The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-12
Erected in the Military
 Park. GEN. FRED D. GRANT
 ACCEPTS IN \ SPEECH Henry Watterron Presides and Gen. Evans Speaks. Great rhrong of People Present on Historic Ground to Honor Mem- ory of Mississippi's Distin-
 kuished sons

of the Confederate reunion Was unhe ferred from Memphis to vicksburg to- day and several thousand of the old soldiers who followed Lee in the six tes witnessed the unveiling of the
 roic statue to General Stephen Dill
 The splendid monument. designed by Bitson. stands in the National Park upon the exact spot from which Gen. erai Leo directed the movement of his troops during the siege of Vicksburg. It was the ,favorite spot in the heart of General Lee who, at the time of his death, was a member of the Park Con- mission.
 vicksburg has been preparing for the dedication for months. The town Is gaily decorated with flags and bunt- Ing, the stars and bars. and the stars and stripes always entwined.
 The advance guard of the big crowd arrived last night and until the hour set for the unveiling today. special trains hourly added to the throngs.
 Major General Frederick Dent Grant. conmandant of the Department of the Lakes. United States Army, accom- panied by Mrs. Grant and his stan. with Col. Henry Watterson. of Louisville, arrived last night General Clement A. Evans and his stan reached here to- day. The morning was devoted to sight seeing and private view of the monument.
 Tho parade formed at noon and head ed by General Grant and an escort of United States Cavalry. proceeded to the National Park.
 The warren Light Artillery fired a generals salute and then Henry Wat terson called the assembly to order. The aged editor was evidently suf- Eering from the intense heat but his eyes beamed and his voice rang out clearly as he briefly outlined the pur- pose of the meeting. He took for his subject "The Reunited Sectfons."
 ,watternon Preafdea.
 Upon taking the chair as presiding oficer. MT. Watterson saids
 .'standing by the Father of Waters let me first give thanks to God, that, from the falls of St. Anthony to the Cuff of Mexico. It flows through an un- broken succession of American States: at once a chain and an emblem of per- petual Union between the North and the South.
 sTt was to gain this outlet to the sea that we acquired the Louisianas of France. It was to keep 1t open that the yeomen of the Great Northwest took the field. The purpose to close 1t proved ar error of far-reaching mag nitude; but if 1t be true, as Gibbon tells us. that History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies and mis- fortunes of mankind,' what must not ell of us have to answer for when Req son comes to the final disposition of the facts of conflict which even now baf- fies philosophy; because the South, fore doomed to defeat. risked all and had everything to lose: the wonder being, and the glory. that against such odds the self-confdent but vanQuished and vanished Confederacy was able to hold out so long.
 Those of us who survive that dread ordeal, are old men now and each an- nual roll call brings yet fewer of us together. Presently there will remain among the living not ne-who fought on either side. Happy those who have been spared to look upon a land never again to be wet by fraternal blood and people reunited forever in hand and heart. The mystic chords of memory. stretching from every battlefield and patriotic grave to every living heart and hearthstone.' touched long ago by the angels of our better nature swell at last the universal chorus of the Union; the memory of deeds of kind ness and of vaI0e done; of common blood and race; for, impossible as the line of fire seemed, We were one people then and we are one people now. the war of sections a mutual and blessed heritage.
 This is why we are assembled in a national cemetery to rear a memorial to Confederate General. He was of the best the South has to offer upon the altars of American manhood, all that the North could wish an American to be. I have ridden to battle with him, and knelt by his side in prayer end can truly say that what his great Axinsman was to Virginia he was to Mississippi:
 80 prompt and capable. and yet so He nothing laclz'd in soldiership,
 Except good fortune
 'It will be for another to dwell upon his many and surpassng virtues; his skill and prowess In the field, his ser vice to the arts of peace; his simple, kindly, sturdy manfulness in the pres ence of life's duties. his Christian res- ignation in the presence of death; a Lee in every drop of his blood, in every Inch of his stature, in every thought and fiber of his splendid intellect and delightful personality.
 Let me end, where I began; for we still stand by the side of thes Father of Waters I regret that the battleship which but a few weeks ago came and went, did not penetrate yet little far ther up the mighty stream so that the bullies from her deck might have look ed upon the fields where Grant and Pernberton, contended for the right of way; so that the heroes, sleeping here might have heard the thunder of her guns. shotted with the words of the noble Fremont, the navy Is without sectional prejudice and it's patriotism oknows no boundaries save those of our own great country but am rejoiced to feel that, wherever she sails, she will carry with her the effigy of that gal Iant Mlssissippian who in life signal ized all that is chivalric in American manhood and all that was typical of the civilization of the South. to the fine valiants of other lands, from the North Sea, immortaMzed by Paul Jones. to the Sea of China, inmortalized by George Dewey-the Stars and Stripes above them-they will need only to point to the likeness of Jefferson Da- wis. the Chief of the Confederacy. for proof of the reha bilitation of the sec tions and the perpetufty of the Union%
 Introduees Speakers.
 After the unyeilinR of the statue. ac- companied by a salute from the War