Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1910-02-09
PLEA FOR
BATTLE ABBEY SITE
Major w. A. Anderson Addressed
House Committee
ON SOLDIERS HOME GROUNDS
With the Consent of Lee Camp of
Confederate Veterans


report of the Major Anderson's ap-
pearance before the Legislative
Committee in the interest of the
Battle Abbey site:
In speech vibrant with feeling,
rich in expression and powerful in
its eloquence, X-Attornev- General
William A. Anderson held the
House Committee on General Laws
spellbCund yesterday morning,
while it listened to his plea for
favorable report on the bill which
allows the State, with the concur
rence OF Lee Camp of Confederate
Veterans, to donate portion of the
Soldiers Home grounds for the
Battle Abbey site.
Major Anderson, himself a Con-
federate officer of distinction, repre-
sented before the committee the
Lee and rickett Camps of Veterans,
the Sons of Veterans and the Board
of Directors OF Lee Camp Soldiers
Home. He was accompanied by
Judge W. f. Rhea of the State Cor
poration Commission; Captain E. J.
Bosher of Lee Camp; A. B. Gulgon
and E. Leslie Spence, Jr., of the
Sons OF Veterans. Mr., Guigon first
explained the object OF the bill,
adding that the site rendered by
the city is extremely undesirable,
as everybody who has seen it
knows"
Major Anderson began by saying
th9t the people of the South had ac-
cumalated the sum of about 5000, 900
to be used to erect a building for a
memorial to the virtue and the hero
ism of the Confederate army. Not
for Virginia, but for the men who
fought in defe nee of their country
and who thus wrote their names
across the skies during the stormy
days of 1S61--1S65.
There have been many delays, he
continued, in securing a location
for this Confederate Memorial In
stitute, or Battle Abbey, and the
time has come when the trustees
must select site. One site has
now, through the City Council of
Richmond, become Immediately
available, but it is one, he contin-
ued, which is absolutely inadequate.
This building is to be one which
will be in every way worthy of the
purpose indicated, perhaps the
most beautiful structure on the con-
tinent, and it ought not to be placed
in confined position. 1t should be"
he said, placed where an unob-
structed view could be had. The
proposed place is a little triangle,
a part of block on thoroughfare.
Sooner or later the building would
be shut in by the homes Ct the peo-
pie. Part, believe, of the land
has been reserved. What struc-
lures may be put thereon we do not
know, and the situation cannot be
satisfactorily controlled.
Now, on March II, 1914, Virgin
ia will own the Soldiers Home
property. If the Battle Abbey is
placed on this property it cannot be
shut in by other buildings. The
grounds around the structure
would be beautified by monuments,
for 1t is expected that Virginia
would unite with her sister States
! to erect memorials upon them to
heroes of the Confederacy. South
Carolina would send a statue Of her
gallant Wade Hampton; Texas
would honor the memory of her AL
bert Sidney Johnson; Kentucky
would be represented by her John
c. Breckenridge; Tennessee would
send fitting monumental her in
comparable soldier, Nathan Bedford
Forrest; while Virginia would do
what she had already delayed too
long-pay lifting tribute. in mar
BILE or bronze, to the glorious memo
ry of Stonewall Jackson.
Thus we would have. in the
memorial and it's grounds, an evil
dence of the appreciation of this
generation to the names of the men
| who have nade VIRGINIA and tho