Author Title Imprint 16— 47372-y aPO THE PROCEEDINGS Southern Historical Convention, Which Assembled at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, Va., on the 1-1th of August, 1873; AND OF THE SOUTHERN HISTOEICAL SOCIETY, AS REORGANISED, WITH THE Address by Gen, Jubal A. Early, Delivered before the Convention on the First day of its Session. BALTIMORE; TUENBULL BEOTIIERS, Publishers to The Southern Historical Society, 8 N. Charles Street. .? U / nyciisrxjTES Southern Historical Convention. MOSTGOMEKY WllITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, August Uth, 1873. At llj o'clock A. M. the Convention was called to order by Gen. Early, who explained the absence of Dr. Palmer; and upon his motion, Gen. Beauregard was called to the Chair pro tempore, and Rev. J. Wni. Jones, of Richmond, was made Secretary. On motion of Admiral Semmes, a Committee on Creden- tials was appointed, as follows : — Admiral Semmes, Gen. Early, and Gen. Wilcox. And a Committee on Organisation was also appointed, consisting of — Col. Withers, Col. McKinney, Gen. Butler, Admiral Semmes, and Gen. Martin. The following communication from the Executive Com- mittee of the Southern Historical Society was then read by the Secretary : — To the President and Members of the Historical Convention met at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, Va., on the \Uh August, 1873. Gentlemen :— As the Convention of which you are members is held at the instance of the Southern Historical Society, it is proper that, through its Executive Committee, some statement should be laid before you of the objects contemplated in this call, and which may form the starting point your deliberations. The Southern Historical Society was organised in the city of New Or- leans, on the 1st of May, 1869. The paper which is herewith enclosed, sets forth in detail the work it proposed to accomplish and the methods • which it devised. By the election of one Vice-President in each of the Southern States, it was hoped that State Societies would speedily be 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE organised as arliculated members of the Parent Society : and that branch- ing out from these, local and affiliated Societies would be formed, covering like a net the entire Southern country, and affording a ready agency for collecting the materials of our history. We are sorry to add that in these expectations we have been disap- pointed. "The sore necessity of struggling for a difficult subsistence has l)ressed upon our people everywhere alike, and has baffled all attempts to ti.x the public mind upon tiie objects we proposed. Few Societies have been organised, either State or local : and though a vigorous correspon- dence has been kept up for tliis end, we have succeeded as yet in collect- ing but little original matter for the future Historian. This collection of tlie raw material of History was the first object had in view: which, as rapidly as gathered, should be collated and digested, and w'hich should form tlie basis of a thorough, truthful, and, as far as possible, a documen- t>iy History of our people and of our times. Having so far failed in acliieving these important ends, it is difficult to determine what measures next to pursue. The work itself is too noble, too patriotic, too necessary to be abandoned : and the thought is intolerable of leaving the vindica- tion of our principles and of our brave and martyred Dead to the honesty of some chance antiquarian of the future ; who may mourn over the loss of records wliich it should be our business to preserve. In this extremity the Southern Historical Society has issued the call for this Convention; with the double hope of awakening the zeal and enthusiasm of our people, and of developing some more efficient method of securing the objects at which it has vainly toiled. There are, then, two points to be distinctly brought before the attention of your body. The Jirst is, whether it would not be wise to remove the domicile of the Parent Society from New^ Orleans to some other city, from wiiich a stronger influence may radiate, and sooner overtake our wide territory. New Orleans is situated at the edge of our common country, is almost entirely commercial in its pursuits, with a population less stable than elsewhere, with fewer men of cultivated leisure — and above all, in a State so heavily borne down l)y its political troubles, that whatever of public spirit exists, is absorbed witii the difficulties of a peculiarly op- pressed condition. It is almost impossible, tiicrefore, to rally in tliat city a working force sufficient for such an enterprise as this. In some other locality, the Society might have more leverage power, and toucli more generally the springs of influence, as well as be nearer to the sources of information which it is requisite to collect. This matter is submitted to the consideration of the Convention, with the assurance that they may decide in the premises, relieved of all delicacy — and that the same cor- diality and earnestness will be exhibited in the subordinate sphere by those who have hitherto sought to act in the higher. In the second place, the experience of the past four years has demon- strated tliat no reliance can be placed upon a voluntary and diffused agency, even for the collection of the materials which lie in such abun- dance around us. The work is one of too much detail, and tlie men who are competent to the task are too much engrossed with their i)rivate busi- ness to warrant the expectation of its being accomplished b}^ this means. It must be made tlie special duty and sole occupation of some one party to go about from State to State, and gather up tliis scattered material wherever he can find it. He must receive an adequate support during the period, however long he may be occupied with this service. It is desired that tliis Convention shall maturely consider this proposition. If it shall com- mend itself to their judgment, it will become necessary to institute mea- sures for effecting a more perfect and more general organisation than exists at present — from which, by an easy and diffused assessment, the revenue may be raised to meet the expenses of such an agency. It is not perhaps necessary tliat this work shall be done by the person who shall hereafter compile and write the history. It is the colleclioa of SOUTHEKN HISTOMCAL CONVENTION. the materials for sucli a history that must be the first object of our atten- tion ; and one may be found with admirable qualities for this task, who may not be the best fitted for the other. So far as the principles are con- cerned which we have struggled to maintain, these are accessible enough, and there are many gentlemen who are competent to elucidate them. But the various steps taken in the different States, which led up to Seces- sion — the whole history of the war, militar^y, congressional, and diploma- tic — and the reconstruction measures which have followed its close, forming i)erhaps the most curious and instructive record to be found in the annals of any people, — these can only be gathered with great industry and patience by some party who possesses the rare faculty of ferreting out what is hidden — / " To learn upon a hint, to find upon a clue." The response wliich has been made to our appeals, though for reasons already suggested, unproductive of any valuable results — is yet suflBcient to convince us that when some distinct progress shall be exhibited in the prosecution of this work, or a feasible method for accomplishing it has been devised, our people will readily contribute the means necessary. These matters, therefore, are submitted to the wisdom of the Conven- tion, with the sincere hope that its deliberations will not terminate with- out giving a large impulse to a movement in wliich the safety of our com- mon country and the honor of our own people seem to us so largely in- volved. B. M. PALMER, HARRY T. HAYS, G. T. BEAUREGARD. After a short recess, the Committee on Credentials reported the following delegates as present : — Louisiana Gen. G. T. Beauregard, Capt. Chas. E. Fenner, Gen. C. M. AVilcox, Capt. Geo. H. Frost, Gen. P. O. Hebert, \Y . A. Bell, Lt. Chas. A. Conrad, H. Y. T. Beauregard. Georgia Judge D. A. Vaison, Major Jno. A. A. West, Gen. Ro. H. Anderson. North Carolina. Hon. R. H. Smitli. Alabama Admiral Raphael Semmes, Col. G. A. Henry, Jr., Col. T. B. Roy, Capt. E. Thornton Tayloe. Texas Col. A. W. Spaight, Maj. F. Chas. Hume, Major D. F. Holland. South Carolina. Gen. M. C. Butler, Maj. C. H. Suber. Kentucky Col. AYm. Preston Johnston. Maryland H. C. Turnbull, Jr. Mississippi Gen. W. T. Martin, Major D. W. Floweree, Capt. J. E. Leigh. Missouri Col. W. H. H. Russell. Tennessee Col. Jno. A. McKinuey, Gen. W. Y. C. Humes. Gen. A. W. Campbell, Rev. J. H. Bryson, W. A. Collier, Sam. Mannsfield, Col. Polk Johnson. Virginia Gen. Henry Heth, Gen. D. H Maury, Gov. Jno. Letcher, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, Gen. Eppa Huuton, Gen. Thos. T. Munford. Col. R. E. Withers, Gen. Jas. H. Lane, Gen. Gabriel C. AVharton. Gen. R. D. Lille}% Rev. Dr. J L. M. Curry, Rev. J. Wm. Jones, Col. C. S. Venable, Col. Jno. A. Sloan, Gen. AV. R. Terry, Gfci. Wm. Terry, Col. Wm. Preston Johnston, Col. Robert T. Preston, F. R. Farrar, Gen. B. H. Robertson, Capt. J. W. C. Davis, and Gen. J. A. Early. b PROCEEDINGS OF THE The Committee on Permanent Organisation reconimendcd the following officers, who ■svere unanimously elected : — President— Gov. Jolm Letcher, of Virginia. 1st Vice-President— Admiral Senimes, of Alabama. 2(^ Vice-President — Geu. G. T. Beauregard, of Louisiana. 'M Vice-President— Gen. W. Y. C. Humes, of Teuuessee. Secretary — Rev. J. Wm. Jones, of Virginia. Ass't Secretary— Major Jno. A. A. West, of Georgia. The President appointed Col. Withers, Gen. Early, and Admiral Semmes to escort Gov. Letcher to the Chair. On taking the Chair, Gov. Letcher returned thanks for the honor conferred upon him, and spoke earnestly of the impor- tant objects to be subserved by the Convention. Gen. Early then read a letter from Wm. Hand Browne, Editor of The Southern Magazine, which was referred to the Committee on Business; as were also a letter from S. Teackle Walli^, and certain business proposals from the publishers of The Southern Magazine. On motion of Admiral Semmes, the Chair appointed the following Committee on Business: — 1. Admiral Semmes. 2. Gen. Wilcox. 3. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. 4. Gen. Butler. 5. Gen. MaurJ^ 6. Gen. Martin. 7. Gen. Hebert. 8. Gen. Early. 9. Col. Jno. McKinney. 10. Col. Vcnablc. IL Col. Wm. Preston Johnston. On motion of Gen. R. D. Lilley, the following resolution was referred to the Committee on Business : That a Committee of three or more be appointed from each State, to receive historical sketches and such facts as will be of service in preparing a correct history cf the Confederate army — the Vice-President of each State to be chairmonBTof the Com- mittee for his State. On motion of Col. Wm. Preston Johnston, Gen. Early was requested to deliver his address at 4 p. m. to-day. SOUTHEEN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. 7 Gen. Heth explained the unavoidable absence of Gens. Hood and Pickett, and the Convention then adjourned till 4 P. M. AFTERNOON SESSION. The Convention met at 4 o'clock, pursuant to adjournment. Gov. Letcher in the chair. Gen. Early, who had been requested by a resolution of the Southern Historical Society (adopted at New Orleans), to de- liver the opening address to the Convention, was then intro- duced to the Convention by the President, and delivered an address setting forth the duties that had devolved on the survivors of the Confederate Army and Navy, in reference to the history of the late war. On motion of Col. Withers, the Convention then adjourned until 10 A. M. to-morrow. Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, Va., August loth, 1873. The Convention met pursuant to adjournment. Gov. Letcher in the Chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and ap- proved. Gen. George E. Pickett appeared, and took his seat as a delegate from Virginia. On motion, Wyndham Robertson, Esq., former Acting Governor of Virginia, was invited to a seat on tlie floor. O PROCEEDINGS OF THE Admiral R. Semmes, Chairman, announced that the Com- mittee on Business was ready to report, and at his request Col. Wm. Preston Johnston then read the following resolu- tions reported by the Committee: — Resolved, 1. That the headquarters of the Southera Historical Society be transferred to Richmoud, Virginia. 2. That this Convention, in order to carry out the purposes proposed by tlie Executive Committee of the Southern Historical Society, at New Orleaus, proceed to re-organise the Society, with the object and purposes set forth in the annexed paper, as modified, and to elect officers. 3. That this organisation be retained ou its preseijt basis, and tliat the officers shall be a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, and Executive Committee, resident in the State of Virginia, and a Vice-Presi- dent in each of tiie Southern States. 4. That each Vice-President shall be ex-officio President of the auxiliary State Society, and is requested to organise the same and the affiliated local Societies. 5. That the Secretary shall receive a salary to be fixed by the Executive Committee. 6. That the Society adopt some financial scheme to raise funds to carry out the purposes of the organisatiou and the publication of its historical material. 7. That the fee of annual membership be three dollars, and of life mem- bership fifty dollars. 8. That the publication of the material collected be made either by means of a Magazine, or by occasional volumes of transactions, as may be found most expedient. 9. Tlial the Society as soon as reorganised, proceed to enrol members and to extend its membership. 10. That in all questions touching the organisation of the Society, when a division is called for, the vote shall be taken by States, and each State shall be entitled to two votes. 11. That the thanks of the Convention be tendered to the Editor and Publishers of The Southern Magazine, for their publication of valuable contributions to the history of the Confederate War. 13. That this Convention offer to General Early its thanks for his able and valuable address, and request a copy for publication witli the proceed- ings of the Convention, so that a wide circulation may be given to it. _ [The following is the paper referred to in the second resolution, being the general outline for the original organisation of the Society, as modified by the Convention.] The Southern Histoeical Society is organised with the following general outline : A parent society, to hold its seat and its archives in the City of Richmond, Virginia, with affiliated societies to be organised in all the States favorable to the object proposed; these in their turn branching into local organisa- tions in the different townships — forming thus a wide fellowsliip of closely co-ordinated societies, with a common centre in the parent association in the said city. The object proposed to be accomplished is the collection, classification, preservation, and final publication, in some form to be hereafter determined, of all tlie documents and f:\cts bearing upon the eventful history of the past few years, illustrating the nature of the struggle from wliich the country has just emerged, defining and vindicating the principles which lay beneath it, and marking the stages through which it wasconducted to its issue. It is not understood that this association shall be purely sec- tional, nor that its labors shall be of a partisan character. SOUTHERN HISTOEICAL CONVENTION. 9 Evei'ytliing which relates to this critical period of our national history, pending the conflict, antecedent or subsequent to it, from the point of view of either, or of both the contestants; everything, iu short, which shall vindicate the truth of history is to be industriously collated and filed. It is doubtless true, that an accepted history can never be written in the midst of the stormy events of which that history is composed, nor by the agents through whose efficiency they were wrought. The strong pas- sions which are evoked in every human conflict disturb the vision and warp the judgment, in the scales of whose criticism the necessary facts are to be weighed— even the relative importance of these facts cannot be measured by those who are iu too close proximity. Scope must be afforded for the development of the remote issues before they can be brought under the range of a philosophical apprehension ; and the secret thread be discovered, running through all history, upon which its single facts crj's- tallise in the unity of some great Providential plan. The generations of the disinterested must succeed the generations of the prejudiced, before history, properly termed such, can be written. This, precisely, is the work we now attempt, to construct the archives iu which shall be collected these memoirs to serve for future history. It is believed that invaluable documents are scattered over the whole land, iu loose sheets, perhaps, lying in the portfolios of private gentlemen, and only preserved as souvenirs of their own parts in the historic drama. Existing in forms so perishable, regarded, it may be, only as so much waste paper, by those into whose bauds they must fall, no delay should be suflered in their collection and preservation. There is doubtless, too, much that is yet unwritten floating only in the memories of the living, which if not speedily rescued will be swallowed in the oblivion of the grave, but which, if reduced to record and collated, would afford the key to many a cipher, in a little while to become unin- telligible for want of interpretation. All this various material, gathered from every section, will need to be industriously classified and arranged, and finally deposited in the central archives of the Society, under the care of appropriate guardians. To this task of collection, we invite the immediate attention and co- operation of our copatriots throughout the South, to facilitate which, we propose the organisation of State and district associations, that our whole people may be brought in harmony of action in this important matter. The rapid changes through which the institutions of the country are now passing, and the still more stupendous revolutions in the opinions of men, remind us that we stand to-day upon the outer verge of a great his- toric cycle, within which a completed past will shortly be enclosed. An- other cycle may touch its circumference; but the events it shall embrace will be gathered around another historic centre, and the future historian will pronounce that in stepping from the one to the other he has entered upon another and separate volume of the nation's record. Let us, who are soon to be in that past to which we properly belong, see there are no gaps in the record. Thus shall we discharge a duty to the fathers whose principles we in- herit; to the children, who will then know whether to honor or to dis- honor the sires that begot them; and above all, to the dead heroes sleep- ing on the vast battle plains, from the Susquehannah to the Kio Grande, whose epitaph history yet waits to engrave upon their tombs. The funds raised by initiation fees, assessments, donations and lectures, after defraying the current expenses, will be appropriated to the safe-keep- ing of the archives, and publication of the transactions. For the accomplishment of these ends contributions are respectfully solicited from all parties interested in the establishment and prosperity of the Southern Historical Society. Contributions to the archives and library of the society arc respectfully solicited under the following specific divisions : 10 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 1. The histories and historical collections of the individual States from the earliest periods to the present time, including travels, journals and maps. 2. Complete files of the newspapers, periodicals, literarj% scientific and medical journals of the Southern States, from the earliest times to the present day, including, especially the period of the recent American civil war. 3. Geological, topographical, agricultural, manufacturing and commer- cial reports, illustrating the statistics, climate, soil, resources, products and commerce of the Southern States. 4. Works, speeches, sermons and discourses relating to the recent con- flict and political changes. Congressional and State reports, duriug the recent war. 5. Ofiicial reports and descriptions, by officers and privates and news- paper correspondents and eye-witnesses of campaigns, military operations, battles and sieges. G. Military maps. 7. Reports upon tl-.e munitions, arms and equipment, organisation, numbers and losses of the various branches of the Southern armies — in- fantry, artillery, cavalry, ordnance and commissary and quartermaster departments. 8. Reports of the Adjutant General of the late C. S. A., and of the Adjutant Generals of the armies, departments, districts and States, show- ing the resources of the individual States, the available fighting popula- tion, the number, organisation and losses of the forces called into actual service. 9. Naval operations of the Confederate States. 10. Operations of the Nitre and Mining Bureau. 11. Commercial operations. 13. Foreign relations, diplomatic correspondence, etc. 13. Currency. 14. Medical statistics and medical reports. 15. Names of all officers, soldieis and sailors in the military and naval service of the Confederate States who were ivilled in battle, or died of disease or wounds. 16. Names of all wounded officers, soldiers and sailors. The nature of the wounds should be attached to each name, also the loss of one or more limbs should be carefully noted. 17. Published reports and manuscripts relating to civil prisoners held during the war, 18. All matters, published or unpublished, relating to the treatment, diseases, mortality, and exchange of prisoners of war. 19. The conduct of the hostile armies in the Southern States. Private and public losses during the war. Treatment of citizens by hostile forces. 20. Southern poetry, ballads, songs, etc. On motion of Gen. Beauregard, the above resolutions were adopted. Admiral Semmes then moved that the Convention proceed to the reorganisation of tlie Southern Historical Society, which motion was adopted. Admiral Semmes moved that a recess of twenty (20) minutes be taken, to consult upon the nomination of officers. SOUTHEEN HISTOEICAL CONVENTION. 11 Gen. Butler moved, as a substitute, that a Committee be appointed to nominate officers. Admiral Semmes withdrew his motion in favor of Gen. Butler's, which was tlien adopted. The President appointed the following Committee on Nominations : — Gen. G. T. Beauregard, Louisiana, Chairman. Hon. R. H. Smith, Nortli Carolina. Judge D. A. Vaison, Georgia. Admiral R. Semmes, Alabama. Maj. F. Chas. Hume, Texas. Gen. M. C. Butler, South Carolina. Col. W. P. Johnston, Kentucky. H. C. Turnbull, Jr., Maryland. Gen. "W. T. Martin, Mississippi. Gen. A. W. Campbell, Tennessee. Gen. Fitzbugli Lee, Virginia. A recess of thirty (30) minutes was taken, for the purpose of giving the Committee time to consult. The Convention reassembled at 2 o'clock p. m. The Committee on Nominations, through their Chairman, reported the following gentlemen for election as officers of the Southern Historical Society. President .• Gen. JuBAL A. Early, of Virginia. Vice-President: Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia. . Secretary 7,nd ex-officio Treasurer: Col. G. W. MuNFORD, of Virginia. Vice-Presidents of States : Gen. Isaac R. Trimble, Md. Gen. J. B. Hood, La. Gov. Zebulon B. Vance, N. C. Col. T. M. Jack, Texas. Gen. M. C. Butler, S. C. Hon. A. H. Garland, Ark. Gen. A. H. Colquit, Ga. Gov. Isham G. Harris, Tenn. Admiral R. Semmes, Ala. Gen. J. S. Marmaduke, Mo. Col. W. Call, Fla. Gen. S. B. Buckner. Ky. Gen. Wm. T. Martin, Miss. W. W. Corcoran, Esq., D. C. On motion, the above gentlemen were unanimously elected the officers of the Society. Gen. Early offered the followins: resolution : 12 PROC:']EDJKGS OF THE Resolved, That wo r. gret that Gen. Hardee has been de- tained from our mcotini;s by illness, and the sympathies of the Convention are hereby tendered him, with our best wishes for his speedy recovery. Gov. Letcher, before offering the resolution, paid a glowing tribute to Gen. Hardee. The resolution was unanimously adopted. The Chair appointed Admiral Semmes, Gen. Beauregard, Gen. T. T. Munford, and Gen. Early, a Committee to convey the resolution to Gen. Hardee. On motion of Admiral Semmes, Gov. Letcher was added to the Committee, as Chairman. Gen. Early tendered his thanks to the Convention for the honor it had conferred upon him, in making him the Presi- dent of the Southern Historical Society. Ho pledged his best efforts to secure the success of the organisation. The Convention then adjourned, to meet again to-morrow mornino; at 11 o'clock. August 16th. 1873. The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment, at 11 o'clock. Gov. Letcher in the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Gov. Letcher gave notice of the expected arrival of Presi- dent Davis, and suggested the propriety of an adjournment of the Convention till Monday, and the appointment of a Com- mittee to receive the President. On motion of Gen. Beauregard, the Chair appointed a Committee, composed of the following gentlemen : Gen. Beauregard, Admiral Semmes, Gen. Early, Gen. Lilly, and Gen. T. T. Munford. SOUTHERN HTSTOEICAL CONVENTION. lo And on motion, Gov. Letcher was added to the Committee, as Chairman thereof. Admiral Semmes gave notice of a desire to make some re- marks, before the Convention should finally adjourn, in de- fence of certain points in his own career which had been vigorously assailed. Gen. Early fixed the hour of 12 M. to-day for a meeting of the Southern Historical Society, and requested Admiral Semmes, if convenient, to deliver his address at that hour, and before the Society. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee gave notice that there was an organisa- tion in A'^irginia, known as the Virginia Division of the Asso- ciation of the Army of Northern Virginia, which held its sessions annually in the city of Richmond, Va., and that the next session would be held on the thirtieth (30) October next; when an address would be delivered by Col. Chas. S. Ven- able, of Gen. R. E. Lee's Staff, to which he cordially iuvited the soldiers and sailors of the Confederate States. On motion, the Convention adjourned till 11 o'clock, A. M,, Monday. Monday, August 18th, 1873. The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment. Gov. Letcher in the Chair. Meeting called to order. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Gov. Letcher, addressing the Convention as Chairman of the Committee to present the resolution adopted, tendering the sympathies of the Convention to Gen. Hardee, reported that the Committee had performed its duty. 14 PROCEEDINGS, &C. Admiral Semmes then presented to tlie Convention Presi- dent Davis. The Convention received him standing. Gov. Letcher, in a short address, cordially welcomed Presi- dent Davis, who madean appropriate acknowledgment, in an address of a few minutes, to the Convention. Gov. Letcher now gave notice that the Convention was ready for business. Admiral Semmes offered the following preamble and reso- lutions: WlicreaSy each generatioa of men owes the debt to posterity to hand down to it a correct history of the more important events that have trans- pired in its day ; And whereas, the history of awcvy people is the common inheritance of mankind, because of the k'ssons it may teach ; And whereas, for the purposes of history, the people of the late Con- federate States were a separate people from the people of the North, during the four years of conflict which they maintained against them ; And icJiereas, uo people loving the truth of history can have any object or motive in suppressing or mutilating any fact which may be material to the proper elucidation of history : Tlierefore, he it Resolved, by the Convention of the Southern Historical Society, in session at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, and composed of delegates from all the Southern States, that his Excel- lency President Grant, of these United States, be respectfully requested to permit the Secretary of the Southern Historical Society to inspect all papers that were captured by the forces of the United States, during the late war, from Confederate States' officers or citizens, and to make copies of such of them as he may think fit, now in the possession or under the control of the Government of the United States, for the purpose of en- abling the said Society the better to perform the duty, which it has pre- scribed to itself, of perpetuating the testimony on which the future historian of this the most memorable of the wars of mankind, is to base his history. General Martin seconded the adoption of the preamble and resolutions, and the same were unanimously adopted. There being no more business before the Convention, on motion of Gen. Early, it adjourned sine die. JOHN LETCHER, President. JOHN A. A. WEST, AssH Secretary. Southern Historical Society. MOKTGOMERY WhITE SuLPHUK SpEINGS, Va., September 16ih, 1873, A number of persons having enrolled themselves as mem- bers of the Southern Historical Society, notice was given by the President elect, General Jubal A. Early, that there would be a special meeting to-day (September 16th, 1873) in the ball-room, and at the said time and place the Society was called to order by the President, who assumed the chair. General Thomas T. Munford was appointed Acting Secre- tary, in the absence of the regular Secretary, and Major John A. A. West was appointed assistant acting Secretary. Admiral Semmes was then introduced to the Society, and delivered an able address, in review of comments and criti- cisms that had been made on his career as a naval commander in the Confederate service. After a few remarks by the President in reference to the objects to be accomplished by the Society, and the mode of extending its organisation, on motion, the Society adjourned until 11 o'clock Monday, the 18th, at the same place. (15J 16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Monday, September \%th, 1873. Tlie Society was called to order, the President in the chair. The President then announced that it would be impractic- able for him at present to appoint the Executive Committee, but that he could now announce General Dabney H. Maury as chairman of it, leaving the other members to be appointed hereafter. Colonel Wm. Preston Johnston then offered the following resolutions for adoption by the Society : — Resolved, That the funds that have been and shall be col- lected before the appointment of the Executive Committee, shall be deposited in a bank in Lyncliburg, subject to the order of the President of the Society, who is requested to see to the prompt and accurate publication of copies of the pro- ceedings and addresses on this occasion. Resolved, That Admiral Semraes be requested to place his fair and able vindication of the conduct of Confederate cruisers, delivered on Saturday, at the disposal of tlie Society, and, if agreeable to him, that the same be included in the publication of the proceedings of the Society. Resohed, That the women of the South who desire to do so, may enroll themselves as members of the Southern His- torical Society, in the name and on behalf of friends and relatives who have fiillen in the contest, or wiio having shared its perils, have since died. On motion, the said resolutions were unanimously adopted. On motion, the Society then adjourned, to meet at Rich- mond, Va., on the call of the President. J. A. EARLY, President. T. T. MUNFORD, Acting ."Secretary. Note. — The address of Admiral Semmcs, referred to iu cue of the above resoUuious, lias not becu furuished, but will be filed by him with llie Sccrctaiy, to be published hereafter. SOUTHEEN HISTOEIOAL CONVENTION. 17 Tlie following persons have been appointed members of the Executive Committee of the Southern Historical Society, in order to complete its organisation : — General Dabney H. Maury, Richmond, Va., Chairman. Colonel Charles S. Venable, University of Virginia. Colonel Wm. Preston Johnston, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. Colonel Robert E. Withers, Wytheville, Va. Colonel Joseph Mayo, Richmond, Va. Rev. John Wra. Junes, " " Lieut.-Colonel Archer Anderson, Richmond, Va. Major Robert Stiles, Richmond, Va. George L. Christian, Esq., Richmond, Va. J. A. EARLY, President 8. H. S. ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION, By GENERAL JUBAL A. EARLY. On the 9tli of June, 1873, the Southern Historical Society, at New Orleans, adopted the following resolution : ^'■Resolved, That General Early be requested to open the Convention "with an address." In accordance with the request made in the said resolution, General Early delivered the following address to the Conven- tion, on the 14tli of August, 1873, after its organisation: — Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention : Permit me, in the first place, to extend to those of you who come from other States, a cordial welcome to Virginia — a State Avhich, however illustrious she may have been in her past re- cord and history, has in our day been rendered still more illustrious by the deeds performed on her soil by soldiers from all parts of the late Confederate States, in defence of the grand- est human cause for Avhich man has ever fought. That soil has been freely drenched with the blood, and has received into its bosom the mortal remains of those who were among the best, ti'uest, and bravest of the sons of all the South. It is not, therefore, inappropriate that, as representatives of the survivors of the Ai-mies and Kavy of the Southern Confed- eracy, we should assemble here, amid the mountains and val- leys of a State so marked in the history of our straggle, to concert measures for preserving and perpetuating the memory of the principles involved and the deeds performed in that ADDEESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EAELY. 19 struggle. To those of our comrades whose fortune it was to uphold with so much gallantry and devotion, on other fields or on the high seas, the standard of the common cause, this welcome is given with fully as much cordiality as to those whose lot it was to follow the lead of the immortal Lee and Jackson. In proceeding to discharge the duty assigned me by a res- olution adopted at New Orleans by " The Southern Historical Society," I must take occasion to express a sense of my inability to perform that duty in a satisfactory manner, and my regret that it has not been devolved on one more competent. Having undertaken it, however, I must bespeak your kind and patient indulgence while I address to you some remarks, which I trust may not be without their uses, though clothed in the plain language of a soldier. I have heretofore given expression .to some of my views on subjects which come within the scope of such an address as it has occurred to me would be suitable to this occasion ; and as neither with my tongue nor my pen am I very expert in the use of language, and my imagination is not very fertile in tropes and figures of rhetoric — in fact, as my tongue is not double and my mind not subject to frequent changes, so that what I think and say at one time on any sub- ject, I am apt to think and say at another on the same sub- ject — I shall have to repeat much of what I have heretofore said on other occasions. " History is the philosophy of examples," was the remark of Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; or, as it is rendered by a distin- guished English writer and statesman of the early part of the last century. Lord Bolingbroke, " History is philosophy teach- ing by examples ; " and in citing the remark, Bolingbroke has followed it with some very admirable reflections on the pro- priety and necessity of examples, remote as well as immediate, in all teachings, spiritual as well as secular. The famous New England lexicographer, Webster, in his unabridged dictionary, says that "History and story are the same word differently written ; " and in giving the definitions of the word " Story," he defines it under one head to be : "A trifling tale ; a fiction ; a fable ; as, the story of a fairy : " and he adds : " In popular usage, story is sometimes a softer term for a lie." Judging from the character of most, if not all, of the so- SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. called histories of om- war which have appeared, there is good reason to suspect that their authors have adopted Webster's idea that the two words are synonymous, and taking the defi- nitions of the word " story " which I have cited as the true meaning of both words, have imagined that in giving the fie. tions and ftibles with which their books abound, they have really been Avriting history. And I am soriy to say that this misapprehension does not appear to be confined to Northern authors, but seems to have been shai*ed to a great extent by some Southern writers on the war. According to the mythology of the Ancients, history Avas jiresided over by one of the Muses, who was usually repre- sented as a beautiful and stately virgin, crowned with laurels, and holding in one hand a trumpet and in the other a scroll. Even in those days she did not pass without reproach, for it is related of her that, having excited the anger of Yenus by taunting her with her 4ove for Adonis, the bosom of the pru- dish maiden was inspired by the ii-ato goddess with an ardent afi'ection for one of the opposite sex, and that she likewise became a victim to the tender passion. In our day, if we are to judge by the number and character of her votaries, the Muse of History has become a thorough flirt and coquette — a very Doll}^ Yarden, fully imbued with the ruling passion for the prevailing mode. With her ever-changing smiles, her highly-rouged cheeks, her tumbling cataracts or towering pyr- amids of artificial hair, and her figui'c distorted by all the whimsical contrivances of most capricious and extravagant fashion, it would be impossible for one of her ancient votaries to recognise in her the fair j)roportions of the once comely damsel. Nevertheless as, notwithstanding all the efforts at disguise, there is much of grace and beauty in the outward form and features of woman that will enforce and enchain our admiration, and still more of loveliness in her inward na- ture that will make itself felt and appreciated when subjected to the ordeal, so there is an innate power in the truth which will command the attention of mankind ; and History will yet vindicate her claim to the title given her by the historian of old. Let it be our task to strip the Muse of Historj' of the taw- dry vestments and meretricious ornaments by Avhich her real beauty has been obscured, and present her once more to the ADDEESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 21 world in her proper guise, as the patroness and guardian of the truth. We have some very short-sighted mentors who conjure us to cast the mantle of oblivion over the past, and much has been spoken and written about closing the bloody chasm that j^awns between the two sections of the country. However, , none of our modern Curtiuses propose to close that chasm by plunging into it ; their chief desire seeming to be to bridge ove^" the chasm, in order that they may plunge their hands into the flesh-pots on the other side, whose savor is too great a temp- tation for their virtue — and the bloody chasm still j^awns, and will continue to do so. It is idle to talk about forgetting the past. AVe could not forget if we would, and I trust that there are many of us who would not forget if we could. When the captive Jews sat down by the rivers of Babylon, and wept for the desolation of their land, their captors and spoilers required of them mirth, saying, " Sing us one of the songs of Zion ; " but they hanged their harps upon the willows; and the Psalmist has put into their mouths this indignant protest: " How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. "If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." Can it be expected that we shall prove less faithful than they ? In our day and generation we have witnessed more of devo- tion and heroism exhibited in a struggle for the right of self- government, than were ever exhibited in any previous struggle ; and if we were to attempt to erase all traces of the con- test through which we have gone, it would be a vain task, for the world will not permit the memory of such deeds as were performed on the battle-fields of the Confederacy — nay, on this very soil of Virginia — to die. In this century the pyramids, the tombs, and the ruined temples and cities of ancient Egypt and Ethiopia have been explored, and long-forgotten hiero- glyphics have been deciphered, at great cost and labor, for the purpose of ascertaining the true history of peoples long since supplanted by other and conquering races. The ruins of Nin- eveh, of Babylon the Great, and of the other cities of ancient 22 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. Assyria and Babylonia, including the supposed site of the Tower of Babel itself, have been excavated, in order to discover, on crumbling bricks and tablets, in inscriptions made in cuneiform characters, authentic traces of the history of peoples whose descendants no longer have a distinct 0/ recognised existence on the face of the earth. And within this very year an enter- prising German savant has been engaged in the effort to dis- cover, on the classic banks of the Seamander, the site of ancient Troy, whose very existence has been regarded by many as a myth. How, then, can it be imagined that the leading events of a struggle which, during its continuance, electrified the whole civilised world by the grandeur of the sacrifices endured and of the deeds performed by a people who were fighting for their sacred rights, against such odds and difficulties as had never been encountered in any previous struggle, will be permitted to fade from the memories of men ? It is a vain delusion, an idle dream. Nor will the interest in our struggle be lost because we were not successful. The enlightened world does not accept as an infallible maxim, that success is the only criterion of merit. Sir Walter Scott it is, I believe, who has said, "Brave blood was ne'er shed in vain ; " and Byron has said with great power and truth : " They never fail who die In a great cause. The block may soak their gore ; Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls — But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, ^fhey but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which o'erpower all others, and conduct The world at last to freedom." The unreflecting masses may adoi)t as a maxim that " It is better to worship the rising than the setting sun ; " and time- servers may — " Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning" — a phrase far more hackneyed in the performance than in the quotation even — and there may be too much truth in the words of the j)oet who has said : ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 23 "It is success that colors all in life ; Success makes fools admired, makes villains honest. All the proud virtue of this vaunting world Fawns on success and power, however acquired." Yet by the discerning good and true of all ages and climes — those who believe that justice, right, and truth are as eternal as the throne of Him who is " from everlasting to everlast- ing" — it has been, and will continue to be, thought better to deserve success than to achieve it ; and by such, the deeds ot the virtuous and truly great will always be valued according to their real merit, though success may not have crowned them. Nay, it is mainly among the contemporaries of the favorites of fortune that are found those sordid enough to worship exclusively at the shrine of success and power ; but when we come to review the transactions of the past, the sj'mpathies of mankind are generally with the unfortunate, especially if they had virtue and right on their side. Boling- broke, in his letter on the spirit of patriotism, has said: "For- tune maintains a kind of rivalry with wisdom, and piques her- self often in favor of fools as well as knaves." Seneca has said : " The noblest spectacle, which the gods can behold, is a virtuous man suffering and struggling with afflictions ; " and in quoting this remark Bolingbroke adds : " I will say that the second Cato, driven out of the forum and dragged to prison, enjoj^ed more inward pleasure, and maintained more outward dignity, than they who insulted him, and who tri- umphed in the ruin of their country." The story of the siege and fall of Troy, as it appears in .the heroic verse of Homer and of Virgil, mythic though it be to a great extent, has a charm for the youthful fancy and feelings of the school-boy plodding through the classics, which is not lost in old age; and that story will live as long as time exists. The action of the Grecian heroes, as portrayed by Homer, cap- tivates the imagination ; but it is the picture of the pious vEneas escaping from the smouldering ruins of fated Troy, bearing his aged father on his shoulders, cariying his house- hold gods in his arms, and leading his youthful son by the hand, as given by Virgil, that appeals most powerfully to all the sympathies and softer emotions of the heart. And from this story, too, obscured as it is by much that is fabulous, a lesson is to be gathered. Thouc-h the aveufjing Greeks were 24 SOUTHEEN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. triumphant, and the " heavenly built walls" of "sacred Troy" were so effectually rased that their very site has for many ages been a matter of speculation, the pious ^^aeas, after en- countering many vicissitudes of fortune by sea and land, finally landed on the shores of Latium, where his descendants built a city and founded a people and government which sub- dued, among other nations, that very Greece b}' whose arms Troy fell, and became and remained Tor many centuries "the mistress of the world." Ever since, " the Eternal City " has ex- ercised a most important influence over the destinies of man- kind, and it has lately been restored to the position of the cap- ital of re-united Italy ; whilst Greece, once the abode of demi- gods and heroes, of philosophers and sages, of jioets, orators, and statesmen, has long since sunk into a state of imbecility and degradation from which she cannot rise, though she has had the sympathies of the civilised world and the material aid of the most powerful nations of Europe. ^^Fiiit Ilium " is the brief sentence which recorded the fate of Troy, but that of Greece has been even more sad : ■ " 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more ! " and brigands roam in what Avere "the groves of the Academy." Let us take courage, and not despair because we have had another instance, in our own experience, of the fact that " might is often more powerful than right." It has been incautiously said that "we submitted our rights to the arbitrament of ai'ms, and the decision was against us ; therefore it is our duty to accept the result as final and con- clusive ; " and it has even been declared that " the highest law that can exist is that established by force of arms." The first statement is not true in any sense. The people of the South asserted rights which had been secured by the valor of their ancestors, and which had descended to them by an indisput- able title. When those rights were unconstitutionally assailed, and their homes and firesides were most wrongfully threatened and invaded, they rushed to arms to defend all that was dear to them, against the fire and sword of the invaders. It is a most gross perversion of language to call this a "submission of their rights to the arbitrament of arms." The other declara- tion embodies the sentiment of the red-handed conqueror, with ADDEESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EAELY. 25 his foot on the neck of his victims, as well as of the robber on the highway. When it comes from one Avho was overpowered by physical power in a manly struggle for the right, we can but weej) over the frailty that is not proof against the tempta- tions of adversity. We are bound to accept the miraculous conversion of the persecuting Saul on his way to Damascus, for that was a case of Divine interposition and revelation ; but the thorough and radical conversion from the cherished senti- ments of a lifetime, that could be produced only by four years of dreadful, though glorious, war in defence of those senti- ments — and which conversion was not developed until all was lost and policy pointed the way to it — makes too great a de- mand on our faith. It is a most lamentable spectacle to behold one of the newly fledged proselytes attempting to keep step in the march to the tune of "John Brown's soul goes march- ing on." It is very certain that there is no more truth now in the Latin phrase Vox populi, vox Dei, than there was when the people cried, " Crucify him ! Crucify him ! " Some one has said that " Nations cannot commit great crimes with impunity, any more than can individuals ; " and all history, sacred and profane, vindicates the truth of the re- mark. There is a great compensating principle in the moral law, as applied to nations as well as to individuals, which ren- ders it certain that, when its cardinal precepts have been vio- lated, the day of retribution will come, sooner or later. From all time of which we have any record, nations and governments have risen, flourished and fallen, and their fall has in each case, almost invariably, been preceded by a loss of public virtue, an inordinate greed for the acquisition of money, the spread of luxury and corruption, and the commission of great national crimes. In the century in which we live thei'e have been no- table instances of the instability of human governments. Within the lives of many now living, and perhaps of some within the sound of my voice, the first French Empire has arisen with resplendent glory, and after disturbing the peace of all Europe and threatening its subjugation, has gone down n ignominious disaster — its founder and chief having dragged out the remnant of his existence on a barren rock in the ocean. The second Empire has arisen within the memory of all of us; and though but a little more than three years ago it was re- garded as the most powerful and best established government 26 SOUTHEEN HISTOEICAL CONVENTION. in all Europe, we have witnessed its sudden downfall, and the recent death in exile of its head ; while a power that was nearly crushed out by the first Empire, and was seriously threatened by the second, has risen to the first rank among the nations of the earth, and has taken most signal vengeance on its old adversary. Rest assui'ed that, sooner or later, a just retribution will overtake the commission of the foulest political crime the world has ever witnessed — the utter annihilation of the au- tonomy of eleven free, sovereign States, and the subjection of the intelligent, virtuous populations of most of them to the rule of an ignorant and inferior race, utterly incapable of un- derstanding the first principles of government, and in turn con- trolled and ruled for the very worst purposes by a vile herd of alien adventurers, swindlers, and thieves. Already, in the unrebuked corruption which stalks abroad, the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth, the prevalence of " rings" formed for the purposes of public plunder, the rage for luxury, and the stolid indifference manifested by the masses in regard to the monstrous wrongs which are now being committed, under the hardly colorable pretext of liberty and constitutional law, but really in utter contempt of both, — as for instance in Louisiana, South Carolina, and other Southern States, — may be discerned the evidences of that decay which precedes the end ; and the thoughtful and observant cannot fail to perceive the indications of " the handwriting on the wall," though the knees of our Belshazzars — for we have many — may not smite the " one against the other," because they are drunk with their revelries or blinded by their passions. It is a moral impossibility that even the semblance of repub- lican government can long exist when the voice of what were, and ought now to be, sovereign States, is suppressed by the unscrupulous agents of the central government, and the acts and usurpations of those agents ai-e sustained by that govern- ment. The gangrene is in the system, and it will spread wider and Avider until the whole body-politic decays, rots, and falls to pieces ; and he who does not see the inevitable fate approaching, is either ignorant of the teachings of history or has studied them to very little purpose. The power of money, or the national debt, though it may retard, cannot arrest the progress to final destruction : that debt is the price of blood, and no blessing can attend it. ADDEESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 27 May we not be permitted to exclaim, in the language of the despoiled Jews as given in the Psalm from which I have already quoted — "O daughter of Babylon, w^ho art to be desti'oyed ! happy shall he be that rewardest thee as thou hast served us ! " Mighty and startling events have transpired within the last decade. Who can say what revolutions the present or next one may not bring forth? It was said of old that no man can be counted happy until he dies; and the question whether we were not more fortu- nate in having made a noble struggle for our liberties, though we lost them, than the enemies who overcame us, and in doing so sapped the very foundations of liberty, is in the womb of time. There is one thing which is very certain : we cannot escape the ordeal of history. Before its bar we must appear, either as criminals — rebels and traitors seeking to throw oif the authority of a legitimate government to which we were bound by the ties of allegiance — or as patriots defending our rights and vindicating the true principles of the government founded by our fathers. In the former character our enemies are seeking to present us, not only by their historical records, but by their literature and by the whole scope and tendency of their legislation and governmental policy. Shall we permit the indictment to go forth to the world and to posterity without a vindication of our motives and our conduct ? Are we willing that our enemies shall be the historians of our cause and our struggle ? No ! a thousand times no ! The men who by their deeds caused so many of the battle-fields of the South to blaze with a glory unsurpassed in the annals of the world, cannot be so recreant to the princijjles for which they fought, the traditions of the past, and the memory of their comrades " dead upon the field of honor," as to abandon the tribunal of history to those before whose immense num- bers and physical power alone they were finally compelled to yield from mere exhaustion. Nor can we trust our vindica- tion to the pens of the non-combatants on our own side, who, if not workers of mischief in their spheres, wei-e of no material assistance to us in the terrible conflict. It is a high and solemn duty which those who were part and parcel of it owe to their dead comrades, to themselves, and to posterity, to 28 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. vindicate the lionor and glory of our cause in the history of the struggle made in its defence. If we examine the reports and histories of our enemies, we will find some very cui-ious and amusing statements in them ; and it is a notable fact that the commanders of the Federal armies, their apologists and eulogists, maintain that they were outnumbered in most of the great battles of the war. McClel- lan maintains that our numbers were nearly double his own in the battles around Richmond ; Pope declares that he w^as over- powered by numbers at second Manassas ; JMcClellan again in- sists that he was greatly outnumbered at Sharpsburg; and General Humphreys, Chief of the United States Engineer Corps, in his eulogy on Meade, asserts that the latter was outnumbered at Gettj^sburg. These are but specimens of such claims ; and it is a little singular that some one has not con- tended that Grant was outnumbered at Appomattox. Sher- idan came very near asserting that j^roposition, if it be true that he informed the Prussian commander that the surrender of Sedan was the exact counterpart of that of Appomattox. As Humphreys' eulogy has but recently met my eye, I will take some notice of it. He says that Meade had, at Gettys- burg, only 70,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 300 pieces of artillery. He also says that the Federal loss was 23,000; and that on the morning of the 5th of July, after the battle, there were but 61,000 men present for duty in Meade's whole army, making, then, his whole force at the beginning of the battle 84,000; so that there were but 4,000 men for the artillery. Now, on the 20th of October previous, according to the official returns, (Yol. 1, 1st series, of the Eeport on the Conduct of the War, p. 534,) there was an aggregate of 207,036 for duty in the Army of the Potomac, a little over 73,000 being in the de- fences of AYashington, and over 133,000 with McClcllan in the field. There had been only the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, two or three cavalry engagements, and the capture of Winchester ; and the question is, what had become of the immense force of 207,000 men who were in the Army of the Potomac, and the defences of Washington, in October previous ? Meade, in his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, (Vol. I, 2d series, p. 337,) says that he understood "Washington was quite stripped." Humphreys says that General Lee had at Gettysburg 85,000 infantry, ADDEESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EAELY. 29 8,000 cavalry, and a due proportion of artillery. It would be a rather interesting inquiry to ascertain how General Hum- phreys knew so circumstantially the strength of our army ; and how it happened that his information differed so widely from the estimates of all the officers attached to that army. And then, too, if the Confederate Government, with its limited population and resources, was, after two years of the war had elapsed, able to put into the field 93,000 infantry and cavalry, with a due proportion of artillery, for the invasion of Penn- sylvania, while the Government at Washington, with its im- mense resources, and its population of 22,000,000 and the rest of the world to recruit from, was able to raise only 84,000 men of all arms for the defence of the Ivej^stone State and the JS^ational Capitol — what must be the judgment of the world as to the relative efficiency of the two Governments, and the patriotism of their respective adherents ? In his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, (Vol. I, 2d series, p. 337,) Meade says: "Including all arms of the service, my strength was a little under 100,- 000 — about 95,000." The official returns of the Confederate Armies, on file in the Archive Office at Washington — access to which is denied all Confederates, but from which Swinton, the historian of the Army of the Potomac, made condensed state- ments, which were published in the New York Tribune in June, 1867 — show, present for duty, in all the Department of North- ern Yirginia, at the close of May, 1863, 68,352 men and officers. This included the Army of Northern Virginia, and all troops on separate or detached duty in the Department. The move- ment into Pennsylvania began on the 4th of June, and there had been no reinforcements since the returns for May had been made, and there were none after that time, excej)t perhaps two regiments of cavalry. Of course some troops had to be left in Virginia, and the whole force of all arms with which we entered Pennsylvania was less than 60,000 men, and we had not more than half as many guns as the enemy. I com- manded one of the nine infantry divisions of the ai'my, which was about an average one ; and the day before I crossed the Potomac, I had, as shown by my official return, now in my possession, 5,638 officers and men for duty, including a bat- talion of artillery attached to the division. General Humphreys is wider of the mark in estimating our 30 SOUTHERN HISTOEIOAL CONVENTION. losses than our strength. According to him, (rettysburg was another Waterloo, with the part of Bluecher left out; but I will add that there was no such command from his side as "Up Guards and at 'em! " I will, however, do him the justice to say that he is entirely correct in one respect : He says that if Meade had assaulted General Lee in the position covering Wil- liamsport, he would have been repulsed with heavy loss. There is no doubt about that. I was in a position to know the condi- tion of our troops on the march back, as my division was the rear-guard to the army on retiring from Gettysbui'g. I did not leave sight of the enemy's position there until late in the day on the 5th, and Sedgwick with the Sixth Corps, which had not been seriously engaged, and some cavalry, followed me, but at a most respectful distance. When, by reason of the trains being blocked up at Fairfield, near the base of South Mountain, he came up, and I formed line to meet him, he did not venture to attack, though the greater part of our army had passed over the mountain. Federal officers are exceedingly loth to accept the truth in regard to our strength, and they try to conceal their own. Hence, as I am informed, all access to the Federal returns, as well as to the Confederate records in the Archive Office, is studiousl}^ denied to all Confederates. When the future student of the his- tory of our war conies to examine the Federal statements and sees how often the armies on that side were outnumbered, and then tui'ns to the census next preceding the war to elucidate the matter, he will be lost in amazement, and will be apt to come to the conclusion that the Southern peoi:)le were all men and the Northern people nearly all women, or that their men were very inferior specimens of the neuter gender. I will call attention to another statement of General Hum- phreys. He says that Meade had, at the beginning of the battle of the Wilderness, 76,000 infantry in the three corps of the Army of the Potomac, 12,000 cavalry, and a large force of artillery, and that on the 6th of May he was joined by the Ninth Corps, 15,000 or 20,000 strong. Now Mr. Stanton has had something to say about this matter, and in his final re- port on the war he says that the official reports show an " aggregate available force present for duty May 1st, 1864," in the Army of the Potomac, of 120,384, and in the Ninth Corps of 20,780, making Grant's Avhole force 141,160 present ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 31 and available for duty. The movement across the Eapidan began on the night of the 3d of May, 1864, and the battle of the Wilderness on the morning of the 6th. If Stanton and General Humphreys are both right in their statements, then Meade must have had over 32,000 artillerymen — a force suf- ficient, according to the ratio of men to guns at Gettysburg, to man some 2,400 pieces of artillery I Humphreys says Gen- eral Lee had 60,000 infantry, 8,000 or 10,000 cavalry, and a due proportion of artillery. The same statement from the re- turns in the Archive Office to which I have referred, show in all the Department of Northern Virginia at the close of April, 1864, 52,626 men and officers of all arms for duty, and it is well known that we received no accessions after that time before the campaign opened, and in fact until a late period of it. General Lee really began the campaign with less than 50,000 effective men. Meade's eulogist admits that in the series of battles beginning with the Wilderness, the Army of the Potomac lost more than 60,000 men in killed and wounded. If he be correct in his statement of the strength of that army, and there was not more than the usual propor- tion of artillery, then the Army of the Potomac was very nearly destroyed by the time it reached the James. Mr. Stan- ton's statement from the official returns in the War Office was a very unfortunate one for those Federal officers and histo- rians who have sought to understate the real strength of Grant's army, and it is to be remarked that the}^ all studiously avoid any reference to the numbers received by way of rein- forcements at Spotsylvania and elsewhere. Well, perhaps it is not to be w^ondered at, for a full disclosure of all the facts would present a most astounding state of things, and would wonderfully dwarf some of the reputations gained on that side. Major-General John Pope gained a reputation during the war in one respect, in which he has been generally supposed to be without a rival; but he did not enjoy a monopoly in that particular any more than he who is generally known as " Beast Butler " did in another. Halleck's despatch immedi- ately after the evacuation of Corinth in 1862 is perhaps Avell remembered, but Pope's exjilanation is not generally known. In his report to the Committee on the Conduct of the War, made after the close of hostilities, (Supplement to the Commit- tee's Keport, part II, page 76,) Pope says : 32 SOUTHEKN HISTOEICAL CONVENTION. It becomes my duty in this place, and it is with pain that I feel obliged to perform it, to invite attention to an error which it has always been ray purpose to correct as soon as it could be done without injury to the public interests. The day after my command reached its perma- nent camp on Clear Creek (the 12th of June), I saw in the newspapers that day received, the following publication : "General Halleck's Headquarters, June 4th, 1862. " General Pope with forty thousand men is thirty miles south of Co- rinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports ten thousand pris- oners and deserters from the enemy, and fifteen thousand stand of arms captured. Thousands of the enemy are throwing away their arms. A farmer says that when Beauregard learned that Colonel Elliott had cut the railroad on his line of retreat, he became frantic, and told his men to save themselves the best way they could. We have captured nine loco- motives and a number of cars ; one of the former is already repaired and is running to day. Several more will be in running order in two or three days. The result is all I could possibly desire. " Hon. E. M. Stanton, H. W. Halleck, Secretary of War. Major -Oeneral Commanding.'^ Pope goes on to say : I copy this dispatch in full, though it is only concerning the first part of it that I have any remarks to make. I need scarcely say, after this prefiice, that I never made such a report, nor anything like it, as is stated in the dispatch above quoted. I was very much surprised when first I saw it in the papers, and immediately pointed it out to my adjutant-general and other officers of my staff, who were equally surprised with myself. So far from being thirty miles south of Corinth on the date of this dispatch, I was sick in my tent, not four miles distant from General Hal leek's head- quarters, from the 2d until the 5th of June, and was in telegraphic com- munication with him during the whole of that time, so that I think he must have known the fact. Pope evidently preferred doing his own "romancing," but from patriotic motives, and an unselfish regard for the best intei'csts of the nation whose life was at stake, he concluded to remain silent and be entirely harmonious with the powers that wei'c, especially as Halleck was soon made commander- in-chief at Washington, and he himself was placed in command of an army in Virginia, with which he proposed to crush out the "rebellion" in a very short period of time. After the war, however, he opened a correspondence on the subject with Halleck, who evaded the question and went off to California, leaving the disputed i")oint unsettled. We may not be able to perceive very clearly how the interests of a great nation could be subserved by permitting such a monstrous fabrication to go so long without contradiction by him who, to the world at large, was the ostensible author of it; but doubtless such ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EAELY. 33 matters were better understood by the people of " grand moral ideas." Justice demands that I should say that Pope's fame in his peculiar line did not long remain under an eclipse by this performance of his commanding officer, as I could abundantly demonstrate to yon were I to go into an examination of the notable variances between his own avowed despatches and the actual results of the brief but eventful campaign he conducted in Virginia, and upon which he entered with such blustering gasconade, but from which he emerged under a storm of ridicule. In regard to most of the so-called " Southern historians " of the w^ar, I have to remark that they have vindicated their in- dubitable claims to be considered great masters of the art of war by the ability with which they have pointed out the blunders committed by the generals in the field ; and it is a subject of never-failing regret that they did not happen to discover their capacity for rectifying the errors of those who were directing the actual fighting until it was too late. As it is, my own deliberate conviction is that their services in the ranks as soldiers while the war was going on would have been worth infinitely more thaii all their ex post facto criti- cisms — that is, if they could have been brought up to the fighting point. General Lee, with that quiet humor for which he was noted among those who knew him well, once remarked to one of his officers, a friend of mine : " General, some people come to me after a battle is over and tell me where mistakes were made. This is rather provoking to me, for it is then too late to correct the blunders. If they would tell me before- hand what to do, then perhaps I might do better; but after a battle is over, even as dull a man as I am can see how things might have been managed better if I had only known as much beforehand as I have learned afterwards." There is the key to the whole matter. Unfortunately, bat- tles will not wait until you can find out all about the numbers and position of the opposing forces. The information in many cases is necessarily imperfect, and often based on conjecture, as it has to be sought under great difficulties, when wide- mouthed cannons are pointing at you, and the bullets of sharp- shooters are whistling about your ears. It is therefore not unnatural, under such circumstances, that the keenest vision 3 34 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. is unable to penetrate dense forests and thick breastworks, so as to discover what they conceal, and the shrewdest judgment is sometimes at fault. Then, too, the commanding general is not onlj^ not omniscient, but he cannot be omnipresent, and must often employ the eyes and ears of others, who sometimes mislead him, because they too get their information under like difficulties. These observations apply equally to the events immediately following a battle ; for when an army has achieved a victory over its opponent, it is generally not without considerable ex- haustion of its own energy and cohesiveness, and such a dis- ruption of its organisation, as for the time to render it unavail- able for vigorous action — this is especially the case when the victorious army happens to be much the weakest in numbers. Then, too, in such a case there is generally so much excite- ment and confusion that it requires time to ascertain the exact condition of the defeated army, as the commanders of such do not usually send in messengers to volunteer the information of the straits to which they are reduced. Now, when one of your astute military critics — fireside generals perhaps I ought to call them — has learned all the facts on both sides, or, as has not unfrequently been the case, has manufactured or distorted them to suit his purposes, comes to review the situation while cosily sipping his whiskey and water, and smoking his cigar or his pipe in his own chamber, far away from the disturbing ele- ments of a real battle, it is very easy for him to fight it over again on paper, to his own satisfaction at least, and point out exactly where the mistakes had been made, and show how telling blows might have been delivered upon the weak points of the enemy; and then, too, he can pick up (on paper always) the disordered elements of the victorious army, and without waiting for them to reorganise, to replenish their ammunition, to quench their thirst, or recruit their physical strength, greatly diminished perhiips by a protracted fast, and hurl them in compact masses on the shattered forces of their opponents without regard to any physical obstacles in the way — and thus, by what he would call a grand Napoleonic combination, end the contest. All this is very beautiful and very easy on paper ; but I as- sure you that, according to my best judgment, there is a great difference between fighting a battle in the field, between two ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 35 contendiug forces with arms in their hands, and fighting one on paper — and I have tried both. I think I may fairly claim credit for entire originality in this discovery, inasmuch as the idea never seems to have oc- curred to the critics who appear to know so much about the art of war — on paper. 1 do not wish to be understood as indicating the opinion that intelligent, fair-minded civilians cannot form correct opinions about military operations, and even become very good histo- rians and critics of military events, when they have access to authentic sources of information, and take the trouble to avail themselves of them, with an honest desire to ai'rive at the truth ; especially if they will take the pains to study the prin- ciples of war, and will recognise the fact that the commanding general in the field, from the very nature of the case, must understand the surrounding circumstances, and know the ac- tual condition and capacity of his own troops, better than any one else, including his own subordinates, can possibly do. My remarks apply exclusively to those mere professional writers who, with but a slight smattering of the rudiments of the science of war, have usurped the tripod of history, and ush- ered forth to the world, as the "only authorised and authentic" Southern Histories of the War, and Biographies or Lives of General Lee, and others, their hastily prepared and crudely digested compilations from the daily newspapers and the let- ters of "war correspondents," without taking the trouble of even consulting the official reports; and have accompanied them with their arrogant judgments and criticisms upon oper- ations they were incapable of understanding. Undoubtedly, as a general rule, men who are trained to arms, as they are best able to conduct the grand operations of armies, are best able to judge and describe them. Pre-eminent among the annals of war stand the History of the Peloponne- sian War by Thucydides, and Csesar's Commentaries. Thucy- dides pai'ticipated actively in the first eight years of the war whose history he relates, and in the eighth year was one of the commanders of a fleet and an army fitted out by the Athen- ians for Thrace. His history is the first authentic profane history of any war which is extant. He devoted the whole period of the war — near thirty years — to the collection of materials for his history, and though he lived twelve years 36 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. after its termination, lie had completed the history of only twenty years of that war. In his introductory book, after cautioning the reader against " the songs of poets, whose pro- fession it is to give all possible enlargements to their subjects," and " the writers of prose, who study more that artful com- position which captivates the ear than the plain and simple recital of the truth," he says : And as for the actions performed in the course of this war, I have not prseumed to describe them from casual narratives or my ov?n conjec- tures, but either from certainty, when I myself was a spectator, or from the most exact information I have been able to collect from others. He further sa3'8 of his work : My relation, because quite clear of fable, may prove less delightful to the ears. But it will afford sufficient scope to those who love a sincere account of past transactions — of such as in the ordinary vicissitude of human affairs may fully occur, at least be resembled again. I give it to the public as an everlasting possession, and not as a contentious instru- ment of temporary applause. These observations contain some very admirable sugges- tions, which all historians should bear in mind. I will here BSiy that because Thucydides was not able to arrive to the succor of Amphipolis, an Athenian city on the river Strymon in Thrace, in time to save it from Brasidas — who prevailed upon the citizens to open their gates to him — though he occupied and fortified another city at the mouth of the same stream, so as to render the acquisition of his adversary of little avail, and successfully resisted several attempts to cap- ture the latter city, the Athenians were so incensed against him, by the clamor of the cowardly demagogue Cleon, that they stripped him of his command and condemned him to a banishment, from w^hich he was not recalled imtil the close of the war. Yet in his history he makes a simple recital of the facts, without egotism and without complaint against the treatment received from his countrymen — his onl}^ reference to that treatment being a brief statement, incidentally made in another part of his history, that "it was further my lot to sutter a twenty j^ears' exile from my country after my em- ployment in the business of Amphipolis." It is this abnega- tion of self which has served largely to gain so much admira- tion and credit for his narrative, and in it is to be found his strongest vindication. His example is worthy of all commen- ADDRESS OF GEN, JUBAL A. EARLY. 37 dation ; and I will here say that the best defence any officer who jjarticipated in the war on our side can make of his con- duct and reputation, is a simple and truthful narrative of the events in which he participated. If he shall step aside to assail others, or attempt to enhance the value of his ow^n ser- vices by underrating those of his compeers, he will most sig- nallj^ fail in his purpose, and expose himself to a just censure and a damaging criticism. Certainly, in the terrible struggle through which it was our lot to pass, enough of glory was won for each one to be content with his own proper share ; and no man can build up a substantial reputation for himself upon the ruins of that of a comrade. The shortcomings of one cannot be palliated or excused by those of another; but when the facts are truthfully given, the impartial judgment of history will render justice to all. Eeturning now to the train of thought from which I have been diverted by this digression, I will say that Cajsar's Com- mentaries are said to be the contemporaneous record of the events narrated by him as they occurred under his immediate observation. In the Southern histories and biographies to which I have referred, the incidents of one of the most, if not the most gigantic struggle the world has witnessed, have been attempted to be given by literary hacks and writers of fiction, in narra- tives compiled by contract in a few weeks or months ; though into the four years of that struggle were crowded much more important events, and many more great battles, than marked the entire thirty years of the Peloponnesian War. A very great writer of fiction, Sir Walter Scott, whose name will live as long as English literature exists, half a century ago under- took to write, by contract, a military history, or biography. His poems and novels will be co-existent with the English language, but his "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte" has sunk into deserved neglect, and will ere long be consigned to utter oblivion. Is it necessary for me to indicate what will be the fate of the class of works to which I have referred? To expose all the absurd errors of fact or opinion contained in them would require more volumes than they are composed of; but the false claim made by some of them to the sanction of high names should be coi'rected. The history of our war has not been written ; and -it devolves 38 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. upon the survivors of those who participated in that war, to furnish the authentic materials for that histoiy. When it is written faithfully and truthfully, and the enlightened world comes to compare it with the annals of past ages, it will be surprised to find how many of the noted incidents which have formed the themes of writers and orators in all ages, when compared to those which marked our struggle, sink into rel- ative insignificance ; and it will be demonstrated that in no war which the world has witnessed were the instances of unselfish jDatriotism and heroic devotion so marked and so numerous as in ours. In our war they were not confined to classes, or to age or sex, but were exhibited by the people as well as the soldiers, the women as well as the men. To illustrate my views, let me call your attention to sop^ie instances. There are many incidents in ancient history which are cited by poets, orators and historians to illustrate certain virtues or principles, and among them none figure oftener than two mentioned in Eoman history. The one is the sac- rifice alleged to have been made of himself by Curtius, who, it is said, when a chasm opened in the Eoman Forum that Avould not close, divining from an answer of the soothsayers that such a sacrifice was necessary, arrayed himself in complete armor, and mounting his horse, richly caparisoned, plunged into the yawning gulf, which closed over him. The other is that related of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, who, when a Campanian lady visiting at her house made a boastful parade of her rich jewels, produced her two sons, and pointing to them, exclaimed, " These are the only jewels I possess." Yet the story of Curtius, in its principal features, is manifestly a fable, though perhaps founded on some instance of self-sac- rificing devotion to the welfare of the republic. And some mischievous old bachelor has hinted to me that it is not im- probable that the Campanian lady who was displaying her glittering baubles to excite the admiration and envy of the Eoman matron was an old maid, or, what was perhaps more unfortunate, a married lady without children, and that the mother of the Grracchi took a malicious pleasure in punishing the vanity and presumption of her friend by displaying her own superior good fortune. However that may be, it is cer- tain that the jewels of the Eoman matron were regarded as anything else than a valuable legacy by her countrymen ; for ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 39 notwithstanding the great care bestowed by her on the educa- tion of her sons, they were regarded as very turbulent citizens and great disturbers of the peace of Eome by their contem- poraries, at whose hands both of them suffered violent deaths. Nevertheless, a statue of her was erected, with the inscrip- tion, Cornelia, Mater Gracchorum. 1 will now relate the story of a Virginia youth, and of his mother, a Virginia matron — not as solitary instances of cour- age and devotion, but as examples of many of a similar char- acter which occurred in this State, and in others of the Con- federate States. There is a part of the Great Valley of Virginia called the valley of Moorefield, lying in the county of Hardy, on the south branch of the Potomac, which is west of the Shenan- doah Valley, and is separated from the latter by a chain, or rather two chains of mountains. Going west from Mount Jack- son in the Shenandoah Valley, across the Great North Moun- tain and the valley of Lost Eiver, and then ascending Branch Mountain, as it is called, you wind along the summit of the latter for miles, with now and then a fearful precipice so near to your path as to make you hold your breath as you pass along, and an almost endless succession of mountains piled on mountains awa}^ into the dim western horizon. If you hap- pen to be a stranger to the scene, you will begin to think you are getting beyond the reach of civilisation, when suddenly there bursts upon you one of the loveliest visions mortal eye ever beheld. It is the Moorefield valley, with the village of Moorefield in the midst of it, lying away down below you, and surrounded by mountains. It will conjure up visions of the Happy Valley of which you have read in your school-boy days in the story of Rasselas, and you will gaze upon the lovely scene with admiration inexpressible. Descending by a winding, rugged road into the valley, you will find in the town and surrounding country as fine a population as was to be found in this State anywhere in her best days. The valley is not very large, but it is exceedingly fertile, while the people are hospitable to profusion, and they were devoted to the cause of the Confederacy. When any of our troops went into that valley, the people did not wait for the call of the quarter- master, commissary, or foraging parties, but voluntarily fed the troops and their horses without charge, their chief regret 40 SOUTHERN HISTOBICAL CONVENTION. being that the troops could not remain long enough to con- sume their surplus. The conscript law was never in force there, because the country was beyond our lines, and generally in the occupation or within the control of the Federal troops, who had free access to it from the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad ; nevertheless, many a brave soldier came volun- tarily from that valley to join our army. In the spring of 1863, General Wm. E. Jones went on an expedition into North- western Virginia, to break the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and passed through the Moorefield vallej^ with his brigade of cavalry and some other troops. The brigade camped one night near Moorefield, and Colonel Dulaney, of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, then commanding the brigade, was invited to camp his own regiment near a gentleman's house, in order that the latter might feed the men and horses at his own expense, which he did most bountifully. Colonel Dulaney went to the house of that gentleman to thank him for his hospitality, and there met his wife. She then informed the Colonel that she already had two sons in his brigade, and that she had another one, Avho was her third and youngest son. She said that the boy was not old enough to be forced into the army, but that he was old enough and able to do a soldier's duty; that he wanted to go into the service ; that she wanted him to do so, and did not feel satisfied that he should remain at home when her country needed soldiers ; and she further said that she wanted him to go into the Colonel's regiment, if he would take him under his care, as he was quite young. The Colonel informed her, very properly, that he could make no difference between his soldiers, but told her that he had a captain who took good care of all of his men, and, if she was willing, he would put the young man in that company. With this she was satisfied, and when the young man was fitted out he was sent to the regiment, a free-will offering on the part of his mother to the cause of her country. It is needless to say he proved a faithful and gallant soldier. After our army had reached the lines about Petersburg in 1864, an expedition was made by General Hampton around the enemy's left flank to his rear, to capture a large number of beef cattle that had just landed on the James below. The enemy's lines were struck on this expedition, and the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, which was along, was dismounted to clear the way; In the charge ADDRKSS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 41 made by the regiment, ('olonel Dulaney observed that a num- ber of hisinen on the right were down, and sent his adjutant, to see what was the matter, Avhen the latter found that the men had been shot down in the charge by a galling fire from the <>neTny. and among them the young soldier from the Moorefield valley, with both legs badly fraeturef her son's death and the cii-cumstances attending it, and ex- pressing his own regret and sympathy. To that letter she re- plied as follows : " If you can feel. Colonel, as you seem to do, at the death of a boy but a few months ago a stranger to you. what do you suppose are the feelings of his mother at the loss of her youngest and dearest son ? But, Colonel, I would rathei- a thousand times he had fallen as he has done, in defence of his countr}', than to have saved his life by neglecting his duty.'" Curtius and Cornelia belonged to the Patrician order in Rome, the latter being a daughter of Scipio Africanus the Ixreat. The stor}"^ I have told you is that of a private Confed- erate soldier and his mother, who never dreamed that their names could ever be sounded by the voice of fame. It was not marked by the dramatic surroundings Avith which the stories of Curtius and of Cornelia are clothed, but it is true in every sentence and won] ; and I ask you if an3'thing could be moi-e touching than the sublime devotion of both mothei' and son ? It would be hard to say which exhibited the greatest heroism, and not for worlds would I wound the heart of the mother by in- timating that the heroic courage of her darling boy was surpassed by her own heroic consecration of him to the duty which cost him his life. They were both worthy of each other, and I challenge all history to produce any instance of devotion to country and to duty which surpasses theirs. Yet this was not an exceptional case, and it was the brave and cheering. 4 42 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CONVENTION. wordn of the women at home, mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts, which revived and sustained the sj>irits of many a Confederate soldier, and nerved his arm for ahnost super- human effort, 1 could multiply instances of .self-sacrifice and heroic dev(j- tion. and I could tell you how officers and soldiers of our army submitted cheerfully to privations of eveiy kind, and though badly paid, badly clothed, and badly fed, were ever ready to discharge their duty to their country at the cost of their lives: how officers led their men into the very jaws of yawning death, and how soldiers followed where any dared to lead ; but this would be an almost endless task. There was, how- ever, another side to the picture, and we cannot and must no-t shut our eyes to the fact that there were those who were wanting to duty in the hour of trial. There were some who gave their sympathies to the enemy ; some who joined hi.s ranks and aided in desolating their own country; some who were lukewarm ; some who were constantly cavilling at the measures of those in authority, instead of upholding their hands when fron\ weariness they drooped ; some who with- held their stores from a suffering army ; some who speculated on the misfortunes of their country, and thought only of mak- ing mont\y out of the necessities of others ; some who had to be forced into the army ; some who evaded service altogether; some who lurked behind in time of battle ; and some who deserted. These cannot be permitted to share in the glory won, but they must serve as foils to the true and devoted, so as to make their virtues and heroism shine the brighter. Worse thati all, there are some who had fair war records who have tarnished and falsified those records by uniting with the worst of our enemies in the basest schemes for plundering and humiliating their owmi people. It is indeed a sad, a mortify- ing reflection, for we have been grievously '■ wounded in the liouse of our friends," or those we thought such. But all great causes have had their aj)Ostates. Even the brightest archangel around the Thi'one fell from his high estate; the first-born of the human race imbrued his hands in the inno- cent blood of his pious brother; among the twelve chosen Apostles was one who betrayed his Lord and Saviour; and the first American Revolution produced a Benedict Arnold. We could not expect to escape the common lot, and we have- ADDRESS OF GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. 43 Juid our (Jains, Jndsi.sos. and Aniolds, if we have not had a Jiacifer; but " Like the base Judean " who " threw a pearl away, Richer than all his tribe," tliey have consigned themselves to an immortality of infamy, and must abide the fate shaped by their own hands. Let their examples stand forth as a warning to the weak and inconstant who are disposed to sm^eumb to the temptations of adversity ! I turn from so revolting a phase of our history with the re- mark, that we alvvavs have a "-lorious consolation in beina: able to point to tlie pure and unsullied lives and records of our great leaders, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Tackson, and Sidney Johnston, to say nothing of other fallen comrades, and of the living who have kept the faith. I have thus given some refiections of a general character, to indicate my sense of the duty which has devolved upon us in regard to the history of our cause and our struggle. We must vindicate that cause, rekindle and strengthen the faith and spirit of the living, and do justice to the memory of our fallen comrades, so that their examples shall serve to stimulate those who will come after us, to emulate their deeds and virtues. In that noble funeral oration pronounced by Pericles over those of his countrymen who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, he uttered some sentiments which it is not inappropriate to recall, for the pui-pose of application to the work we have in hand. In regard to those who had fallen in that war, he said : ■• What their eyes showed plainly must be done they trusted their own valor to accomplish, thinking it more glorious to defend themselves and die in the attempt than to yield and live!" In speaking of those heroes who had, in former days, yielded their lives in defence of their country, he said: -'Bestowing thus their lives on the public, they have every one received a l)raise that will never decay, a sepulchre that will always be most illustrious; not that in which their bones lie mouldering, but that in which their fame is preserved, to be on every occa- sion, when honor is the employ of either word or act, eter- nally remembered. This whole earth is the sepulchre of illus- trious men; nor is it the inscriptions on the columns in their 44 SOUTHERK HISTOEIUAJ. CONVENTION. native soil alone that show i heir merit, but the memorial of them, bettei" than all inseriptions. in every foreign nation, ve- positcd more duraldy in universal remembhuice than on their own tomb." He nttert'd another sentiment, whieh desei-ves to be in>- printed on our memories in inetfaecable eharaeters and .in- stilled as an everlasting- preeept into the minds of the i-ising and futiire generations: and that is: ''It is greatness of soul alone that never grows old; nor is it wealth that delights in the latter stage of life. j\8 some give out, so mueh as honor." THE PROCEEDINGS Southern Historical Conyentioii, Which Assembled at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, Va., on the I-Itii op August, 1873; AND OF THK SOUTHERN HISTOEICAL SOCIETY, AS REORGANISED, WITH THK Address by GeiL Jubal A. Early, Delivered before the Convention on tlie First day of its Session. BALTIMORE: TUENBULL BEOTHEES, Publishers to The Southern Historical Society, 8 N. Charles Street.