The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-11
Col. Bennett S Grafton
On the SSlPPiVat@ Soldier %

oTdilOl ueHNeTeu 1T MtIIopoifIhh AAii
yesterday afternoon, on the occasion of
the celebration of Memorial Day:
Madam President, Ladies of the Memo
rial Association My COuntrymen:
Every people has its heroes-of these
heroes some are enshrined as champions
of human liberty.
the level OF the plain and the height OF
Parnassus.
/ 'FYrom the outbreak Of the
war between the Government ana
the Confederate States until Ialm
Sunday. in 1865, when the I'M
powerful regiments of the army of North
ern Virginia lowered their banners and
dispersed to find ruined homes and a
country girded with sackcloth and sprink-
led with ashes, the United States employ
ed LOO regiments of infantry, 40 regl-
ments of cavalry and 900 batteries OF
artillery. an estimated total in excess of
100000 men.
Against this force the Confederacy OPP
posed total of all arms of the service
computed at 100000 men.
"Of these. North Carolina organized
and furnished the Confederacy more than
sixty sixty regiments of infantry, SIX
regiments of cavalry, three regiments of
artillery, besides half a score of battal-
ions and other commands.
The force so FURNISHED is placed by
thoughtful, accurate and painstaklng
men at 10000. 1t is impossible in the
present ill assorted state of our informa-
ton to give the exact number OF these
soldiers.
amidst the inspiring surroundings of
this place, this time and occasion we rev.
erently assume the task of doing some
measure of justice to the private soldiers
whom North Carolina, under sense of
the appalling conflict at hand and a
deeper sense of duty to her nelghbors,
herself and the right, summoned to
her standards, forwarded with her bless
ing and now, after the fierce pang OF bat
tie is over, in spite of humiliation, pow
erty and anguish, honors and loves from
the deep bottom of her great motherly
heart.
1T is fitting that we should call the
roll of these men.
THAT we should inquire why so many
of them have not come back from the dl-
rection in which their faces were so res
ward march, In what ditch they perish
ed. In what tempestuous onset OF battle
they went down to death.
1.-THE sons and grandsonS. the daugh-
tiers and granddaughters. of these citi-
zen soldiers should come together at
stated periods-now or in the autumn af-
ter the vintage is over and the declining
year is Fastening to its close,and rehearse
hnl l.
orous actions, their sense of duty. their
patient obedience and their humble faith
in God.
Human courage has wrought trophies
on every considerable theatre of its ac-
tions.
"The four years of war were punctu-
ated by 2,265 conflicts, counting great
and small of every sort including 623
considerable fights, and $50 battles.
Into These trials of strength the sol
diers of North Carolina Glove their way
with sword and bayonet. with gun and
cannon and came off with good report.
1.-The people of those Southern States
which were completely identified with
the Sonfederacy during the late war
possessed many characteristics in COM
mon-descended as they were from an
cestors who sprang from the Anglo-Sax-
on nurseries, they inherited the same
laws, the same literature, the same ira
ditions of civil and political liberty and a
like Unborn sense of religion. Their pur-
suits bore a striking similitude the South
over-agriculture was their chiefest vO-
cation. 1t sustained a most unusually
large proportion to all other engagements
of the population.
"They were pure bred people. Local
influences gave variety and cOlornng here
and there North Carolina, from earliest
days Of it's tutelage, had been conserva-
tive
'In the period Immediately preceding
the war of the Colonies against Great
Britain, North Carolina behaved with
much reserve. She positively refused for
time to adopt the Articles of Confeder-
alton and Botta, who has written the
most instructive history of the war Of
Independence. says: She was often ex-
cepted from the orders in council which
the government of Great Britain denoun-
ced against the other colonies In this
particular North Carolina in sentiment
shared the attitude of New York more
nearly than any other colony.
''Unaffectedly modest, the State has
lost beyond reparation in divers ways.
She has but recently awakened under
the opportunities of her patriotic women
to her combined duty and advantage of
monuments to her uncounted dead.
1.-THE French are perhaps the most
civilized people in Europe. In France
no unselfish and meritorious act of public
service, whether done by artisan or caste,
fails to command expressive recognition
in brass or stone or canvass.
'"There is an unpretending shaft in one
of the northwestern States erected to the
memory of schoolboy, who at the early
age of twelve, died under the lash rather
than tell an untruth.
1.-THE people of North Carolina, while
liable, like others, to bursts OF vehement
impatience, in their normal mood delight
to see jstice clothed I'm orderly forms,
| unstained by precipitation or suspicion
of perversion, advancing to its ends with
the majesty of law without unseemly
haste, proving things honest in the sight
of all men,
"Some men have rendered such trans
cendent and brilliant services that the
genius of history in compassion upon the