Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-06-05
MEMORABLE EVENT.
DEDICATION OF. THE MONUMENT TIC
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERSIN
CHICAGO.
THE FIRST ERECTED In THE NORTH.
Gen. wade HamptOn's Grafton.

The first monument to Confederate
dead erected in the North was dedi-
Gated in lakewood Cemetery at Chi
cago Friday, May 30th, in the presence
of the largest assemblage of Confeder-
ate veterans ever seen outside of the
Southern States. There were also pre-
sent and participating many of their
former opponents in arms and many
public spirited citizens of Chicago, who
had contributed to the fund for the
erection of the monument in their
midst. After the dedicatory ceremo-
MES the Southern visitors hopored the
graves OF the Union soldiers by strew-
ing them with beautiful flowers
brought from the South.
This monument was in honor of 6 900
Confederate soldiers who died in pris
on there during the war.
Many distinguished Southerners
were there, and the ladies of the South
sent carloads of flowers wrought in
beautiful designs.
The dedication ceremonies were
opened with prayer by Col. Joseph
Desha Pickett, chaplain of Kentucky
Orphan Brigade" G. s. A. Then Gen.
John G. Underwood. in few introdue-
tory remarks, placed in the chair Rev.
DR.. W. H. Bolton, pastor of the Cen
tenary Methodist Church, and past
commander U. 8. Grant Post, 20, G.. A.
R., of Chicago, who delivered a brief
address on assuming his duties.
GENERAL HAMPToN'S GRAFTON.
The dedicatory grafton by Lieut.
Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Care
lima. followed. General Hampton said
in part:
1.-THE scene presented here is one
that could not be witnessed in any
country but ours, and for this reason,
if for no other, 1t presents a signifi-
canoe worthy of the gravest consider /
alton. A few years ago brave men
from the North and from the South
stood facing each other in hostile ar
ray, and the best blood of the country
was poured out like water on many a
battle field. Thousands, hundreds of
thousands of our hravest men sleep in
bloody graves-men who gave their
lives to prove the faith of their con-
victions, and now North and South,
standing by these graves wherever
they may be, grasp hands across the
bloody chasm and proudly claim Fed
eral and Confederate soldiers as Amer
icans-men who have given to the
world as noble examples of courage
any devotion to duty as can be enroll
edo the page of history.
A SHAFT UNIQUE IN HISTORY.
Nor is this all that marks this oc-
casiop as exceptional and remarl4ab BILE
and which should render it melnorabi
in our annals for all time to come. No
monument in the world has such an
honorable history as attaches to yon
der one. That marks the graves of no
victorious soldiers, but of the follow
ers of lost cause; it stands not on
Southern soil, but ON Northern; the
from the far off Southland, and it owes
it's erection not to the comrades of
those dead soldiers, but mainly to the
generosity and magnanimity of the
citizens of this city. All honor. then,
cago who have shown by their action
that they regarded the war as over
and that they can welcome as friends
on this solemn and suspicious occasion
their former enemies.
las long as this lofty column points
to heaven, as long as one stone of it's
foundation remains, future generations
of Americans should look upon it with
honor N q
who conceived its construction. but a
silent. though noble, emblem o. a re-
stored Union and a reunited people.
In the name of my comrades, dead and
living. and in my own name, I give
grateful thanks to the brave men of
Chicago who have done honor to our
dead here, not as Confederate soldiers,
but as brave men who preferred i'm
prisonment and death rather than free
dom obtained by a dishonorable sacri
flee of the principles for which they
were willing to die.
MEN FAITHFUL TO PRINCIPLE.
"Of the 5000 Confederates buried
here, not one was an officer; all were
privates, in no way responsible for the
unhappy war which brought an iliad
of woes upon our country. And yet
these humble private soldiers, any one
of whom could have gained freedom
by taking the oath of allegiance to the
Federal government, preferred death
to the sacrifice of their principles. Can
any possible dishOnor attach to the
brave men of Chicago because they are
willing to recognize the courage and
the devotion to duty of these dead
Confederates?
Are any Federal soldiers disloyal to
the flag under which they fought be-
cause they join in decorating the
graves of brave men whom they met in
battle? Thousands of Federal soldiers
rest under Southern skies, in South
ern graves, many in unknown graves.
And when, on Memorial Day In the
South, The graves of our dead are'dec
Grated, gray-headed Confederate vet
Grams and noble devoted women strew
flowers over the graves of the Federal
soldiers.
"If the human action of the people
of this city in doing honor to the mem
DRY of their old antagonists is pro
nounced as Dissertation it would seem
to follow that the decoration of Fed
eral graves by rebel hands should be
opened to the same criticism, but no
denunciation of Southern people for
daring to honor the memory of men
who were once their enemies has met
my eyes. Such narrow and bigoted
feelings as would prompt a discordant
note On occasions of this sort are rare
ly found among true men and brave
soldiers.
LINCOLN'S DEATH A CALAMITY.
81 have often thought that if the
two great captains who were engaged
in that death grapple in Virginia had
been left to settle the terms of peace.
each, supported by his faithful follow
ers, the country would have had a
peace indeed, one honorable alike to
victor and vanquished, and which
would have prevented the evils
brought about by the politicians.
"As it is, the South recognizes and
honors the magnanimity of Gen. Grant
toward our great chief, General Lee,
and deplores as an unmitigated mis-
fortune the assassination of Lincoln.
repeat emphatically that the untimely
death of President Lincoln was regard
ed by all thoughtful men of the South
as one of the most serious evils which
had befallen our section, and venture
to say that my Southern associates here
present will sustain my assertion. We
know that during the war he devoted