Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-07-01
COMRADES OF THE OLD 2
GUARD, ATTENTION |!

Il
Z August. And Greenville Invites
every. one of these gray-headed fell
lows from the mountains to the sea
to be present. They want to see
again the men who followed Lee.
Jackson. Longstreet, Forrest and
Morgan. This alone will clothe Won
with fadeless renown. The air will
be laden with benedictions for YOU.
Every countenance will be full Of
& pleasure at your presence; the cleo
trio currents will whisper to you
kindliest greetings, and with one
& acclaim nature and man will bid you
truest welcome, They may not
know you are part of that superb
host who wore the grey. And,
then, you will greatly enjoy being
i there. You will see men there who
y made history at Shiloh, who charged
up Malvern Hill, who swept along
the valley of the Chickamauga. who
defended Atlanta in the matchless
contest of eighty days; and who, at
Franklin that terrible and awful
ho!ocause-here you will see men
who squailed not at the destruction
Of Antietam, who held the Angle at
: Cold Harbor, who marched with
Jackson Ground charlottesville, who
charged up the rocky sides OF Cs:tys-
49, O. W. wiz SSS HSll luSTe WHO
refused to advance until the immor-
tai Lee rode way from danger at
the Wilderness, and then, with a
wild and resistless dash, drove the
enemy from the field. Men will be
there who stood at the Petersburg
Crater, and yielded at Appomattox
because they were overpowered, but
their. uncomfortable wills could not
be destroyed.
There will be those who wore re-
nown at Red River, Baton Rouge,
5Corinth, Springfield and Elkhorn.
What magnificent memories we in
woke and what chivalrous records
we recall, what superb pages Of hu-
man history we read over again in
these magic words, which uplift Sou
: Tern courage and magnify Ameri-
can manhood!
The South fought four years, but
these four years contain the grand
est and most sublime pages of our
republics history. Blot out these
/. and all they mean, and they leave
blank the proudest memories of a
great nation. ..,..
From defeat we won unperishable
renown. Losing, we have crowned,
our dead nation, it's heroes and It's
living people, with glorious i'm
tioi SohtS.
record! There are no stains on the
Southern shield. Confederate men
and women did all they could do.
They were defeated, not because they
were wrong or unfaithful In any re-
spect whatever, but because an over
ruling Providence decreed their
downfall In the solution of divine
policy for the government OF the
world, into which human ken cannot
pierce or venture. But this does not
dim the splendor of their heroism,
In the glory Of their patriotism, or
the grandeur OIL their sacrifice.
III A short while ago we looked at
Confederate monument. tall and
words, "Our Confederate Dead"
Let us ever keep them fresh upon
the pages o. memory. There are
thousands Of them. Many sleep in
unknown graves, but they are ours.
These dead came from homes in
Florida, where the roses never fade
and the flowers never cease to
bloom from the mountains and
hills of Georgia, who are patriotic
and true; from North and South Car
olina, where the mingling of the rich
blood of the Huguenot and the An
glo-Saxon creates a knightly man
hood worthy of every call which
duty makes; and from Virginia,
whose soil drank so much blood of
her precious dead, whose sons por-
trayed valor and chivalry worthy
Of the cavaliers from whom they
sprang. They are dead, but their
intrepidity, constancy and fearless
ness. will forever shine on the es-
cutcheon Of their Commonwealth
with br!lliancy and glory which no
future can pale and no conservation
surpass. S
Last but not least, comrades, you
Will see women OF the South who
passed through the destruction and
horrors of war and military inva-
sion; from whose pure and tender
bosoms no word of complaint ever
arose; who made truest. grandest
and noblest offerings for the South;
who did 1t without question, who
did 1t without regret, and whose 10y
atty and. devotion to the Southern
cause will ever stand out in history
as the most beautiful example of
wOmanfy courage, womanly patience,
and womanly self-sacrifice-
Who bade us go. with smiling tears,
Watched, cheered, then wept and
prayed. s...s.,
And the Daughters OF the Confede
racy-God bless them every one!-
these sepulchers they guard with
ceaseless care, and wreathe the
+ graves with the only crowns that
they can bring--their flowers, their
tears, their prayers, their praise and
their love. This they do without
sword or flag, and with soundless
tread.
We will give you Roosevelt's trib-
ute to Lee: "The world has never
seen better soldiers than those who