Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-06-12
MEMORIAL DAY AT STANTON.


On last Saturday, June 9th, the citizens of
Stanton and Augusta county, under the au-
spices of the Augusta Memorial Association,
united in paying their annual floral tribute OF
respect and love to the Confederate soldiers who
| sleep in the "bivouac of the dead' Though no
| special effort had been made to ensure large
| attendance, the gentlemen and ladies from the
country, controlled by the promptings of their
own hearts, assembled in great numbers to
participate in these simple, but interesting
ceremonies. All honor to them for 1t.
| By 10 o'clock the streets were crowded, and
when the signal was given by the tap Of the
drum, preparations to form the procession were
instantly made, and the handsome appearance
presented by the military companies pleasant
ly impressed all, old and young.
The marshals, J. N. Mcfarland, G. Julian
Pratt John D. Lilley. Geo. W. Swoope, and
Lewis Hartman, were for a while quite busy in
getting the procession formed, which marched
| in the following ORDER
| ORDER OF PROCESSION.
| StonewaIl Brigade Band.
Staunton Artillery Company, Capt. John T.
Long.
| West Augusta Guard Capt. Thos. J. Crowder.
| Newtown Hose Company
| school children with banners, representing
| each Southern State.
Carriages with officers of the Memorial Asso
| citation, and the Orator of the day.
| Citizens on horseback.
| Citizens in carriages.
The number ofcarriages was very great and
made long, long line. Those on foot-and
| there were many-did not go in the procession
but on the sidewalk. There were.a great many
ladies and gentlemen on the ground before the
arrival there of the procession.
After the military companies and citizens had
taken position in front of the speakers stand,
| DR.. A. M. Fauntleroy, President of the Memo
rial Association, announced that the exercises
would be opened with prayer by Rev. MIR.
Jones.
| Thereupon, Rev. ]. c. Jones, ofHighland, now
| stationed at Occoquan, Prince William county,
| offered suitable prayer; after which, DR..
Fauntleroy introduced, in justly complimenta-
| ry terms. Capt Micajah Woods, OF Albemarle,
as the orator of the day, who then delivered,
in good STYLE the following chaste elegant, and
appropriate address, which was frequently ap-
| plauded:-
| ADDRESS BY CAPT. MICAJAH WOODS.
Members of the augusta Memorial association,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
| The memories to which we pay sad tribute
| to-day should have invoked, on the part Of
your Committee of Invitation, the presence of
|
| Seated as have been for years at the feet of a
| mistress so jealous as the Law 1 have had but
| little time or opportunity to cultivate those
grSces OF fancy or rhetoric, which alone can do
justice to such an occasion. And when l re-
| member, in the treatment of this theme,
| that your ears have been, in past years. made
| familiar with the cEaSte and fervid elOquence
| of Skinner, OF a Bumgardner, of Gordon
| and OF an Opte, besides Others of your native
| and adopted sons, would fain leave the dis
| charge of this duty to another more worthy to
| commune with you IN the performance Of these
| sacred and beautiful tights.
| 1t is now % years since wild wars deadly
blast was blown" and the electric fire of patri-
otto love for our dear Southern land stirred the
| very air from Potomac's banks to the surging
i tides of the Gulf of Mexico
| Standing, then, as a youthful volunteer on
yon beautiful blue mountain that separates
! the receding hills and wales of Piedmont Vir-
ginia, and on the other the green fields of your
lovely and fertile Valley, L recall how proudly
| l felt that
This is my own, my native land"
and how filed with buoyant emotion thought,
| as journeyed on, that
| This is g land of every land the pride,
| Beloved by Heaven DER all the world beside,
| Where brighter suns dispense serener light
| And milder moons imparadse the night;
A land OF beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
| Time-tutored age and love-eXalted youth"
| My journey ended, and I found myself sin
| The tented held," invested with the duties and
| responsibilities of Southern soldier and
| from that time on, for four years, there were
| rev guns whose echoes reVerberated along the
mountains that skirt this Valley whose report
| did not fall upon my ear.
| learned not only to fight for, but to love-
| this Valley and its noble people. And when
| your invitation came vexed as | was by the
| annoyance of a political campaign in which
| had personal interest. and weighted by the
work Of two Courts before me, I felt, in spite of
| those difficulties, thai sSould-be false 10 N.Y.
| self and to my best interests if I failed TO re-
port here again for duty, and spend an hour
| with you amid the graves of my old com
rades in arms, who riskedall, dared all. and lost
all in defense of our common homes, our altars
and our firesides,
The war tempest ha long since ceased, and
the pillows of its stormy sea have settled into
a peaceful calm. The rush and turmoil of civic
life and enterprise, the whirl OF swift events
the march Of progress new scenes and new re-
possibilities, all tend in this busy age to erase
from cur memories the sorrows and the glorIes
uf those years of strife and battle. But they
| shall not and must not be forgotten. It is meet
and right that from time to time he Old and
| young, the fair and brave, should be summoned
toaassemble among our sacred shrines and be
| taught around common altar to keep holy
one day in each year tribute to the Deeds
the heroism, and the sacrifice of our glorious
dead.
What are some of the lessons to be learned
on such day?
1t is true that our forefathers, under the lead
ership of the majestic Washington, on. many
ter, and on many awelI-fought field, illustrated
all the types and models of splendid manhood,
and gave proof to the world that the endurance
and the valor of the heroic ages of history had
found couuterparts in the stout hearts and
fearless arms OF our Revolutionary sires.
But Peace, with its balmy influences, had
blessed the land for many decades. The devel-
opment of material power and population by
the North and the great West had, to some ex-
tent, prior to 1860, overshadowed and eclipsed
the South. The habits of our people, influ-
enced by our peculiar institutions had, in
many quarters Of the globe, produced the i'm
preston that the typical Virginian and South
erner of modern days was prone to rely on
blood and ancestral fame rather than on any
solid merit of his own.
authority found expression in the prediction
of Mr.. Seward that 1.-The Rebellion" would be
crushed in ninety days.
Statesmen in every crisis of the country's his
. tory, whether of peace or war; splendid as they
were, could not be entirely ignored or blotted
from memory; but among the nations of the
earth, there prevailed an idea that the standard
of manhood south of the Potomac had been
| lowered, and that the descendants of the Rev.
pulmonary fathers were degenerate sons of no.
BILE sires.
But the tocsin of war sounded along our Dor
ders. The dormant energies of a mighty peo-
pie were aroused. The latent fire that slum-
bered in the land broke forth with such spark
ling fierceness that our foes and all christen-
dom wondered at its lurid and unWonted Splen-
dor.
The dreamer who fondIy hoped or imagined
that the "blight of slavery'' and the heat of q
Southern sun had produced lethargic and
idle race, unfit for war, awoke from his delus1on
to find springing from every Southern home
and hamlet scionS Of q stock OF whom Spartan
| mothers might have been proud; who, with
the bounding energy of youthful giants, rushed
to the forefront of danger, and demonstrated
by their dauntless courage in the face OF null
titudinous and outnumbering hosts that they
were as cool, as bold, and as brave, as any war
riors, in the tide Of time, who had joined in
battle
Though these graves around as are mute,
and no responses come from their silent Occu-
pants, yet they are eloquent witnesses to the
fact that the South, though her cause was lost,
has been, through the heroic devotion of her
sons, more than vindicated!
earth, but they are also the brightest jewels in
the diadem of glory that now encircles. and
will forever encircle, the living manhood and
womanhood of Virginia and the South.
The monuments of Grecian art have per-
ished; the Phidian marbles have crumbled in
to dust; the famed colors of Apelles have faded
for centuries from the canvass, but the ~
and the deeds of the heroes ~f""
of Marathon nr> --.cmory
i-r-- Vi 1nermopyla anC
sUIil fresh with the verdure Of
1 Mort tai youth giving to all ages and all peo
pie perennial lessons of lofty devotion to coun.
Try, and of deathless valor.
l SO these valiant sleepers here, these martyrs
10 q cause that have failed, have not died il
> vain. Though dead. thew will ever live al