Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-06-10

Yesterday, Notwithstanding the fre
quently falling rains decoration day was
appropriately observed. The procession
to the cemetery was led by the Staunton
Artillery, under Capt. A. III. Fultz and
the Friendship Hose Company under
| Capt. R. III. Hamilton. The hose house
of the latter company was very handsome
ly decorated with flowers. At the GENE
terry A. G. Gordon, Esq.,, delivered the fol-
lowing admirable address.
| Mr.. President, ladies and gentlemen of
I the Memorial Association
1t is now twenty years since the men
who slumber so peacefully Gin silence and
pathetic dust,' under this emerald sod
went forth with high-strung hearts in the
morning flush of manhood to risk their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred hon
or in defence of the Confederate South
Here beneath this over-arching sky, in
whose light
NOW swings the pendant bloom and opening roses,
Woo the soft zepbyrs with their balmy BREATH
sixteen returning summers have woven
above the last of those who fell in the san
culinary struggle, garlands of glittering
verdure.
Sixteen winters with frozen tears of
llCl udtC JOUCu III oUNlLiOoo VCbUulCD VI
virgin snow these consecrated graves.
No more does the roll of the war drum
or the blare of the bugle stir their patriot
souls to deeds of dauntless daring. No
mad riot of battle breaks their dreamless
sleep.
The swords that fell from their stlffened
fingers when death came have long since
been fashioned by brothers and sons into
ploughshares and reaping hooks.
Biilowing wheat fields wave in the sum-
mer wind their glory of golden grain where
once wild war upreared it's briStling front
and belched its Sulphurous breath.
To rehabilitated nature have come
again, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning and the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness.
And yet, if there were nothing else-if
from these graves of those who gave their
lives for us, no living voices spoke of
faith and hope and love, the beauty of this
summer scene would mock us to despair.
Year after year when the flowers bloom,
you who fought at their sides or aided
them with tender sympathy, and we who
we're too young to help, but who loved
city of the dead to garland their low
graves and keep their memories green.
| But we come not now as once perhaps,
| feeling toward those who reft from us our
best, the bitterness of anger and the cark-
ing impulse of unforgiveness. Time has
laid his healing finger On the lips of ago
| nized affection and they complain no
| more.
The hot tears of new and passionate grief
are dried long since, and calmly and qul-
! city now, but no less tenderly, we renew
| in this expression of our changeleSS love
| the lessons that these green graves teach
US with each recurring year. The mute
| lips that never more shall answer to NOR
| tai roll-call speak eloquently yet of cour.
age-of saskatchewan most of all, OF
| duty nObly done.
SIN the first year of this century," says
the historian, "a great battle was fought
ON the plains of the Danube A determ:
ined charge on the Austrian centre gained
the victory for France. The courage and
example of private soldier who there
fell, contributed much to the success OF
the charge. Ever after, at the parade OF
his battalion the name of Latour D'Auver-
gne was first called, when the Oldest Ser.
| geant stepped to the front and answered
"Died on the field of honor"
There is no one of these deathless dead
| whether he lay stark and bloody in hi!
death sleep at the mouth of the cannon
whether with blistered feet and throb
bling head he persisted in the blaze of the
noontide sun on the long forced march-ol
whether yet in the fever smitten cot O
the hospital. death came at last to free hi
soul from it's racked and tortured frame
but like Latour D'Auvergne, died on thu
field of honor.
No poets pen or speakers rarest phrase
can ever fifty paint him as he was-thi
Confederate soldier who loved his country
so we'll as to give up his life for it. N
words can portray in all of it's splendit
sublimity his lofty spirit CT self-abnegatlon
of courage in trials and danger and diff
culties, Of unfaltering love for fatherlan'
and home and friends.
In WEAKNESS and painfulness, in watch
ing, often, in hunger and thirst; in faint
ings. often, in cold and nakedness, he fol
lowed with unfailing faith the fortune
of shat cross-barred flag which was furle'
at last at Appomattox Court House to b
unfurled no more, forever
Yet no pale minstrel of the future, n
learned historian with cunning skill, ma
ever fully show the intershifting lights AM
shadows of his strange career--welrd arab
esquerie of honor and of agony, of heroisn
and of sacrifice, of duty and of heartbreak
They may tell in mellow cadences of NAL
tial verse, and the pomp of majestic pros
the spirit stirring story of the gran
though unavailing struggle, and write il
letters of unfading light the characters an
deeds of it's great leaders-of Ashby an
Stuart, of Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
These are names that shall never di
while tradition and song survive.
They'll speak of them for years to come,
In cottage. chronicle and tale;
| When for aught else renOWn is dumb,
| Their legend shall prevail"
Marble shafts and stately statues i
bronze shall commemorate them. Poe
and painter, sculptor and musician sha
vie in generous emulation to do Their
honor.
But it is only in days like these, it j
only in the traditions of his own fresid
and friends that the story Of each soldie
of the ranks shall be perpetuated in all it
splendor of peril and of heroic achieve
ment. What virtues dignified his life
What bravery ebbed out with the bloc,
: that flowed from his gaping death wound
BILE tomb at Lexington, where lie the ashe
of the whitest-souled soldier of ancient o
modern times is not a more sacred spo
, than the hillock on the hillside that mark
in the glowing green Of summer the gray
of the humblest private soldier of the Con
federacy. He risked and gave for us hi
all. Who could do more than this.
When Rome was in the zenith of he
glory,-when her legions had borne witt
invineible courage her eagles from tn
mountains of Caucasus to the Pillars O
Hercules when powers and principalitie
in the west, and empires and dynasties il
the east bowed in abject submission befo1
her sovereign power, the most magnlficen
; boast of the dweller in the city on tn
Tiber was: 81 am Roman citizen!"
The Confederacy is only the shallow Q
a name. Its life went out many lon
, year ago in one great throb of passionat
human grief, Its gag is furled. Its hope
are dead and await the dawning of no res
direction day. It's women wear garment
of mourning still for the desolation tina
followed in it's wake.
And yet this day and this scene remin
ms chat in common with many anothe
} in this southern laal possess heritage II
whose MONDAY spiendor NOS egen tbs prid