The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-15
CONFEDERATE VETERANS.
The Head of Organization Their
Sons Are Perfccting.

SONS Are Perfccting.
Memphis, Sept. 14.-Memphis is
headquarters, until the reunion at Dali
las next year, for the Department of
THE Army of Tennessee" United Sons
of Confederate Veterans-which is
comprised of the six states of Geor-
gia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Florida. These states
were well represented at the last re-
union at Memphis, when the election
of officers for the ensuing year was
held. The choice of the convention for
commander of this department, was
Mr.. w. Armlstead Collier, Jr.
Commander Collier is now engaged
in organizing the work of his depart
ment, with a view to putting it on a
business basis; and he hopes to inter-
est the best young men of the South,
as he has already interested the best
young men of Memphis, in the move
ment. To an Associated Press repre-
sentative, he made the following state
ment:
1.-THE Confederation of Sons of Vet
Grams has high and patriotic object:
and no young man whose father fought
for the righteous cause of constitution
al liberty, need feel ashamed to join
the ranks of an organization designed
to do honor to the bravest men that
God ever made. Every man who is
the son of a Confederate soldier is
proud of it: and it seems to me that
we all ought to join ourselves together
and thus erect a living monument to
the fallen heroes of our native land
and give all honor and praise to the
grand old army of veterans, whose
ranks are growing thinner every year.
TT is objected by some, that we are
keeping alive a sentiment which ought
to be allowed to die out, as productive
of no good. Are we, then, ashamed of
the blood that gave us birth? Are we
the sons of traitors, and afraid to face
the truth of history? Or is it that the
patriotism and chivalry of the South
went down with the fall of the Con-
federacy; and we ignoble offspring are
deferred from the expression of the
sentiments that we cheriSh-or ought
to cherish-by contemplate and petty
considerations of self-interest? The
worship of Mammon is the death of all
sentiment. We endeavor to acquaint
ourselves with the history of all past
ignominious silence, the deeds of our
own fathers who took part in the most
tremendous conflict the world has ever
seen? The thoughtful student can fore
see that the Souths heroic struggle
will be the inspiration to the highest
poetry and art of future ages.
But this objection is more forcibly
answered by the following words, TAX
en- from a letter which 1 had the good
fortune to receive from Jefferson Ia
Wis "a short while before his death.
That great statesman wrote:
" The deeds of your ancestors will
bear the test of critical examination;
the institutions they established bore
a rich harvest of prosperity and there
by taught the great blessings of COM
munity independence. If the future
shall produce men wiser in council or
more efficient in the field than those
the old South gave to the earlier ser
vice of the common country, then let
the murmuring lamentations over the
change be hushed; but until then, let
honor without qualification be paid
where honor is due
"The objects of our organization are
historical and benevolent; mainly, to
preserve to posterity a true and com
plete record of the great Civil War;
and to render material aid and COM
fort to ex-Confederate soldiers in need.
One important undertaking of the Sons
of Veterans is to build a fitting monu-
ment to those unrecognized heroes, the
women of the Confederacy-to whose
devoted memory no monument of any
consequence has ever been raised
About IS 900 toward this object was
subscribed by the camps in our last
convention at Memphis.
Another matter of some Importance
at this time is the growing custom of