Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/4



Vol. XIII

By, Jr., Lieut-Col. First S. C. Volunteers.

When I look around upon you all, my old comrades, and see in this peaceful assembly the now quiet faces I have often seen lit with the fire of battle, and gaze upon your maimed forms and scarred countenances, and recall the time when I saw your blood shed, I hardly can tell which feeling is uppermost in my heart. It is surely gratifying to those of us who survive once more to meet; but as I recall each face before me, my memory is busier with those who are not here. Such meetings as these must be sad—infinitely sad. We meet the survivors of a lost cause and lost friends, of hopes and aspirations which all the chastenings of the last twenty years have not taught us were unfounded or unworthy. If our memories to-day, then, are filled with sadness let us thank God they bring to us no recollections of shame, but of honor and glory. You and I, my comrades, have realized as well the satire as the pathos of the old story of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim. Twenty odd years ago,