Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-05-28
VETERANS ROYALTY
ENTERTAINED HERE
About $50 Of The South's De-
tenders Guests of Daughters
Of COnfederacy j. w.
Chapman Orator OF Day.

Y There were about 120-some say
$50, of them-these old souvenirs of
never-to-be forgotten past, here on
Memorial Day to attend the annual
ceremonies of the day. These cere-
monies consisted of the decoration of
the graves of comrades who fell on
the field-graves forever green-as
green under bleak December SHOWS
as they were on Tuesday, under sum
mer flowers and the grass which
springs eternal above their silent
beds. There were patriotic, cheerful
songs by the school children, repre-
sentative of an on-coming generation
at this end of the line, in greetings
of honor, and perhaps farewells, to
those at the other. There were other
ceremonies-an address-a sumptuous
dinner and then departure for home
and, in some cases, the grave. They
rode in, they hobbled in, some on
crutches, some on wooden peg,
some in wagons, some on horseback
few in automobiles. They got here
did this battered and shattered rem
nant of one of the most splendid
armies ever marshalled on n battle
field since the world began. Many of
them bore the marks in their bodies
of carnage and blood. One had an eye
shot out, leaving great sunien
socket. Another, long red scar
across the back of his neck. Another
iimped from the effect of Yankee
bullet which smashed the bone of his
knee. Another, the mark on his breast
where ball entered, passing through
hislbody, making Il larger hole where it
came out than where it went in. They
were proud of these marks, and never
tired of telling how and where they
got them, more than so years ago.
They told these stories over to each
other, as they do on every Memorial
and reunion day. The younger men
and boys gather around and listen
with unflagging interest. Pity these
stories and Incidents, these scattered
leaves of actual experience, cannot
be gathered and bound into volumes,
that they might be preserved-ths
unwritten history of "The Lost Cause"
Instead of one or dozen histories
of the war there could be thousands,
for not only did each soldier help
make history-he is himself history.
The line of the old Confeds. formed
on Main street, around the old time
honored flag, the Stars and Bars, held
proudly aloft by Standard bearer
Caudill. Maj. Whitman was in com
mand. The command to "fall in" was
as familiar after so years, as when
these men followed Lee and jackson,
and they "fell in," awaiting further
orders. The old soldier is hero in
the eyes of Southern women-as much
so now as when mothers and grand
mothers prayed, wept, worked and
waited during the long and dark days
and the longer and darker nights, of
the tragic years of the sixties. These
defenders of the women and the homes
Of the Southland are now, in their
turn, defended by the daughters and
grand daughters of the Confederacy,
tenderly and untiringly, with increas-
ing tenderness as the years go by, as
these once stalwart men advance into
the second stage of childhood and
helDlessness. And so, the column no
longer marches in parade on foot to
the cemetery, short though the dis
tance is. Automobiles are provided,
luxurious and carefully driven, to and
from the old soldiers mecca, where
he loves to pay annual tribute of devo-
ton, pray, and drop n flower-wet
with tears. the Tazewell Chapter of
the Daughters of the Confederacy
prepared and served splendid din
ner.
1t is egotistic, folly, to attempt
here to add to the tribute of honor al
ready paid the Southern wome of the
Confederacy. Their names and their
deeds, are they not written in the
Lambs Book of Life, in Heavens Hall
of Fame?