USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
"He was a superb soldier ! Rather impatient at the slovenly soldiering of volunteers, but thoroughly ap- preciating their pluck and dash. His military eye for position was the best in Jackson's corps. His choice of the field at Cross-Keys was confirmed at once by Ewell, and complimented in his report and that of General Jackson."
To quote from Major Goldsborough's "Maryland Line," can scarcely be inappropriate in this place, and this is what he says of our brave Maryland boys :
" these brave men never complained of what was imposed upon them. Throughout that dreary fall, and the long cold winter, nearly naked and half fed,
318
GENERAL ARNOLD ELZEY.
they silently did their duty, whilst thousands were proving recreant to the Cause. Elegant and refined gentlemen, who at home never knew what it was to want for a single comfort, were in rags and tatters, sleeping in mud and filth, and when the bleak winds of December pierced many a rent in their wretched garments, they only drew their sorry blankets the closer around their gaunt and shivering limbs, and cheerfully responded to the call for any duty. Was it a wonder, then, that after the battle of Cold Harbor General Breckenridge should have exclaimed, 'What could not be done with a hundred thousand such men !'"
We are proud of the grand Old Line, That back through a hundred years Strove with the foe from Britain's Isle, With its life, and blood, and tears !
We are proud of the brave Young Linc, That gave to a stainless name, The noble deeds of a daring cause To glow in the lists of Fame!
March on in the rath of the Old ! March out to the unborn years!
We pledge your troth in a Nation's need With a woman's faith and tears!
General Arnold Elzey died on the 22d of February, in the year 1871. His only son bears the name of Arnold J. Elzey.
General Elzey is buried at Greenmount Cemetery, near Baltimore city.
--
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN GEORGE THOMAS, AT LOUDOUN PARK, OCTOBER 22, 1874.
-
W
E are here to-day, Friends and Comrades, to render just and fitting tribute to the memory of those of our immediate companionship who gave up their lives in the great struggle be- tween the Sections. A glad and willing sacrifice in de- fense of principles that they as well as we had ever been taught were the distinctive political axioms of the South. We do not come in this hallowed presence to proclaim the truth of those principles, still less to assert or even to acknoweldge that the dread uncertainty of War had rendered a verdict that proclaims them false. This we willingly remit to the political agitator of the day, to the arbitrament of Time and the calmer judgment of his- toric days to render final decision on. Setting all this aside in memory of dear companions gone to their ac- count, in recollection of their kindly deeds and knightly courage, of joys and dangers together shared and tasted, we come to celebrate the placing of this Memorial-Stone that will tell to every passer by that they whose names are there inscribed possessed a record that their surviv- ing comrades were not unwilling should be read in the full light of after times. The voice of passion is not yet stilled, the turbulence of the life and death struggle
320
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
not yet quieted, yet so far stilled, so far quieted that we may, without all fear of misrepresentation, join heartily in this work of love and duty.
And there are reasons why this memorial tribute is peculiarly appropriate at our hands. There is often an individuality observable about associations of men that makes them to take hold of the hearts of their mem- bers with tenacious grasp, and to form as it were a part of their existence forever after; and this was especially the case with the company organizations successively commanded by Capt. Wm. H. Murray. Composed of homogeneous elements, the individual members having such entirely similar associations, and it is to look back to and recall, there could not have been other than a feeling of perfect community pervading us as a whole; but above all, and beyond all this there existed the further bond of that untiring influence that it is the especial privilege of some men to exert, and which was to a peculiar extent exerted by our Commander, im- pressed as his commands were with his personal traits and characteristics, so that the designation "Murray's Company" became as familiar to the military ear as though he had been operating with an independent command. And so we come now, as the survivors of Murray's Companies, to render honor to his memory as well to that of those of his commands who gave, as he did, their young lives to the Cause; not then simply as Confederates, not as friends merely do we pause for a little while, in the bustle of Life, to come in a body to unite in the ceremonies of to-day.
We come rather as bound by ties that make the memories we celebrate a very part of our ownselves. Engrossed as we may be in the duties of Life, separated and engaged in occupations that keep us, for the most part, wide asunder, there is this at least in our Past
T
1
321
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
that makes us feel as one. There is that in our com- mon history that will urge us, with no "common im- pulse, to come here as to the Mecca of the heart, bringing with us, perchance, the hopes of the generation yet to play its part on the World's great stage, to recall for our comfort and for their instruction the deeds and characteristics of those whose names are here enrolled on History's most honored page. And why these ? Near by are the remains of many who fell in the same struggle, and on the same side, and never while life lasts will you be able to look upon these mounds and these monuments as upon any others ; yet, I challenge your own hearts to answer if there be not still a different feeling in thinking of the times that are no more, in connection with the memories of your Comrades of Companies "H" and "A."
Well might you essay the lesson of self-sacrifice and noble endurance-pure, prompting, unyielding deter- mination-in recalling and recording the names and lives of the Lees, the Jacksons, and the Stewarts; the Pegrams, the Ashbys, and the Winders, who, now but dust and ashes, have left name and fame that the pen of their most malignant enemy would utterly fail to taint or tarnish; well might your hearts swell with honest pride in telling of the wondrous deeds of daring done on our well-loved Southern soil, when might and numbers, struggling with the right, so often reeled and in utter rout recoiled before the skill and gallantry of their painfully outnumbered foe; yet with what differ- ent, with what tenderer feelings you would recall the day of Gettysburg, and tell how the bristling summit almost gained, your own commander Murray dial. how when the assembly was made at the foot of the hill, your shattered remnant looked around aghast to see the gaps that sudden death had made; how Morrison,
322
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
that sturdy soldier, came safely down the hill of death only to meet his summons at the base; of Ives, so gallant and so courteous; of Iglehart, so true and carn- est and brave, and bright-faced Charley Lloyd, can you not see him now, with blanched cheek and bowed form, staggering from the ranks, and yet running back in a little while to his post in the line only to meet the too sure summons of a bullet in the brain ; and Blackiston, with all his soldierly instincts keenly alive, anxious only that none should be before him in the charge. Such the names-such to us the memories of Gettys- burg! The march after Meade, the winter in Hanover, Cold Harbor, White Oak Swamp, the trenches around Petersburg, how with such mention crowd to our thoughts the names of Hollyday, Gill, Braddock, Kip Deal, Denton, Prentiss, and the host of others who bore with us the trials of those days. Wagner, already devoted, when ordered on the fatal skirmish line; and Laird so gallant and true, always earnest, always with words of cheer, and always at his post, like the brave sharpshooter, Prentiss, breasting the storm of battle as with charmed life, to meet his summons when the struggle was well nigh hopeless.
And you, comrades of company "H," is there need that I should recall the special incidents of your career, the scenes with which you were most familiar during the first year of the trial, the names of those who with you enlisted in the days when all was hopeful for the cause, but who have now their names enrolled among the dead upon the field of Glory? Is there need that these things should be pictured in any poor words of mine, or that the two companies setting aside mere company designations and special recollections should be proclaimed as one, to make you keenly conscious of a sympathetic blending of associations that make of us
323
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
all, in everything that the term implies, peculiarly comrades. Separated though you were by the fortunes of War, your fates connecting you with different com- mands, is it possible for you to remember with any ordinary feeling, your old, your first command ? Can you think of your assemblage at Richmond, remember- ing who your comrades were and their after fates, with- out acknowledging it all as a part of your inner lives from which you could not, even if you would, escape. A part most dear and most precious! How intimately must be associated with your most cherished recollec- tions the figure of the gallant McKim, leading even Stonewall's own brigade in the charge, to him the charge, that led to death and imperishable glory! Col- ston and Lloyd West, do you not remember them well ? Struggling both with the Angel of Death, one with breathless steps reaching the Heights of Bolivar only to meet a little speedier summons ; one, stretched upon a bed of pain, begging for permission to go with his Command, on what was supposed, an expedition to meet superior numbers at the time of the Pohic march, destined, alas! to enter upon a longer, far more distant journey ere the days of that Autumn month were over. Mackall, Russell, Costigan, Steel, Hammett, Redman, Price, and all the glorious company of those who with them fell. O! how steadily by our sides then stalked the greedy Reaper-Death ! How steadily marched our comrades to their fate! Forever let their names, and deeds, and principles, be blended in our thoughts.
And here let us ask what was the particular charac- teristic uniting these men, who, in whatever field, under whatever leader, carried with them the sollier!y ยท pride and resolve, sprung from their commander's nerve and iron will, that made them seem ever ani- mated by like promptings. Know what was Murray's
324
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
special trait as a soldier, and the question readily is answered -- stern, unyielding, unshrinking sense of duty, no thought, no impulse, no prompting, but the strictest sense of duty. His whole life as a soldier was but ap- propriately rounded by his death in the face of the thousands fronting the little band of whom he was one. For him, standing there erect, with all his bravery on. his men lying dead and wounded all around him, two- thirds of his command already yielded to the bloody needs of War, the line forced back, the summit not vet won, his instinct as a soldier telling him the day was lost, and with it the cause for which his sword had been drawn-for him, such as he was and so situated. there was but one course possible-no step in retreat, no yielding-only to stand, though all alone fronting the foe, till the fatal blow should come-and so he fell. With him, as with those who truly followed him, there was but one possible appreciation of duty to the cause -Death rather than Defeat. Nor was this sublimity of devotion in him the result of desire for military glory; it was not born of sudden impulse, nor was it the creature, in any degree, of passion for renown. Those who knew him best recognize it as the necessary result of his fixed determination, in such a cause, never to sub- mit or yield. In his death he was but acting out the solemn convictions of duty that went to form a part of his matured resolves. You have all heared the story that is told of the Spartan mother, in the time so far in the past, who, when called upon by her own son for a blessing as he was about to march to meet the for gave him no wish for individual renown, no wish for safety, none for speedy return, but with her who's nature alive to a just appreciation of duty to the calls; when one's country calls, she bade him return citser with his shield or upon it.
1
325
ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS.
Since the day when first this story was told in An- cient Greece till now, the spirit that dictated the reply has been lauded ever as the noblest evidence of true appreciation of duty to a country's needs. Millions have heard and have taken the lesson to heart. The halo of historic myth is around and about it, and it seems to admiring generations as only an idealized rep- resentation of what might be in a true patriot's heart. And yet the same beautiful tribute was paid, the self- same unselfish appreciation of duty was exhibited in a quiet home on West river, in Maryland, when Captain Wm. H. Murray went to announce to his mother that the time had come for him, with others of his kind and kin, to put in act and deed his expression of disavowal of the acts that sought to set aside the cardinal political doctrines that he had ever been taught were the safe- guard and salvation of his Country. He asked his mother's blessing, but with it asked for no expression of desire that military glory and renown might come to him, none that he might safely return to his well- beloved home, none that he might see her face once more-only the Spartan mother's blessing. This was all he asked. It was from no boyish impulse, from no ambitious longings, from no passion for the pomp and panoply of War that he was ready and willing to enter upon the uncertain struggle. He saw and knew the right, and with his life was earnestly determined to maintain it, " with my shield, Mother, or upon it," and so the blessing was asked, and so was given. And on his shield, all glorions and stainless, he was borne to the home of his fathers.
Living, he was an example bright to follow! Dead, he is a splended memory that we most gladly and proudly honor.
27*
3
0
A PRAYER FOR PEACE.
P EACE! Peace! God of our fathers, grant us Peace! Uuto our cry of anguish and despair Give ear and pity ! From the lonely homes, Where widowed beggary and orphaned woe Fill their poor urns with tears; from trampled plains, Where the bright harvest Thou hast sent us, rots,- The blood of them who should have garnered it Calling to Thee-from fields of carnage, where The foul-beaked vultures, sated, flap their wings O'er crowded corpses, that but yesterday Bore hearts of brothers; beating high with love And common hopes and pride, all blasted now ;- Father of Mercies! not alone from these Our prayer and wail are lifted, Not alone Upon the battle's seared and desolate track, Nor with the sword and flame, is it, O God, That Thou hast smitten us. Around our hearths, And in the crowded streets and busy marts, Where ccho whispers not the far-off strife That slays our loved ones; - in the solemn halls Of safe and quiet counsel-nay, beneath The temple-roofs that we have reared to Thee, And mid their rising incense,-God of Peace ! The curse of war is on us. Greed and hate
.
327
A PRAYER FOR PEACE.
Hungering for gold and blood: Ambition, bred Of passionate vanity and sordid lusts, Mad with the base desire of tyrannous sway Over men's souls and thoughts; have set their price On human hecatombs, and sell and buy Their sons and brothers for the shambles. Priests, With white, anointed, supplicating hands, From Sabbath unto Sabbath clasped to Thee, Burn, in their tingling pulses, to fiing down Thy censers and Thy cross, to clutch the throats Of kinsmen by whose cradles they were born, Or grasp the brand of Herod, and go forth Till Rachel hath no children left to slay. The very name of Jesus, writ upon Thy shrines, beneath the spotless, outstretched wings Of Thine Almighty Dove, is wrapt and hid With bloody battle flags, and from the spires That rise above them, angry banners flout The skies to which they point, amid the clang Of rolling war songs tuned to mock Thy praise.
All things once prized and honored are forgot. The Freedom that we worshipped, next to Thee ; The manhood that was Freedom's spear and shield; The proud, true heart; the brave, outspoken word, Which might be stiffed, but could never wear The guise, whate'er the prost, of a lie ;- All these are gone, and in their stead, have come The vices of the miser and the slave,- Scorning no shame that bringeth gold or power, Knowing ne love, or faith, or reverence, Or sympathy, of the, or aim, or hope, Save as begun ingolf, and ending inere. With vipers like > > these, O blessed God!
328
A PRAYER FOR PEACE.
Scourge us no longer ! Send us down, once more, Some shining seraph in Thy glory clad, To wake the midnight of our sorrowing With tidings of Good Will and Peace to men ; And if the star that through the darkness led Earth's wisdom then, guide not our folly now, Oh, be the lightning Thine Evangelist, With all its fiery, forked tongues, to speak The unanswerable message of Thy will.
Peace ! Peace ! God of our fathers, grant us Peace ! Peace in our hearts and at Thine altars; Peace On the red waters and their blighted shores ; Peace for the leaguered cities, and the hosts That watch and bleed, around them and within ; Peace for the homeless and the fatherless; Peace for the captive on his weary way, And the mad crowds who jeer his helplessness. For them that suffer, them that do the wrong --- Sinning and sinned against-O God! for all- For a distracted, torn, and bleeding land- Speed the glad tidings ! Give us, give us Peace !
S. TEACKLE WALLIS. 1863.
WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART. SCULPTOR.
" Thus was Beauty sent from heaven, The lovely ministress of truth and good In this fair world."
T O this " lovely ministress," the teacher and in- spirer of Rinehart, our thanks are due; he was her worker and the realizer of that ideal, only infused into the soul by beauty, truth and goodness.
William II. Rinehart was born in the year 1826. His father was a farmer of German descont, honest and thrifty. The boy gained the foundation of an English education at a rustic school in Westminster, Frederick, now Carroll county, Maryland, and when not em -. ployed in study he occupied his time in active duties about his father's farm. Upon this place was a marble quarry and stone-cutting yard, in which the sculptor of the Future evinced deep interest. Thus Experience. often the severest, though the faithfulest teacher, be- stowed upon him early in life his first strong lesson. The dullness of routine belonging to such an existence did not satisfy the young Rinehart. _ At the age of six- teen he obtained the consent of his father to sok an apprenticeship in the city of Baltimore. Through the aid of Andrew Gregg, Esq., a respectable merchant, he
330
WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
was admitted to a position in the marble yards of Baughman & Bevan, on North Howard street. When not employed in arduous manual labor he could be found in the Library or School of Design, at the Mary- land Institute. Mythology, Ancient History, Anat- omy, Architecture, Books of Art and Artists were his teachers, his study and his themes. These treasures of mind-knowledge he gathered and scattered, or else stored for future use. His skill as a workman was so great before he reached his majority, that we are told the workmanship of the finest quality came from his, hands. The best marble mantles were intrusted to him, and at this time, says a contributor to the " Palti- more Sun," " the stone-cutting trade had not reached the perfection of the present day in Baltimore. There were no steam saws and rubbers, and there was not the same improvement in, or in fact, demand for elaborately carved monuments and ornamented tablets." Delicacy of design. and artistic taste were revealed in a. marked manner in the work of this humble carver, whose name was already glowing on the unread scroll for coming days. His first lessons in practical mechanical drawing were received from Frederick List, a fellow-workman. Rinehart was made foreman of Baughman's establish- ment when only twenty-three years of age; and while still holding this position he gained some praise for several casts and finished statues which were the works of his own hands. Rinehart desired in some way to make real the beautiful image, that Genius, inspired by Love and touched by Fancy, had already presented to his poet-vision. His desire was fulfilled through the earn- est and substantial aid of Mr. W. T. Walters, whose friendship, proved in more than empty words. the Sculptor never forgot. He returned this strong help with confidence and high respect, fully appreciated by his benefactor.
331
WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
The first visit of Rinehart to Europe was in 1855. At Florence, in Italy, he worked with other young artists for ordinary wages. Into his work he let his heart escape, and imprisoned there it shone in each curve and line of the polished marble.
" O, Life, O, Poetry, which means life in life !"
In the year 1857 he returned to Baltimore, bringing with him two pieces in basso reliero. They represented Night and Morning. They were purchased by Mr. Augustus J. Albert, and are still in the possession of that gentleman. Rinehart had for a while a studio at Carroll Hall, in Baltimore city. In 1858, however, he returned to Europe. He fixed his residence in the Eternal City, which he regarded as his home, though he paid frequent visits to the northern portion of Europe. The inspiring atmosphere of Rome seemed to awaken his marvelous energies into new life and free- dom. In 1866 and 1872 he visited Baltimore. On the 10th of December, 1872, a heroic statue in bronze was unveiled to the public in front of the State House at Annapolis. The creator of the statue was William II. Rinehart. The figure represents Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. The orators upon this occasion were Governor Pinkney Whyte, of Maryland, and Mr. Severn Teackle Wallis, the poet-lawyer of Baltimore:
ADDRESS OF MR. S. TEACKLE WALLIS.
The ceremonies attendant upon the unveiling of the Statue erected by the State of Maryland, in honor of the late Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, took place in the Senate Chamber, at Annapolis, at noon of December 10th, 1822. The Report and Address of the Committee were read by the chairman, Mr. S. T. Wallis, who in their name made formal delivery of the Monument to
1
332
WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
the Governor of the State. His Excellency, Governor Whyte, responded briefly, and when he had concluded, the company proceeded to the grounds in front of the State House, where, upon the order of the Governor, the state was uncovered.
During the ceremony in the Chamber, the Governor occupied the place of the President of the Senate, the Judges of the Court of Appeals, with other prominent representatives of the Bench and Bar of the State, being upon one side, and the Officers of the Naval Academy, in full uniform, with Rear Admiral Worden at their head, being seated on the other. His Excellency re- mained standing during the delivery of Mr. Wallis' address.
Your Excellency :
By an Act of the General Assembly of Maryland, passed at the Session of 1867, the sum of five thousand dollars was appropriated for "the building or erecting a suitable monument over the remains of the late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, on some suitable site in the State House yard, or in the State House itself," and Messrs. G. Frederick Maddox, of St. Mary's county, Charles E. Trail and Hugh McAleer, of Frederick county, James T. Farle, of Queen Anne's county, Henry Williams, of Calvert county, and George M. Gill and S. T. Wallis, of Baltimore city, were appointed a com- mittee to carry into effect the provisions of the statuto. Upon the organization of the committee, it was found to be their unanimous desire that the execution of the proposed work should be entrusted to the distinguished sculptor, Mr. William H. Rinehart, a native and citizen of Maryland, for many years a resident of Rome. The amount appropriated being wholly insufficient, not only to compensate the labors of so eminent an artist, but even to meet the necessary cost of a monument at all worthy
333
WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
of the State and the occasion, the committee entertained . serious doubts of their ability to discharge their duties satisfactorily, without further legislative provision. From this embarrassment they were happily relieved by the liberality and public spirit of the artist himself, who responded to their invitation by a prompt and un- conditional acceptance of the commission. It is grati- fying to the committee to make official acknowledgment of their obligations to Mr. Rinehart, for the cheerful readiness with which he not only undertook the work, but volunteered to be content with the honor of the commission as it stood, and the pride and pleasure of uniting with his fellow-citizens in their tribute to the illustrious dead. The committee, of course, did not feel that it became them so far to tax the generosity of any individual citizen, and particularly one to whom the State already owed so much, for the reflected honor of his well-carned reputation. They, nevertheless, re- quested Mr. Rinehart to prepare them such design as seemed to him appropriate, and the model of the present statue was accordingly sent forward, while the General Assembly of 1870 was in session. The engagement of Mr. Rinehart and the plan of his work were so accepta- ble to the members of both Houses, that an additional. appropriation of ten thousand dollars was at once made for the completion of the monument, according to his design, and under the direction of the original commit- tee. It would be ungracious not to recognize the liberal and most becoming spirit in which this legislative action was taken, and its perfect accord with the deep and spontaneous feeling which had welcomed the first appro- priation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.