Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-06-19
Thin GRAY LINE
IS REFORMING At
RICHMOND TODAY
Heroes of Lost Cause
Recount Again Their
Deeds of Daring
MEET IN HISTORIC CITY
Estimated $4,000 Veter-
ans Will Attend the
Reunion
By Associated pressl

in memory the hopes and fears of 81
ard '65, Richmond today opened wide
her gates and with love and admira
ton welcomed the surviving band Of
grey-coated men who by their valol
made immortal the armies of Lee anC
Jackson.
! Hundreds who rallied about the
brilliant Stuart, many who charged
with the gallant Forrest, some who
trailed with dashing Mosby, others
who were the grey navy's seamen-
men WHO drew sabres, shouldereo
muskets and cannonaded under the
leadership of famous southern cheif-
tains, are assembled here for the thir-
ly second annual reunion of the Unit
ed Confederate Veterans. From the
green hills of Maryland and the pur-
pie valleys of Virginia, from the yel-
low sands of the Texan plains, from
the gulf waters and even from the
shores of the far Pacific, they have
come together again to worship at the
shrine of an unforgotten cause-in
the city that once was their beloved
|capital and the heart of an ever-to- be
remembered Confederacy.
The silent woods and fields in and
about the historic city, which once
were loud with strife, today are live
with the voices Of this fast-thinning
band. Slow treading, bent with age
and touched to gray by the hand of
time, some so feeble they cannot
walk, others with eyes so dim they
can barely see their diminishing
ranks now numbering not more than
1000, are reuniting and living again
In comradeship and ties hallowed by
sacred recollection. That gallant ar
my of 100000 men that followed the
Stars and Bars sixty years ago has
lessened and lessened in numbers with
the passing years until their ranks
Rave become as elusive as a far sea-
line dinly penciled on the sky of the
present.
With the old soldiers, their families
ard friends, it is estimated that Rich
mond today is host to approximately
$4,000 visitors. The reunion will not
officially open until tomorrow morn
ing. In the meantime the grizzled
veterans are being quartered in Rich
mond homes where every attention
and loving care is being extended.
Younger visitors are being lodged in
hotels and public buildings. In the
latter hundreds of army cots, loaned
by the war department, have been
provided.
Late today the program of reunion
week will open with the annual con-
vention of the Confederate Southern
Memorial Association, followed to-
night by the opening of the yearly
sessions of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans. At the meeting of the
Sons the sponsors, maids of honor and
chaperones will be presented by Sena-
tor Pat Harrison, of Mississippi.
Addresses of welcome on behalf of
Virginia and the city will be delivered
by Governor Trinkle and Mayor Aims
lie, respectively. The memorial asso-
ciation's meeting will be taken up
with committee reports and routine
matters.
With the city in a gay but reverent
mood, every building is splashed with
bunting and flags-eloquent in color
and sentiment. On Monument ave-
nue. veterans and visitors are stroll
ing about the great statutes of Davis,
Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Hill. jack
son's figure, sombre and majestic as
a cathedral; Lees, patrician and no.
HE and stainless as a saints.
Not far away legions of the Con-
federate dead sleep row on row in
their woodland resting places IN Ia
mcus Hollywood cemetery. As if to
commune with comrades who more
than a half a century ago entered the
nortals of death, grey-coated veterans
are seen strolling about the simply
marked graves. Shrunken bodies and
vithered hands, faces wan and wrin-
'kled as old parchment, they stand ST.
lently beside the mounds which TO