Page:Confederate Veteran volume 01.djvu/29

Rh Ellyson, chairman of the permanent Museum Committee. They were obliged to insert the word "liteary" in the name of the organization for charter purposes. The women have a strong organization in Richmond, known as the Hollywood Memorial Association, whose object is to keep in constant trim the cemeteries of the Confederate dead. It is this body that made application for the mansion and expected simply to make the new work a department of Hollywood. Technicalities of law, however, required another name, though practically the two bodies are the same. The strength and devotion of the Hollywood Association, whose record for thorough work has long since been made, is assurance of the zeal and devotion to come in the prosecution of the new work. "The object of the ladies," said Mrs. Ellyson, "is to restore the mansion as far as practicable to the exact condition in which, it was left by President Davis, and to establish a permanent museum of Confederate relics We have appealed to our sisters throughout the South, and expect that branch organizations will be formed among them, whose object will be to secure valuable Confederate mementos. A regent will be established in each State, and our plans are to give to each Southern State a room of its own, where it may deposit and arrange its own mementos. Young people's auxiliaries are also to be formed to assist in the work. We have no fund yet, but expect to have one soon by gifts, and through the giving of entertainments. We have already held entertainments with success. It is not our intention to buy relies. We think that the sentiment of the South will be all-sufficient to turn into the safe-keeping of a chartered institution the sacred mementos of the dead. We have already the promise of several pieces of furniture that formerly graced the Confederate White House; and a number of letters notifying of keepsakes that will gladly be turned over—clothes, arms, money, and other belongings—as soon as we are ready for them. The glory, the hardships, and the heroism of the war are a noble heritage for our children. To keep green such memories, and to commemorate such virtues it is our purpose to gather together and preserve in the Executive Mansion of the Confederacy the sacred relics of those glorious days."

Publication has been made that there will be a grand reunion of the old soldiers of the country at Chicago next summer. The notice is as follows: The World's Fair managers and the leading G. A. R. men of Chicago, and the best business men of that city heartily approve of the reunion, and will assist in the matter.

A committee, consisting of the leading ex-soldiers of the G. A. R. were selected to have charge of the work at Chicago, and a like committee will assist them, composed of the ex-Confederate soldiers living in Chicago. They are all well-known business men. The reunion is now an assured success, and the old veterans of the North and South, who faced each other on so many battle-fields, will meet in peaceful reunion, to talk over their old battles and attend the World's Fair together.

There will be a National Committee who will assist the committee at Chicago in this reunion. Tents will be furnished by the Government to camp in, and the old boys who wore the blue and the gray can go into camp by States, and have one good time together before they pitch their tents beyond the silent river. There are hundreds all over the land who wore the blue and the gray, the best men, both North and South, who are offering their services to make this the greatest reunion ever held on American soil.

On May 30, 1893, there will be a grand union memorial service held, and the blue and gray will decorate with flowers the graves of the 6,000 Confederate soldiers buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Chicago, and the graves of the Union soldiers buried there.

A mass meeting of the survivors will be held during the encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic at Detroit, Mich., to boom this reunion. All true soldiers who wore the blue or the gray are invited to this meeting, and to the grand reunion at Chicago in 1893.

The First Brigade of Kentucky Infantry, Confederate Army, now more popularly known as the "Orphan Brigade," was early in the field, held steadfastly to its convictions to the last, and maintained them against all comers in bloody battle, and was about the last Confederate troops cast of the Mississippi, if not the very last, to fight the foe. The rennant that was left was closed with its adversary near Camden, S. C., when the news of Lee's surrender reached the field and the combatants drew off to await reliable intelligence.

When it was announced that Johnston had capitulated to Sherman, the Kentuckians marched back to Columbia, thence to Washington, Ga., where they surrendered their arms May 6, 1865. While many of them sought their homes individually; the brigade can hardly be said to have disbanded until it reached Kentucky, and every man set out for his own home. There were comparatively few of them left, but they were nearly all young men-quite a number not yet old enough to vote; and now, more than twenty-seven years from the time they came back to peaceful avocations, the majority of them still living, and many of them look as though they could go through another four years' campaign and come home, if alive, to take an active part again in the work-a-day world.

Maj. Edward Owen, Secretary of the Executive Committee of this Camp, sends out a circular as follows. It is to comrades:

A new constitution, embracing a history of the Camp from its origin to date, names of all officers, committees, and members of the veteran and department "Sons of Confederate Veterans" organizations, is about to be printed.

This book will be gotten up in handsome style, and will have a wide circulation.

It has been reported that many contemplate joining the Camp and the "Sons," but delay action. Members are therefore requested to get in all applications of eligible parties at he earliest possible date. in order that the names may be included in the lists of members to be published.