The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-22
ne Confederate Reunion.


South We're crossed and her brave
armies were overwhelmed
It is with these feelings. and feelil.9S
kindred to these that Americans Of the
South are looking forward to the next
annual reunion of Confederate Eeter-
ans The local committee is actively at
WORK. Ample preparations are making
to receiv the hosts Of ex-ConIederates
that will soon converge Upon New Or
leans from every section Of the Union
The people Of this CRY hope and ex-
poet that The grim men IN gray who
forty years ago imreriled all for their
country-and regretted not that they
inlperlied twill come. in large num-
ber to this hospitable old city OF ours
and receive here the welcome and ben
edlctOn of their grateful countrylnen
The date set for the reunion draws
near. We want the venerable and ven
Grated heroes-tfe thin gray line that
is growing thinner every year-to move
with martial tread once more through
the streets of the metropolis of the
South. From Louisiana and her peigh-
boring States of Mississippi. Alabama,
Texas and Arkansas; from far away
Tennessee and Florida; from farther
away Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia,
Kentucky and Maryland, and from the
more distant Northern and Eastern
States in which Southerners have, since
the war, found congenial homes and
won enduring reputation-from every
point in. the Union; we desire that ex-
Confederates ard the sons and daugh-
tiers of ex-Confederates shall come to
New Orleans.
In the impressive procession will be
men who represent the splendid SOL
diery of the South that was ready at the
call of duty-and is ready still-to fight
valiantly and to- die without muir
muir. Men who fought not for fame, not
for empire, not (thank God) for money
but for friends and kinsmen, for home
and country! In rejecting upon what
the Confederate soldier was, as we'll as
upon what he did, the people of New
Orleans have highly resolved that the
reunion this year shall be the most in
teresting the most impressive and the
most successful of all that have been
held by the heroes in gray. The organi-
cation of United Confederate Veterans
has, it is true, reached, if it has not
passed. it's zenith. Its meridian splendor
the force and the fire that once in
hered to it-has waned with the quick
going years. Against it the fierce gales
Of necessity. and the 6ercer gales of
time itself, have blown pitilessly. Num-
erically, its power is necessarily fast
morally, its energy for
good is strengthening every hour. The
awakened by it and the pride
stirred by sight Of the Confederate
as they pass in annual review
on the occasion of these reunions-are
forever consecrated and hallowed in |
the hearts Of the Southern people, We
need not recount all the names On the
sacred list, nor tell the sad, brave story
over in all its desolate grandeur of ideal
and starving suffering; but the picture,
sketched Or finished. is now and always
will be mirrored in the eyes Of every
beholder.: II it is only for a moment the |
people OF the South will, ON these occa-
sions Of Confederate reunions, lift the
nobly pathetic picture and reverently
uncover before it; for spite the efacine
influence of time. it may never be for
gotten that what William of Oranges
followers were to Holland, what the |
men who fought with Bruce and Wal
lace were to Scotland. what Marathon
ten thousand" were to Greece, what,
indeed, Thermopylae's three hundred"
were to Sparta, the Confederate SOL
diers were, are, and will be-always-
to Americans of the Southern States.
1t is to the Confederate soldier-to
his high example in courage, in forti-
Eude, in patience and in the capacity to
suffer and to be still-that the younger
generation OF the South owes whatever
is worthy in its civilization. This debt
may never be paid, certainly not within
the lifetime of the Confederate soldier
but the heroic sacrifice and the inspirit-
ing example can live again in Our re-
and in the remembrance of
our children. The reunion to be held
in May will remind us of the high civic
that is ours and will
prompt us to a wider and a wiser pa
Il 7tism. 1t will teach us that the lamp
Of idealism should be kept forever
glowing, and it will help the world to
that the spirit of the Con-
federate soldier, like the breath of the
Fl DIV man died NOT with the oroDhet