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"
name, date brief tribute of sorrow, graft
tude, or affection. He may pause here and there
to note the vain pOmp OF wealth ana prlde,
blazoned in fiorid description on costly mauso-
leum.
He will lnger at the record of life begun in
high purpose, spent in noble acts. and closed In
honor and reverence. And not long will it 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 ind
their reward in rest Of saint, in martyr crown,
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 sepuchre and shrine; that the
cherished relics of country's noblest, best
and bravest, are gathered here.
He will ask some bystander, "Who were
these seventeen hundred Confederate SOL
diers? Went they forth to battle and to death
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?" mo
they aleu-, III may De, OH IL hundred uelus OF III
the cherries hospital ward, after the long tor
ture of lingering wounds or the slow agony OF
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, honers and
privations, dangers; but clad in rags, spent
with march and watch, worn with famine, they
stood in battle storm, firm as Roman LEGION OF
Macedonian Phalanx-died with the devotion OF
an Immortal Band and rushed into the deadly
charge as freely 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
in history. He tried by every test thai
easureS the courage endurance faith dr..