USA > Virginia > Albemarle County > Albemarle County > Memorial history of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, including some account of others who served in the Confederate Armies from Albemarle County > Part 15
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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 | Part 25 | Part 26
Captain McCarthy's Speech.
The first speaker of the day was Captain Carlton McCarthy of Richmond. Captain McCarthy began his address with a graceful tribute to truth, upon which we must rely since his- toric details fade away. He claimed for the Confederate dead far more than courage, devotion and sacrifice, insisting that their cause was a righteous cause, their service intelligent and honorable, and their principles fixed in eternal truth. He painted Robert E. Lee as the typical Confederate soldier, who gave all
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MONUMENT TO CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
OF THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE AND COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE Dedicated May 5th, 1909
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and refused everything, and who, if living, would not consent to be lauded at the expense of the cause he served. "Who, of all his critics," said the speaker, "has been his equal or worthy to be his judge? He was a man akin to truth in that he needed not much from any source." Captain McCarthy resented the thought that the monuments in the South stand to honor trea- son, for not one of all the host of that section has been con- victed. The great monument for all the South will be reared, sculptured, adorned and unveiled when the world sees the truth. "Even the ministers of good things are like torches-a light to others; waste and destruction to themselves." What glorious torches flamed and burned when those we meet to honor lighted up for a while the whole world!
Touching upon emancipation as one of the great results com- monly claimed for the war, Captain McCarthy contended that slavery was not abolished, but changed in form and degree, · and in its victims. It is more widely distributed than the slav- ery of the blacks, since it is a change from the blacks to all, and from one section to the whole land. The real freedom is to come out of the past through the reestablishment of the public virtues which unhallowed and wicked power had destroyed. The overthrown ideals of civic virtue and patriotic sacrifice must be restored and the noble history of this State reenacted in the lives of their growing sons. We are the minority, but the majority is not necessarily in possession of the sum of all virtue, truth or justice. By its power the imperishable principles may be set aside. The majority needs restraining; it needs law. In this land the constitution is the law and the restraint. When the majority rebels against that, it is a tyrant.
The spiritual things which our poor monuments strive to ex- press, the inspiring motive of the "immortal deeds," surviving the wreck of worlds, will be the firm realities of eternity. The ideal but absent good of this life will be the very atmosphere of the new heavens and the new earth. The hope of heroes is es- tablished in the very topography, and lights the landscapes of eternity. Sentiments which here and now are a mere breath may be granite boulders in the land of the mysterious ideal. The poet's dream will be there, and the vision of the seer. The
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myraid prayers of countless hosts of all ages will perfume the air. Shall we not see then our heroic dead trooping up from the valley of death to inhabit forever the immortal plains !
The vague longings of our souls, the grief, the fear, the bit- ter agony of parting, may all appear worked into the architec- ture of the many mansions with exquisite beauty, and even the blackness of despair may add new bursts of gorgeous color to the panorama of an endless life.
Major Daniel's Address.
Captain McCarthy was followed by Senator John W. Dan- iel who discussed with his old time vigor and felicity many of the campaigns of the Civil War, and revived the romance of that struggle with Lee, Jackson, Forrest and many others as the heroes of his moving tale. It was inevitable that he should use the witchery of his eloquence in praise of the Confederate soldier and of the Confederate women, who, more than the sol- dier, in his view, deserved to be remembered with eternal grati- tude for their sacrifices.
He retold vividly the story of the final interview between Lee and Grant at Appomattox, and attributed great dignity and gen- erosity to the conquering chieftain in that memorable confer- ence.
A number of old soldiers and others, who loved with equal devotion the memories of the war, grouped about the speaker, applauded him liberally, and were proud, as Senator Daniel him- self declared, that he was one of the boys in the great strug- gle of '61-65.
Congressman McCall.
Congressman S. J. McCall, of Massachusetts, followed Sena- tor Daniel in a brief but eloquent speech.
Reunion and Banquet.
At six o'clock in the evening the survivors of the Albemarle Light Horse, Company K, Second Virginia Cavalry, held a re- union and banquet at the Colonial Hotel.
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Captain Micajah Woods, chairman of the organization, pre- sided as toastmaster. General Munford delivered a very beau- tiful and touching address to the members of his own company. He announced that he had reached his seventy-eighth year, but he looked quite as gay as when he led his troops in action with a prowess not surpassed by Henry of Navarre.
Congressman McCall, of Massachusetts, in response to a sen- timent, delivered a very delightful address, capturing the old veterans and his audience by his wit and eloquence.
The remarks of the Boston Congressman were liberally applauded, and the concensus of opinion among those who heard this gentleman's speech during the unveiling ceremonies and those who heard his remarks at night, is that he is a broad- minded and liberal statesman, and our people highly appreciate his coming among us and participating with us in the exercises attending the unveiling of the Confederate monument.
Senator Daniel responded in very eloquent terms and re- " ceived a loving ovation from his old comrades.
MONUMENT TO COL. JOHN BOWIE STRANGE, C. S. A., APPROPRIATELY AND ELOQUENTLY DEDICATED.
In the old historic Court House, Albemarle's Hall of Fame, with its galaxy of distinguished jurists, advocates and soldiers, were assembled, in December, 1916, the followers of the daunt- less leader of the famous Nineteenth Virginia Infantry. Thither came also the ever-present - Daughters of the Confederacy, the Sons of Veterans, and a host of admiring friends, drawn to- gether with a common and united purpose to hear the eloquent tribute of Judge Duke to the memory of an honored and beloved soldier. In the unavoidable absence of Commander, Major C. M. Bolton, Captain H. Clay Michie, Past Commander of the Camp, presided, expressing great pleasure at being permitted to participate on such an occasion, and regretting that the unfa- vorable weather had prevented the exercises being held at the monument.
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Dr. Battle's Prayer.
The Chaplain, Dr. George L. Petrie, being absent, the Rev- erend Dr. Henry W. Battle invoked the Divine blessing, in the following words: "Thou great and gracious God, we thank Thee that in every age Thou has raised up men capable of un- selfish heroism. We rejoice that in every generous bosom Thou has planted a chord that thrills sympathetically to the story of the sacrifice of life itself for country and the right. We have assembled to pay tribute to the memory of one who, in martyr spirit, wore the white flower of a stainless life into the sepul- chred chambers of death.
"Comrades and friends have honored themselves in erecting this monument, thereby giving evidence of soul kinship with the hero whose noble virtues and deeds of courage fill our thoughts and swell our bosoms today. And so, God of our fathers, may it ever be! May no day that finds on Virginia's historic soil a people unappreciative of sublime courage, or un- grateful for supreme sacrifice, ever dawn. Oh keep us and those who shall come after us, we beseech Thee, true to a glori- ous past ; then, shall we, guided and upheld by Thy spirit, se- renely meet, with unfaltering trust, whatever tests the un- known future may bring to our land. Our Country's God, in the midst of world-wide turmoil, conflict and distress, we hum- bly invoke upon our entire people Thy blessing, and the inspira- tion of that Spirit that kindles and nurtures the flame of self- sacrificing heroism in the human breast. Bowing before Thy great throne today, we beseech Thy favor through Jesus Christ, the Savior. Amen.
After the invocation the local quintet of the Sons of Veterans rendered appropriate selections of music.
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Judge Duke's Address.
Captain H. Clay Michie, the presiding officer, introduced Judge R. T. W. Duke in a few appropriate remarks.
Judge Duke spoke as follows :
Comrades of the John Bowie Strange Camp, Daughters of the Confederacy, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I feel a great pity for the man who could have stood today where we were expected to stand, around the simple granite monument erected to Colonel Strange, without feeling his pulse beat high and every noble emotion aroused in his bosom. The place is a simple place, á very modest graveyard. The great oaks shadow part of it and the younger maples bud in the spring time and blush later with the touch of the autumn sun. And yet it is holy ground. No man can stand by the granite monument that today you have come to dedicate without think- ing of the sacred dust that sleeps within that little God's acre and realizing that it is among the most sacred spots on earth.
Westminister Abbey with all its magnificence, with all of the great names that meet you at every step you take within that historic fane, becomes a mere nothing to me when I stand yon- der where sleep the ashes dearer to me than any ashes can be on this earth. And almost within touch of that noble man who was my exemplar and the author of my being, my father and my friend-who taught me what the fatherhood of God meant and later on the brotherhood of man-almost within a step are men who fought under him and some of whom fought, bled and died along with the noble gentleman in whose memory we are meeting today. Just a step away lies Colonel J. Thompson Brown, dead at the moment of victory; a step nearer lies the youngest brigadier general of the time and two other soldiers, his kinsmen, who were sacrificed on the altar of their country. And just on the other hand, but a step away, the gallant young adjutant of my father's company, William Alexander, who en- tered that company as adjutant and followed him, and later fol- lowed his regiment, until at Hatcher's Run he gave up his life for his native Commonwealth. Hardly had the couch from which his dead body had been removed grown cold ere a cousin
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was laid in it, shot in the arm-that dear old veteran, Andrew Craven, who still lives in a vigorous old age, and who if not here in person is here in spirit with us today. But another step away from Colonel Strange's monument is an assemblange of humble modest slabs dedicated to the memories of men who died in the hospital here, and the cemetery at the University not having been established, their bodies were buried by Lodge No. 60 of the Masonic order of which they were members. But a step away I noticed only this morning the tomb of a young man from Alabama, but nineteen years of age, and his epitaph, "He gave his life for his country." And a step further down, where I never look at the little bit of modest marble that I do not feel a strange thought of pity for the body of the young Corsican which lies there: a member of my father's company who was but eighteen years of age when he gave his life for his adopted country and a worthier and a better man than the great Corsican who sleeps now in the shadow of the Invalides. It is holy ground; it is ground on which men should tread lightly and with uncovered heads; it is ground of which this commu- nity should be proud and whose care to the utmost end of time should be their sacred duty, even when those of this and the new generation have passed away. And the man for whose memory this monument has come into being was in every sense as great a man as many who sleep in Westminister Abbey, in St. Paul's and Les Invalides, or in any of the great structures of the world.
John Bowie Strange was a soldier from his childhood; he taught men to be soldiers ; he led men who were soldiers, and he died a soldier's death. In a few brief moments I shall give you a short summary of his life. He was born in old Fluvanna County, once a part of Albemarle. . He entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1842 and was one of the first graduates in the first class of that institution. I take it he was a State stu- dent-nothing for a man to be ashamed of in those days. There, in accordance with an old rule in that institution, he obligated himself to give two years of his life to the education of the young in exchange for the bounty of the State. In accordance with that obligation, John Bowie Strange went to the city of
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Norfolk and there taught for a couple of years, and at the end of that time organized a military school in the city of Norfolk.
He taught with success, and finally came back to his old home and to the city of Charlottesville in 1856. He taught for a while in that old block of buildings we older men speak of as the "post office," and which is sometimes spoken of today as the McKee block,* though with the old men that would not be understood unless you spoke of it as the old "post office." It stands there as the corner building of the block-at the inter- section of Jefferson Street and the alley between the Court House and the block. Colonel Strange commenced his teaching in Charlottesville in that building and then moved his school to the end of Ridge Street, erecting those three buildings that some of you can remember, on the southern end of the street, the last of which was pulled down only a few years ago. The house of Dr. Sparks is now upon the site of one of these buildings. He established there and built up one of the finest military schools in the State; a school well noted all over the country for its teachers and teaching. I should have said that when he first came to Charlottesville he did not commence his teaching in the building first alluded to as the old post office building, but went first to Bloomfield-not having written what I am saying, I may be somewhat discursive-and he taught there for two years be- fore he came here. Colonel Strange had as teacher with him the afterwards celebrated Professor Toy, the great Hebraist of Harvard, and L. M. Blackford, afterwards the great principal of the Episcopal High School. Bloomfield was some few miles beyond the University of Virginia, and he taught in a school kept by Mr. Tebbs and then Mr. English. After he finished teaching there he came to Charlottesville. Of his pupils I know of five today that are living. One I see here is Comrade Fife, who has furnished me with some of the facts, and there are Frank Lobban, Nat Terrell, S. B. Yates and John Dobbins.
It is from some of these men that I have had the pleasure of hearing personal testimony as to Colonel Strange's ability, not
*Editor's Note: The square just west of the Court House; now converted into Jackson Park.
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only as a disciplinarian but as a teacher-a man who had the ability to impart the knowledge he possesssed. He put into his pupils the desire to increase their knowledge and at the same time taught them strict discipline and the power of controlling themselves. That school had one hundred pupils at the begin- ning of the Civil War, and like its great neighbor, the Univer- sity of Virginia, it closed with one consent, and I suppose that every pupil entered the Confederate service when he became old enough to do so. Colonel Strange at once volunteered his services and was elected Colonel of the Nineteenth Virginia Regiment, that splendid body of men upon whose banners nearly every great battle named in Virginia could have been inscribed ; which marched from victory to victory, and only surrendered when their great chieftain told them the hour of surrender had come.
Fellow citizens, we do not realize the legacy that this hon- orable regiment has left us, for the greatest legacy that man can leave to man is the legacy of an honorable name, and this, the immortal Nineteenth has left to this country. Colonel Strange carried into his regiment the same ability for discipline and en- couragement that he carried into his school. His regiment was noted for discipline, and it was noted for the ability of its men to do what they were told without questioning. Had Colonel Strange lived, no doubt his ability would have been recognized further and he might have been able to command the brigade in which the splendid regiment fought its way into immortal- ity ; but it was to be otherwise.
At the battle of Boonesboro it was his fate to lead his reg- iment into the thick of the battle. The account of his death was brought to the attention of his kinspeople and friends in a strange way long after his death. A package of bloodstained papers was sent to one of his friends or relatives by a Federal officer, who stated that he took them from the body of a Con- federate colonel who was killed at Boonesboro. The same courage that actuated him all through his life carried him through that day. He had been wounded and was lying upon the ground and the surging ranks of the enemy were approach- ing, but the idea of surrender never entered his mind. It was
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so antagonistic to his nature, and he was so anxious to do what he could to check the onslaught, that he drew his re- volver, and raising himself, began to fire into the lines of the enemy as they approached him, regardless of consequences. This enemy bayoneted him where he lay and this package of papers bore his life blood. His regiment sent his body home and buried it in the old cemetery, and now today, fifty-four years and nearly three months after his death, a stone has been erected to hand down to posterity the name of this gallant gen- tleman and soldier who died in defense of his native common- wealth.
Chateaubriand has said, that "Monuments are for little men ; for the great, a stone and a name," and a truer thought was never uttered. How soon a name fades away! Go into any cemetery and walk along and unless something strange or ec- centric attracts you, you pay no attention to names. You look at epitaphs no matter where you go with a smile of apprecia- tion of the sentiment. You may walk through the great halls of Westminister Abbey where great kings and lords and ladies lie buried, and their names mean nothing to you. The names are quickly forgotten, but that which is carved upon the slabs often makes the blood leap and the senses quicken. No man can stop in |Westminister Abbey and see a little marble slab upon the wall, where are inscribed John Wesley's last words, "The best of all, God is with us," (though his ashes do not sleep there) without feeling the strongest emotion; nor around the corner where the few lines of Tennyson are inscribed to the memory of that heroic sailor soul, and not stand in mute reverence and profound admiration.
In future years, in walking through this cemetery and others like it, the names of Strange, of Duke, or Brown or Zibana may mean nothing, but when underneath are read these words "A Confederate Soldier," no matter how many years have elapsed, nothing will make them pause quicker than that sentence and bow their heads before the honorable ashes of the honorable men who fought for the most honorable cause that the world has ever known. Names mean but little. You may take the great roll of the great Book of Books with its roll of heroes and
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how many of them do you recall? You may take the names with which St. Paul concludes his epistles, sending greetings to this man and that man, and all of a sudden you come across one name with a few words that tell you everything about that man you want to know: "Appelles, approved in Christ." All the biographies of the world couldn't give you any more informa- tion that you might want to know about that man, because you know his life was good and pure and noble and his end was peace. So today the man who walks through these cemeteries and finds those three words: "A Confederate Soldier," engraved upon a man's monument, knows all about the man he wants to know. He knows that he was a soldier; that he was a hero; that he was true to his commonwealth, and being true to his commonwealth, was true to his God. When Basil Gildersleeve, the great professor of Greek of the University and of Johns Hopkins, and the greatest philologist of the world, was asked to select an epitaph for a slab that was to be erected to the dead alumni of the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, he selected the following from Ovid's Heroides: Qui bene pro patria cum patriaque jacent-"Who nobly for their country with their country fell." When you first consider it you think there is a note of pessimism about it, but when you begin to reason; when you think of the real meaning of the sentence, you come to an- other conclusion, for if they nobly fell and their country fell nobly with them, we, like the men of the Scriptures, may ex- pect another and a better country to rise above the ruins of the old.
We have a right to expect this, but no country can ever be better than that country for which these men fought, and for which these men died. For it was a country in which honor represented everything and money but little; it was a country of pure policies, and it was a country of pure women and of brave, inspired, honest men; it was a country where the right princi- ples of government ruled ; where the whole of the beginning of the government was based upon the home. Sometimes I begin to wonder when I think of that country whether I have any country now. That seems like a startling statement to make, and I make it so as to make it startling. I wonder sometimes,
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although I was but a boy when the war closed, whether I have a country ; for my country was Virginia, first, last and all the time, and my country today is Virginia. Men may talk about the glorious union of the states, and with reason. Virginia helped to make it. Men may talk about the greatness of the Federal Union. It is great. My people helped to make it great. But with all of its greatness, from Maine to Texas, from Cali- fornia to the Atlantic, but for the State of Virginia the Union would never have existed, and without her, liberty upon this continent would never have existed. That seems like a broad and startling statement for me to make, and I am not going to take up the time to prove it, but merely appeal to history. The crises in this country have always been met and overcome by Virginia and Virginians. The first blow for freedom upon this continent was struck by Nathaniel Bacon in 1676, just one hun- dred years before an Albemarle man wrote the Charter of Free- dom; and it was another Virginian, George Washington, who made it possible, not only on the battlefield, but in another strug- gle, to unite all the parts of this great country together in a more perfect union. And at all times, it makes no difference when, Virginians have been at the fore; in '14, in '48, and in '61; and I am glad to say that today, in this period of interna- tional strife and struggle, a Virginian stands at the helm, please God, and will tell us what to do and preserve this country in peace with honor.
I say that I do not know that I have a country until I begin to realize that I am a member, a citizen, of this great Common- wealth, and being a citizen of it, I am a citizen of this Union. I desire a better country ; I desire to make this country better- this country whose foundation stones were cemented with the blood of your compatriots; ye men who fought for all that makes any country great. For the need of a better country grows apparent every day.
Often, when in the Northern states, I have been taunted with the statement that this war in which you fought was a battle of slaveholders against freedom. I sometimes wonder how many men in the immortal Nineteenth owned slaves. I doubt if one- half of them did. The Nineteenth Virginia Regiment did not
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care any more about slaves than it cares today for the dead fly in the ointment of the apothecary that lies in the buried cham- ber of the pyramids. These men fought for and some died for the principle of government by the states. That was what they were fighting for, and that was the victory you struggled for. And that country which you fought for and some died for, my country, won the greatest country in the world, the country of freedom, loyalty, virtue and purity, and your struggle was not in vain to perpetuate it. The memory of your deeds and those of the gallant soldier whose bravery and honor we commemo- rate today will forever leave its mark upon this nation, and all progress which it makes for betterment will bear the traces of your self-sacrifice.
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