The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-02-29
GEN. GoRDoN'S LECTURE

SHN' oVAeDSAN ~ Jlt5Ol OlllI
COLONIAL HAIL CROWDED LAST
EVENING TO HEAR HIN.
The Confederate General Tells OF tile Last
Days of the War-He Pays High Tribuss
to the Brave Boys in Blue--Reception at
Judge Harrison's.
What General John b. Gordon. the
famous Confederate general ana Lees
right-hand man i'll the latter days Of
the Confederacy, failed to do with his
sword in the SOS he is now doing with
his eloquence, for certainly the cele-
brated Georgian is capturing whole ar
mics of northern men and women and
holding them prisoners by his power Of
picturing the scenes of the last days OF
the Confederacy, judging at least from
the reception the people of New Haven
gave him last evening. The large as
sembly room at Colonial hall on Grows
street was filled to the doors with an
enthusiastic audience, among which
there We're many men who wore the
Blue when the speaker wore the Grey.
When Judge Lynde Harrison and tho
speaker entered the hall there was
burst of applause that only subsided
long enough to allow Judge Harrison,
who carried the United States flag in
his arm, time enough to lay it upon the
desk at which the speaker was to stand,
saying as he did SO that General Cor
don had requested him to do SO. Judge
Harrison then introduced General Cor
don as one who had gone out i'll his
young days to do battle for his country,
as he understood it.
Another storm Of applause greeted
the lecturer, who said:
Ladies, Comrades and Fellow Coun-
trymen of Connecticut-Let me say be-
fore beginning my formal lecture that
there stands before YOU a southern man
and a southern soldier, whose love for
this flag and for all that it stands fon
Is as great as any mans in the coun-
try.
In my lecture this evening I will not
enter into the cause of the coming OF
the last days of the Confederacy when
they did.
prefer to deal with those unrecorded
events which characterized the man
hood of the American soldier. Every
soldier that fell in that war, provided
he fell from a sense Of duty, is a witt
ness for that highest achievement of all
character nartyrdom for truth. At
Gettysburg the Confederacy reached its
zenith; at APP po1aattpx court house III
went down to rise no more, but thanks
be to God, it~1eft a record that will be
undimmed by ages. Ssgssasss
Lee, went over in Pennsylvania be-
cause we were hungry; we stood upon
Mt. Pisgath and viewed the valleys Of
Pennsylvania.
Another reason was Of a social char.
acter; we owed these Yankee cousins
a visit. We had tried to pay it the year.
before by going into Maryland, but W
were received by one George B. McClel-
Ian and his boys in Blue SO hotly that
we retired; and it was now with appe-
tites keen that we moved rapidly into
Pennsylvania. And am bound to ba
hol.est, my countrymen, and say we de-
parted rather hastily.
Twenty months passed before we
came. again. and war was over; this
time we came back to our fathers
house, and came back to stay.
No longer as hostile foe, but to rally
around this old flag, whose bright
stripes were made more crimson than
by the blood of the heroes. We came,
too, without any lingering bitterness,
but with a patriotism always sincere,
so that with these boys in Blue, BY our
joint effort, this Union should go down
through all the ages and know inter-
nicene war no more.
General Gordon in his account of the
retreat from Gettysburg took occasion
to pay a glowing tribute to the women
of the north as well as to the women OF
the south, whose sacrifices were great.
had seen the anguish of my own
mother when she said, Go, my, son.
may never look into your face again,
but I commit you to your God and to
your country.
my fellow countryymen of Connecti-
cut, for the sake of this great country
may we not hope that loving ties may
bind the whole nation, and may we
not hone that stronger ties may bind
our children's hearts when the last man
of us has gone to that shore where we
are all to meet?
The lie of a private soldier was de.
scribed by the 1ecturer, much to the
interest and at times to the amusement
of the audience. 1T was in these de-
scriptions that the lecturer kept the
audience, by his pathos or by his quaint
anecdotes, on the verge of tears or
laughter. His reference to Generals
Meade, Hancock, Custer and Stonewall
jackson were received with vociferous
applause.
At the close of the lecture last night
Judge Harrison entertained General
Gordon at his home, 50 Hilihouse ave-
nue.. There were about thirty persons
present. and included ex-Mayor J. Is.
Sargent, Ex-Governor Ingersoll. Colin
NJ. Ingersoli, the Rev. DR.. Maher of
Milford, ex-Corporation Counsel G. u.
Drisco1l, Henry F. English. C. B. Bow
~ bet