The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-05-03
DECORATION DAY GRAFTON
LPSCOMB

By HON. DABNEY LIPSCOMB

. lHGm from IHelr purpose, thus fit
2 tingly and permanently to expires
e their profound affection for the Con
s federacy and its fallen champions
f Go read the writing on it. ere yol
2 leave, and catch the spirit of South
2 ern womanhood, when tried and test
, ed as by fire in the days of war anC
reconstruction. Thank Cod some O
those great-souled women still live Il
= inspire and bless us-are prominent
/ now among the younger Daughters
, of the Confederacy, who in 1894 took
| up and enlarged the purposes and
the work of the Ladies Monumental
Association. Thus led by woman S
heart and hand, the citizens of Co
lumbus, old and young, for forty
years have annually made pilgrim
age to this cherished, consecrated
spot, to strew the floral emblems of
their love and admiration on the
graves of those who laid down their
lives as willing sacrifices on the altar
of Southern rights and hopes.
That day has again returned. Do
we appreciate its significance as we
ought? In knowledge and in spirit
are we prepared to participate in the
solemn ceremonies of Decoration
Day? Who are these that slumber
here? What have they done? Why
so honored? I trust that even the
children among us understand
enough to appreciate this hour
Alright; though sometimes I fear not.
when I think of the textbooks that
have been used, and the changed life
that has come to the South in the
recent years. Even more, shall l
say it? do / fear that those in the
New South now entering and we'll en-
tered on active life have not been
rightly informed as to the attitude of
the Old South in its desperate contro- /
versy with the North. I say this, be- 7
cause it has been only within the past
decade that the earnest efforts of the /
Confederate Veterans and other such
organizations have avaiIed to make I
the teaching of our children more
nearly cOnformable to the Southern
view Of the causes and events of that
gigantic struggle
May no apologize sigh be heaved
by any who shall deck these patriot
graves! The Lost Cause needs no I
apology: and the son or daughter of
one who wore the gray and apollo
sizes for him, is either ignorant of
listory or unworthy of that sire j
Fhere is danger here, subtle and un- i
hence the importance of t
hese occasions and Of the monu- I
nents which states, counties, and the t
sons and Daughters of the Confed- '
racy are now erecting and planning 1
or. And still more emphatically let I
is insist that our children be taught c
right the history of our geat coun- a
ry and the glorious part which the s
outh has played in its establish =
rent and develOpment-at the same b
me, diminishing not a whit the t
lory of the North. i:
Who are these that slumber here? il
know not individually, though each n
rave at first was numbered and on
le headstones with the numbers the S
anne, regiment, and company were q
lscribed of each of the fifteen hun 81
red soldiers buried on this river side. o
ack in yonder cemetery in private &
IT'S are many more-some of them b
rave officers, sent home to be Il
spulchred among their fathers. u
hat these fifteen hundred did, ly
innot exactly tell. Fame's trumpet St
ounded not their special deeds as tt
lose at Balaklava and at Gettysburg, | o.
{ as it did the three hundred at tt
hermopylae Sufficient for us to N
now, that they are numbered with NJ
le three hundred thousand immor- tC
lis (one-half the Southern army 90
acrifced to the cause for which W
ackson, Stuart, and their great lead e.
: at Shiloh, Albert Sidney Johnston, o.
ought and died Perchance, among te
lem are heroes like Dick kirkland W
t Fredericksburg, as worthy of re- II
own for unselfish, fearless bearing re
5 Philip Sidney on the field of Zut- te
hen or any other darling of the al
Luse of History. Dick Kirkland! a.
ave you read of him and his match tc
,ss deed at Fredericksburg? Even s.
you have, it is worth repeating as G
n illustration of the ehivalry of the ST
lnk and file of Southern soldiery. N
he awful slaughter of the Federals Il
i their charge on Lees center on q
Larye's Hill, 1 need not recount. Fol- if
,wing it was a cannonading so ter N
fc and sharpshooting so deadly fo
lat not a Confederate dared to lift OF
is head above the breastworks. But el