Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/196

 190 Southern Historical Society Papers.

feat for his State and his people, as he had Hved for them in the hour of victory. "I had rather die a thousand deaths" was the bitter cry that broke from him when the end came. " How soon could I end this and be at rest. 'Tis but to ride down the lines, and give the word, and all would be over." Then presently recovering his natural voice, we are told, he answered one who urged that the surrender might be misunderstood, " That is not the question. The question is whether it is right. And if it is right, I take the responsibility." Then, after a brief silence, he added with a sigh,," It is your duty to live. What will become of the wives and children of the South, if we are not here to protect them?" So saying, he sent in to Grant his flag of truce without further hesitation.*

Truly had he fulfilled the modest pledge with which he accepted the charge of his State from the Convention,

" Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever draw my sword."

You will soon lay the cornerstone to a monument to commemorate in some degree how gloriously our beloved leader fulfilled the expec- tations with which the people of Virginia placed her forces under his command, and with what genius and valor he led with hers the troops of her sister Southern States to victory after victorv; and if in the end to defeat — a defeat, in which if all was lost but honor — honor was preserved, and with it — aye ! glory ! The eulogium for that occasion is the task of another, on which I will not intrude. I will only ask you to let me quote a tribute from the distinguished military writer, Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney.

In closing his exquisite memoir of General Lee, written soon after his death, Colonel Chesney says :t

" So passed away the greatest victim of the civil war. Even in the far- thest North, where he had once been execrated as the worst enemy of the Union, the tidings caused a thrill of regret. But though America has learnt to pardon, she has yet to attain the full reconciliation for which the dead hero would have sacrificed a hundred lives. Time only can bring this to a land which, in her agony, bled at every pore. Time, the healer of all wounds, will bring it yet. The day will come when the evil passions of the great civil strife will sleep in oblivion, and North and South do justice to each other's motives, and forget eacn other's wrongs. Then history will speak with clear voice of the deeds done on either side, and the citizens of


 * Military Biography — Chesney, page 127. ^ Ibid, page 135.