The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-06-12
ALpERr SYDNEY soHNsroN.
The Remarkable Inscription on tile
uomb OF the Great Confederate
radon

vomD or the Great Confederate
Leader.
1t is stated that during the Federal
occupation of New Orleans under Gen.
IL. +. Butler the grave of Gen. Albert
Sydney Jobnston-who came 81 near
making ~ Confederate victory out of
the Shiloh fight, and who was slain in
that eugagement-was subjected to dis
respectful treatment. This may or
may not have been true, but it is fur
Their stated that one morning there
was discovered, written on a sheet of
uotepaper, fastened to the rude board,
which was then it's only headstone,
this epitaph:
Behind this stone is hid, for q season,
Albert Sydney Johnston,
Generalin the army of theConfederate
Who fei. at Shiloh, Tennessee,
On the sixth day of April, A. d.,
Eighteen hundred and sixty-two. g
d man tried in many high offices
And critical enterprises,
And found faithful in all.
His life was one long sacrifice of interest
toLconscience,
And even that life on a woful Sabbath
Did he yield as an holocaust to his coun-
try's need.
Not wholly understood was he while
he lived;
But in his death his greatness stands con-
leSSeu Ill q peoples tears.
kesolute' modest, clear OF envy, yet not
In that firm ambition which makes men
great and pure,
In his honor impregnable,
In his simplicity sublime,
No country Ger had n truer son, no cause n
no6ler champion,
No people a holder defender, no principle
a purer victim
Than the dea soldier
Who sleeps here!
III cause for which he persisted is lost
The people for whom he fought are
crushed
The hopes in which he trusted are
shattered-
The flag he loves guides no more the
charging lines;
But his fame, consigned to the keeping OF
that time, which
Happily is not so much the tomb of Vir.
tue as its shrine,
Shall, i'll years to come, fire nodes worth
to noble deeds,
In honor, now, our great Captain rests,
A bcreaved people mourn him,
Three commemorative proudly claim him
And history shall cherish him
Among those chosen spirits who holding
their conscience unmiXcd with blame
Have been, in all conjunCturcs, true tc
MISUNDERSTANDING and their God.
A correspondent of the Charleston
Sunday News gives tho following in
regard to the author of this famous in.
scription, which was clipped from the
Sunny South several years ago
Soon after the fall of Gen. Albert
Sydney Johnston at the battle of Shiloh
and the transfer of his remains to New
Orleans a lady visiting the cemetery
found pinned to a rough board that
rested on the temporary tomb the fol
lowing beautiful epitaph. 1t was writ
ten in q delicate hand with q pencil,
and the rain had nearly elaborated the
characters, but h made u verbatim
copy OF the manuscript and sem it tt
n of the New Orleans papers, with
the request that, if possible, the name
OF the author should be published
This was gladly done, and the exquisite
lines went the rounds of the press O.
this country and England as a mode
OF English composition. Lord Palmer
ston pronounced it "a modern classic
Ciceronian in its language" Publ,
curiosity being aroused the authorship
was traced to John Dimitry, a young
native OF Now Orleans and a son o
Alexander Dimitry, who bofore tn,
war occupied a distinguished position
in the State department at Washing
ton. Young Dimitry, though only {
boy, served in Johnston's army a
Shiloh, and, on visiting New Oriean.
and the grave of his dead chioftain
wrote the lines IN the inspiration 0
the moment and modestiy pinned then
on the head board as the only tribute
he could offer. When the question
arose concerning the form of epitapl
to be placed on the monument erected
to the memory of the dead Confederate
general the committee of citizens il
charge, with one voice, decided upor
this, and it is now inscribed upon the
broad panel at the base of the statute
etc. In my copy the lines begin will
the word beyond and not behind"