Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-05-29
The Judgment of the Living by the Dead

ment of the Dead by the Living. The
corpse, duly embalmed, was placed by the
margin of the Ackerusian Lake, and, be-
fore it might be consigned TO the bark
which was to bear it across the waters to
lis final resting-place, it was permitted TO
the appointed judges to hear all accusations
of the past life of the deceased, and, if
proved to deprive the corpse of the rites of
sepulture.
We can imagine another ceremonial of
like solemnity and ndgrandeur-the Judgment
of the living by the dead. We can imagine
the bugle-blast calling out from their graves
the buried army of dead Confederacy, file
after file moving in so emn order into one
vast amphitheatre, formed by Virginia
mountains, around which they so often
fought. Only the hush of night could befjt
such an occasion, only shaGowy rivulets of
light could illumine the faint outlines Of
these gaunt spectres as command, after
command wheels into the dim defile and
takes its place, until from terrace behind
terrace the skeleton army looks down into
the hollow of that convexed midst awaiting
the entrance of the living who are to be
judged by the dead.
/. And yet, before the proceeding, and
ushered by the trnmpet's eloquent intro
duction, we can imagine the coming into
that presence of well-known form; we can
imagine in all the state mess of person, in
al the calm demeanor in all the earnest
ness which crowned the brow and spoke
from the sad eye, erect, majestic, and as in
life they last saw him-RCbert Lee. How
wild the cheer heaved from that skeleton
host, how the f1eshless arms wave to him,
how the darkened caverns of the skull are
411 c.nxht hui
en- in the ecstacy of love and swim in the
convulsion of tears as the grand old CON-
mander is adored by the un-graved ranks of
his ragged legions! And while the tremu-
lous cheer rushes into swelling dapasop,
we can imagine, cleaving sharply above it
all, another flourish of trumpets and an
other form move past the skeleton sentine s
uncha leDged to meet the concentered gaze
of the army of the dead. We see him again
as he was the old slouch cap, The kindly
smile, the face frightened by devotion to
his God and cause; grand, firm, relf-reliant
-Stonewall Jackson. Vain every effort to
describe the greeting of those gathered
voices, vain all words to tell of the acclaim
ing shouts, vain the essayed portrayal of
the exu tant pride of those who fol owed
him, of those whose hearts we're with him.
Days of rags and starvation are lost in a
mist out of which rises only the vista of the
glories of the Valley, and, from rank to
rank, we can hear the undulating roll of
voices until they carry in united harmony
the rugged music of ''StonewalI Jackson S
way.h After the announcing trumpet, we
see other figures of those who had once
generated that summoned multitude, and,
as one by one each moves to the centre of
that great circle, we would yet look ON him
whose martial port had early vanished from
those ranks in precedence to the grave As
he now receives the warriors hon age, we
k1 ow by the flashing eye, by the chivalric
bearing, the dauntless champion whose
heartbeat was honor, whose purpose was
country-Albert Sidney Johnston; and as
he moves reviewed by those he once review
ed he is accorded an ova ton of love and
admiring trust With that all sound is
hushed.
Column in rear Of column, brigade be-
hind brigade, division at the back of divi-
sion, all in their wonted battle fashion the
dead army of dead Confederacy is ranged
the lost soldiers of lost cause are drawn
up, and from the encircling mountain sides
look Down and wait. The sharp outlines
of the faeshless bones project each figure in
stern prominence. The bleached members
of human structure are beneath those uni
forms, the cerements of the grave, and
those grim forms are as they were shorn by
the mutilations of death and the wasting of
the tomb. We can imagine that the rusty
musket, with bayonet fixed, is stacked
along the lines; that God the Almighty this
night loaned each soul to the skeleton which
once encased it, that though the parchment
over the shrunken visage is lightly drawn,
J. l. l.
former likeness, and that from its blanched
surface the eye breaks forth' again with
recognizing CLEAN and the empty skull is
refurnished with all its senses; while the
night luminary casts its yelled irradiance.
sifted through passing ouds and tapes
tries with strange surroundings, over the
figures and the place. And then we can
see, as at sudden signal, that disheveled
array seated, and from above the awful
silence hear the loud publication how now
in this grand assize begins the judgment of
the Living by the Dead.
We can hear the heralds proclamation.
1t tells that of their generals who survived
them two stand before the country. Two
in the highest council of the nation, two
whose records must be reviewed and upon
whom Judgment must be passed. The
trumpet and herald announce the cited. We
see one as he rode in the front of his caval-
ry, firm in the saddle, intrepid, unwavering
and dashing as when he le,, his horsemen.
Riding int that presence and meeting the
faces Of his judges, Wade Hampton, peer
less in honor as of old, unsheathed his
sword with blade as pure as his fidelity to
|! his country, and stands before his great
commanders, his compeers and those skele-
ton hosts. And then we hear the reading
of his life; how he came from a long strug-
gle broken in fortune AMI stood in his
mother State like himself wrecked; how he
went from one war INTO another; how he
found his Commonwealth assailed by a
devastating horde preying upon her,
de polling her possessioA, urging her de-
graduation, urging the debasement of her
peop e, urging the corruption of her Gov
ernment; how he became her bulwark; how,
when he held her in his hands, riches and