Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-05-28
A COLLEGE TOWN.
Lexington, It's Memories and It's
Memorials.

A correspondent of the Springfield
Mass) Republican, who has been visit
ing Lexington, writes from there as fol.
! lows:
For geWratlons the chief interest of tn,
place has been the education of young
men at Washington College, now Wash
ington and Lee University, and the Vir-
ginia Military Institute. Both institutions
have held a high standard. The civil
strife produced splendid fighters from this
remote region. Stonewall Jackson laid
| down the textbooks of the institute TO
| achieve deathless fame as master of the
| art Of war. Other officers of both col
| leges won distinction on hard-fought
fields. The Rockbridge Artillery, made
| up OF college boys and the sturdy yeomen
| OF the country round, was deemed one
| OF the best companies in the Confederate
service', and suffered heavily in loss Of
| officers and men. The cadets from the
institute, some Of them not over Is years
old, distinguished themselves at New
Market, where they met many Massachu-
setts men. General Lincoln. of the Thir-
ty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry. wound
ed and lying on the ground, forgot his
pain I'm admiration OF the Virginia Mill
tary Institute boys marking time" under
the hottest fire, and. as he afterward tes-
titled, surprising the veterans serving
with them in the valor and cOolness of
their conduct.
After the war ended Lexington was the
refuge of the Confederate officers who
had risked their all in defence of the
Lost Cause" General Lee ended his
career as president of Washington Col
lege, which added his name to that of the
Father of his Country the day he died.
Here he set the example, which his first
letters after the Surrender at Appomat-
tox inculcated upon the young men who
had served under him, of trying to
build up the country" At the Virginia
Military Institute Commodore Maury dis
charged the duties of instructor of youth
while rendering his contributions TO
science which have made his name i'm
mortal In both colleges the ex-Confede-
rates. many of them manned in body and
broken in fortune, took their places as
boards.
AS the war heroes passed away II has
been ta piouS duty with the citizens 10
preserve their counterfeit presentment"
in effigieS of stone and perpetuate their
fame in Monumental halls. In the college
chapel rests the recumbent figure of
General r. II. Lee. an exquisite work OF |
art, representing a sleeping soldier the |
likeness of the old hero perfect In purest |
marble, wearing an expression of more |
than mortal beauty and grace. In the |
beautiful cemetery on the outskirts of |
the town stands a fine bronze statue of /
Stonewall Jackson. the figure alert and |
strong, the face turned toward the South |
his mighty genius strove TO defend on
the institute grounds within a year a |
handsome memorial hall has been dedi- |
Gated to General Jackson. On the grassy \
lawn of the old college, close to the /
presidents house, where General Lee |
breathed out his true and tried spirit,
rises the Episcopal church Of white stone.
admirable I'm its elegant proportions, the
TO Lee for which contributions
were eagerly offered throughout our own
country and from foreign lands The
alumni of the college are even now rails
ing a fund TO build a memorial hall 10
]. Randolph Tucker. the Attorney Gene
raj of the Confederacy. who was in his |
asst years law professor at Washington |
and Lee.
cThe college also sent cut a company
u infantry. the Liberty Hall Yolunteersl