The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1901-08-09
BOB TAYLOR'S ADDRESS.

An eloquent speech delivered
! few days since at the Haywood
County Confederate Reunion helC
at Brownsville a few days ago:
"LADIEs AND GENTLEMEN: Time
in his tireless flight has brought III
again to the full leaf and flower OF
another summer.
The grass grows green above
the dust of heroes; the roses twinC
once more about their tombs, anC
the morningglories point theiI
purple bugles towards the sky as
if to sound a reveille to our i'm.
mortal dead.
Another year with its sunshine
and ITS shadows, its laughter and
its tears, its sowing and its reaping,
its cradle song and its funeral
hymns, now lies between us anc
that dark day at Appomattox, wher
the star of Southern hope went
down and the flag of Southern
chivalry was furled forever.
"Another year has added whittier
locks to the temples of these old
veterans who wore the gray and
deeper furrows to their brows and
they now stand among us like sol,
itary oaks in the midst of fallen
forest, hoary with age, covered
with scars and glorious as the liv-
ing monuments of Southern man
hood and Southern courage.
"But we are not far enough away
from that awful struggle to forget
the bloody hills of Shiloh, where
Albert Sidney johnson died, and
the fatal field of Charlottesville
where Stonewall jackson fell.
"We are not far enough away to
forget the frowning heights of
Gettysburg, where Picket's charg-
ing lines rushed to glory and the
grave.
"We are not yet far enough
away to forget Murfreesboro and
Missionary Ridge and Chicka-
mauga, and a hundred other fields
of death and carnage where the
flower of the South, the bravest of
the brave, and the truest of the
true fought for the cause they
thought was right and died for the
land they loved.
"We are not yet far enough
away to forget the agony and the
tears of a nation that was crushed
when the shattered armies of Lee
and Johnston, worn and weary,
half starved, barefooted and in
rags, stacked their arms IN the
gloom of defeat and left the field
of valor overwhelmed and over
powered, and yet undaunted and
unconquered.
"When time has measured off q
thousand years, we will not forget
the suferings and the sacrifices of
the brave men who so freely gave
their fortunes and shed their blood
to preserve the most brilliant civil.
ization that ever flourished in any
land or in any age, for literature
loves a lost cause.
Historians will some day sit
down on our battle fields and write
true history-history which will
read like the widest dreams of
fancy that were ever woven into
fiction, and poets will linger among
our graves and sing sweeter songs
than were ever sung before, for
each monument is a volume within
81.
itself of wild and thrilling adven-
ture, and every tombstone tells a
story as touching as the soldiers
last tear on the white bosom OF his
manhood's pride, tender as the
last farewell.
81 would not utter word of
bitterness against the men who
wore the blue. They fought and
died under the old flag to perpet
uate the Union, and they were foe
men worthy of Southern prowess
and Southern valor.
81 would not if could rob
Grant, the great and noble chief
tain, of his fame and glory. Every
Southern soldier ought to stand
with uncovered head when his
name is spoken, for when all was
lost in the darkest and saddest mo
ment of Southern history, be was
magnanimous to Lee and kind TO
his tattered and furnished army.
Along the blue lines of the tri-