Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-11-23

l rily withheld and he did not receive IL
until the following year."
| General Butler here traced in detail
some of the stirring incidents Of the
war, citing instances Of conspicuous
gallantry, and mentioned Major Theo,
G.. Baker, as having been left for dead,
when he was here today on the stand,
forty-odd years afterwards.
In regard to the burning Of Colum-
bia, he gave a graphic account, never
before made He said that he (Butler)
was ordered to remain in charge of
the evacuation and see that no act of
offense was committed. He remained
in the city three hours after General
Hampton had quilted 1t and personal
ly saw that no fire had been started
and when he left, just ahead Of Sher-
mans advance guard, there was no
fire in the city.
It was perfectly clear that the fire
begun after all Confederate troops
had left the city for many hours.
General Butler gave a graphic ac-
count also of the nomination of Hamp-
ton in 1876 and cited the speech he
made. He also called attention to
Hampton's message and letters as con-
tanning wise deliverances. in classic
phrase.
He predicted that Hampton would 60
down the centuries with increasing
fame and that no brighter example
could be chosen by the youth Of the
state. His peroration was pathetic
and impressive.
At the conclusion of the address the
students Of Winthrop. the Columbia
Female college and the College for
Women and the school children from
this and other cities sang the Bonnie
Blue Flag" and other patriotic airs
while the Daughters Of the Confedera-
cy banked the monument with gar
ands and wreaths.
Hampton In History.
In the crowd assembled to witness
the unveiling of the monument to Wade
Hampton today and to give last
greeting to South Carolina's dead
chieftan, there were old and young,
veterans who followed him to battle,
men who were with him in 1875, men
and women then unborn, and strangers
from afar caught up by the spirit of
he occasion.
Significant is the fact that just thir-
ty years ago all eyes we're turned to
Hampton. At every railway station
anxious crowds were assembled to
Itch any news that might be aioat
Hourly messages came and went from
nne end Of the state to the other. Here
in Columbia angry crowds surged to
and fro. No man knew what an hour
might bring forth. The one supreme
figure, calm and unruffied, that kept his
head through all the storm, was Wade
| Hampton. On his broad shoulders
rested the fate Of a people.
The people trusted not in vain. He
rose to the occasion, saw that con-
aict with the Federal authorities must
be avoided at all hazards. met the ex-
cited crowd Of his fellow -countrymen
1T Democratic headquarters and told
them to go home-that was all.
II have been elected governor of
South Carolina and by the eternal God
I shall be governor, or else there shall
be none. Disperse quietly and go to
your homes" These were his words
and they stilled the gravest crisis in
South Carolina's history. No man saw
the way out but Wade Hampton. the
'hevalier without reproach.
Now thirty years after, Wade Hamp-
| ton sleeps beneath a great live oak In
Trinity churchyard, and what remains
If him is his memory and the memo
rails that a peoples love have erected
to him.
The Statue.
The handsome equestrian monument
shows the great chieftain mounted on
fiery steed, in the act Of greeting his
troops His hat Is in his right hand,
the left grasping the reins short and
the chargers arching neck showing
how unwilling the steed Is to stop.
The wind Of his forward movement
is tanning his hair and the fringe Of
his coat Is blown back. The express
sion is one Of love, mingled with faith
erly pride in his men.
The artist, Mr.. F. w. Ruckstuhl,
L,, b.ol,a, ~ Iio ofndin IN, Nau, vnrL
city and the work was, therefore, done
in Paris. At Paris it was easy to ge.
the handsome marble from Alsace,
where the Vosges mountains spur of
from the Alps and cut through the
eastern part Of France. Many Of the
worlds famous works Of art rest on
bases Of this marble. The plinth of
| the pedestal is made of Alsatian mar
BILE, but the bases beneath were quar-
ried from our Winnsboro granite, In
whose historic hills Hampton had
hunted in his youth. when Fairfield
was as full Of wild game as Montana
| is now.
The statue Of Hampton and Of his
horse are cast in hollow bronze and
strikingly handsome. The face Of the
| hero is turned to the west, whether by
design or accident. In any case, there
Is appropriateness in the selection,
since Hampton spent much Of his time
in the west, and 1t was from Mississip-
pi that he came back to redeem South
Carolina He was facing the west In
1865 when he retreated from Columbia
before Sherman's overwhelming force.
Westward was the course Of the old
pioneers, and Hampton harked back
to the old days OF the republic.
Hampton, the Man.
South Carolina never had more
unselfsh man. There never was a
time when he was not willing to die
for the state, and even his enemies ad-
mitted that. The state has produced
many more brilliant, many more learn
ed, many more profound; but never In
it's history has there arisen a public
man who thought Of self less than
Hampton.
Born the richest man in the
Southern States, opposing secession to
n.1-..