The Opelousas courier., 1904-06-18
The Confederate Veteran.

troduced himself to the world at Man.
assas, the Wilderness, in the Shenan'
doah Valley and at Gettysburg in tones
I of thunder, and stepped upon flames
/ arena again in reconstruction days, and
left his name carved high among earth'i
immOrtals, and as various gifted sons OF
the South have repeatedly and ably
treated the expediency of his with
drawal from the Union, and the right
eousness of bis cause, and as their ar
guments are still fresh in u memories
| shall not touch either, but shall con
tent myself with a glance at his heroic
deeds, which furnish a wealth of argu'
ment and an outgushing of rare clio
quence. as compared with which words
are as thinking cymbal," and feel con
highly appreciative as You are) find nc
difficulty in accomplishing my purpose
which is to forcibly remind you of the
many claims which he has upon the
gratitude, upon the affections OF every
Southerner.
In this age Of rampant commercial,
ism, unprecedented fortune = building
| gigantic enterprises of rapid transN
development and world astQpRaisse@sais-
coveries, we are liabltsr6 forget this
grand old hero who has served us long
and faithfully, with pure motive and
lofty purpose. His life-WOrk has been
an untiring effort toward the upbuild-
ing of his bAloSed Southland. Not only
has he defended our cause on the field
of battle with heroic effort, but he has
given the best yeSrs of his life to the re-
construction ana rehabilitation of the
South, and marvellous, indeed, has been
the result. And now that be is in his
declining years. we should not allo9s
him, in a single instance, to suffer dtsS8
slightest degree of neglect. Let ufh1bt
only provide for him, when neceaAfy,
the comforts essential to the weEaFying
Of the physical man, but let us ASsup-
ply him beautifully with ~ food
which is of far greater moment to him
than the food for the BODY, which is
the unstinted and continuous express.
sion of our appreciation9Of his nnre-
hitting fidelity and herof conduct dur
ing the darkest hourS%Of the SOuth's
history, and may we f&get that we are
Americans rather thah forget that he is
our hero Of heroes.
Today, as we look into his dimmed
or upon his silvery locks, u hearts
sadden, for we are reminded that eye
long there will be a parting, and that
liz VIII ItSG ltpH ulS taUUkS Ou tDhG
shore where there will be no need of
the knapsack, the cartridge-box nor the
musket, and where there will be neither
bivouac, reveille, nor any sudden mid
night awakeDings by the lannon's roar,
and we wonder if there will appear
upon the worlds arena ia Il thousand
years another character as unique.
Generous, patriotic, courageous, chiv-
alrnps ond alf-sanpifoipr La hos Stoo1
ever ready to champion the cause Of
right, and to defend it, when necessary,
to the death. When the national gov
eminent declared that it was its inten-
ton to infringe upon certain rights
which had been vOuchsafed by the on
stitution to the several States, he re-
garded such interference as an outrage,
and unhesitatingly expressed his deter
mination to defend States rights to the
last extremity, and on the 18th Of April,
1851, in his assault upon Fort Sumpter,
convinced the world that he possessed
the courage Of his convictions, and in
defence of the South's honor, through
out the terrible four years. civil war
which ensued, showed the splendid
mettle of which he was made.
AS he supported Gen. Lee in the de-
fence OF Richmond, hurting back and
dealing terror to an army vastly snper-
ior, in numbers and equipment, to his
own so repeatedly that it became the
expected, and as he followed Stonewall
Jackson ID the long and weary marches
through the Shenandoah, with swollen
and bleeding feet, limbs benumbed by
cold, and form emaciated by fatigue
and hunger, but with fighting qualities
ever intact. he displayed valor worthy
of a Richard Occur de Lion. a Bazzaris,
a Leonidas or a Caesar. The world APP
plauded his heroism. No matter when
where he was put to the test, whether
at Manassas, Shiloh, Seven Pines, Fred
ericksbnrg, Charlottesville Gettysburg,
ness, Cold Harbor, or upon the dashing
and daring accommodating expeditions
of the great cavalry leaders, Generals
j. E. B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee, Joseph
III. Wheeler, Turner Ashby, N. B. For
rest, Wade Hampton, John Morgan and
kindred spirits, it was evident that his
prowess could not be surpassed in the
of the world, but it fades into
insignificance when compared to the
unbounded fortitude, the world-eclips-
ing heroism which he displayed after
the finale of hostilities at Appamattox,
the dark days of reconstruction,
which furnished him with a foe whose
name was legion, and possessed of
.voracious p~ropensities which would
have put to blush the Cloths and van
dals, who overran the Roman Empire
in it's palmy days.
With these inspiring environments to
his energies he set to work,
with disappointment, sorrow, debt and
grinding poverty as his resources, to
his ruined home and rehabili-
tate his down : trodden country, and
the vultures of war still how
cred in sight; though disorder, confu-
sion and decentralization ran riot; though |
the whitening, bligbting influence of
carpetbag rule was leaving social, pol
Itical and financial chaos in it's wake;
hungry hordes we're clawing
and gnawlDg each other for a chance at
the South's life.blood. still be worked
N, facing the decay, ruin, de-
him on every side without a tremor,
and, Casabianca-like, stuck beroically
to his post until be saw that the fruits
Of his labor were being destroyed al
most as rapidly as they were produced,
and that life was equally insecure.
1t then dawned upon him that he
could not wait longer upon the national
government for promised protection; he
realized the stern fact that he had to
play the role of his OVID sole protection
,r sink into an abyss of peonage from
which neither he, his children, nor his
,hildren's children were likely to en-
srge. Then he arose in bis might. This
desperate situation having inspired him
with determination and courage as re-
as the cyclones breath. he