The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-06-02
llUR6|A MAR GOVERNOR
ST|RS CONFEOERATES
Pictures the Life and Death srug-
giles Participated In BY Old
Sixteenth Virginia.
TRIBUTE 10 ARMY OF LEE
Declares After Battle OF Chancellors-
vile 1t Had Reached Apex OF Mill
tary Enaciency-Governor Meets
Comrades.

No address In years has made a
more profound impression than that
delivered at the morning session of
the United Confederate Veterans yes
terday by war Governor Harris. of
Georgia He said:
Mr.. Commander, Veterans, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
We. the remnant of the Confed-
crate armies have done today in half
an hour what 1t took the Federal
army four years to accomplish---cap
tured Richmond.
For my part ] am glad to come
back to this city--the capitol OF the
nation to which / swore allegiance In
my youth-tife short-lived nation that
passed. Here for four years all our
for ages In a day-here our heads
whitened. not from age. but from the
stress of circumstances. Here, COM
rades, you and | heard the same
guns fre--heard the PARKWAY boom
Of the cannon breaking on our ears
from day to day, coming nearer every
hour: speaking the wrath OF the
North to their brothers of the South,
and foreseliing the Anal doom of APP
pomattox.
A Superior Body Of Men.
HEINcu WIN TIC nay VA ANpANsA
ern Virginia commanded by General
Robert Z, Lee. Long years have pass
ed and have had some experience of
life and of men. / have said again
! and again, and say today that the
magnificent army led by the chivalric
descendant OF Virginia--none but
General Lee-was the best drilled.
best disciplined. best officered army
that ever fought an adverse line or
made a page in the military history
OF the worid--a grand fighting ma
chine, welded together by the CO.
hesion of an undying PATRIOTISM
every soldier hero, and every Of
fcer At to be a general. have often
felt what a sad fate It was that such
an army should die. Won Moitke, the
German, might call. II disorganized
mob. But after the battle of Chancel-
lorsville IL had reached the highest
point of Development in. the world
history. II never was a disorganized
mob. but II was a fighting machine.
welded, banded drilled--up-to-date
in everything that constituted SOL
der, with courage and strength OF
character and intelligence--never
eQualed by any army on earth.
II repeat, / have always felt sad
when I thought that such an army
had IN die. No single conflict de-
stroyed IT. No one army compassed
fits end. It melted away in the great
furnace of battles from Manassas to
Appomattox. growing smaller in every
conflict until there were not enough
hands 10 hold the standards aloft or
aim the guns In the day of conflict.
when I come 40 compare this
army Of General Lee with the other
armies In the Confederacy and with
the armies that have been organized
and given hattie in the years that
have succeeded, / stand amazed in the
presence OF its grandeur. its bravery
and its glory And l mean no dis
arrangement 10 the army Of the West
BY such a comparison-to the brave
boys who stood with C7eburne and
Cheatham--who rode with Forrest in
the front or suffered with Johnson
and Bragg on the march. through the
hills of Tennessee and the plains OF
Georgia.
mo, for the decorations OF these
men that they carry on their front
are Shiloh's and Murfreesboro's,
Chickamauga's. Kennesaw's and At
ianfa's-hlaxing like stars with un-
dimmed effuIgence In the forefront OF
their mighty organizations
but speak OF my own undying
comrades when ] speak of the army
that followed 4SR5-
.I served in q Virginia regiment
born in Tennessee. living most OF my
life In Georgia, hut for three years
OF the conflict / marched with the old
sixteenth Virginia Cavalry. graphing
In battle with our common foe in its
ranks.
Something of the Sixteenth.
II want to tell you something about
that Sixteenh Virginia.
I'm all the years that interviewed be-
tween the surrender OF our army and
the present. / had never looked in the
face of one man who was with me in
the Sixteenth Virginia Regiment until
/ reached this reunion Living large
'Ty In the northwestern port4SErof F.T4
ginsa, had not been thrown with
them at cur reunions. and today liz
the FIRST time that / have shaken
hands and renewed associations with
the regiment In which my young
soldier days were passed.
II Joined Tennessee regiment first
and was then Transferred to duty in
virginia. After serving for while
With General william Z. Jones. along
With his stat, came to final service
with the regiment commanded by
Milton J. Ferguson. as colonel, with
william l. Graham. lieutenant
oosoneL and James H. Nounnan.
major.
.After General Jones was killed at
Piedmont. and II seems TO me even
acme time before this occurrence, /
Vas with this regiment in an ofYicia