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 i Soldiers of the Lost Cause and Successful Defenders of the 
 
 Union : 
 
 This is a great occasion, and an extraordinary compliment 
 is extended to me by the invitation to address you. I appre- 
 hend that my lack of ability will poorly vindicate the wisdom 
 '>■ of the selection. 
 
 Thirty-two years after one of the bloodiest conflicts, in the 
 history of battles, between the gallant soldiers who fought 
 for the Union, and the Confederates who fought for separate 
 National existence, on the field of Chickauiauga — the 19th 
 and 20th days of September, 1863 — Saturday and Sunday — is 
 receiving its second baptism into the everlasting history of 
 the great events of the world. 
 
 This fraternal meeting and participation in the dedica- 
 tion of the great National Park which will point out the 
 scenes of the conflict to succeeding generations, for hundreds 
 of years, marks a new era in the history of civilization. 
 
 In no book was it ever recorded that the battle-scarred 
 , soldiers of two opposing armies ever before m^t as brethren 
 ^ on such a field of strife to mark with enduring monuments 
 where they shed each others blood. 
 
 The good example was first set by members of Congress, 
 who served in the opposing armies, voting for an appropria- 
 tion of money from the National Treasui'v to purchase, 
 — mark and beautify this great Park which properly embraces 
 not only the field of Chickamauga, on which the Confedera- 
 tes were successful, but also that of Missionary Ridge, where 
 at a later day, the Union forces were equally victorious. 
 
 But a few months ago we saw unveiled in the city of Chi- 
 cago a monument to the Confederate dead. 
 
 That caused not only many old Confederates to pause and 
 think how the mellowing influence of time smooths dowr. the 
 wrinkled front of war, but impressed the younger generation 
 with the fact that the memories of the great struggle now 
 belong alone to history. 
 
 This great gathering and the fraternal feeling manifested 
 will give to the historian, for record, something new under the 
 sun. This great occasion is'a higher honor to the Union veteran 
 than to the Confederate, because he was a conquorer, and 
 yet he indulges no vain, or offensive boast, over his fallen 
 rival. It is a high compliment to the Confederate that his pro- 
 wess and patriotism are thus acknowledged. It is patriotic 
 and sensible, on the part of the Union veteran because it 
 commends the side he fought for to the more generous con- 
 sideration of the younger generation of Southerners. 
 
 The Union veteran, by this fraternity, extolls his own gal- 
 
lantry and high soldiery qualities, by which alone, he was 
 ever able to triumpli over such stubborn and determined 
 foes. 
 
 It is complimentary to the Confederate veteran, in this way 
 to acknowledge defeat, though accomplished by overpower- 
 ing numbers, and to strike hands with his late adversaries as 
 honorable men ; and it is not only commendable in the Con- 
 federate, but highly honorable and patriotic, for him and his 
 late foeman to meet here on this occasion, which 
 proclaims to the world that we are a completely re-united 
 nation ; that we really have peace. 
 
 This meeting is a most impressive presentation, to the 
 civilized people of the entire world, of the highest observance 
 of the great national code of honor. 
 
 ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 
 
 I have been designated to represent, on this occasion, troops 
 from the army of Northern Virginia who came down to rein- 
 force the army of Tennessee. This task should have been 
 committed to abler hands. 
 
 I was one of those who in an humble way performed a 
 conspicious part in the battle. I commanded the 15th Ala- 
 bama Infantry Regiment, and a part of the time, on the after- 
 noon of the 19th, I commanded four Regiments of Law's 
 Brigade. Two entire divisions and a battalion of Artillery 
 were transferred out here, but the only Brigades which ar- 
 rived in time to participate in the battle were Benning's Geor- 
 gia, Robertson's Texas and Law's Alabama Brigades of 
 Hood's Division; and Kershaw's South Carolina and Humph- 
 rey's Mississippi Brigades of McLaw's Division. 
 
 These troops were all old veterans who had seen much 
 service and had been commanded through many engage- 
 ments by excellent officers and never had known defeat. 
 
 It is not expected of me that I should give a detailed ac- 
 count of the conduct of these Brigades, or the Regiments 
 composing tlie same. It. is enough for me to say that their 
 gallant conduct was fully up to the highest standard they 
 had erected for thomselvos at Manassas, or Bull Run, at 
 Seven Pines, Meadow- Bridge, Gaines' Mill, Frazier's Farm, 
 Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg, 
 Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and some of the regiments 
 were with Jackson in his celebrated valley campaign in 
 1862. 
 
 The roar of the deadly musketry and the deafening thunders 
 of the artillery were noises with which they were familiar ; 
 and at Chickamauga on Sunday thei-e stood before them a 
 living wall of brave and determined men, yet when Long- 
 street said "forward my men," they moved like a thunder 
 storm, which no line^ however strong, and even though 
 
double, could long resist, or withstand, and they had not 
 drank a drop of powdered whisky as one of the speakers up- 
 on the Union side has alleged. They needed no such stimu- 
 lant, but without fear of consequences did their duty nobly. 
 
 The Union lines were broken on that part of the field, and 
 at the last point of the heroic resistance there fell before the 
 fire of my regiment that accomplished and lamented soldier 
 and poet, Gen'l. Lytle, the author of "Dying Egypt, Dying." 
 
 In this struggle — just at the turn of the tide — my Regiment 
 captured a two gun battery, turned and discharged one of 
 the pieces which was loaded and the shell exploded within 
 three feet of General Rosenci'ans' head, from which he 
 miraculously escaped without injury, as he told me since the 
 war. I replied ' 'well General I would have been delighted 
 to have killed you then, but now I am glad that you escaped 
 unhurt." 
 
 bragg's mistake. 
 
 At the close of the battle, with victory on his side General 
 Bragg made the mistake, too often made during our war, of 
 failing vigorously to pursue the re-treating foe. One or two 
 days thereafter he deliberately moved up his army and be 
 seiged Chattanooga. Longstreet now re-enforced by the 
 Brigades of Jenkin's South Carolina and Anderson's Georgia 
 of Hood's Division, Bryan's and Waiford's Georgia Brigades 
 of McLaws's Division was still on the left, his command ex- 
 tending to the west side of Lookout mountain . 
 
 There seems to be considerable difference in opinion as to 
 the numbers of the respective armies engaged in the battle of 
 Chickamauga. I listened with great pleasure to the speech 
 of the distinguished and able gentleman from Illinois, Gene- 
 ral Palmer, who was an officer of high rank and bore a con- 
 spicuous part in the battle. I know his integrity forbids any 
 erroneous statement ; he gave the number from the data he 
 found accessible. In this way he concluded that the Confed- 
 erate force was about 60,600 men and the Federal force en- 
 gaged about 57,400 or 57,500 men thus making a difference of 
 about 3000 in favor of the Confederates. lam satisfied that 
 the gentleman's data included Longstreet 's entire command, 
 all the troops transferred with him from the arjny of North- 
 ern Virginia. I have already stated the names of four Bri- 
 gades of these troops which did not arrive until the 21st, 
 the day after the conclusion of the battle. Jenkeu's Brigade 
 was a ver}'^ large one, but the ave^'age of the four was about 
 1,500 men each , and that makes a difference of 6,000, which 
 deducted from Bragg's supposed force would leave him 3,000 
 men weaker than his adversary, 
 
 But whatever may be said on this point it is a fact that the 
 two armies were pretty equally matched in numbers. Gen'l 
 Palmer very candidly admitted the defeat of Rosencrans, and 
 
undertook to account for it by saying that Rosencrans made a 
 mistake in ordering Woods' Division from his right to the 
 support of Reynolds on the left, or left centre. 
 
 Bragg 's plan of attack for Sunday morning was that Polk, 
 who commanded the right wing, should at sun rise make a 
 heavy assault upon the Union left wing, drive it back upon 
 the centre and obtain possession of the passes through the 
 ridge to Chattanooga. Then Longstreet, who commanded 
 the left wing, was to make a furious assault upon the Union 
 lines confronting him and that army thus dislocated and con- 
 fused by Polk's success of the fore-noon was to be crushed 
 and utterly routed. Polk did not begin the assault until 
 about eight o'clock and not then with such force and vigor as 
 to accomplish the object according to the plan ; his part of 
 the battle was wavering and fluctuating, first one side driving 
 and then the other, with no decisive advantages to either. 
 From these persistent attacks by Bragg 's right wing Rosen- 
 crans was impressed with the idea that this part of the field 
 was where the main conflict would be waged. His order 
 therefore transferring Wood's Division to his left was to 
 strengthen his lines there against the repeated assaults. 
 
 About eleven o'clock when Longstreet perceived this move- 
 ment, thus weakening the second line of Rosencrans, he ord- 
 ered his wing forward to a vigorous assault and broke to 
 pieces the right wing of Rosencrans ; thus weakened, he drove 
 it from the field and reformed his lines at right angles with 
 Polk's wing and assaulted Snodgrass Hill and the adjacent 
 hills and ridges held by Thomas, who never was driven in 
 disorder from the hill but retired about 8 o'clock p. m. 
 
 Why Polk's wing, during this last assault, lay still and 
 failed to advance I 'do not understand. Had Polk thrown his 
 wing forward and broken Thomas' single line of battle north 
 of the Snodgrass range of hills, nothing could have saved 
 Thomas from utter rout and the capture of a large part of 
 his command. 
 
 I was sent over into Lookout Valley where the 4th Ala- 
 baman under Col. Bowles was picketing the river as sharp- 
 shooters near the end of Raccoon mountain and shooting the 
 drivers and teams when they attempted to use the dirt wagon 
 road on the other side of the river. The picket line was ex- 
 tended by companies from ray Regiment clear up to Brown's 
 ferry. I had in reserve six companies of Infantry, number- 
 ing about two hundred men, and a section of the Louisana 
 Battery. For three weeks we held this position. Rosencrans 
 was restricted to one wagon road to supply his army which 
 reached a conditioji producing grave apprehension that it 
 would linve to retreat, which it was not prepared to do, or 
 surrender which it much less desired to do. The valley was 
 the key to Bragg's advantageous position. Its continued 
 
possession rendered Chattanooga untenable by the Union 
 army. 
 
 A plan was devised to remove my command, and thus 
 raise the blockade ; and when General Grant assumed com- 
 mand it was carried out on the night of the 26th of October, 
 when he succeeded in landing under Gen. Hazen twenty-two 
 hundred men on my side at the Ferry. I made the best re- 
 sistance I could with my handfull of men, but just as day 
 was breaking on the 27th I was severely wounded and car- 
 ried from the field. 
 
 I had for two days reported indications and asked for rein- 
 forcements to resist the attack, but they came not until that 
 morning when it was too late. Thus we lost Lookout Val- 
 ley. And Hooker's two corps, which came by way of Bridge- 
 port, were thus enabled to capture Lookout Mountain, after 
 Longstreet's troops were withdrawn therefrom. 
 
 When I got back to Lookout Creek, after having been 
 wounded, as stated, I met General Law with seven Regiments 
 coming to reinforce me. I told him that he was too late and 
 that if he would ride up on a spur of the mountain next to 
 the river he could with his field glass see all over the Valley. 
 He did so and on his return, remarked thatrl was right, that 
 there was a pontoon bridge across the river at the ferry and 
 that an entire corps of the Union army was then in the Val- 
 ley. He said he had come according to his orders. The sun 
 was then about one hour high. Too slow! Too slow ! He 
 was ordered to come too late. Somebody had woefully blun- 
 dered. A newspaper correspondent who signed his commu- 
 nications "P. W. A.," undertook to blame ine for the loss of 
 Lookout Valley. I had succeeded in holding it for three 
 weeks with only two Regiments and two pieces of Artillery 
 assigned to this duty in the face of an immense army in 
 Chattanooga and two corps just below on the opposite side 
 at Bridgeport. I made two reports to General Jenkins, as 
 Division Commander, and late the evening before I was driven 
 out I made one to Longstreet through his Adjutant-General 
 and appealed, after stating the facts, for immediate reinforce- 
 ments, but they were not sent until next morning, when too 
 late. 
 
 With that Valley in our possession we had all the Rail- 
 roads, the river, and one wagon road on the other side was 
 all that Rosecrans had by which to supply his army . The 
 men and animals were very near the starvation point when 
 the blockade was raised by driving me out as I have de- 
 scribed . 
 
 General Jenkins brought his immediate command across 
 the mountain late that evening and the battle of Wauhatchee 
 occurred that or the next night and our people got the worst 
 of it. 
 
6 
 
 A little red headed boy named "Billy" Betliune, from Co- 
 lumbus, Ga., came to me just before the battle of Chicka- 
 mauga and desired to be mustered in as a soldier. I declined 
 because he was but fourteen years old and not well grown at 
 that. After the battle he told me that if I still refused to 
 take him as a soldier he would go off and join some other 
 command. I told him that he might remain with the Regi- 
 ment without being mustered in and at the next battle I 
 would give him a gun and allow him to try his hand and see 
 how he liked it. On the morning of the 27th of October, 
 before day , when I was preparing my small command for the 
 attack at Brown's Ferry, I felt some one pull my sleeve. It 
 was little "Billy." He said : ''Colonel, do you remember 
 your promisa?" I ordered that a gun and cartridge box be 
 given him, which was done, and he went through the engage- 
 ment unhurt. The next night at Wauhatchee he was not so 
 fortunate. The Major who was in command of the Regiment 
 was down near the bridge after our line was broken and the 
 men were straggling back and taking out wounded comrades. 
 An Irishman who belonged to the Regiment came along with 
 some one on his back. The Major called out : 
 
 "Who is that?" 
 
 He answered: -'Jimmy Rutledge, sir." 
 
 "Who is that you are carrying out?" said the Major. 
 
 "Billy Bethune,sir." 
 
 "Is he wounded?" 
 
 "He is, sir." 
 
 ' 'How is he wounded?" 
 
 "He is shot in the back, sir." 
 
 At that moment Billy's childish voice rang out on the night 
 air : "Major, he is a damned liar ; I am shot across the back." 
 (Loud laughter. ) 
 
 Bragg was forced to retire to Missionary Ridge. Long- 
 street's Troops did not participate in the battle which occurred 
 there on the 25th day of November, as he had gone with 
 them and Buckner's division to Knoxville to resist Burnside's 
 advance . 
 
 The Confedarate strategy attempted was for Longstreet to 
 crush Burnside, or put him hors dccombat, and return in time 
 to reinforce Bragg before Grant would be ready to assault 
 him. But Burnside, with a superior force, was too strongly 
 intrenched and Longstreet could not dislodge, nor drive him, 
 and while attempting it Sherman reinforced Grant, they at- 
 tacked and beat Bragg and drove him to Dalton, Ga., and in 
 consequence Longstreet raised the siege of Knoxville and re- 
 treated into East Tennessee, and thus ended the campaign of 
 1863. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE WAR. 
 
 Fellow Soldiers : — Pardon a few reflections upon the pri- 
 
mary causes of the unprecedented and unequal struggle, and 
 the consequences of the war. "Speak of me as I am, noth- 
 ing extenuate nor set down aught in malice ; then will you 
 speak of one who loved not wisely, but too well." 
 
 We poor rebels lost all save honor, and now will you listen 
 patiently, for a brief period, to one of them while giving his 
 side as impartially as he can? 
 
 The old Confederate veteran can look backward without 
 shame ; he can stand erect with a proud conscienciousness 
 that he fought for a just cause, which though lost was par- 
 tially won, and say to all the world, let the history of the 
 great conflict be penned by an impartial hand, fully and fairly 
 to both sides, and there will not be a sentence, a line, or a 
 word in it to bring a blush of shame to the cheek of him who 
 did his duty in following the red starry cross of the late Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 Let the blasphemous mouths of the bloody shirt shriekers 
 be closed, and the truth be told, and our cause, and the hero- 
 ism which sustained it for four immortal years will illuminate 
 the brightest chapters of the true history of that great con- 
 flict. 
 
 There never was a war, wherein the object of the invader 
 was anything short of extermination, in which there w^as 
 more involved, or the result of which was fraught with 
 greater consequences ; nor was there ever a war, the real 
 causes of which, were so imperfectly understood by other 
 nations and many even of the American people. 
 
 One of the underlying causes of the conflict of arms was 
 that in our citizenship there were two distinct t3^pes of civili- 
 zation — the Cavalier and the Puritan. Between these there 
 were frequent conflicts in the mother country centuries ago. 
 
 They were transplanted to this country by many of the 
 Cavaliers settling in the Southern States and the Puritans in 
 the Northern and Eastern States of the Union. Both were 
 high types of civilization, but utterly unlike. 
 
 The first well defined distinction between them was in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth and the first of the Stuarts, along 
 about the middle of the 16th century. 
 
 The dissenters from the Church of England who advocated 
 a purer doctrine and a higher life assumed to possess all the 
 Godliness and virtue, and not satisfied with these, assumed 
 to think for others , to prescribe rules to govern the consciences 
 of others and who in a Pharasasical spirit thanked God that 
 they were not as other men. These were called Puritans. 
 
 In this country they retained much of their original faith 
 and practices until tlfe lessons of the war vastly improved 
 their manners. 
 
 Cromwell, whose greatness was equalled only by his mean- 
 ness and cruelty, was of this type. 
 
8 
 
 Those wlio adhered to the Church and the Parliament and 
 supported Charles the 1st were called Cavaliers. They were 
 noted for their conservatism, favoring well established insti- 
 tutions, protecting the rights of property and favoring the 
 regular orderly methods of business. 
 
 They were never rigidly righteous, but liberal, generous, 
 brave and disposed to mind their own business and let that 
 of other people alone. 
 
 The two fought each other repeatedly in England. 
 
 The interference of the one with the business and institu- 
 tions of the other, in this country, was one of the underlying 
 or basic causes of the great conflict. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as asserting that all the 
 people of this country belong exclusively to the one or the 
 other of these types, for they are the extremes. They are 
 greatly in the minority . 
 
 A large majority of our people may be classed as interme- 
 diary, and not belonging distinctively to either one of these 
 classes. This middle class will in the course of time absorb 
 the extremes and possibly produce men and women of greater 
 excellence than either. 
 
 Upon this great conservative mass the future peace and 
 happiness of this country depend. 
 
 The intermeddling of the Puritans and the hot-headed re- 
 
 '^'*\ pulsiveness of the Cavalier leaders, notwithstanding they 
 
 were largely in the minority, stirred\ip the strife, set fire to the 
 
 forest and caused the great conflagration and suffering which 
 
 ensued. 
 
 The lesson it taught is of such weighty magnitude and 
 solemnity that it is to be hoped that neither side will ever 
 forget it, or allow its follies and cruelties to be repeated. 
 
 An aggressive fanaticism meeting a brave and reckless de- 
 fiance ignored the demands of reason, caused an ocean of 
 tears to be shed, drenched the land in blood and sacrificed the 
 lives of a million of men and untold millions of treasure. 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that the war was a necessity 
 merely to settle the construction of the Constitution. I think 
 that is a mistake. It indicates a want of recollection as to 
 the true causes of the war, or those who assert it have con- 
 venient memories, or a genius for inventing theories of con- 
 ciliation for our defeat. 
 
 Contentions as to strict, or latitudinous construction of the 
 constitution, as to partial legislation, unjust taxation and 
 unequal commercial advantages, while producing temporary 
 irritation and excitement, would never of themselves have 
 influenced any of the States of the South to have attempted 
 secession from the Union. 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 Every well informed person knows that the agitation of 
 
9 
 
 the slavery question was the immediate and provoking cause 
 of secession. 
 
 The presence in our midst of the African race, for which 
 they are in no wise responsible, has ever been the Pandora's 
 box of our American politics. 
 
 Slavery, it must be conceded, is contrary to natural right, 
 but it was a lawful State institution, and so recognized by 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Being a State institution, it was the right of the State in 
 which it existed to continue or abolish it. The responsibility , 
 moral and otherwise, for its continuance belonged alone to 
 the people of the State wherein it existed. 
 
 The institution had come down to the Southern people 
 through several generations. They had invested their money 
 in slaves. Its nature and character were not generally un- 
 derstood by the people of the North, in whose States it once 
 existed, but had been abolished for many years. 
 
 They professed to believe that men owned the flesh, blood 
 and souls of their slaves, treated and disposed of them with 
 no more regard for their well-being than if they were lifeless 
 chattels. The owner of the Slave only had a right to control 
 and dispose of his labor and inflict upon him such corporeal 
 punishment as was allowable at the common law. Of course 
 it was contrary to the black man's natural right to freedom, 
 but it was the road by which he reached civilization. 
 
 In every slave State the law made it a penal offense for the 
 master not to provide a sufficiency of healthful food and 
 clothing, or to unreasonably punish his slave, or to make 
 him work on the Sabbath, and to kill him was murder. 
 
 I knew a man to be tried the year before the war began for 
 killing his slave, and he was convicted and sent to the peni- 
 tentiary. (A voice from the audience: "He should have 
 been hung, damn him !") Well, there are a good many peo- 
 ple who deserve hanging and never get their deserts. The 
 jury in that case were better judges than you or myself. 
 Cruelties were in a good many instances practiced upon the 
 slave and never detected and punished because it was diffi- 
 cult to obtain the proof. The Negroes simply passed through 
 the fiery furnace of slavery to reach civilization, which was 
 the only road by which they could have obtained it. 
 
 Interest and humanity united in making the master careful 
 of the health and life of his slave. 
 
 It was abuse, threats and impending assaults upon the 
 rights of the State to regulate its own local and domestic af- 
 fairs voiced by leading men of the puritanical type, who 
 abused and traduced Justices of the Supreme Court for de- 
 ciding that Slavery was lawful ; and who denounced the in- 
 stitution and polygamy as twin relics of barbarism, as the 
 sum total of all villainy, as a league with death and a coven- 
 
10 
 
 ant with hell, until theii- doctrines incited a band of fanatics 
 to believe that they were inspired b}^ Heaven to light the 
 torch of revolution in Southern homes and to invade a Southern 
 State for the purpose of inciting the slaves to insurrection, 
 arson and indiscriminate murder of the white people ; and 
 when the chief of these malefactors was executed church 
 bells were tolled in some of the Northern cities to cannonize 
 him as a mart^^'r. 
 
 These were the irritating causes which aroused feelings of 
 indignation and prepared the minds of the Southern people 
 for secession from the Union. 
 
 Then when a great and growing political party, confined 
 alone to the Northern States, whose slogan was hostility to 
 the institution of slavery, and whose orators were full of in- 
 temperate denunciation of the Southern people, succeeded in 
 electing their President, who had proclaimed the irrepressi- 
 ble conflict — that this country must all be slave or free la- 
 bor — the apprehensions of the Southern people were awak- 
 ened to a common daiager — not about slavery alone , but that 
 their ancient and well defined right to govern their own in- 
 ternal affairs in their own way would be denied and destroy- 
 ed, not directly, but by attrition, under the guise of law and 
 constitutional administration. (Sensation and dissent in the 
 audience.) I know that some of you Union men do not relish 
 what I am saying, but liear me through ; I will ^tell you the 
 truth and give you nothing but facts. 
 
 SECESSION. 
 
 Conventions were called and assembled in the different 
 states of the South, each lo decide for itself what should be 
 done . 
 
 Eleven of these conventions, holding that the Union was a 
 voluntary one, and that it was no longer a safe-guard and 
 protection, but a menace to their rights, resolved, to withdraw 
 from it and form another Union in which it was believed 
 there would be peace, harmony and security of rights result- 
 ing from homogeneity of interests. 
 
 They did not stop to consider collateral questions, nor 
 what might logically follow their action in case of success. 
 
 They reasoned sylogistically thus : If the Union was a 
 voluntary one entered into by the States for their mutual 
 benefit and protection, then when in the opinion of a State 
 such security was no longer guaranteed, but jeopardized, or 
 denied, it had the right to withdraw from such a Union ; and 
 if a State had the right to withdraw, or secede, it followed 
 as a logical sequence that the Union had no right to coerce 
 such State to remain within it or to return after having 
 withdrawn from it. 
 
 But the Union denied that it was a voluntary one and as- 
 serted a paramount and perpetual Nationality, and under the 
 
11 
 
 Constitution it claimed the right to coerce the States to re- 
 main within it. However, illogical, this was the doctrine of 
 the Unionists. 
 
 Thus was presented a great issue which unfortunately our 
 constitution provided for no umpire to peaceably adjudicate, 
 and hence the question was necessarily submitted to the 
 arbitrament of arms — the Court of last resort among Nations. 
 
 It was not jealousy and hatred we bore towards our North- 
 ern brethren . It was not their successful rivalry of us in 
 trade and commerce ! It was not an ambitious lust for power 
 nor a spirit of unrighteous dictation which led the serrid 
 ranks of the South to battle . 
 
 It has been asserted by some of the distinguished speakers 
 here who served in the Union army that the abolition ofslavery 
 was one of the grand objects for which the war was waged. I 
 deny this proposition. The resolution adopted by Congress de- 
 claring war against the seceded states set forth the purpose to 
 be "The restoration to the Union of the revolted States^ with 
 all their rights, dignities and institutions unimpaired;" and 
 slavery was the chief institution. During the first two years 
 of the war whenever slaves escaped from their owners and 
 entered the lines of the Union army they were returned ; and 
 you could not more deeply offend a Union soldier than to tell 
 him he was fighting for the freedom of the negroes. He 
 would indignantly deny it and say he was fighting for the 
 maintenance of the Union. When President Lincoln called 
 for seventy-five thousand troops at the beginning he supposed 
 that 90 days' service was as long as they would be needed. 
 
 • It was supposed that the slaves would rise in insurrection, 
 assert their freedom, lay waste the country, slaughter the 
 whites and all would be ended within that period. To the 
 surprise of the people of the North not a single lawless out- 
 rage was committed by any slave throughout the seceding 
 states, on any white person, during the entire war. They 
 remained at home, labored and made supplies for the support 
 of the women and children and our armies in the field. 
 While this state of affairs continued the Confederates were 
 triumphant in all the principal engagements. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was an abolitionist, but it is a great mistake 
 to suppose that for this reason and his sympathy for the 
 slave induced him to put forth his emancipation procla- 
 mation. Prior thereto he suspended General Schenck from 
 command in Maryland because he undertook the emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves, which Mr. Lincoln said was in violation of 
 the Constitution. His proclamation was issued, after due 
 
 • consultation with his cabinet, as a war measure. He re- 
 garded the slaves as contraband of war because an aid to the 
 enemies of the Union. The terms of the proclamation were 
 for the Southern States to lay down their arms and return to 
 
12 
 
 their former positions in the Union, and if they failed to do 
 this by the 1st of January, 1863, -he declared their slaves 
 thereafter to be free. He admitted that he had no other 
 power to abolish slavery. If the South had been fighting 
 for slavery, we had then but to lay down our arms and re- 
 turn to the Union with that institution which would have 
 been in accord with the purpose of Congress in declaring the 
 war. But we were fighting for separate national existence 
 and paid no attention to the proclamation, and slavery was 
 abolished as a result of the war. 
 
 It was not for slavery as such, for the majority of our men 
 never owned a slave. A large majority of our soldiers were 
 poor laboring men. They were horrified at the idea of four 
 million emancipated slaves being turned loose in their midst, 
 raised to the equality of citizenship, invested with the elect- 
 ive franchise and brought into competition with them as free 
 laborers which aroused the pride of race superiority, and the 
 invasion of their right of local or State government, offended 
 alike the dignity of these men and the slave owner ; they 
 stood united and fought like devils, as every Union veteran 
 will testify. 
 
 For two and a half years of the immortal conflict olir flag 
 floated triumphantly on nearly a hundred fields of battle. 
 
 We fought with the same spirit of our revolutionary sires, 
 who bought with their precious blood the privileges we now 
 enjoy. 
 
 We fought for the right of our States to regulate and gov- 
 ern their own aff'airs, free from the dictation of others, and 
 to form such compacts and associations with each other as 
 would serve best to preserve their mutual rights of local gov- 
 ernment. We fought for the right as God gave us to see the 
 right . 
 
 State allegiance and State pride, which sprang from the 
 love of home and its sacred precincts, sent our gallant men 
 forth with the prayers and blessings of wives, mothers, sis- 
 ters, daughters and sweethearts, armed with stout hearts and 
 willing hands to meet three fold their number in the death 
 grapple of red-handed war. 
 
 The love of home is a sentiment which pervades every land 
 that is watered by the king of floods and all his tributaries. 
 
 It is founded in nature diff'ering only in degree in different 
 races of men, and is everywhere the tap-root of the loftiest 
 and truest patriotism. 
 
 It is illustrafed, said Erskine, in the person of an indig- 
 nant Indian Prince whose country was being invaded and 
 occupied by white men. 
 
 Addressing the Governor of the colony, while surrounded 
 by his followers and holding in his hand a bundle of sticks 
 as the notes of his unlettered eloquence he said ; 
 
13 
 
 "Who is it that causes this river to rise in the high moun- 
 tains and empty itself into the ocean? Who is it that causes 
 to blow the loud winds of winter and that calms them again 
 in summer? Who is it that raises up these lofty forests and 
 blasts them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The 
 same Being tLat gave to you a Country on the other side of 
 the great water, and gave this to us, and by this title we will 
 defend it." 
 
 (Throwing his tomahawk on the giouaa and raising the 
 war cry of his nation.) 
 
 A true American illustration of this sentiment is found in 
 the heroic conduct of Col. Travis and his 188 Texans at the 
 Alamo. They resolved to resist Santa Anna's advance with 
 4000 men. 
 
 Travis' appeal to his men was brief ; he said : "We are 
 Texans? Here are our homes and our loved ones ; let us re- 
 solve to die where we are , in their defense . If any man fear 
 the responsibility, let him step forward and he shall be dis- 
 charged and allowed to retire." 
 
 One man alone embraced the opportunity and retired in 
 disgrace while escape was practicable. All the others, in- 
 cluding Travis, Davie Crockett and Bowie, fell at their posts, 
 and to-day you can read the everlasting message to their 
 countrymen, engraved upon the little monument to their 
 memory in the old Capitol of Texas : "Thermopalae had her 
 messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none." 
 
 Nowhere on earth is the love of home and pride of local 
 government more deeply implanted, or m.ore potential, than 
 among the people of the Southern States. 
 
 INEQUALITY OF FORCE, 
 
 Conceding equal patriotism and bravery to those who bore 
 aloft the standards of the Union, the imperishable glory of 
 the Confederates conspicuously appears in the inequality of 
 numbers, resources and appliances of war. 
 
 Just think of that inequality ! Eight millions on our side 
 against twenty-five millions of people on the other and the 
 whole world to recruit from. 
 
 You with a government of unlimited credit, exhaustless 
 resources, an ample supply of the best arms and munitions 
 of war, and a commerce but little disturbed : 
 
 The Confederacy deficient in all these and her ports closed 
 and blockaded ; without even the nucleus of an army or 
 navy ; without arms or ammunition ; without a commissa- 
 riat ; without money ; without credit ; without factories, and 
 accustomed only to the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, were 
 armed with nothing at the beginning save our own stout 
 hearts and the manly resolve to vindicate our i ights at every 
 hazzard. 
 
14 
 
 A STORY OF CAPT. LAIRD AND THE POLES. 
 
 NothiDg more forcibly illustrates the destitution and deter- 
 mination of our people than an occurrence at Island No. 10 
 in the Mississippi River. General Tilgman was in command 
 of four Regiments and one or two of them were armed with 
 old George Law muskets and the others with poles cut some- 
 what in imitation of wooden guns. The General told the 
 field officers that he would have the long roll beaten after 
 midnight to see how the company officers and men would 
 take it. When it occurred, Colonel Baker said he went to a 
 position from which he could observe his Regiment unseen 
 by the men. Captain Laird's company was from Coffee 
 County, in South Alabama. He had a long flowing red 
 beard and green eyes and would fight anything in the shape 
 of an enemy. He had an old long Cavalry sabre drawn and 
 was walking up and down in rear of his company, looking 
 like Goliah with his weaver's beam. His first Sergeant, a pale 
 faced uneducated man, who talked with a long drawling 
 voice, but had an abundance of good hard sense, said : "Cap- 
 tain Laird, 'spose the yankees do come what are we gwine to 
 do with these here poles?" That was a poser. The Cap- 
 tain halted for a moment and then replied most vigorously : 
 "Sergeant, throw your poles to hell, draw your pocket-knives 
 and cut them to the hollow, G — d d — n them." (Laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 The records show the total enlistments in all the Confed- 
 erate armies during the war to have been but little more 
 than 600,000; while in all the armies of the Union there 
 were over 2,800,000. It is fair, however, to state that a larger 
 per centage of the latter were re-inlistments than of the for- 
 mer, and a larger invading force is often equaled by a smaller 
 one acting on the defensive. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great disparity in numbers and our 
 destitution of the sinews of war, for four immortal years our 
 flag floated in the breezes of heaven as the symbol of the 
 storm-cradled Nation. 
 
 But as time rolled on the Confederate lines became more 
 and more attenuted. When the rolls were called there was 
 no response to three-fourths of the names upon them ; those 
 who did not answer were disabled or dead. 
 
 Superiority of numbers, improved by discipline and exper- 
 ience, enabled the Union forces to beat us back, until they 
 formed a cordon around the struggling Confederacy. 
 
 We were beaten back step by step, but gave blow for blow 
 as our comrades fell around us. 
 
 No more heroic, or impressive scenes ever occurred in the 
 history of warfare. 
 
 But there must be an end to human endurance, and at last, 
 when all our strongholds were captured, our rivers full of 
 
15 
 
 hostile gun-boats, our railroads worn out and broken, our 
 soldiers starving, or living on half rations, frequently shar- 
 ing the corn with the horses ; when 300,000 hillocks marked 
 the last resting places of those who had sacraficed their lives 
 upon t^e altar of their own and their Country's honor — God 
 Almighty forever bless their souls, — when widows and 
 orphans became numberless, and grief and mourning were 
 visitors to nearly every household, the hearts of our people 
 sank in depair. Their sublime courage failed them and many 
 wrote to their loved ones who still survived to give up the 
 hopeless struggle and come home. 
 
 To all such this was the supreme trial , the test of superior- 
 ity ; — to decide between duty and affection to the family, 
 with subjugation and defeat on the one side, and on the 
 other an honorable death for the cause to which they had 
 shown such devotion. 
 
 Many abandoned the cause — I can scarcely call it desertion, 
 although technically it was, — but many of the heroes of a 
 hundred battles, veterans of Lee and Jackson and of Johnston, 
 whose scarred bodies, tatterered flags and attenuated ranks 
 told so eloquently the tale of their doings, preferred an honor- 
 able death, and remained in line still ready to fight and to 
 die for Dixie. 
 
 They thus presented to the world an example of heroism 
 similar to that of Cambronne, the commander of the last 
 square of the old Guard at Watterloo. 
 
 When the pile of corpses around the square was larger than 
 the bulk of the living, their comrades groaning in death 
 agonies, the French Army broken and fleeing, the Allies with 
 eighty cannon shotted and ready to fire upon this devoted 
 group, Generals Colville and Maitland, struck with admira- 
 tion for such heroism, road forward and cried aloud, — "Brave 
 Frenchmen surrender." 
 
 The response came back in language as defiant and more 
 contemptuous than that of, "The Guard dies, but never sur- 
 renders." 
 
 The cannons belched forth their thunder and when the 
 smoke lifted a quivering heap of corpses alone remained. 
 
 When Lee's great brain could plan no more ; when Johns- 
 ton's cunning had given o'er, and nothing but omnipotence 
 could have averted the surrender, these ragged veterans were 
 still ready to march into the jaws of death, where the hellish 
 din of battle drowned the shriks of the wouiided and the 
 groans of the dying. 
 
 Ah ! But who has language to portray the hei-oism of such 
 brave souls? They stood by their colors unfliiichingly, when 
 carnage, ruin and death reigned supreme. 
 
 They wen^ with Gordon in the last wild charge he made, 
 
16 
 
 "While their was not a man dismayed, and all the world 
 wondered." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 The great drama drew rapidly to a close and the star of 
 hope which had shown with such brilliant lustre in the con- 
 stellation of nations, went down beneath the Southern hori- 
 zon on the field of Appamattox to rise no more forever. 
 
 The high court of force had sealed its decree and thereby 
 blotted the Confederacy out of the firmament of nations. 
 
 To us it was an event of sorrow and sadness. To the other 
 side it was a great triumph and day of rejoicing; but, my 
 friends, the decision was the most expensive ever rendered 
 in the history of the world. 
 
 No other nation would have made such herculean efforts 
 and expended such incalculable sums of money to have 
 achieved success as did the Union . With all our disadvantages 
 and one-third of the population of the seceding states open 
 enemies to us or in sympathy with the union, and nearly 
 600,000 soldiers in the Union armies which you obtained 
 from Europe for the bounty, notwithstanding all these dis- 
 advantages of the confederates the fighting we did would 
 have whipped any other nation than the United States. (Ap- 
 plause from both sides.) 
 
 The total taxable value of our property at the beginning of 
 the war was five and a quarter billions of dollars. 
 
 The cost to the Union of our subjugation, including pen- 
 sions, up to last year has been eight and a quarter billions, 
 or three billions of dollars more than all the property, includ- 
 ing slaves, in the eleven seceding States was worth at the 
 beginning of the struggle. 
 
 Though hard to do, we accepted the decision with the same 
 good faith and manliness with which we had fought for our 
 convictions. 
 
 While one might as well undertake to disprove the divinity 
 of Christ to the ecumenical council as to argue to an old Con- 
 federate veteran against the right of secession, yet the exer- 
 cise of that right, at the time and in the manner it was done, 
 will always be regarded by thoughtful men as a rash and in- 
 considerate act. 
 
 THE RESULTS. 
 
 If success had not been impracticable on account of the 
 disadvantages I have already enumerated, there were other 
 almost insuperable difficulties in the way of the success of 
 our cause. 
 
 Had there been any great obstacle for a dividing line, a 
 range of high mountains, or a body of water similar to the 
 English channel, or had the Mississippi river flowed from 
 
17 
 
 East to West instead of bisecting the Confederacy, complete 
 separation would have been both wise and practicable. 
 
 PI ad we succeeded with a mere imaginery line of separation 
 the tendency to contlict would have been as certain and more 
 frequent than that between England and Scotland before they 
 united in one government. 
 
 Permanent peace would have been impossible. 
 
 While the right of secession, to my mind , was beyond contro- 
 ve]'sy, yet when put into practice might have proven a boom- 
 erang, for it is equally clear that it would have estal)lished 
 the right of disintegration. 
 
 The congenital germ of dissolution would have produced 
 constant apprehension, and confronted by our own precedent 
 we could not have questioned the right of any State to secede 
 from the compact ; and hence, had we succeeded, we might, 
 ere this, have had two or more confederacies. 
 
 Another consolation for our defeat is that we have escaped 
 the danger of the multiplication of governments on this con- 
 tinent, which, if brought about would result, as it has in 
 Europe, in large standing armies, burdensome taxation to 
 maintain them, and involvment in bloody wars, threatening 
 the destruction of liberty itself. 
 
 Slavei'v was destroyed as a result of the war, but it was an 
 institution whicli has served its purpose in the civilization of 
 the African race in our midst so far as it could be done through 
 such an institution ; and under the laws of an All-wise Prov- 
 idence when an institution ceases to be of utility its destruc- 
 tion will follow. And now that it is numbered with the 
 things of the past, no one would have it reestablished. 
 
 The earnestness and gallantry of our soldiers on both sides 
 will forever command the admiration of the world ; and while 
 hundreds of thousands of valuable lives were lost and the 
 land draped in mourning, on the other hand there was a vast 
 impetus given to education, a great advancement in science, 
 the development of genius which has given to the nations 
 of the world their iron-clad navies and other destructive 
 engineery which are contributors to peace and will in the 
 future save the lives of millions of men. 
 
 Alabama, with a population of 526,271, equipped and sent 
 to tlie field 100,000 brave Confederate soldiers and 0,000 who 
 fought on the Union side, while w^e left at home 430,000 
 slaves., \ 
 
 My State furnished a greater number of soldiers to the war 
 than she had voters. My friend, Gen. Jno. B. Gordon, one 
 of the bravest of the brave, whom we have with us to-day, 
 went to the front from Alabama. 
 
 The effect of the war upon the character of the Federal 
 Government was tersely expressed by tlie Supreme Court of 
 
18 
 
 the United States in n single sentence: "An indestructible 
 Union comj)Osed of indestructible States !" 
 
 THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 
 
 Something over two years ago, at the great naval review, 
 when the Dolphin, with the Secretary's flag flying, passed 
 out of Hampton Roads and by the long line of splendid ships 
 of our new nav}^ — fifteen in number — each fired a salute of 
 seventeen guns ; and when the longer line of foreign ships 
 was passed old admirals with uncovered heads dipped their 
 colors and each ship fired seventeen guns ; and the forts in 
 New York harbor gave foi'th like salutations to a man who 
 stood up®n the forward deck of tlie Dolphin in plain citizen's 
 attire. Withdus left hand he could not uncover his head in 
 acknowledgment of these salutations for that arm hung limp 
 by his side in consequence of a would he received at the 
 Wilderness in 1SP>4 when he was trying to dissolve the Union. 
 
 Under the old moribund statutes he was ineligil)le to even 
 a lieutenancy in the army, or navy ; yet, he is the commander 
 of all the powerful ships and skillful officers of the United 
 States Navy. 
 
 Who is this man, and how did he obtain that position? 
 Hillary A. Herbert, of Alabama, an old Confederate colonel. 
 He obtained the position from the same hand that made a 
 distinguished Union general Seci-etary of State. 
 
 Gresham and Herbert — I'nion and Confederate — the Bine 
 and the Cray — All distinction on account of the side a man 
 espoused in our war stricken down, and all alike, again 
 citizens of this great Republic. Thank God and Grover 
 (/leveland ! 
 
 We recognize that "The Union and the Constitution are 
 one and inseparal^le now and forever." 
 
 While we moisten with our tears the ashes of our fallen 
 comrades we can say : 
 
 Tliat "Tlie graves of llie dead with the grass overgrown, 
 Sliall still lie the footstool of liberty's throne." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS