Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-05-25
"Unher aldcd.
Unorganized,
UnarIned.
ley came for conscience SAX C and died for

They came Tor cOnSclclicc Sakc 'iiu uicu io'
right.
alike in blood,
Alike i'll faith,
They sleep alike
The last sleep of the brave
There Virginia has pillar erected to her
children who died in defence of her loved
valley. There the Ashby brothers are ell
tombed.
There higher and more beautiful than any
rises n shaft to the unknown dead. The
grateful citizens of Winchester secured the
fields and forests for miles around to collect
the remains of those who in that stormy four
years fell in her defence. One of Virginia's
daughters who lives by her needle, inaugu-
rated the erection of monument to these I'M
known Now, only less fair and beautiful
than the memory of those who sleep around
il, it raises toward the sky this inscription:
"Who they were mono know,
What they were all know"
When did successful warrior ever receive
such tributes as we saw in Richmond, May
29th, 1890, rendered to one whom the world
regarded rs defeated? Iquestion whether all
Westminster Abbey represents more reverence
and devotion than was freely rendered on
that occasion, when Virginia's sous flockcd
from every northern city, when the remnant
of the Army of Northern Virginia gathered
from every southern State to do homage to It's
leader.
All this shows that We realize that mere
success, as the world regards it, is no test of
truth and right.
What means the ceremony to be enacted in
Richmond on the 31st of this month? Who
would exchange the memory of Davis, and
Lee. and Jackson, and Stewart, and the john
stons. and the host OF others with tho imper-
ishable heritage they have left us for all the
success and reputation of Lincoln and Seward
and Stanton and the butchery of Grant and
burning and devastation Of Sherman,
and Sheridan, and Custer? Those Co.,
600 soldiers and sailors, who for four
years kept at bay, with almost no resources
and no navy, with scarce any munitions of
war save what they captured, 100000 men
with the world TO draw upon-did they fail?
The very principles for which they fought are
being recognized more and moro by the high
est tribunal of the land. They taught the
world that men Of Anglo-Saxon blood can
brave all odds for their convictions and their
rights.
Those Virginia regiments and battaliOns
and sqladrons, ragged bare-footed, half
starved, who went forth conqpering and to
conquer until worn out by victory, what have
they done for the old mother who bore them?
The heroes of 70 those who excelcd in the
forum and on the bench and filled the
highest office, those who endured Valley
Forge ard conquered at Yorktown, crowned
her brow with chaplets. Those who bore her
flag at Cerro-Gordo and Cherubusco and Che
pultapec wrcathed for her new laurels. Yet
Of the many fair garlands which the Old Do
minion wears none are fairer than those
twined by her sons of 80 years ago They
have taught the world that hor loyal children
are yirginians first. last aud ait the time,
that they are for the Union as long as the
Union is for Virginia, but that they are for
Virginia while her rivers roll toward the
ocean and her mountains rise toward the
stars.
;. Comrades. survivors of such glorious host,
AS death Trims our ranks We must, rs i'll the
storm of battle, close up and move on.
II has given me great satisfaction to meet
YOU here to-day, to declare, as my own, the