The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-23
WELCOME OF ATEs.
Col screven Extended 1t TO the Visit
Ing Veterans.

Col. screven Extended 1t to the Visit
ing Veterans.
Following the address of the Mayor came
the address on tehalf OF the associated
camps Of veterans and Sons of Veterans
and the chapter Of Daughters of the Con-
federacy. Col. Screven's address contained
a resume Of the prominent part that sa-
vannah has played since the birth of the
city in the various wars that the country
has been through and was framed in
rounded periods and ornamented with the
chaste and scholarly eloquence that char
acterize always the productions of Col
Screyen. He spoke as follows:
Mr.. President and Veteran Comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen: have the honor in
behalf of the joint camps of the Confed-
crate Veterans and of the Sons of Confed-
crate veterans, and of the chapter of the
daughters OF The COnfederacy of this civ
10 bld you welcome to Savannah and to
the hrst reunion of the Georgia Division
OF the United Confederate Veterans.
You could scarcely assemble in a local
ny more appropriate than in the bosom of
the mother city of your great common
wealth where its first breathings were
Watted from the ocean, "athwart the red
oid NILS, 10 the mountains resting their
sublime crests amid The clouds. You
gather here from far and near, from the
Blue Ridge to the Land of Flowers, from
the Chattahoochee 10 the sea, you gather
10 the spot, where the Empire State of
the South was Graded, and to whose con-
sututional liberties you and your pa triotic
Fathers have dedicated life fortune. and
their sacred honor.
The colony of Georgia was, in fact. n
military establishment to protect the Car
olinas against Spanish invasion. and in
less than ten years after the settlement
Oglethorpe had led an army 10 the gates
OF st. Augustine. Savannah had become
IN that brief period the outpost of the
southern colonies and the St NIarv's
river had been fixed as the northern limit
of Spanish aggression in South Atlantic
territory 1t was from Savannah, become
Inc seat OF the government of the COLONY
that all military measures originally pro
ceeded necessary to maintain peace with
The Indian population.
Georgia was the youngest and the
weakest of the American states but mona
was more reso,ute than she in her en-
barkation In, and she suffered most in the
great struggle for American liberty. The
first patriot guns fired on Georgia soil were
planted on Yamacraw bluff, in this city.
YOU who may have arrived by the
trains of the Plant System, stood upon the
scene where the American armv under
Gen. Howe, was defeated in December
1HS, and you who may pass the JASPER
monument in the very heart of the CITY
will be on the battle field where Walton
fell wounded, and where his Georgia mill
tia checked the British onset, and enabled
the greater part of HoWe's army, already
routed, to escape destruction.
You, who have disembarked a the pas
senser depot of the Central of Georgia.
have stood on the spot where the impetu-
Gus Pulaski and the intrepid Jasper fell
Oct. 4, l779, in the disastrous assault on
the Spring Hin redoubt. Their splendid
monuments, erected on the chief highway
of the city, attest the public admira ton
of their heroism and the public gratitude
for their transcendent sacrifice 10 Ameri-
can liberty
Farther to the north, on the same high
way, stands the marble shaft erected to
the great memory of Nathaniel Greene,
second only to WASHINGTON in the hearts of
his countrymen. Shaped in the artistic
form of Roman sword, it commentaries
the personal virtues aud public career of
this illuslrious soldier, whose consunm
strategy forced the evacuation of the Car
olnas and Georgia, and triumphantly
terminated in the surrender of the British
army at Yorktown. Alas, that his remains
lie within the boundaries of Savannah and
that no man knows where!
THE people of Savannah stood to their
arms in 1872 prepared to meet the same
public enemy as in 1776 but passing by
her contributing her quota to the Mexican
War, when all her gallant volun-
teers struggled for the precedence
let us be reminded, that In the great
crucial struggle between the states. she
sent one-fourth of her whole, nay, one
half of her entire white population to the
Confederate armies, and that her sons
fought in every part of the Confederacy
from the Potomac to the Mississippi; that
when Sherman ended at her borders his
boosted, but vapid march he found her
begirt with fertilization, resolutely defend
ed by a remnant Of defiant Georgians
I'm the Military Park stands another
lofty monument. dedicated to the Confed-
crate dead, and in the cemetery yonder,
they sleep in the same dust in which re-
pose Barlow, Cook. Lamar, Tattnan. Gil
mer. Lawton. McLaws, Jackson, names
all lustrous with memories of the sacred
cause, in which they shared with you all
the hardships, the dangers, and the sac
rifices of the most stupendous war of mod
ern times.
Thus you have gathered to this first
reunion on consecrated ground and II Is
fitting that the surviving veterans. who
fought in your intrepid ranks. should be
the first to greet you and bid you welcome
The shadows OF their lives grow long and
soon must they too join The spectral armies
Continued on Sixth Page.)