The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-01

1 decisive battlefield, of the upx. bpuAuss EShere ave yet thcsN Who xaft th& gem erous and chiyalf1c tsach1ne1 of 0rAnt
 and Lincoln whaA the po6siosn q Wss were yet fresh and neEt ta onnipetpats ISI saw the e-Survtvofs of H5ck6tt's Di- vision and of the Philadelphia Brigade ! meet in >he Bloody Angle fn> fraternal fellowship nearly half generation ago. was with them when tney met for the
 first time It 0sttys0usg, and tho hsast.
 lest welcome have ever seen ulyea fToa grixsled veterans nf tho hlua and tho Gray As they clasped thsir hands in psace and brotherhooA. There Sas net . jar in the l friendly, eyen eRealtonateb tnterceufse between the hundredS of tAch aide who had >coms to -refrsah thelr memerieU of
 the bioodiast eou6tct Of our Civil War. saw -thesA same comyaAss< sgRia eosna together at Richmond to witness the un- yelling of the monument srsctsd to Pick ett, and there. as at Gettysburg. they
 were all as . bend Of brothers with every trace xet enmity. forgettsp,i cheses cane up spontaneously from the hearts of both sides as the old bulistrtov1 and faded flag of the Confsdsracy vas unfurled. and as the Stars and Stripes were plant ed over all. and ,equsfiy hearty chsers came from both as they passed the statues of Leo and Jacksoi.
 r. It is only . few months since the sur vivors of the Blue and the Gray who fought at Cedar Geuntains Va. on the sth of August. ,1s62. met in fraternal fel- lowship ons their old battle-ground. and were. welcomed with thousands who st- tended there to. generous hospitality by the ladies' of Cedar, Mountain. There was not the shadow of discord or the nf Ah~xS and Gen. John P. Taylor and Col. Will liam Penn Lloyd, of Peupsuiveais, rs- sponded to the eloquent and affectionate welcome that was given. tho Union sol diers by their now brethren in the South. It Is only. . few weeks since tho few survivors of a Confederate cavalry regv irnent met at Western Branch, in Nor folk County, Va, to commemorate, the heroic struggles of that command in our Civil War. There were no Union sol- diers there to inspire them to any special expression of fraternity. but they put to shame the lingering champions of hats, North and South. by proposing to insu- gurate movement to erect . statue te General Grant.
 Some years ago l was guest with hun- dreds of other members of the Union League at . dinner given there to Gen. eral Longstreet. With him was General Alexander. Lees chief of artillery at Gettysburg; General Howard, who com manded one of the Union corps at that engagement. and many other distinguish ed officers. The heartiest welcome was given not only to Longstreet. but to AL exander and every other Confederate warrior who was present. Indeed. as rule. those most earnest and most heroic in field and forum for the preservation Union. ha or1io iou$ to efface the sectional passions created by war. It was Charles Sumner who only five years aftev the war had ended proposed in the Senate that every Con- federate flag in the North held as tro- phies of battle should be returned to the South in fraternal kindness. True, he was in advance of public sentiment at the time, but loyal Massachusetts heart Fly sustained him, and his reelection to the Senate was prevented only by his death.
 I have usually joined my brethren of the Grand Army of the Republic in the beautiful ceremonies of Decoration Day, and for many years past have never witnessed the decoration of tho graves of the brave men who gave their lives for the Union, without their survivors sharing their floral offerings to their fall- on brethren who wore the blue with the graves of the Confederate dead, If such graves were within their reach. On Dec- oration Day. North and South. with each returning year the soldiers who fought the bloodiest battles of modern times uni- formly decorate tho graves of their fall en foes with the graves of their fallen brethren. Thus do the soldiers teach that peace has come. that the passions of fra ternal conflict have perished, that we are again a common brotherhood. with equal pride in the trfumphs of our flag and the progress of the great Republic of the world.
 Tho nineteenth century produced i've great commanders whose names are in- effaceably crystallized in it's history They were Napoleon. Wellington, Won Moltke, Grant and Lee. Two of them will go into history as great American commanders, and the fame of both has been perpetu- ated in scores of statues and monuments in the North and in the South. Lees character may be summed up in this brief sentence: "A model soldier; a Christian gentlemen" He was one of the gentlest and most chivalrous of men from the be- ginning of our Civil War until his death. He ever taught as Lincoln taught, With malice towards none. with charity for ak" and with the fierce assaults made upon him in the passions of the conflict, he never uttered single sentence of re- sentiment. and no act or order of Lee violated the accepted principle of humane warfare. Every eye in the South bright ems at the mention of his name; no Southern name is so generally and sin cerely respected throughout the entire he ho