The news & observer., 1901-05-07
THE SOUTH PROTESTS
Women of N. c. Ask For Con.
federate Dead.
Vigorous Efforts Of Mrs. Garland Jones TO Havt
Removed to Raleigh the Remains Of
Forty Six

ne recent oTuef OF secretary RoOJ re-
quiring the reinterment in the Arlington
National Cemetery of the Confederate
soldiers buried there and at the National
Soldiers Home has caused protests from
many Southern States.
Among the bodies to be rebarisd are
soldiers from North Carolina, South Car
olina Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Nissis-
sippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, the bodies
CT the Virginians having already been
removed to Virginia
When Congress first passed the act on
| June 6, 1900 a vigorous protest was made
by Mrs. w. ]. Behan, of New Orleans,
President of the Confederate Southern
Memorial Association, and other promi-
nent Southern women, and an agreement
was reached that the Southern dead be
removed at the expense of individuals or
organization so desiring, to Southern
burying grounds. These bodies have not
yet been removed and the new order
of Secretary Root indicates that no re-
moval to the South is to be allowed.
| Among the bodies to be re-interred are
the bodies Of forty-six North Carolinians,
and Mrs. Behan has communicated with
i
president of the association. from North
/ Carolina, asking that this State secure
| the bodies for burial here. Mrs. Jones
/ has arranged to meet all the expense Of
the transfer to Raleigh of these bodies
| and for their re-interment in the Con-
| federate Cemetery here. She has written
the Secretary of War asking to be allowed
| to do this and her application has been
endorsed by Governor Aycock, his staff,
the other State officers and by General
Julian s. Carr.
| Ellis Post G. A. R., has protested
against monuments to the Confederate
dead being placed in National cemeteries
and this is not allowed. 1t is only by
having the bodies of the gallant Southern
heroes in Southern cemeteries that such
monuments can be erected. Mrs. Garland
Jones and other patriotic women in
North Carolina are now striving to have
the dead from this State brought here,
but it is not known that Secretary Root
will decide to their strong petition.
Mrs. Behan wrote Mrs. Jones late in
April that she thought the petition from
North Carolina would secure the remoy-
al CT the forty-six bodies here, but Secre-
tary Roots recent order would indicate
otherwise. Dispute this Mrs. Jones is
earnestly at work and hopes to succeed
in having these e-buried in Raleigh.
Twelve years ago 300 bodies Of Confed-
crates we're removed from Arlington
without objection, and the ladies are now
asking why their dead should be held
there
In this connection the following lines
by Father Ryan will thrill the heart and
nerve the effort and open the purse Of
all who honor the memory of the brave
and are not dead to every impulse of
patriotism They contain an exquisite
appeal in behalf of the holy cause to
which our ladies have consecrated their
energies. 1t is entitled Let Our Dead
Together Sleep
Gather the sacred dust
OF the warriors tried and true
VINO love the flag of our Nations trust
And fell in a cause as great, as just,
And died for you and me.
Whenever the brave died
They should not rest apart;
Living they struggled side by side
Why should the hand of death divide
A simple heart from heart?
Gather them each and all,
From the Private to the Chief
Come they from cabin or lovely hall.
Over their dust let the fresh tears fall;
OF a Nations holy grief.
No matter whence they come
Dear is their lifeless clay
Whether unknown or known to fame,
Their cause and country were the same
They died-and wore the Gray
Gather the corpses strewn
Der many a battle plain,
From many a grave that lies so low
Without a name and without a stone,
Gather the Southern slain.
And the dead shall meet the dead
While the living ones then weep
For the men whom Lee and Stonewall led,
And the hearts that once together bled-
Should now together sleep.