Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/374

 364 Southern Historical Society Papers.

loyal sons will hold her traditions of honor in disesteem. The de- fence of Charleston, in which Captain Frank Harleston bore his faithful part, will ever be as honored and as honorable as the defense of Charleston nearly a hundred years before it. Fort Sumter is as bright a star on the shield of Carolina as the Palmetto Fort of 1776 !

The names of the officers and men who for four years defended Fort Sumter against the combined and continued assaults of the army and navy of the United States will never be forgotten in South Carolina.

They will live in hallowed recollection of their splendid conduct, in admiration of their skill and courage, and in grateful memory of their self-sacrifice.

It was the lot of Harleston to give his life in illustration of the principles of duty that had formed the basis of his education and training.

How simple the details of a cadet's life !

How often the call to the duty of the hour !

And how deep the lessons are written in the character of those cadets, who refusing to be driven to their tasks, move with spirit and heart, at the tap of the steel, and take up the duty as an obliga- tion too sacred to be shunned or shirked. This is my recollection of Harleston. We were fellow-cadets and friends, and I had the honor for a short time, of being his instructor ; and I recall him to- day as I knew and loved him then ; modest, firm, manly, gentle, intelligent, trtie !

The call of duty to Frank was the call of honor.

And, young gentlemen, the cheerful discharge of duty brought him deserved honor here, at the Citadel ; yonder, at Fort Sumter ; and wreathes his name and memory with these fresh and beautiful chaplets of flowers.

The Governor of the State gave him an appointment as First Lieutenant in the immortal First Regiment South Carolina Regular Artillery, in February, 1861. In January, 1862, he was promoted Captain of Company D., and assigned to duty at Fort Sumter.

I cannot enter at this hour into a recital of the incidents of that duty. They belong to the history of the defence of Fort Sumter ; a defence which has no parallel in our great struggle, and which, in some respects, has no parallel in military history. You, who did not see and know Fort Sumter before the loth of July, 1863, can form no idea of its lofty battlements and towering walls, from the simple earth-work you see to-day !