The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-15
GRAY CLAD HEROES
 OF DAYS GONE BY
tCo.slnued from Page One,

phen ID. Lee Of COlumDus, MISS, com mander lin Chief of the United Confed- crate Veterans. delivered at the reunion here today:
 l"The welcome of the Kentuckian is like himself--large. wholesome. gener- ous and free. He has heart like his mighty Mammoth Cave; he takes every body into it.. and looks around for more guests. We are lost in your hospital- ity. and will never find ourselves again until we get out of Kentucky.
 ''The last time we came to Louisville we were impressed that this was not a dry city. and although this time the rains have not descended. or the floods fallen in the same way, we find tho city Is still wet in places with certain ancient juice which is supposed to be good for veterans. Louisville has al- ways been dear to the South. We have not forgotten the ministrations of her noble women in war times, when they were, indeed, angels of mercy Nor have we forgotten the dreadful days when yellow fever stalked abroad in our land. The gates of this fearless and mercfful oity were never shut to the cry of distress. The good Safna- ritans were not content until hospf- tai was built to shelter the stricken ones who fled to her doors from the scourge of the pestifence. We rejoice in the welcome you now give us; but we glory in the welcome which you gave unto the least of these your breth- ren.
 Kentucky is a name to charm with. It is land good for horses, and better for men. and best for women. Ken- lucky woman simply exhausts the sun ject. After you have seen her. you wonder why there are any others. The only women who ever surpassed Ken lucky women were their mothers-the immortal women of the Confederacy. The career of the Kentucky troops in the Confederate army Is one of the fin- est things in the history of our race. Not only disowned by the nation, but exiled from their State. with nothing to lure them on but the high claim of principles for which their fathers fought before them: with everything already lost that men count precious. and forlorn and swiftly failing hope before them. they battled to the end with a stubborn courage that never knew defeat. We were hgntng TOT our homes and firesides; but these Kentuckians were fighting for us, be- cause they loved our cause better than their own lives
 Tt is impossible for Confederates standing on Kentucky soil not to remember that from this Common wealth came the two leaders of the COnIenQINE nAliOnS. flcTG was pOAh shN patient, frontier lawyer trained In the hard school of diversity, who, in the hour of fate was to stand at the focus of the world. who was to give to- his- tory a new ideal of greatness, and to die at least like Caesar at the zenith of his fame, sealing his immortality with death whose tragic pathos will move the hearts of men forever. Here also was born the pure and stainless h4 otA uf hn ha1uN nf the sinking Confederacy. the one, and only ruler of a brave people, who failed in a mighty struggle for consti- tutional liberty as they understood 1t --the chained captive at Fortress Mon- roe,s the exile. the gray-haired histo~ rian--defending to the last the cause of his people-the best beloved of all Kentucky's mighty sons. Not Clay in the hour of his glory; not Lincoln in the hour of his passing. were ever lowered with the love and devotion which were given to this brave old man whose white soul was the mark for every shaft that passed over the people of the South. The South wrapped him living in the mantle of her love, and poured upon his tomb an offering of tears she never gave to Washington. And when her heart shall at last cease to beat, there will be found graven upon 1t the name of Jefferson Davis.
 One of the reasons why the Confed- eracy failed was that its supply of Kentuckians was insufficient. The hiss torian of the United States is accus- toned to picture to himself a united North contending with a united South for supremacy-the true picture is of united North contending against a divided South. The slave holding States gave to the Union more than half as many soldiers as they gave to the armies of the Confederaey. With her ports all sealed, not only was the South fighting the North with access to all the world for men aud supplies. but the South was fighting for her own sons, In the Union armies there were 333.29s white soldiers from the South, and i92,33T negro soldiers. The South furnished about one-seventh of the army which fought-against her. so that 1t would appear from the record that the South played no Insignificant part in preserving the union of the States. These things are to be remembered, not in sorrow or fin anger, or even~in re- gret, but that the world may begin to understand the miracles of valor. of en- durance. of dogged courage, of devoted heroism shown by the Confederate soI- dier. On the clock of the ages the hour had struck when slavery should be no mdfe. The south was wounded for the transgression of the whole nation, she was bruised for the iniquities of all. Thank God. her chastisement has brought peace and by her stripes the nation has been healed.
 Sometimes the question is asked why the old veterans gather at theif an- nual reunions. We have no pensions to expect. There is no political prefer ence we can look for. We come to- gether because we love the past. be- cause onr lives have been linked to . gether by q great experience-by the richest, deepest experience that has come to any generation or Americans by common story so rich in heroism in sacrifice. in patriotism, that every thing else we remember grows cheap when we think of the Confectionery. Out there Is Appomattox,' said Henry w Grady where the Lord God AL mighty laid upon every rugged gray cap t(s sword of his imperiehable knighthood.' Instead of the gray-eaps. I see today only the gray-heads; but the. same knightly hearts are beating still When we meet together we renew these great memories, these inn perishable friendships. The day is