The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

1 fell from the monument the sun burst l from the threatening clouds, revealing the shaft in all it's beauty
 An oldtime barbecue dinner was served | in @ picturesque part of the park, and as one said if the southern army could have had the half, they would have been victors in the last fight too.
 The wagons were again filled and all l the historic points visited. The park is said to contain about $500 acres One of the most interesting points to southerners is the mortuary monument, erected by the government over the place where Albert Sidney Johnston fell. The accom- panying picture shows this monument, which bears the following inscriptions
 General Albert Sidney Johnston, Com manding the Confederate Army, was Nor tally Wounded Here at 2; 30 P. M, April 6, 1862. Died in Ravlne, 50 yards South east, at PAS P. M."
 Just below is the ravine with one of the wooden markers edged with the Confeder- ate red, Which tells how Gov. Isam G. l Harris of Tennessee visited this field in 1896 for the express purpose of fixing the place where General Johnston fell. The l marker stands under the shade of great oak which stretched its sheltering l arms above the dying Confederate gen ' eral while its great trunk supported the | leaning form of a wounded Federal sol l der.
 The original old Shiloh church is said to have been literally torn down by relic hunters; but the one now standing on the 1 same spot was built in the sixties. A spot of peculiarly sad interest to 1 the Confederate Daughters was "The Pit" This consits of a long trench where | the bodies of 400 of our soldiers were | placed together and buried. A few years since a civil engineer passing the place | a aNxyf ha of hY-ax fnor-fa CTS bleaching in the sun. Now, however, "rhe Pit' is enclosed by a stone coping | placed there by the government. The | trench is about 200 feet long and 10 feet wide. Just by the side of this trench is | a long excavation, where Federal soldiers l who were buried there beside our own have been exhumed and placed in the cemetery.
 One cannot visit this national park with out feeling tngllng flush of shame that the states of the south do not deny them | selves the legislative salary increase of officers, the creating of new judgeships, and the expenditure of thousands of dol | lars on state exhibits! The legislature should give something for states pride sake if naught else appeal to them, for the honor not of the dead braves in these unmarked graves, but for the honor of the states for whom they fell. Only one other monument to southern heroes, be- sides the hard-earned monument of Ala bama Daughters is in this park
 Going back to the landing through the cemetery and stopping at the office to | register, one rests his eyes upon little drum hanging in the corner.
 It is the drum of the little drummer boy, who on the first day of the battle was killed at his post of duty, The sticks lie mute over the sides of the drum, 1t has never sounded one tap since the dear lad fell. Out in the cemetery under the dropping trees his grave Is kept bright with blooming flowers. He was only 12 years old, this little boy blue, and to every heart came the thought, ''he was some mothers darling"
 History of Movement.
 As early as 1865 southern women be- gan a work of unprecedented labor of love called the proper burial of de- ceased southern soldiers" The name of one of the earliest associations of this kind was in Montgomery, Ala, termed the Ladies' Society for the Burial of Alabama's Deceased Soldiers This work | included not only burying bodies from far-of battle fields, but placing head stones and monuments whenever possi- ble For thirty-five years the work has been slowly accomplished Az late as 1900 the memorial associations .onfederated, learning of the appropriation from Con | gross for the disinterment of Confederate l soldiers in and around Washington and providing for their reinterment in Ar lington, raised contributions and begged | to be allowed to remove these re- mains to soil of their native states. Ow- ing to the wording of the bill it was inn possible to grant the appeal of the ladies and they reluctantly saw them removed | to Arlington. In 1894 the memorial as- sociation received a strong ally by the formation of that body of women known as the United Daughters of the Confed- l eracy. Among the first discussions before this body was the care of graves of south ern soldiers on northern battlefelds and | in northern prison cemeteries. The con vention set aside fund as early as 1897 frog raves of Confederate soldiers on l northern soil.
 It was. however, in 1897 that the matter was startlngly brought to the attention | of the whole south. A noble Federal of- ficer from far-off Ohio, Col William H. Knauss, called the attention of the south to the neglected graves of Confederate | soldiers in national cemeteries of the north. The Richmond chapter immediate i ly took up the work of rescuing from ob- | livion these graves.
 They sent out appeals all over the south to veterans, sons and chapters. At this date. also (Ise7) the Georgia Daughters were discussing how best to accomplish | legislature which provided for the ap- pointment of commission to communi- cate with the governing bodies of other southern states for the purpose of arrang- ing some plan by which all common wealths of the south may unite for properly marking and otherwise guarding the 30 900 graves of Confederate soldiers buried in northern cemeteries. Other chapters were appealed to on the subject and urged by them to action. On Decem- Der IA, 1898, President Mckinley in his memorial address at Atlanta gave utter ance to the following noble and patriotic words: And while when these graves were made we differed widely about the future of this government. These differ ences were long ago settled by the arbitra- ment of arms and the time has now come in the evolution of sentiment and feeling under the providence of God when in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in care of the graves of Con- federate soldiers"
 In 1900 Senator Foraker introduced a bill to provide for appropriate marking of graves of Confederate soldiers buried in the north.
 Yet as late as 9o2 we have the fol- lowing report on southern dead in the north by Mrs. Norman V. Randolph of Virginia, chairman of that committee:
 We have in hand (since 697) s643.52, and determined to put these simple stones at Elmira, Point Lookout and old Capitol Prison, never dreaming that reunited country, who had accepted the services of Confederate generals of the south to fight it's battles in Cuba would deny us