The Opelousas courier., 1894-05-05
GEN STEPHEN D. LEE.
His Great Speech to the Confederate
Veterans at Birmingham.

His Great Speech to the Confederate
Veterans at Birmingham.
My friends, we have assembled here
today to discharge a glorious and solemn
duty-to lay the cornerstone OF a mon
valor of the living and the dead. We
have met to keep alive the memories OF
our comrades who fell in battle, that
vast army of heroes and patriots, and to
renew the ties of friendship between
the gray-haired survivors, who were
their comrades in the four years strug-
gle from 1851 to 1865. When we praise
them we glorify ourselves when we
speak of their invincible courage, OF
their heroic sacrifices, we feel il thrill
of pride that we shared the same prlVa,
tions and the same perils. We moved
in the same lines of battle, and braVed
the same showers of schrapnell and
minnie balls. We charged the same
breastworks. We heard the echoes OF
the same artillery, and the rattle he OF t the
one of them whistled by us when it took
him. and from our throats went the
same "rebel vel" that babe defiance to
our foes. We shared or went without
the same scanty r%ations, endured the
same fatiguing march, the same chilling
rain. We did all that they did, except
it was theirs to die for their country.
Loyalty to the past is a duty. Feeling
that we were right, we staked all on the
uncertain chances of battle, and we lost,
We were Overpowered, and we had to
submit to the result, but we cannot be
otherwise than proud of the history we
made while a nation. We are here to-
day not to praise the victorious but to
claim imperishable renown for the van
pushed.
When we look backward from the re-
NTH Of life we see things with a clearer
vision. We see man causes that brought
on the struggle. Slavery, the indirect
cause of the war, the north is as much
responsible Tor as Tue south. As to the
doctrine of states rights" the right of
IL sovereign state to withdraw from the
union, the question is decided forever
against us. If we are not convinced we
are quieted, we accept the inevitable
with such grace as we can, bu we AN
not blot it from our recOllectiOns. we
cannot yield the belief in the principles
we inherited from cur revolutionary
forefathers. We fought for what they
did, but they had better luck. War was
forced on us. Constitutional and sa-
cred guarantees agreed on in one union
of sovereign states were trampled I'M
der foot, under the theory promulgated
by Mr.. Seward and accepted by the
north, of a "higher law than the consti-
tuition" We were invaded. W. were
forced to defend our hearthstones and
our property, and the inherited rights OF
local self-government b~equeathed us by
So f~roe1<hopo M vnnI nn InSfItJan-
ton for our conduct. 1t is a universal
law that a man should defend his own.
We did that and that only. We would
have deserved to be trampled on if we
had not resisted. See how g%loriously
we did it. Look at our record. Never
did a nation contend against such odds.
| defy contradiction. Read for your
selves the war records now being hon.
estly published by our government.
Ny young fellow-cOntrymen, young
gentlemen, young ladies, listen to me.
You have lived since the war, and have
only heard of it from others. Learn
now what this monument, the corner
stone of which is now to be laid, is In
tended to commemorate. Look at these
gray-haired veterans. Who are they 7
| will tell you. They are some Of the
who fought and kept back from our
southern soil an invading army Of g.
864,24 men (not including three and six
months volunteers), or with the odds Of
2,264,272 men more than they had to con
front them. To this great odds must be
added 600 vessels of war blockading our
coasts and occupying our rivers, MANN
ed by $4,000 sailors preventing our get
ting supplies of arms, provisions, cloth
ing, medicines and necessaries Of all
kinds. In this unequal contest, the con
federate army did not lay down its arms
until it was completely overpowered,
and it had only 0 5000 effective fighting
men for duty in the field left Of that ar
my of 100000 men, while the federals
had over 100000 men for duty, II ten
men for every confederate soldier, and
all our a~rsenals, munitions of war and
supplies were exhausted or captured.
Before the end of the conflict, the con
federate army had lost over one-half Of
the 100000 men. or 1926, 900 men on the
death roll. 1t had fought over our be-
loved southland almost foot by foot on
nearly 1000 battle fields. 1t had infict-
ed a death roll on the enemy of 1853, 528
men, 275,000 of whom lie buried be-
meath our southern soil. Comrades of
the gray, we made a record unsurpassed
in the annals Of war or history.
Let us go a little more into details. In
the blOOdiest of European wars, stats
tics show that the number killed or
mortally wounded on the battle field
has not exceeded 8 per cent of the SOL
diers actually engaged, while in the
great American war between the states
the federals lost 8 per cent and the con
federates 10 per cent. We see that the
American soldier stands ahead of the
European soldier, and thatlin the heroic
aspect, so long as the confederate ban
ner hOated to the breeze, the confeder-
ate soldier stands at the head in the his
tory of the world. The more the facts
connected with the war are brought out,
the more honor is reflected on the valor,
endurance of hardship, and fortitude of
the soldiers of the cOnfederacy.
Tell me we did not believe our cause
was q just one! No people could have
made such a fight, could have stood up
80 long against such odds, had they not
been actuated by firm and unwaver-
ing adherence to the principles of self
government, and a determination to
maintain inalienable rights which they
had inherited from their forefathers.
This is said in no boastful spirit, but
to show what a gallant resistance was
made by the south, actuated by a lofty
patriotism, before her flag was furled
forever. We who participated can
hardly believe the incredible figures.
Our own children, when they compre-
bend them, will stare in wonder and say,
Impossible! If on every monument we
have erected in the south only these fig
nres are put, the numbers composing