Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/358

342 the people of the South in their attachment to the government. They now fully recognize that theirs was the best government in the world; that the people had more freedom than under any other government; that all were getting back substantially to the government of their fathers ; that the Constitution was once more erect in its majesty, true without the principles for which they had fought (State rights), but with a restoration of prosperity and a full acceptance of results, a good and beneficent government to them.

The first notable event was the dedication of a monument at Chicago to the Confederate soldiers who died during the war in prison in that city. The money to build this monument was mainly raised by broad-minded citizens of Chicago, and showed that the bloody chasm was a myth, and that we were again in heart and spirit one people with the same national aspirations. At first great opposition was manifested, as the dedication occurred on Decoration day of the dead Federal soldiers under the auspices of the Grand Army of the Republic. The officials of that organization objected, but its members, many of them, still aided in their unofficial capacity. The surviving Confederate generals and soldiers who attended the ceremony were most hospitably received and ^entertained. They had to pass through several hundred thousand people in going to the cemetery, and there was not a word, motion or sign in that vast assemblage or during a stay of several days that did not betoken the best of feeling and a broad nationality. The fable of the bloody chasm, it was found, did not exist. The First regiment of the Illinois National Guard (under Colonel Turner), 800 strong, fired three volleys at the close of the ceremonies and many of the Grand Army men in uniform listened attentively to Gen. Wade Hampton, who delivered the address.

Another significant event was the dedication of the battlefield of Chickamauga, in Georgia, as a national mil-