The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-10-24
HONOR THEM.
A SACRED DUTY TO PERFORM.
Four Hundred Unmarked Confederate
Graves-NOrth Caroiinians Who Lie
Buried in Winchester, Va.-An Eff
fort Made to Properly Mark the
Resting Place of These Heroes,


Correspondence News and Obseryerl
KITTRELL, N. c., Oct. 9.
There are two Southern virtues SO
transcendent, so sublime in their nature
that they cannot be forgotten until his
tory and tradition cease to exist. One
is the courage and devotion Of the
Southern soldier in battle. The other
is the unwaning, nay the ever increas-
ing loyalty and constancy which the
survivors and their descendants cherish
for those who fell and to the principles
for which they fell. These are verify
twin virtues and one is as noble as the
other. History contains but few in
stances OF the former, it affords no
parallel to the latter, certainly not
since the days Of Greece in her prime.
If in this loyalty and constancy we
have not given new sentiment to the
world, we have at least restored to Its
pristine glory sentiment compare
lively dormant since Marathon and
Ihermapoyla. And with this new
sentiment of undying constancy to the
fallen hero we have given new in
centlve to courage, a fresh inspiration
to valor; and above all comfort and
consolation to those moments in which
years are crowded, the last moments
of the heroic spirit ere, amid the
" smoke and dead fallen air of bat
tle,' it is extinguished forever.
l never see a Confederate monu-
ment,, 1 never pass we'll kept Con-
fedesats aeRetery, / never attend one
of those high rites and solemn observ-
ances in which we yearly honor, as
best we know how, our Confederate
dead, without thinking: All, if they
could only have known it; if to the
noble souls ebbing away under the
glare and sitting heat of
Gettysburg, or amid the numbing cold
of the Richmond trenches or wherever
the Southern soldier met fate, an un-
doubted voice could have whispered :
"Although from even the short span
of your life past is now in agony
riven although all that is mortal of
you must now perish and again be-
come one with the dust on which you
lie the memory OF you. high endeavor
and matchless intrepidity is immortal;
it not only cannot die but it must ever
rise in grander and grander proper
tions, for it is vital thing, thing
that will vitalize the hearts of your
people for all time to come, and to
your lofty example all future man
hood must rise or be found wanting"
The South has done SO much to
perpetuate the glory reflected upon
her by her sons in gray that she can
not afford to stop short of her whole
duty. A flaw in a stone is of no
moment; flaw in 1are jewel mars it
forever.
The remissness of duty to which l
have reference is a, Winchester, Va.
The Shenandoah Valley was the deba-
table land of the Confederacy. Win
chester was the debatable city. 1t is
said to have changed hands one hun
dred and one times as, during the
tour years of strife, the tide of South
ern success ebbed and flowed. The
whole region is one vast battlefield and
nearly every foot of its soil, in that it
has been wet with Southern blood is
sacred.
From far and near over the wide
domain the women of Winchester
have tenderly gathered the sad har-
vest reaped by the hand of war and
laid our braves to rest IN the great
Confederate cemetery in their beauti-
full town.
Over many hundreds Of unknown
dead, who have, nor need, other title
deed to fame than the soled and tat
tered gray they wore, a splendid mon
ument and statue, the model for all
subsequent ones, rose many years ago.
All of the known dead were gathered
and buried by States, and a wooden
headboard containing the name and
regiment placed over each grave until
they could be permanently marked:
One after another the Southern
States have hearkened to the ceaseless
appeals of the Winchester ladies, the
guardians of this sacred spot. Nir-
ginia came and marked each grave im-
pershably. All save one of the
other States did likewise. Even Della
ware forgot not that she had a hand
full of Confederate warriors resting
there.
One, only one State, has proven de-
linguent-or is faithlass the word? As
with bowed and uncovered head you
pass under the great arch and enter
the hallowed precincts, there in the
forefront Of the cemetery, as they were
ever in the forefront of battle, and the
larger number just as was the case in
the.battle, too, lie there unmarked and ,
SO tar as she is concerned, the union
ored sons, of a great State--a State
whose proudest heritage is that hers
was the privilege to do more and suf-
fer more in that ennobliDg strife than
any other of the Southern sisterhood.
That States is our own-North Car
olina. The State that in the sixties
in deepest and most earnest tones of
all said, $50 forth my, sons; do val
iantly and fear not the issue whether it
be of life or death. If ye live all
honor shall be yours. If ye fall still
greater honor accord you and yours
forever"
The Rev. James Battle Avirett, rec
tor of the churches at Louisburg and
Kittrell, formerly of Winchester, Va,
and whose wife, born Williams, was a
prime mover in the establishment of