The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-04
oovrrDERArB MEN AND TIMES
81 Charles z. Olmstesd's Address
+,,.ore the Veterans Association.

ri. Charles z. olmstesd's Address
before the Veterans Association.
,.,,,,Dvs-In q report made by Capt Edward
- m the Fourth artillery TO the inspector
I-.1srsl Of the army upon the encampment Of
So volunteers at Chickamauga last sum-
" ne uses the following language.
..ibe most striking characteristic OF the Geor-
-. Ii'tris is the quality Of the material. do
- now Of any state in which the flower of it's
-o,rn is so largely represented In the rank aud
IL add company officers. while the higher off,
.srs are generally prominent and often emIn-
en- as.5 Can't. Field been describing the soldiery
3 -,e,rgia and of her sister southern states at
ne opening of the late war his language needed
- 10 have been changed IN the slightest par
s,1lar 1t is doubtful whether there was ever
sssr1bed a body OF men who could more prop
4 ~ have been spoken Of as 'the flower OF the
- = than those who rushed TO arms at the
FL II the Southern Confederacy in 1861. Intel
t-s1t high spirited, daring, accustomed to
.5,,r1aud and therefore knowing how 10 obey
/ 'oTing honor more than life. and believing ia
,5sir iumost souls that their cause was lust,
4 ~ we're men whose quality made itself felt
Nm every battle field. IRON Manassas TO Apo
,5astrox; men who. although final defeat was
,bair norton STAMPED their impress upon the age
ID viii be remembered so long as courage faith
funess and devotion are recognized and valued
History, poetry and painting have all
done their part in holding up to our
s91i-aton the deeds of the peasantry of France
S-bsn in the days Of the first republic, the blood
Of freedom first coursed in their veins. and Car
- organized victory" We love to read of
,bsir sturdy front against embattled Kings, of
their quick adaptab lily to the changed condi-
4 mons Of their lives. OF their readiness to lay
down those lives for the fair land they loved SO
well Of the marvellous military instinct that
snrang up among them, like the prophets
pourd in single night. making of innkeep-
Srs' sons and stable boys, and herdsmen, aud
tilIers of the soil, Strategists and racticans
m hold DlaCA with the GnidiarS ~
every age. Their story is wonderful one; it
stlrs the pulse and quickens the heart beats
But it has been matched. and more than
matched, by the records of our
own people. The French peasant OF
4 the revolution had but just broken the
bonds OF a social and political slavery that had
lasted for centuries, and had been almost abso-
lutte in its character; he warred with the
strength of a newly awakened giant against all
kings and alll aristocracy as against natural
foes but it was with blind and indiscriminare
yet lacking In the one essential
feature of full knowledge of the
4 obstacles that confronted him. The confederate
armies we're composed of men who were born
and nurtured in political freedom: the great
/ questions which were finally brought to tho
4 arbtrament of the sword had been household
words with them from boyhood up They wont
into the contest with keen appreciation of the
1 enormous difference between the resources of
the two sections, but with determination to &C.
cept this known hazard rather than yield where
they believed themselves to be rignt. To have
acceded to the views of the north without a
contest would have impaired the personal
liberty of no man, and it is certain beyond any
peradyenture that in such case the
south would not have sustained tithe of the
material losses that were hers when
dropped from her nerveIess grasp che shat
tered spear"
But, fearful as was the price paid honor was
preserved, self-respect was preserved, the right
10 say to the world I'VE did our best for what
NVaFh VIyhf .HaN dHNuf
4 surely the children who come after us will not
complain that the choice was made as It was
And these men were not dragged unwlngly
Il into the course they adopted; they were not
bln1folded or caJoled by artful leaders into
ways which their deliberate judgment would
have repudiated. What they did was with their
& eyes wide open, and he falsely interprets
the history of that stirring time VIII O
1 does not recognize that there was
the spontaneous uprising of an entire people.
The south had her leaders in council chamber
and In the Held leaders whose memory we are
now proud TO honor, and in whom any, land
might have goried. but the decision to resist
was the decision OF the whole people for which
no leader was responsible. The knowledge OF
TINS 1t was that gave peculiar grace to the
tribute paid by the south to the first and last
president of the Confederate States when, in his
4 OLD age after years of privacy and retirement,
was permitted him to pass from state to state
q ueSeaIeo ana broken man, yet as one who
bore
The trophies of conqueror''
Every true heart in 1.-THE vast Gro wd who wei.
coined him realized that Jefferson Davf shad as
It were, suffered in his stead, and so there went
4 out to the old chieftain such wave of love and
gratitude as comes to but few men on earth
An outburSt of affection that spoke eloouently
Of the steadtast loyalty of the souls from which
II came. and that threw golden glory about
inc old mans declining years, filling his heart
with peace and JOY. have spoken of those as
stirring times, as indeed they we're. There
comes TO me question asked once by our
venerated comrade, Gen. A. r. Lawton, in
an address at the presentation of Tag to the
8 First regiment, Those years, he said. were
8 years OF toll, Of hardship, of danger and priva-
ton yet which one of us is there who
would willingly lose the memory of them
81 out of his life, who would not hold
longest 70 those four years in
d which his manhood had borne the rudest
tests and in which he learned that the material
81 things of life are secondary do not pretend
TO reproduce Gen. Lawtons eloquent words ex-
ectly but that was their spirit, and as be spoke
my own heart echoed a loud amen. | doubt
not, comrades, that in these latter days when all
b the faculties seem concentrated upon tire great
s. problem of making both ends met when there
seems nothing more important than the up.
building of bank account or advancing the
prosperity OF our business affairs doubt nor
put that there comes back to us all glimpses of
that old time in which self was forgotten when
we hazarded life and fortune for principle
%hen the men who stood upon our right
hand and upon our left were there to die with us
and for us il the occasion demanded when
brotherhood in arms meant all that it implied
ana there was upon us all the glorious exaIta-
sioh mat ever attends the spirit of sacrifice
nor were the physical pleasures that we then
knew to be despised; the possession of a ruddy
health that laughed at privation of a diges
.on that was proof against the vilest efforts OF
the cooking brigade, and that he ped to give
tne ght-hearted gayety with which every dan.
yer was raced, every hardship endured. Viii
anything in life ever be sweeter to us
taan the rest around the camp fire
4 sLIer weary days march, when song and Jest
anu story were the order of the night; when
generals were criticised and the most intricate
toul1s OF the campaign were explained and
Fl T13llnented upon by the youngest soldiers!
tow sound the deep slumber that followed the
sretchlng of tired limbs upon the bosom OF
noIHer EARTH and when the morning dawned
euu from every hill top aud every valley far
Sao near, the bugles sang the reveille, now
Fl F o;e. In trumpet tones, now dying away in
. a.uU 8onan echoes, with what elastic vigor
S ARE we ready TO take up the burden of another
10y! i careless or what it might have In store tut
h Sl'n happy confidence always hoping for the
9s', Alas alas for the days that have beer
T ~al tne years that have flown" And yet, why
q tpaaaIy replnel We cannot call them back, but
o oueI memory shall he fresh and green; dear tc
T ~ hearts so long as they throb with life THAI
~ ouI one possession that no adverse fortune
Wy oS 99eprlve us of; that the wealth that We
eonda -0A ''0'S Jo"ol' Vi uo'
we're called upon to name the
soIS;. striking popularity Of the confederate
,Jiet should say that it was biz
Eera.o'audhtH He was not simplyone Of
na aay interchangeable parts of great
TnnTTi;,ulne' but also man apart from others in
tons .S ny ne Just as truly as in the civil voca