The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-10-29
Miss Ida JeffrieS'
Address at Camp
Fire Meeting

: feel honored tonight as maid of
honor for the First Florida brigade.
l am glad to appear before this
crowd of war worn veterans. l am
glad that l have an opportunity to
tell You that honor and respect
you all. Then, too, I feel sad when
l realize how soon the soldiers last
tattoo will have been sounded and
the last hero will have passed to
! that great reunion beyond the stars.
But it will be sweet to remember
that you fought bravely for just
cause remembering that when the
Civil war broke out you left your
plows in the fields, you left your
southern homes and rushed to the
fray where honor called and through
four years of dread war you fought
with such bravery, endured such
hardships and won such brilliant
victories on the battlefield that you
deserved and won the name of the
grandest heroes the world has ever
known, the wonder of ages.
When your State rights were set
aside you were ready to pour out
your blood as a liberation and if
need be to die upon the altar of
your country. Leaders are necessary
to direct men on that dread arena,
the battlefield. 1t requires an able,
daring, courageous leader to call
forth from the men passionate de-
votion to mold the multitude of
thoughts of great army to one
mass of martial zeal. Without
leader an army is mob--a power
less machine, but on the other hand
what could leader accomplish
without an army? We would not in
the smallest degree depreciate the
sterling worth of those mighty
chieftains, the South's leaders. But
we do maintain that our truest he
roes, those who presented to the
world the sublimest deeds of valor
and devotion ever witnessed, were
the men behind the guns, the pri-
vate Confederates in their Jackets of
gray. The true heroes of war were
not the men of rank but the men of
THE ranks. The private soldier was
certainly the bone and sincw of the
Confederacy. 1t was the private SOL
der who trudged weary and foot
sore over rocky and frozen roads on
; tiresome marches, who SO fearlessly
breasted the shot and shell Of the
strong forces Of the enemy, 1t was
he who shivcred within the, chilly
walls of northern prisons, hall
clothed and scantily fed, but he
j. chose to die there rather than pur'
: chase reedom at the price of honor
d I have heard the expression that the
t Confederate soldier fought for wha'
he believed to he right, but II ar
n gument has any convincing force
d say the Confederate soldier tough
: and died for what he knew to b
IS right.
: The beginning of the sixties foun'
o the people of the North and Soutl
h very different. Though brothers II
/, blood their greatest difference wa
$ in conflicting governmental policies
n 1t is Justice to say the men OF tn
y South were mass OF intelligen
Is men, men of noble natures, SCUM
is Judgment, and correct thinking
e They were not to be moved by ig
noble impulse, but we're ever actu
" ated by the holy principal SO deepl
E embedded in their natures. the low
of Justice and liberty. Slavery wa
,e not that for which they fought. TIL
a real cause lay far deeper than slaV
IS cry. You clung to the declaration
Sc independence which declares tina
70 government exists for the rrotectio
of life, liberty and happiness. Yo
believed in a strict construction
the constitution and III the preser
= walton of State rights. But at las
= in the weakened condition OF tn
- South. it had to succumb-not t
lyalor. but to overwhelming mum