Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-05-25

honor thelr graves anu cllulltc thSIi S-N',H
pies of patriotic devotion. We pray Thee th;lt
all bitterness and discord may cease, ana
righteousness and peace may abound. BE
thou the shield and buckler Of our united
country, our hope is in Thee. Pardon our
sins. accept our unworthy services and grant
us thy salvation for Christ's sake. Amen.
A hymn was then sung and then the
orator of the day, Comrade Rev. Kin
loch Nelson, d. D, of the Episcopal
Theological Seminary, was introduced
and spoke as follows:
Fellow soldiers in the grandcst armies; TEL
low followers of the grandest leaders, fellow
sufferers for the grandest cause that this world
has ever seen. For we are all fellows and
comrades, whether we marched with
Joe Johnston through campaign Of
strategy while he wore away Shcr-
mans host and drew him still fuith-
cr from his base; whether il the army OF Inc
Tennessee we followed Albert Sidney Johnston
until at Shileh on the very verge OF victory
his pure spirit passed in IA blaze OF glory Dc
yond the stars, or whether we kept time Win
the captain of all the centuries, until, nav
ing led for years his unconqucrable hos'a
10 triumph. at Appomattox he yielded to near
" POO, 900 men 10000 muskets and stain
cause, we felt one impulse, We all bore be-
licyed, hoped and endured for the common
glory and honor of our common mother.
1t is we'll that you should to-day commemo-
rate the heroism of those whose names adorn
this stone Thirty-two years ago to-day With
them you left home and kindred to peril
life for what makes home and life worth
living.
By selecting the anniversary Of that day
for your memorial day you declare That
it was the voice of duty which you
then obeyed that. though, as honorable men,
you honestly abide by the issue when you
had been forced to fling down the gage OF bat
tic, you have no regrets for the course adopted,
no apologies to offer that under similar cir
cumstances you could not hesitate to folio"
similar course.
On such day and with such motives you
meet to honor the herOism and to thank dod
for the good examples of those whose names
are engraven on this stone. They are special
" cur heroes They are our contingent TO that
noble army OF martyrs whose memory cannot
perish while courage and fortitude and obedl-
cnce to the voice of duty are admired and be-
loved.
Let me for moment speak of one OF those
whose names hallow this stone. 1t is not my
wish to exalt him above the others, | select
him rs the type, because best known to me.
He was my school-n2te, my college mate, IN
the same college fraternity, my mess-mate IN
the army, at the same gun with me III the
Rockbrdge battery, detachment number e.
He was of pure and gentle blood and thought
and word. He was chaste and modest AZ a
woman. brave and knightly as one OF his rsce
should he. When Randolph Fairfax exchanged
the students gown for the gray jacket he was,
like David, youth of a ruddy countcnance.
In that memorable valley campaign which
made Stonewall Jackson forever famous,
when. with force never exceeding. generally
far less than $1,000 men, he kept ~, ooo OF
the enemy from joining Mcclellan and then
helped Gen Lee 10 hurl him back from Rich
mond into the swamps Of the Chickahominy.
in all the hardships of cold and hunger and
rain and WEAKNESS, in perils by night and
pcrils by day, though with Fairfax all the
time. never heard murmur, | never saw
him out of humor, never knew the time when
he was unwilling to help any comrade, to
obey chccrfully any order. to march any
where to fight any odds. At Malvern Hill,
when his detachment WAS exposed TO such u
liru as men seldom survive " tell oil, he was
>tcuck about the collar bone. Thinking hun
self severely wounded he turned TO leave the
field. He had gone but few steps when,
finding that he had only received what We
called "furlough wound he returned to his
gun and there remained until the battle WAS
ended. lie was indeed an ideal soldier | only
select him us q type of those here commemor'
atcd with him, those whose names shall live
when this bronze shall melt and this granite
rrnmble Comrades, let US rejoice to think
that, as the years roll on, our Peep %, viii
loyalty accepting the inevitable, are honoring
more and more those who, if mortal valor
could have changed the issue, would have
made it otherwise.
There are to-day monuments rising all over
the South TO those heroes whose names Shall
be held in everlasting remembrance. In At
lanta, in Charlottesville, in Lexington, i'll
Richmond in her Capitol Square, at the west
end of Franklin, in Hollywood where her
rushing river chants the requiem of the dead,
bronze and marble speak the praises Of those
whose memory cannot die. In Winchester
in cemetery, surrounded by hills once
crowned with batteries, Georgia has built
monument to her sons who fell near by and
there await the final reveillc. There Mary
land commentaries her dead On 4 column
which she has erected to her sons she has in
scribed:
''Unhe raldcd,
Unorganizcd,
Unarmcd.
Ill for