Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-31
AT THE OPERA HOUSE.
Speeches Made by Representatives of Both
Sides-Recitation.

Speeches Made by Representatives of Both
Sides-Recitation.
The opera house had been beautifully dec
GRATED for the occasion. Union flags hung
| from the proscenium arch and about the
| balconies. On the stage was q
| flowers. Flowers and Dotted plants were
| grouped about the speakers table. BY 2:30
several hundred people had assembled.
Commander L. p. Goodell, who was
presiding officer, introduced Rev. K. NJ.
| Tinnon, chaplain of r. f. Lee camp, who in
| BETTING words invoked a divine blessing
on this meeting of old soldiers who had
| faced each other on the field of battle.
/. p. Goodell then introduced Col. w.
| D. Wylie. He said it was proud day
for Texas and Americans that the rancor
OF the past was forgotten. 1t was meet and
| proper that roses be strewn on the
! graves of the dead of those who wore
| the blue and wore the gray. The
old comrades who mad stood with them on
the battle field, but who were now on the
| other side of the river, were stretching
out their hands in benediction of their
work to-day. Grant and Lee, Sherman
and Johnston, Mcpherson and jackson,
! were together over there. The North and
! the South had achieved such victory since
! the war as no nation had ever achieved,
| and it had made the United States the
| greatest nation on earth. 1t would be
| Out Il IllIC Wllile until Dub mere
| and there 4 gray-headed veteran who
| wore The blue would be discussing the past
with n veteran who wore the gray. An
other little while and all will be gone. The
/ old soldiers who stood at the front
| knew how to appreciate each othe".
The speaker then detailed an
| account of how an old Confederate
corporal named Crooks who at the battle of
| Franklin had captured Union flag from an
| Indiana regiment, had taken it back to
| kokomo, Ind, and returned the flag TO the
| 155 survivors of the thousand men
who had left the city of Ko-
| komo for the war. Col Wylie then
detailed the history of Mrs. W. II. McNIur-
ray, who had an experience during the
| great civil war sometimes seen in human
! struggles. Her husband wore the blue I'M
der Grant while the son wore the gray and
followed Pillow and was member of his
| staff. The heart of the mother was with
| The South, and yet the clinging love of
| 1ho wife was with the Northern hosts.
Often she was on the battlefield of death
! ministering to both sides. Such women had
/ brought reunion. Applause.
11r. Goodell then introduced Capt. W. G.
Veal, commander Of the r. E. Lee camp of
Confederate veterans.
Capt. Veal said:
Comrades who wore the Gray, ex- Union Sold
ierS who wore the Blue:
! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-As survivors
| of two of the greatest opposing armies
| known to modern history, a few gray
haired and battle-scarred veterans meet
here to-day as American citizens and breth-
| ron. to mingle our tears and
unite in strewing flowers over the
graves of our brave fallen comrades. Our
! hearts are filed with mingled feelings of
| deep sorrow and great joy-deep sorrow as
we remember the hardships, suffering and
| death of loved comrades, but with great
| mon country, but as the smoke Of battle
passed away, so sectional hatred and
| strife has been swept from the breast
| of every true soldier who survives,
, whether he fought for the Union or in de-
! tense of his Southern home, we greatly re-
| joice that the mingled blood of the gray and
! the blue has forever obliterated sectional
! lines and ccmented the hearts of the citi-
zenS of this great nation as a band of
| brothers.
| More than thirty years ago when the
| tOcSin of war was sounded, the brave men
| of the North donned the blue, rushed hur-
| riedly to the battlefield for fear what they
crushed out in ninety days, and
| before they would have the honor
| of participating in the struggle:
with equal courage the brave sons
! OF the South donned the gray sprang TO
| arms, and rushed hurriedly 10 meet an ad-
/
killed or driven from the fair South Land,
| and the war ended before they would hear
| the roar of cannon or smell the smoke of
| battle
| Both armies soon realized they were not
| meeting foreign foe who he'd been shipped
| across the waters for them to shoot at
| simply for amusement and pastime, but
| each met brave men worthy of their steel,
| in whose veins the blood of revolutionary
Lsires flowed, and whose brave hearts were
n ar. mated by the same fire of patriotism
| that burned in the hearts of our forefathers
| as they followed the immortal Washington.
He then reviewed the war at some length
| and spoke of the feelings which animated
the Confederates He told in touching
and South, and closed by repeating para
phrase, "Our Confederate Dead"
| Capt. Veal was frequently applauded.
L. Hon. T. j. Hurley was the next speaker.
VIE said he could speak about business bet
ter than about the war. The war
ended twenty-five years ago, and the boys
| growing up to-day knew nothing of the war
| except what history told. He spoke about
the sufferinAs of the women Of the South
| and their devotion. 1t was, he said, the
| nerve displayed by the people of the South,
the evidence of stability that induced the
| Northern people to come to the South and
aid in developing the country. He related
| an episode of the battle of Chickamauga in
| which he participated. He closed by say
tlfs that the mCn of the South and the men
7 of the North who lived in Texas
| were now engaged in a cam
| pairn of patriotism-to have the
| great Lone Star state properly represented
| at Chicago, to show that peace had her
| mighty triumphs. Mr.. Hurley was en-
Enthusiastically applauded.