Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/27

 Annual Reunion of Pegram Battalion Association. 21

Here from time to time shall we come with our children that they may look upon the colors under which their fathers served, and while teaching them, as is our duty, that their allegiance and our own is now due the flag of our common country, we shall teach them as well that the cause in which this flag was unfurled was no unrighteous cause, and that the blood shed in its defence was not the blood of " traitors," but the blood of patriots, who died that they might transmit to their children the heritage bequeathed them by their fathers.

Major Thomas A. Brander, President of the Association, then received the dear old flag in the following appropriate

Reception Address:

Ladies, Friends and Comrades :

As President of this Association it becomes my duty to receive this precious token, so sacredly preserved and cherished by the mother of our beloved comrade and gallant Commander, Colonel William J. Pegram. No one could have presented it to us so hand- somely and feelingly as his faithful friend and Adjutant, who was always by his side in danger, and who performed the last sacred office for him, who was so dear to each one of us.

I feel that any words uttered by me would but feebly express the fervent attachment we bore to him whom we have so often followed in battle.

Comrades! this is not a " conquered banner," it never trailed in the dust, it is the same historic flag snatched from the hands of the enemy at Cedar Run by our dauntless Commander, and which was given by him to one whom, like all true men, he most loved and honored — his mother,

What would have become of us but for the dear women of the South, who cared for, nursed, and cheered us on to battle, giving their dearest ones to the cause as freely as they gave themselves to the sacrifice.

When memory recalls the many gallant deeds of the officers and men of this Battalion, I am truly thankful that I have been spared to be present on this occasion, and when my thoughts turn to Ellis and John Munford, James EUett, Greenlee Davidson, George Cayce, Mercer Featherstone, Ned Mayre, Ham Chamberlayne, and a num- ber of others so dear to us, I feel that it is one of the grandest privileges left us to honor and cherish the memory of these brave