The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-03-09
LoNG-sTANDlNG ERRORS CORRECTED
Speaker Seeks to Place Honor Where Honor is Due and
Submits Proof to Sustain Him.

emplars. placed there so significantly be-
tween the rising and setting sun Of the
city's horizon: thus symbolizing the mid
day splendor of his achievements and the
zenith Of his fame. As 1 look upon these
monuments Of these two great leaders of
men, the impulse and emotions of my
heart and soul is to salute these almost
animated bronzes. as we were wont to do,
their living model in the days gone by,
because Of their greatness: the one for
his lordly and transcendant character.
the other of his ability as the tactician
and strategist of his age.
THE PRIVATE SOLDIER
But as l salute these I realize that
great as was the individual valor chiv-
airy and ability of these two great cap
tains Of war. yet it was all encompassed
in the life of single man. But when
L turn toward the eastern gateway of our
city and behold silhouetted on the hori-
zon that tall polished shaft shapened
after the similitude of Pompey's-Pillar, l
find firmly fixde upon its corinthian
chapter another kind of heroic bronze one
that suggests an entirely new train OF
thoughts to my mind, and awakens in my
bosom emotions so profound and deep
as to beget admiration bordering on de-
votion 1t is a silent sentinel raised
high aloof in circumam bient air keeping
faithful vigls by night over the sleep
ing city beneath, while by day it STANDS
at q. soldiers rest but all attention, with
eyes front and riveted on the bronze OF
Jackson in the centre and that of Lee
in the western part of the city, as if an
xiously hwaitinr their expected COM
mands: befitting monument to a ''Pri-
vate Soldier" resting on his truSty
gun. symbolizing the firmness of his
purposes as the eternal granite on which
he stands; and the exaltation of his
matches character far above the paltry
gain of sordid gold or worldly fame; the
embodiment in bronze of all that was
noble grand and heroic in the private SOL
der, and epitomizing that grand asgrega-
ton of peerless heroes of the rank and
file. both living and dead; whose valiant
deeds of noble daring gave immortal
lustre to the name of the Army of North
ern Virginia, and Illuminated every page
of it's history with the dazzling corusca-
tons of their own glory. Soldiers
Battle. How sublimely grand are those
words. My Comrades: In your soldier
life you can recall more than one occa-
sion when tacticianal and strates1stlc
ability Of those in command was exhausted
and relegated to the rear. and the issue
of battle fought out alone by the Drawn
of the men in ranks, unalded by the
brain Of those in command.
Historians of the great battles of the
world have penned their pages In blood
Of slaughtered thousands, and over the
countless numbers aof private soldiers
dead rear the monument of some leading
general and wreathe his brow With chap
lets Of victory; but the faithful historian
of that greatest Of all European battles,
where $4,000 men met in deadly array
and the Drawn of soldiers and not brain
~+r 70.
5000 lay dead and bleeding on the field;
in his mental anguish over this CHASTITY
scene of hosts Of soldiers slain. truth
fully indicts this battle 1.-THE Soldiers
Battle and to the glory OF the private
soldier hands down to posterity that
name on which it was fougllt-tTne Field
Of Waterloo
A NOBLE PARALLEL.
If this be true of this heterogeneous
army whose Belgian campaign began and
ended in nine days, and at whose CAPT
tulation over 5000 stalwart Frenchmen
equipped for duty stood in ranks, what
will the future historian record of that
indomitable body of men whose design and
purposes were as one thought, whose ac-
ton was a unit as a. machine, whose
self-sacrificing spirit and devotion to the
ca use it espoused amazed a thinking
world; whose campaigning for four long
years commenced with the grass of every
recurring spring, and estopped only When
hoary winter held it locked in its arms
Of ice, and at whose capitulation their
starved and enlaciated forms stood IN
thinned ranks and with scrawny arms
and lank and bony fingers stacked on the
field of Appomattox only 1900 muskets
Gee to Early, Mem. Vol. A. n v p. 40.
All honor to that noble regiment from
the State Of Maine, our brother in blue,
.lve s'foemen worthy of our steel, who,
when they saw the rigid muscles of these
ragged starving men relaxing their hold
from surrendered guns presented arms
to those exhausted Heroes of the Army
OF Northern Virginia; exhausted did l
say. yes. literally frazzlcd down as
long used whip to the Very hand of him
who for four years so vigorously piled
it upon head and shoulders, hip and thigh
Of tie invading hords. until when worn
to the stub, its loud and intinidating
crack its severe and decorating lash, Its
dreaded and terrible securing, was no
longer possible. General Lee lays down
the magic relic of this worn-out instru-
ment of torture to the infinite relief of
100000 boys in blue.
The endurance, perseverance and pluck
OF the A. y. V. with its most discourag
ing surroundings cannot be better illus
trated than by the fable of the 'lSuttins
goat and the maui with which we are
all familiar.
The propensity of those buttinG quail
ties was sorely tested by suspended
maui; the sufferer by these proclivities
Of the buttinS goat determines to wear
him out. as by this means only could he
rid himself of the bsligerent goat, a
heavy maui is SUSPENDED in the pasture,
the goat concludes at once it is an in
vador of his rights, and at it he goesi
at each rebounding stroke of the maui
fiercer grows the conflict and more napld-
~ flies the blood and broken bones, tired
and sickened at the fearful contact of
maui and goat the spectator retires for
the night in the morning he returns to
the bloody scene TO find the pugnaceous
goat still at 1t but worn himself away
to the stub of his tail which is still butt
ing at the cruel maui. Comrades: has
this theme Of the Incompatible va'or
and fortitude of the Confederate Soldier
SO enthused your speaker as to cause
him to sacrifice truth to glowing fiction?
Are these statements exc sserated eX-
pressions ard highly colored by the hest
vsIN