The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-05-12

her conviction of duty and the courage
and patriotism to back it up.
Under these circumstances she held
in check mighty army of invasion
for four long desperate years and on
many a CORY field CT battle bore off
gloriouSly, the palm OF victory.
"There were hours when the issue
seemed to hang in an even balance.
After the first battle of Manassas,
when Alebrt Sidney Johnson pushed
Grant to the verge of destruction at
Shiloh; When Lees plan to destroy
Mcclellan after Malvern Hill almost
succeeded, and which would have sue
ceeded had Sto1ewall Jackson been at
his side; when the British recognition
of the Confederacy came near being
fact; When Grants men stood, at
one time, sternly rebuked and refused
to move; When Abraham Lincoln
paused on the verge of determination
"to end the wal at any COST" these
were hours, when in spite of unequal
armies and other conditions the palm
of ultimate and fn&l victory was al
most in the grasp Of your hand.
The sublimeSt spectacle Of its kind
ever witnessed in modern times, was
that presented by the remnant of Lees
army in the closing days of this NIGH
ty struggle. Men without pay, almost
without bread, with tattered clothes
and ragged shoes still willing to an
swer the call of the drum to another
battle.
You, my honored veterans, were
among those heroes, and we would be
base ingrates if we did not call down
upon you, after sixty years, the rlch-
est blessings of heaven, and stop long
enough, on an occasion like this, to
paw tribute to the memory of youl
martyred comrades. and wreathe your
brows with chaplets Of unfading glory!
"Spme six and fifty years have rolled
away since the last drum-beat OF the
Civil war died upon the summers
breeze, and the last bugle-blast to bat
tie faded among the distant hills.
That fair structure, the Confederate
Safes of America, ther fell like like
mighty giant Of the forest, never
to rise again.
Beneath the debris of that mighty
pile, the hopes, the aspirations OF the
South seemed buried forever. But the
designs of Providence are inscrutable,
and His ways unsearchable, so that to-
day we look out upon a Southland
our dear Southland, arisen from its
fell. rejuvenated and invigorated, and
marching in the vanguard of advanc-
ing civilizationw We shall still trust
in God and the right, and go FAR
ward!
Your love for the flag now forever
| furled, and your devotion still to the
cause for which you fought, can oy
no means be interpreted as indlcat-
ire a lack of loyalty to your govern
ment, for the same patriotism that
called forth your devotion to that
guarantees your loyalty to this.
And now let me express the great
ioy that it gives me to greet so many
of YOU on this annual memorial oc-
casion, and, as your Chaplain, to re-
assure you of my profound interest
in your spiritual welfare, and to ex-
press the prayer of my heart that the
remaining days of your life on earth
NAV be as earnestly devoted to your
spiritual interests as it has IN the
past been to your country's; and when
to each of you the time comes 20
"pass over the river" may it be to JON
your great leader, Stonewail JACK
son, and with him "rest under 1he
shade of the trees"