Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/408

 400 Southern Historical Society Papers,

I do not fear for the answer.

We hav^ mourned them as only brave men can mourn each other, and now belong to us the unfinished tasks of many a noble life.

To borrow the language of the greatest historian of the ancient world, " whatever we loved, whatever we admired in the lives of these men, survives, and will survive, in the .hearts of their comrades, in the succession of the ages, in the fame that waits on noble deeds."

With them all is well.

They are not dead but sleeping ! Well we know

The forms that lie to-day beneath the sod Shall rise when time the golden bugles blow

And pour their music through the courts of God.

And there amid earth's great heroic dead. The war-worn sons of God, whose work is done!—

Each face shall shine as they with stately tread In grand review sweep past the Jasper Throne.

The address met with enthusiastic applause throughout its delivery.

At its conclusion Mayor Collier introduced to the assemblage Miss Lucy Lee Hill, daughter of the lamented General A. P. Hill. The young lady was received with great cheers, which she gracefully acknowledged with bows.

UNVEILED.

It was thirteen minutes past 7 o* clock when Miss Hill and Mrs. J. M. Wyche pulled the string and the statue stood unveiled.

Salvos of artillery and volleys of musketry, mingled with the cheers of the vast crowd, greeted the unveiling.

Miss Hill was then presented with a handsome bouquet by Sergeant A. J. Blackburn, of Company C, on behalf of the old Thirteenth Virginia Infantry. Hundreds of people shook hands with the youngs lady, who was evidently greatly delighted with her reception.

A VETERAN FLAG.

Among the flags displayed in the procession was one well entitled the *• Veteran."

It was the silk banner presented by the ladies of Petersburg to the volunteers from *' the Cockade City " in the Mexican war in 1847, and which was borne by that gallant body in the land of the Montezumas.

It has been sacredly preserved by Colonel Fletcher H. Archer, who commanded the company in that service, as a precious historic memorial.