Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-06-17
MEMORIAL DAY
! EXERCISES OBSERVED
Able Address Made By Capt.
James Bumgardner


ter U. D. G.
Promptly at 10 80 O'Clock, the pro-
cession left the Beverley theatre,
headed by the marshalls, Captain ].
A. Pattersn and his assistants. Next
came the Stonewall brigade band, fol-
: lowed by the Rifles under the COM
mand of Captain H. L. Opie ana the
Guards commanded by Captain Char
les Shewey, a large number Of veter-
ans, then the speakers carriage in
which Captain James Bumgardner,
Mayor H. H. Wayt, Rev. D. H. Kern,
Mr.. Clemmer and MI. Stribling rode,
then carriage with 1.-THE Daughters
of the j. E. B. Stuart chapter.
The mound around the monument
was decorated with flags and flowers
and each Confederate's grave was
marked with flag.
Rev. d. H. Kern offered prayer and
the band played suitable selection.
Mayor Wayt, in few well chosen
remarks, presented the orator, Captain
Bumgardner
| Captain Bumgardner's speech in
part was as follows:
| Nearly sixty. years ago in commem-
oration Of southern soldiers, who died
for their country, on the battle field
in foreign land, a Southern Poet
wrote:
"On Fame's Eternal camping
ground.
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn
round,
The bivouac of the dead. -
But the spot from whence those, |
whose silent tents will have .been
guarded for ages, by the sentinel
GLORY will emerge, at the call
OF the last trumpet, is unmarked and
unknown.
This good old County of Augusta,
in the revolutionary days, that tried
mems souls, sent from her borders
many hundreds of soldiers, many
scores of them destined never to re.
turn, as brave as any who died no the
edge of battle, either before or after
the time of Agammeon, devoted as
any of the noes who fell at Thormo-
pilae with Leonadus. and who by
their blood, their toll, their endurance
and sacrifice, achieved and transmit
ted to their posterity, the most price,
less heritage, which up to that time
had ever been won by any army for
the benefit of any country.
Yet I doubt whether there be one
of this assembly; I think it even
doubtful if there be a person living
within the limits Of the county, who
can go to any spot on the face of the
earth, and can, with exact knowledge
OF its truth, say: Here rests the re-
mains of hero, who fell while storm.
ing Stony Point under Anthony
Wayne; or here lies one whose deadly
rife crack was ever neard on the skir-
mish line Of Daniel Morgan.
The women of the South resolved,
that this should not be so in regard
to the confederate dead.
The plan and conception of which
this confederate cemeJery as it now
exists, is the execution, had its origin
in the..mind and heart of that devoted
Mother in Israel, who inspired the
formation Of tn IMMORTAL Association
which accomplished the work, and
under whose auspices these memorial
services are periodically held.
That conception, and it's execution
has given actual concrete existence,
to this ideal conception of the poet
Because of this conception and ex-
ecution we can make this consecrated
spot the goal Of our annual pilgrim
Age, and our children, and children's
children can come, and kneel with
the fervor of eastern devotion at the
holist shrine, and say, Here is ''the
bivouac of the dead -
Here is the camping ground under
whose "-silent tents sleep men whose
fame and whose honor is so clear, SO
high, so precious that" eternal glory"
guards their fame, as it's divinely
commissioned sentinel. =
Again we have the concrete ex-
preston of the poets ideal conception.
The poet imagines glory as senti-
mel on guard.
There on that pedestral is the sculp-
tured image OF the sentinel on guard.
That piece Of sculptured marble is
the exact image of the typical Con-
federate soldier, and SO is the fitting
concrete expression of the idea Of
eternal glory.
I was charged with the duty Of
making the address at the first mem
orial assembly that met on these
grounds.
....That address was, SO far as know
and believe, the first one Of the kind
ever published.
The circumstances and surroundings
then, and now, are substantially the
same, except that the leading purpose
and object of the association, the |
vindication of the honor of the Con-
federate soldier and the>justice of his
cause, has been accomplished And
Hence many OF the remarks contained
in that address are as appropriate
now as they were then, and as they
will be hundred years, or even a
thousand years hence. The remarks
1 propose to make were prepared for
delivery on the 18th of last month,
the anniversary of that day upon
which the courage and conduct of the
confederate soldier was put to it's sew
crest test, and on which he made his
most triuu,Dhant vindication /