The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1904-06-23
Confederate Veterans.
From the Nashville Banner.1

"
are with us by the thousands from
all parts of the South, and it is an
honor to Nashville to have them
here. And Nashville is not slow
to do them honor.
It means much, this assembling
of the "boys in gray" these griz-
zled veterans, who now wear the
gray upon their heads, many Of
whom, with their white locks and
enfeebled bodies, remind us that
lives that have been fraught with
incident and hardship in war are
approaching the end, and that
they will never again meet with
their old comrades in arms at an
annual reunion.
Yes, it means much to these old
soldiers to come together once
more, to clasp hands again with
friends, whose friendship and
sympathy were welded in the fire
of battle. It means much more
to these old comrades in arms
than can be understood by the
generation which has risen since
those days of terrible strife, forty
long years ago, and which gladly
pays them its tribute of affection
and pride. They cannot tell what
it means to those who cannot un-
derstand. They cannot tell it to
themselves. They can only grasp
each others hands and feel what
cannot be uttered. They may re-
call many of the trying incidents
of that dreadful war; the may re-
late again the anecdotes and the
escapades of the camp; they may
recount many of the privations
and hardships they endured, but
with all their telling, with all the
greeting and Glamour of q great
reunion, with all the oratory that
essays to revive the memories of
the past and bespeak the spirit
of the occasion, the thought,
sentiments and emotions that
spring from the deeps Of a
strange and hard experience will
remain unspoken forever. His
tory and story will tell much of
the great civil war that convulsed
our country and devastated the
South. Much Of its motive, its
passion, its silent endurance and
suffering will be made palmer in
the days to come, but the deeper,
the unspeakable, heart Of that ex-
perience will go down in the grave.
These ''boys" in grayl Once
most Of them were boys indeed.
The middle-aged men who went
into the Confederate army have
nearly all passed away. The
great majority of the survivors
were the flower of the youth of
the South who shouldered their
guns at their country's call. Very
many of these were men in their
teens when they marched forth to
endure the hardships and dangers
of frightful war. Their mothers
gave them to their country with
blessings from sorrowing hearts.
And what a record Of honor and
gallantry was made by these boys.
The South is proud Of it. It is
glorious and imperishable.
It is hard for the youth of the
present day to realize that these
old soldiers, grown gray in the
forty years that have elapsed
since they fought under the stars
and bars, were not always what
they now appear to be. The COM
pany Of Confederate veterans to-
day, in its gray uniforms, appears
to many az it might have appear
ed four decades ago. But then
these men were really boys and
young men with all the buoyancy
and aspirations of youth. Yet
among themselves they are still
the boys Of the olden time, and
on this reunion occasion they are
young in their memories and in
their unaltered consciousness OF
the true and noble impulses that
moved them when they SO freely
risked their lives for their homes