Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1929-06-06
1000 Veterans At
Charlotte Reunion

Charlotte, June 1.-The 39th an"
nual reunion of the Confederate vet
erans was formally opened here to-
night at the new Armory auditorium
with a program featured by an ad-
dress by Senator Pat Harrison of
Mississippi.
Reunion officials estimated late
this afternoon that 1000 veterans
and 10000 visitors were in the
city with that number mounting
hourly as a steady stream of pill
grims poured in by almost every
known means of travel.
With the warming rays of sum-
mer sun bringing true southern
spirit as personified in the fading
gray ranks of the followers of Lee
and Jackson began to manifest it.
self at Camp Goodwin this morn
ing. The old soldiers set out to prove
the fallacy of the statement that
they are not old at ALL but rather
the personification of youth.
All up and down the tented slopes
of independence Park, which is the
bivouac of the veterans, re-echoed
and reverberated the shouts and
laughter of the young oldsters, pune
tuated here and there with the now
almost forgotten rebel yell.
The old boys congregated in
groups and reminisced of the glo-
rious days of the sixties. Old ac-
quaintances were renewed and the
Johnny Reb" who left leg on
the field at Gettysburg told COM
iade who had an arm torn off on
the bloody field at Manassas about
the suffering that is now only a
memory.
Tales of daring at Seven Pines
and stories of the tragic day at APP
pomattoX were related in realistic
fashion by those who We're there.
Over in a sunny nook back of the
new Armory small group had as
sembled and one or two of their
number produced from some hidden
source fiddle or so. A we'll waxed
bow brought forth tunes and melo
dies that were dear to the hearts of
the men who had duddled around
the campfires in the army of Lee
when the now old and bent figures
were young and stalwart men bat
Ting with their backs to the wall for
their beloved south.
All the drab and dripping atmos-
phere of yesterdays opening day
was forgotten as the sun smiled
down on the encampment-the last
for many. Song and laughter ruled
the day and the rollicking, white
haired old battle-scarred warriors
gave themselves up to the spirit of
the campground.
Senator Harrison, devoting his ad-
dress largely to a defense of the
southern cause in the war between
the states, told the veterans that the
principle for which they had fought
was states rights and not slavery.
He called for a re-baptism of the
south in that principle and warned
against the sacrifice of southern SEN
timent to industrialism.
"We Of the south must never per-
nit southern glories to be forgotten
| in the maelstrOm of industrial
1 strife" said the senator. 1--WE must
not allow those principles for which
our fathers sacrificed to be sup
planted by yielding to the CONNER
cial exigencies of the hour.
slavery was not the cause of the
war;" he said. "a bigger and larger
question was involved. 1t was the
unsuestioned right of state to ex-
ercise those powers not expressly
delegated to the federal government
in the federal constitution. The
south believes that property of ev-
cry kind should be respected and
protected under the laws of the