Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-01-31
OF THE coNFEDERAcY.
ment TO she Women Who Worked
while the soldiers Fought.

Chattanooga, Tenn, Jan. Cool
Garrett Andrews, of this city, prom
inent as a member of the United Con-
federate Veterans, and well known
throughout the south as one of the
foremost lawyers of this section, is at
work on the details of a plan, which
he viii present to the next encamp-
ment of the United Confederate Vet
Grams, looking toward the erection of
the most costly monument in b
United States to commemorate the
valor and fidelity of the confederate
women.
The agitation among confederate
veterans to build a great monument
to the confederate women had its be-
ginning here on Decoration day, two
traitor of the occasion, made it the
theme of his address. Afterwards n.
B. Forrest Camp Qocal) and the gem
eral convention at Louisville of United
Confederate Veterans, approved h
undertaking., but no plan of action
was adopted.
An Associated Press reporter called
on Col. Andrews and requested his
views as to the progress of the work,
the necessity for it, plans of organi-
cation and style of monument.
1T is to the discredit of our peo-
ple,'' said Col. Andrews, that no
more progress has been made, al
though | believe that such a response
would come in dollars and cents to a
canvass for funds, as was never wit
messed before.
The mass of confederate woman
hood was, in various ways, an actual
auxiliary force, that was nearly, ii
not quite, half of the army's el-cien-
cy. They constituted, for one thing,
a great hospital reserve. Besides sup
plying the medical corps at the front
with much of its material, every
home was a sanitarium where a sickor
wounded soldier was welcome. We
had neither factories nor commerce.
So they, in large measure, clothed the
army. Their sons and husbands being
in the regiments compelled them tc
manage plantations and farms and
feed the army. They denied them
selves comforts, in order That they
II S1NE w III LINZ bAS1A
spirits never drooped; they were
cheerful and courageous always. They
kept the firing lines full. for they ut
terIy scorned a shirk, and their utter
contempt drove malingerers to their
duty. The respect in which they were
held made them more efficient in this
regard than many conscript guards.
Their disbanded soldiers returned
to find them wearing coars home
made stuffs and without fabrics of
black, in many instances, in which to
mourn their dead.
But they met their returning men
and held their hearts up for them as
if they had been the c~onquerers; and
gave them sweet encouragement to
face the hard life before them.
There were many deserters from
the confederate army, but has anyone
ever heard of a confederate woman
who turned her bach on the cause?
I'm these later days appear the
United Daughters of the Confederacy.
a well named society of noble aims,
and distribute to the surviving sol
diers crosses of merit. These dec
orations come, under God, from the
highest worldly source of honor, as
we esteem it.
The general government and the
military organizations of those who
fought for the Union, have filed the
land with thousands of ommemora
tive shafts. But the last man had
scarcely fallen when the confederate
girls and women began their t~ireless
and persistent labors to
be known, l believe it would appear
that their patient little hands ha1
set up more craven stones of homo
than all others. There is scarcely a
county without them, and towns and
cities TEEN with the great monuments
which they have erected to the con-
federate dead.
And the confederate veteran? He
has accepted it all with c~omplacency, |
as though he deserved it.
What has he done to give even |
faint expression of honor to this
race of women? If 1 were |
to die now, my gravestone would |
blush with shame at the answer.
Nothing, nothing
"Yet they still keep on building
to the confederate dead.
we, the surviving veterans, keep
our record of disgrace.
After all they have done, after
their love, suffering and devotion,
their beautiful fame we find not
a stone to their memory in all the
MY idea of what should be done
be told in a few words. Collec
at least half a million dollars or NOR
believe it a be had-no man would
refuse o an object so sacred and
popular. With it build one monu-
ment-not several inferior ones-but
one, so grand in size, rich In material,
artistic in design and execution and
IN location, that the world
would applaud and thousands
would come to revere the memory of
great u Momankind.
Il believe in a single working ma
chinery, with few officers, for expe-
accomplishment.
IAN executive head of one to three,
fewer the better, should be pre-
7ided, with power to appoint sub-of-
icers and c-anvassers. Allow them
reasonable compensation, otherwise
hey can not afford to devote them
selves to the YORK. Get speakers