Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/305

 Sherma7is March from Attanta to the Coast. 295

Day, the shadows of the great griefs caused by the recent deaths of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confede- racy, and of Senator Benjamin H. Hill, who during the Southern struggle for independence had been a close friend and trusted adviser of President Davis, were abroad in the land. And now, as we come together to revive the recollections of the past and to confirm the ties which unite us in the present, we find ourselves encompassed by kindred sorrows.

Since our last annual convocation General Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance of the Confederate States, whose special mission it was to arm for the war and to supply the thunderbolts of battle, has taken his chamber in those voiceless halls where are never heard reverbera- tions from the ' ' fatal cannon' s womb ' ' and the din of contending hosts. General J. F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer of the Confederacy, and an accomplished officer, but a few months since passed into that realm

where

The human shout and cry. Are silent."
 * * "The clang of steel,

Only a little while agone the Hon. John Letcher, war Governor of Virginia, was gathered to his fathers; and of those who were fore- most in the armies and the councils of the Confederacy, not a few are hastening rapidly to the extreme verge of human life.

In our own Association we have been called upon to mourn the de- mise of our beloved, honored, and venerable member. Professor L. D. Ford, M. D., LL. D., Surgeon in the Confederate army, whose long, useful, and patriotic labors were crowned by a peaceful and triumphant death. The memory of his stainless career, of his remarkable professional attainments, and of his medical skill and humane ministrations alike in peace and war, abides with us as a precious legacy. Major Samuel H. Crump, of the Twelfth Georgia infantry battalion, a gallant soldier, a true friend, and an upright, efficient public servant, will participate no more in these earthly re- unions.

Our comrades, Robert M. Barnes, private Company B, Cobb's Legion, Georgia infantry; John Osley, private Company E, Eighth regiment Georgia infantry; and Dr. Sterling C. Eve, Assistant Sur- geon in Confederate service, and an esteemed physician in this com- munity, have also bade us a long farewell.

On this Memorial day, consecrated to the memory of our Confede-