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 18
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A touching feature of the occasion was the presentation of Confederate crosses to the following additional persons who have been reported to the chapter of the Daughters and found entitled to the same :
Messrs. W. B. Wood, Robert W. Johns and Professor Har- ris Hancock; and Mrs. Fannie M. Harris and Mrs. James H. Jones.
The gathering then marched into the quiet "City of the Dead," and decorated the graves of those who rest beneath with the beautiful flowers of the season, in token of love and remembrance.
'According to a recent plan, designed to mark permanently every soldier's grave, the Daughters of the Confederacy had placed at the head of each a metal cross, eighteen inches in height, made impervious to the weather by waterproof paint, and bearing the following simple legend :
On the upper portion, "1861-1865," and on the cross piece, the letters, "C. S. A."
The parade was composed of the following units and organi- zations :
Fire Department Drum Corps; John Bowie Strange Camp, Confederate Veterans; R. T. W. Duke Camp, Sons of Veterans ; Company D, First Virginia Regiment N. G. (the Monticello Guard) ; Albemarle Chapter Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Boy Scouts.
At the University Cemetery the exercises consisted of the invocation, the Memorial address, by Rev. Henry W. Battle, D. D., and a Memorial Ode, by Mr. James McManaway, of the University.
C. B. Linney, Adjutant of the John Bowie Strange Camp, presided, presenting Rev. Beverly D. Tucker, of Christ's Epis- copal Church, who offered the following eloquent and appro- priate invocation :
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Reverend Tucker's Prayer.
O Almighty God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth, we, Thy humble servants, do turn unto Thee for guid- ance and strength. We have heard with our ears, and our fa- thers have declared unto us, the noble works that Thou didst in their day and in the old time before them. We yield Thee high praise and hearty thanks for all those thy servants, who, in the hours of their country's need, fought the good fight, kept the faith, and laid down their lives for their friends. And we be- seech Thee that, in this new day of testing, we may dedicate ourselves in the spirit of our fathers to our country's call. Bless our leaders with vision and strength in upholding the high cause of human liberty. Shield from every evil the men who serve in the army and navy, and inspire them with a holy enthusiasm. Animate the minds of the people with the unifying spirit of sacrificial patriotism. O Lord God of hosts, strengthen and guide this nation and our allies, that we may labor with valor for the establishment on earth of Thy reign of law and love, of freedom and righteousness, and crown our endeavors with speedy victory and lasting peace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Captain. Amen.
Mr. Linney's Introduction.
Mr. C. B. Linney then introduced Dr. Battle in the follow- ing elegant and appropriate remarks :
The women of our Southland are admired the world over for their beauty and for their many graces of mind and heart, but it was reserved for the Daughters of the Confederacy to insti- tute these beautiful and appropriate memorial exercises com- ·memorative of the gallant deeds of our dead, but ever living, heroes. Would you know the secret of their devotion? It is found in their unshaken belief that this little spot of earth is more sacred than storied urn or consecrated dust of kings. Be- lieving that the choicest things of life are often found at our very doors, the Daughters of the Confederacy present, as their orator on this occasion, our own Dr. Battle, son of that gallant soldier, General Cullen A. Battle, of Alabama, a distinguished
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divine, orator, and now Chaplain General of the Sons of Vet- erans. He loves the cause he represents, and lives, moves and has his being in a supreme devotion to the traditions and pre- cious memories of the Old South. He has bright visions of good things to come, and loves to paint happy pictures of her future glory and achievements.
DR. BATTLE'S ADDRESS.
Mr. Chairman, Confederate Veterans, Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, members of the Monticello Guard, Boy Scouts, Ladies and Gentlemen :
By the good providence of God we dwell in a highly favored land. The great Creator has lavished His blessings upon us. Locked in the natural coffers of our mountains are inexhausti- ble stores of mineral wealth; our fertile fields yield abundant harvests; our majestic rivers pulsate with the arterial life of a vast commerce; our climate is unsurpassed. But a people's richest possessions are not the products of soil and climate; they are not the things which minister to human cupidity; they may not be seen or handled; for they are immaterial and invisible, yet more precious than gold. "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal." A people's most precious possessions are its sacred memories.
If there be one spot on this terrestrial ball that enshrines the dust of heroes, there is earth's most fertile ground; the seed sown in bitter tears and heroic blood will ripen from age to age into a harvest of moral grandeur and beauty-
"Till the sun grows cold And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold."
Such is our glorious heritage, and we have assembled that we may gather from this hallowed spot some of the fruits of solemn remembrance prompting to patriotic gratitude.
The dead need not our tributes; they cannot hear our praises ; they cannot inhale the perfume of our flowers; they need not our tears. I speak not for them; they have their reward. I
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speak for the living: venerable men who have come down to us from a former generation, and who wear on their bosoms the badge of the South's highest nobility, more honorable than star and garter; to revered matrons, the "elect ladies" of a period when the crowns of Southern womanhood in serene beauty sparkled with jewels more resplendent than the stars of a tropic night ; to sons and daughters of the Confederacy and members of the rising generation, who must be taught that the titanic conflict that closed at Appomattox was no odious rebellion, but a mighty war, waged by the South, according to the dictates of the loftiest patriotism, for what she believed to be her rights under the Constitution, against arrogance, oppression and wrong.
The civilized world held its breath in amazement and awe while we were giving it an exhibition of how Americans fight. Such courage, such endurance, such devotion to duty regardless of cost, the world had never before seen.
We who are separated from those tremendous days by the passing of more than half a century, and who know nothing of them by actual experience, find it almost impossible to form any conception of the magnitude of the struggle or the nature and extent of the sacrifices involved. One thing we do know-and let us guard the proud consciousness as our most precious pos- session-the Southern soldier came out of the terrific ordeal without one reproach from his conscience or a stain on his flag.
The private in the ranks, though often ragged, barefooted and half starved, kept his gun bright, his heart undaunted and his honor as fair as a star above an ocean of clouds.
The Confederacy's great leaders walked in the midst of the fiery furnace-heated seven times over-majestic and serene, and without the smell of moral taint on their garments ! Davis, Stephens, Steward, the Johnstons,. Gordon, Jackson and Lee-
"Ah, muse; you dare not claim A nobler name than he- Nor nobler man hath less of blame, Nor blameless man hath purer name, Nor fame-another Lee!"
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Our beloved country is once more at war, but not within her own borders, thank God! If ever there was a holy war in this universe, I believe that upon which we have entered is one. . We seek no new territory ; we covet no military glory; we would not purchase commerical preëminence at the cost of the precious blood of our sons. The God of Heaven has made us strong and rich, but we would not use our strength and riches to hang crape on one door knob in all the world, or to fling one orphan's cry on the pitiless breeze.
We deplore war. God hasten the time, by prophet sung, when nation shall not rise up against nation, nor man's inhumanity to man to make countless millions mourn! But we must pro- tect the lives of our men, women and children! We must main- tain our sovereign rights as a free and independent nation along the commercial highways of the ocean! We fought back our rage, feeling that the nation's honor was safe in the hands of our President, when the Lusitania, struck by a cowardly assassin, went down with its priceless cargo of American lives to its ocean grave. We shuddered over the wrongs of Armenia, and wept over Belgium, until the cup of diabolical iniquity, filled with cruelties that might claim primacy in hell, overflowed, and then we wiped away our tears to grasp our swords! Oh Ger- many, wrecker of fair cities, despoiler of homes, ravisher of women, and murderer of little children! God's finger is writing on the eternal wall for thee, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." God's executioner, from a land thou hast despised, is waking to a sublime but terrible mission for humanity.
.North and South,
"A people sane and great, Forged in strong fires, by war made one, Telling old battles over without hate,"- -
stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart. At last the flag of the Union floats above an undivided and indivisible people
Oh Union, strong and great, and good, live forever! May no star on thy flag ever suffer eclipse! Old Glory, whether proudly borne where millions fight and die; by the willing hands and stout hearts of the sons of those who wore the gray and of those
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who wore the blue; or waving from the masthead of ships that dare to plow the deep with unfettered prows; or, far above the whirling east, mixing thy stars with God's fretwork of golden "fire"-flag of my country, be thou in heaven above, on the earth below, on the waters under the earth,-the hope of the oppressed, the oriflamme of liberty!
Assembled at this sacred place, in the presence of our hero- dead, we dedicate ourselves anew to God, Truth and Humanity !
MEMORIAL DAY 1918.
The program began with the following prayer by the Chaplin . of the Camp, Dr. George L. Petrie :
Prayer by Dr. Petrie.
We ask Thy benediction on us, O God, assembled at this sacred place, this quiet resting place of the dead, to commemo- rate their virtues and their valor. By their consecration to a beloved cause; their self-sacrificing devotion to their Southland ; their high ideals of patriotism; their unfaltering courage in the camp, on the march and in the battle, they have written their names high in the role of the world's greatest heroes. We would do them honor by recalling their valorous deeds. We would express our love by wreathing their monuments and - graves with earth's sweetest flowers.
We thank Thee for this privilege, esteemed none the less by its frequent repetition. Our love for them and our admiration of their lives and our gratitude for their service, have experi- enced no diminution by the lapse of years, the change of our surroundings, nor by our appreciation of the present blessings of peace and prosperity.
We recognize Thy providential blessing of a united people, a great nation, a benign government, a splendid destiny, and a solemn responsibility. Yet Thou has not called us to forget the past, nor to neglect those whose blood was freely poured out in the great sacrifice by which the present was made .a beauti- ful possibility. In Thy presence and at Thy throne, we now
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thank Thee that such heroic men have lived, and, dying, have left imperishable examples to stir our hearts and inspire us to nobility of life and character.
Bless the aged veterans that linger with us still and deserve and receive our honor and esteem. Bless the Daughters of the Confederacy by whose invitation we are here, and who have done as much to preserve the memory of the heroic dead as their mothers did to cheer the living heroes in their day.
Bless these young soldiers who so worthily assume the re- sponsibility which their soldier fathers have been compelled to lay aside. Grant that there may never arise a need for the sacri- fice of their precious lives. Bless all who in high places are earnestly seeking to make a highway of peace for all earth's na- tions. Grant an issue of peace to all our national complications.
And now bless him who shall address us this afternoon. May the message which he brings crown this occasion with its chief charm and make it a benediction to us all. We ask, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Mr. Bolling's Address.
Albert S. Bolling, son of Major Bartlett Bolling, delivered the address, as follows :
What memories must come flooding to the minds of you vet- erans to-day! There is a picture you hold in your memories, and the picture of this present time. But of that first picture-
Far away in the bygone years, was the Old South, the land of true men and modest women. On the broad acres of its plantations were the homes of its people; in its groves and fields and by its pure streams were its altars. .
The first allegiance was to the state, emphasizing the prin- ciple of local self government, rather than fealty to the Union ; and yet the Union had been created largely by the South. Thirty of the stars on its flag reflect the work of Southern men. The war of the Revolution, of 1812, of Texas Independence and with Mexico, had Southern generals as their leaders. Sam Houston was born in Rockbridge County across yonder moun- tains. So the War between the States was fought not so much
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to destroy the Union as to preserve the rights of the states com- posing that Union, and to uphold the principle of local self gov- ernment. Those questions, however, are forever settled.
You fought not for conquest, not for gain, but for principle ; and never before in the annals of time did so few stand up for so long against so' many. The verdict of history and of your sons and grandsons is, "Well done." The private soldier in the Confederate armies of tattered uniforms but bright bayonets won undying fame. Rightly can he share in the lustre of the names of knightly Ashby, dashing Forrest, Stuart the Superb, Taylor, the Johnstons and Robert E. Lee.
It has been said that when the Lord Almighty willed that the Confederacy should fail, He found it necessary to remove from earth one man : that man who, at First Manassas, Second Manassas, in the Valley, around Richmond, and at Chancellors- ville, had gained a place among the foremost captains of his- tory-Stonewall Jackson.
Nor must we forget the debt to the women of the South whose matchless fidelity and undying loyalty attest your valor and their devotion.
And let us not forget the words attributed to Grant at Appo- mattox, when the guns had been made ready for a salute-"Stop those guns! It has taken four years to capture those 8,000 men. Let no salute 'be fired!" This was typical of the best of the North. Both sides took a lot of licking.
A second picture now unfolds itself. The sons of your op- ponents and of yourselves are now in France, and others are crowding thither on every boat leaving our. shores. Who can say that the years from 1861 to 1865 were in vain? America must win the war, and when America wins the war, well may the writer of history trace back the heroism and the fortitude of our boys to those qualities of their fathers who fought fifty- odd years ago.
That Virginia lieutenant who thrilled us some days ago by leading his platoon "over the top" in France, may well have been inspired by another soldier who began as a lieutenant and ended a lieutenant general-gallant John B. Gordon, of Georgia.
Just as you to-day pay devoted homage to the memory of
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those who have gone before, we of this generation must feel in- spired to honor and support in every way possible those who are today giving their lives for us. You did your utmost ; they are doing their utmost; and the question all of us (who have not yet gone) should ask, is, "Are we doing our utmost ?"
And as we today place flowers on the graves of our heroic dead, let us remember those brothers and sons fighting in far- away France, and consecrate ourselves anew to a spirit of stead- fastness and self-sacrifice.
MEMORIAL DAY, UNIVERSITY CEMETERY,
May 30th, 1919.
The Memorial exercises were marked by more interest, en- thusiasm, and genuine display of patriotic feeling than any held here in recent years, and the large concourse of men, women and children proved the deep hold that the Confederate heroes, and the cause for which they fought and died, still have upon the people who revere their memory. The veterans who wore the gray, with the veterans of the war in Europe, and scores of interested spectators and patriotic people, went out to honor. the dead and to listen to the recital of the deeds of the mer. whose fame is immortal. An escort of some fifty members of the Albemarle Rifles, under command of Liuetenant C. E. Mo- ran, gave the modern touch to the military feature, and their natty olive drab uniforms, of 1918, contrasted vividly with the gray, forever the honored and beloved color of the people of the Southland. The exercises 'were most impressive and in- spiring, and deeply moved all present because of their solemnity and appropriateness.
Veteran Bartlett Bolling, Commander of the Camp, presided at the exercises and moved the audience to cheers by his digni- fied, eloquent, and appropriate address. He is well known as one of Mosby's men, with whom he served for two years as a member of the partisan Rangers.
The invocation was by the Rev. W. Roy Mason, of Christ Church, and was as follows :
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Prayer by Rev. Wm. Mason.
Oh God, Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that the noble- lives and glorious deeds of our brave soldiers of the 'sixties are not forgotten by those of us who are left to enjoy the blessings of this golden age.
We are glad to gather here and have our minds refreshed with memories of the splendid deeds and undaunted courage of our fathers, and proud to pay our tribute to those who fought and died for their sacred rights. Especially do we feel this necessary now when all the world is giving honor to the heroes of the present day. May God's richest blessings rest upon the old veterans who still sojourn with us, upon the Daughters of the Confederacy, so faithful in commemoration, and upon each one that scatters flowers on these sacred graves. And grant, Oh Father, that the speaker's gifted tongue may be inspired by Thee to stir our hearts afresh with gratitude and determination to prove worthy of our noble heritage.
ADDRESS BY BARTLETT BOLLING, COMMANDER, JOHN BOWIE STRANGE CAMP.
Veterans, Daughters, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I want to thank, in behalf of the John Bowie Strange Camp, the Daughters of the Confederacy for their invitation to be present with them today; for their cheer and comfort always, and for keeping green, all these years, the graves of our com- rades. A chaplet we would place upon their fair brows, as a token of our appreciation and gratitude.
We have assembled here today, as is our annual custom, to pay tribute to the dead, and to place flowers upon the graves of our fallen heroes, who made the supreme sacrifice for a cause that cannot, and will never die. The address on this memorial occasion will be made by a gifted son of Virginia, himself the son of a veteran. He once resided in Albemarle, and is there- fore no stranger to many of our people. As Chaplain of the McGuire Hospital unit, he has but recently returned from the shell-torn, bloody fields of Flanders and France, and will tell of his personal experiences over there. He will tell us, too, of
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the hardships endured, and of the brave deeds of the boys of '61 to '65, who fought bravely for their state in a cause which they believed in their souls to be just and right. Some of them are here to-day-some who followed for four long, weary years the great Generals, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
We old veterans take a just pride in the valor and achieve- ments of those days, and also now in the fame and achievements of our sons and grandsons, in this world war.
It is my privilege, as well as pleasure, to present to this au- dience the Rev. W. Russell Bowie, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Richmond.
ADDRESS BY REV. RUSSELL BOWIE.
Rector of St. Paul's Church, Richmond, where Lee and Presi- dent Davis both worshipped during the fratricidal contest.
His remarks were elegant and touching in the extreme, and thrilled the audience till the end. Reverend Mr. Bowie spoke as follows :
Our thoughts to-day are of two wars. Today the Eightieth division is marching through the streets of Richmond-the tri- umphant army through the flag-hung streets. A half century ago another army went through those streets. in weariness, marching toward Appomattox, and-the end. Note the contrast in conditions! And yet the spiritual values and suggestions are the same.
What are the things we honor in the thoughts of men who have fought their great fight well?
First-The inspiring fact of human courage-the capacity of men to conquer the flesh, to dare, to endure, to die. The trenches in France-the fields of the Civil War.
Second-The love of the homeland; the sense of the pre- ciousness of the land, the sky, the people; the genius of the land that is one's own; the sentiment of the negro in Base Hos- pital, No. 45, who "wouldn't give one foot of ole Virginia for dis here whole French Island!"; the zeal of the men who did not understand many of the complicated issues of war, but
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carried in their hearts the belief that somehow they were fight- ing to save all the high things for which their country stood.
Third-The glory of sacrifice-men who died that others might live in security and freedom.
What shall these things mean to us?
First-The challenge to courage in the tests of peace; faith or moral triumph-faith in the capacity of human will to ac- complish any great deed it sets itself to reach; the courage and character of the men who came out of the civil war to rebuild Southern civilization from its ruins; the challenge to us for an equal moral courage; a costly loyalty to right ideals' in the midst of our prosperous time.
Second-Widening out our sympathy to understand the meaning of patriotism to other peoples-the value of their na- tional life and their ideals; America's ideal not to dominate, either by arms or by commercial conquest ; to help build up a fuller human life everywhere.
Third-Sacrifice. Why did men die? To make the world different. We must rise-as the President is trying to call us -to the faith, the national self-control, the constructive wisdom which shall build a world leagued in justice and in lasting peace. Only so shall the sacrifice of men who have laid down their lives be made redeeming.
Graves Decorated.
Then followed the procession to the cemetery and the dec- orating of the graves that lie around the beautiful Confederate monument set in its center. The Daughters of the Confederacy had charge of this annual ceremony of love and reverence, and in the midst thereof a selected quartet of male voices sang the old Confederate camp song, "Tenting To-night."
There was an unusually large attendance at this ceremony of . filial love and the occasion was one of the most moving and uplifting ever seen at this last resting place of so many of the bravest and the best of the South.
Lee Birthday Addresses.
ADDRESS OF JUDGE R. T. W. DUKE.
January 19th, 1891.
An Address delivered before the John Bowie Strange Camp C. V., by R. T. W. Duke, Jr., on January 19th, 1891, the first commemoration of the Birthday of General Robt. E. Lee held in Charlottesville, Va.
Mr. Chairman, Veterans of the Confederate Army, Ladies and Gentlemen :
The invitation to address you came to me amidst the noise and tumult of one of the greatest cities of the world: a city of all others most given to the getting and spending of worldly wealth. It reached me in a great building, before whose front, day after day, rings out to unheeding ears sweet chimes from a temple dedicated to God, and at whose side runs that street of all others most devoted to the worship of Mammon
· It found me busily engaged amidst complicated accounts, worried and harrassed by the multitudinous cares attendant upon business transactions; but, unlike the bells of Trinity, it rang upon no unheeding ears. It recalled me from the little- ness of gain to the grandeur of a heroic and noble life.
Around me was a new order of things, totally unlike our quiet Virginia life, and I was amidst scenes but little calcu- lated to aid thought in the contemplation of a serene and noble memory.
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