The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-10
ht at Burnside,s bridge.

his men in line and fighting like a lion | at bay, Stephen b. Lee, our Stephen D. Lee, at this time when disaster seemed
 imminent, grouped his batteries on the center of this advancing column.
 Burnside Flees. | Gen. Robt L. Lee rushed reinforce
 ments from left to right, and that great | fighter, A. P. Hill coming up from Har- per's Ferry with 5000 men, without walt ing for orders, struck Burnsdes column | in flank and rear puttinh Burnside to | flight and thus ended the greatest battle | of the war.
 When the roar of battle was over, in 1 the still silence of the night General Lee sat on his horse on the road to the | Potomac, and as general after general rode up, he asked How is it on your part of the line? Each told the same sad tale; those who were not killed or wounded, were exhausted The enemy were over ! whelming, and there was nothing to do | but retreat across the Potomac, even Jackson had no other course to offer.
 Hood, that undaunted soldier came next, and was filled with emotion and exclaimed he had no men left Great | God exclaimed General Lee with ex- citement, Where is the splendid division you had this morning? They are lying on the field where you sent them, dead or wounded.
 Then there was an appalling silence. | General Lee rising erect in his stirrups, l said: Gentlemen, we will not cross the Potomac tonight; If Mcclellan wants to | fight, I will give him battle tomorrow Where Johnston Fell. "Tell of the battle of Shiloh where | fell the Peerless Albert Sidney John
 ston; tell of the battle of Franklin where Hood exclaimed to a scomrade: | Go, give my love to Gen. Pat Gle | burne, tell him to take the battery in l the Locust grove,' and that blazing comet of the west lay dying upon the enemies works; to another courier: 1 Go give my love to stephen D. Lee and tell him I say take the battery in | the Locust grove.'
 "Our Lee sent back this message: | Give my love to General Hood, and | tell him by the eternal gods the bat tery in the Locust grove shall be | taken.
 Tell about Gen. N. Bedford Forrest
 the Wizard of the Saddle; the Occur de | Leon of the south, Joe Wheeler, the hero of San Juan.
 During the fight from the tree top he exclaimed: They fly. they fly Who 1 fy% was asked The Yankees was the answer; Just an old habit.
 Tell about Jeb Stuart the plumed ] knight, everywhere in the thickest of the fight, like Henry of Navarro"
 Gen. Rhodes Introduced.
 Perhaps the talk which was farthest heard in the hall. and best appreciated
 was that of Rufus N. Rhodes in behalf
 of the Sons Here are his words:
 Rhodes Address of Welcome. | Survivors of the Army and Navy of the | Ia Gfat oF
 Only a great people can have a great
 civil war. Only noble people can have l noble reconciliation. My father was a Mississippian; I am an American The | war settled that.
 "The trouble grew out of honest differ l ences of opinion, north and south, as to
 the proper construction of the federal con stitution. The men of the south believed
 and insisted that they held to the right | construction-that a sovereign state
 which had voluntarily entered the union could voluntarily withdraw from it. For | that conviction and contention nearly all | of them sacrificed their comfort, health and property and tens of thousands of | them sacrificed their lives. "A mere senti- | ment,' 1t has been said; aye, verify, but
 sentiment has always swayed and always | will sway the most enlightened the purest l and the freest Real sentiment, of all po- | tentialities, has best enriched and most
 ennobled mankind
 '"It Is sentiment that sanctifies the flag, | for which men gladly die. It Is sentiment | that hallows traditions, consecrates the l home, creates heroes and enrolls their H. | lustrious names among the immortals. It | is sentiment that spontaneously and uni versally grants honor and homage to the 1 Confederate veteran. All the world loves | brave man.
 l Conflict Was Irresponsible. "The war was an irrepressble conflict, | terribly uneven in the numbers of men | and wealth of resources at the command | of the antagonists; the north was enor- mously more populous, powerful and rich. | As the struggle progressed the men and | means of the south diminished hope Ian guished and died, but patriotism lived on After four desperate valor-b bejeweed | years of anguish and hardships, of tri- umphs and defeats, the south was over powered, utterly bankrupted in every thing but spirit. The spirit of the south it was and is the spirit of George Wash ington and Andrew Jackson, of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, which not only with dauntless courage faces peril and death, but with consummate patience en- dures prvations and diligently labors and humbly waits on Gods providence the spirit of the south was never extin- guished.
 Tn 1865 the south with unconquerable eye, glared into she cold grim visage of the most appalling disaster of all the centuries, and the south did not quail.
 Were your sufferings, battle-scarred warriors of the south, and your perils and sacrifices and the precious deaths of your intrepid immortal comrades all in vain? No, mo- no! The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The never-fading, everlasting heritage of glory, bequeathed by you to your children and grandchildren to remotest genera tions, in ever widening circles of ennobling influence for the uplifting of the human race to the loftiest plane of conservation to duty and righteousness at all hazards, is the sublimest contribution vouchsafed to mortal men, save only when Christ died upon the cross.
 Your faith, oh veterans of the south, your teachings, your patience, your en- 6urance, your courage, your devotion to high standards in war and peace, the ex- ample, Sons of Confederates, of our fa- thers must ever be the loudest call and strongest inspiration to heroism, self sacrifice and duty to every worthy child of time
 How weak-are words to welcome such as you, heroes of the Lost Cause : In this young giant of a city, mainly constructed by your descendants and whose stakes were not driven for several years after the echoes of your cannons' roar had vanished from the air you must know how welcome you are here. You -I1 -a