The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-06-15
ADDRESS OF MRS. B. H. HOOD
PRESENTING CROSSES OF HONOR


this tiny Cross Fame has written IN
letters of fire: Fidelity, Bravery,
Patience and Patriotism!" Not one
deed, but continuous bravery has
won it; not to one man was it given,
| but to almost an entire army-thls
is the Southern Cross of Honor, 1t
means companionship with glorious
John B. Gordon, whose hero heart
and brave right arm made him the
man of the 18th of May" and fell
loWship with Nathan Bedford Forest,
THE Wizard of the Saddle" whose
unframed genius revolutioniZed the
art of war. 1t means a brotherhood
with Albert Sidney Johnston, with
Hill and Stuart and LonSstreet; with
Walker and Polk and Cleburne; with
Hampton and Wheeler and Butler;
with all that radiant band whose
cleaning swords flashed always and
only in the forefront OF battle. IL
means a comradeship with that
strange, sanity soldier who dazzled
with his genius the camps and cabi-
nets of both the continents and then
went down to death with the love
of the whole world "-~Stonewall
Jackson. 1t means a glorious kim
ship with the noblest knight of all
nerations-kinship with him
within whose royal soul there bloom
ed the fairest flower of Southern
grace and Southern chivalry-yes,
kinship with the courtesy and the
courage, the virtue and the valor,
the goodness and the greatness, the
world-crowned grandeur of Robert
Edward Lee.
To you, mothers, widows of Con-
federate soldiers, | turn with love
and veneration The Southern wo-
man, like her God-like sisters of old,
was last at the Southern Cross in it's
darkest hour and first at the grave OF
it's buried hopes. l think of her who
fought the silent battles of the Con-
federacy, who amid the long watches
of the night mingled her stitches on
the garments of her loved ones with
her prayers to her God for the sue
cess of Southern rights; | think of
her when she buckled the sword of
her life's companion, as we'll as the
sons of her bosom and bade them go
with the knowledge that they might
never return. Hers were the silent
battles. For her there was no beat
of drums, no song of bugles, no ex-
element of the charge, no waving of
victorious banners over embattled
hosts upon the field of glory. She
could only wait and wait and wait
till at last the dread message came
from the field of battle that her
loved one had died for his country,
and with a more than Spartan hero
ism she gave no sign of despair that
might discourage those at the front,
but like Statue solid set and mold
ed in colossal calm" she sat mute and
resigned at the foot of the red drip
ping altar of patriotism, whereOn lay
in hallowed sacrifice her sainted
dead
When the war was over and the
broken battalions of the South turn
ed homeward it was the Southern
woman who met the returning SOL
der on the doorsteps; and as she
had ever been his inspiration on the
field of battle so, now, together, they
took up their task of restoring a des-
olated land, and upon the blackened
ruins of battle building grander
civilization, larger truth and bet
ter liberty.
Thus, in those crucial times, when
the fate of the South was being
weighed in the balances, and when
hope seemed all but gone and our
loved ones were almost in despair,
there was a firm character who stood
like rock in mid-ocean, Drawing the
war of whirlwinds and the dash of
the angry waves; stood holding aloft
the beacon of hope, stood firm and
undaunted for the principles of the
fathers, and, laying the sword Of
knighthood on the manly sons of the
South, babe them again go forward
to the achievement of still other vic
tories upon the glorious battlefield
OF peace.
Inspired by such mothers is it any
wonder that the Daughters of the
Confederacy are today so true to the
holy memories IF the past?
The women of this noble organiza-
ton, with zeal greater than that of
Peter the Hermit, have made their
crusade to the holy land of Southern
memories, and as the prattling babes
gather about their knees they look
beyond the cleaning stars to where
they know the record of the Confed-
crate soldier is truly written; then
with the vow of Hamilcar in their
hearts and the love of justice in their
souls they will teach their children
and tell them to teach their chill
dren's children that the men who
wore the gray were not traitors, but
that the grandest army that ever
trod the planet was the Confederate
army. 1t grasped the sparkling gem
of victory from the lannon's smoking
mouth on a hundred bloody fields,
and spangled the milkyway of glory
with its gorgeous jewel of stars. Now,
by the tender memories which halo
the devoted past, by the memory OF
those who fell in defense of the right
upon the red crest of battle, by the
memory of the noble men and wo-