Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/112

 104 Southern Historical Society Papers.

in a great cause. Greater honor to the mother, the wife, the sister who girds his sword, yields him to the call of duty and dies a hun- dred deaths in his. By their spirit and by their deeds the women of the Confederacy are equal sharers with its soldiers of a glory which one could not have achieved without the other. Then let their names be written high upon the roll of honor when fame bequeaths her jewels to history.

With softly sounding tread Go forth "
 * Let the song and the stately rhyme

to voice their praise and honor their memories until the South' s last poet is dead and his harp hangs tuneless on the willows of time. Aye, of their devotion, their heroism, their Christ -like ministrations and sufferings, let the recording angel, dipping his glowing pen in the golden chalice of the sun, write upon the great scroll of heaven immortal,

THE DEATH OF THE CONFEDERACY.

When ^neas, the Trojan hero, was commanded by the Queen of Carthage to relate the tragic story of the fall of Troy, he gave ex- pression to his "unutterable grief*' in the question, "who of the myrmidons» or what soldier even of the stern Ulysses, can refrain from tears at such a recital?" The fall of the Confederacy and the death struggle of the Army of Northern Virginia are rife with scenes as harrowing and heroic as any enacted beneath the walls of Troy, and equally worthy of the sympathy even of their foes.

The Confederate lines, stretched to their utmost tension, break at last. Retreating, fighting, watching, fasting, dying, the army has only to change front to meet a foe. No pomp or circumstance of glorious war is there. Every day, every hour are witnesses to unre- corded deeds whose prowess might claim an epic strain. The flag still flies and the shattered ranks still form beneath the starry cross, fit emblem now of the crucifixion of the grandest cause that ever failed. In vain, all in vain. Hope flies, the end comes, fame drops the sword and leaves the victory to death. Our great commander lays down his sword. At his command, and his only, the** rear- guard of the grand army ** of Northern Virginia ground their arms, and a storm-cradled nation is dead.

It was characteristic of Lee*s greatness that while he accepted suc- cess with unselfish modesty, he always met adversity splendidly.