Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/70

 62 Southern Historical Society Papers,

by the loves of Southern hearts and amid the comforts of the metro- polis of the South, President Jefferson Davis, the noblest living embodiment of Confederate manhood, and the most distinguished representative of a cause which electrified the civilized world by the grandeur of its sacrifices, the dignity and rectitude of its aims, the nobility of its pursuit, and the magnitude and the brilliancy of the deeds performed in its support, yielded his great spirit into the hands of the God who gave it. It was the privilege of this Association to render conspicuous honor to his memory ; and, in a manner most emphatic and appropriate, to participate in the general grief and heartfelt adoration which pervaded the entire territory once claimed by the Confederacy.

On the 3d of February the Hon. William W. Boyce, a member from South Carolina of the Confederate Congress, and one of the fi-amers and signers of the Confederate Constitution, died at an ad- vanced age in Fairfax county, Virginia ; and, during the month of March, the Hon. William E. Smith, at first in the field and then a representative from Georgia in the Confederate Congress, and Major- General Jones M. Withers, from Alabama, entered into rest.

Within the circle of our immediate companionship we chronicle the death of H. L. Sponsler, — veterinary surgeon in Cobb's Legion of Cavalry, on the 9th of last June: of Elmore A. Dunbar^ color bearer of the 63rd regiment Georgia infantry, on the 24th of the same month : of Charles N, Bignon, private in Company B, Capers' battalion, on the 7th of October : of the soldierly /. O. Clarke, lieu- tenant-colonel of the I St regiment Georgia infantry, on the 6th oi December : of Charles M. Peck, second lieutenant and drill-master C. S. A., on the 4th of February last : and, sixteen days afterwards, of James Kelly, private in the 7th regiment of Georgia cavalry, Young's brigade.

Although they pass

" Into the eternal shadow That girds our life around. Into the infinite silence Wherewith Death's shore is bound,**

to our welcoming vision on tnis Memorial Day

" They come transfigured back Secure from change in their high-hearted ways. Beautiful evermore, and with the rays Of Morn on their white shields of expectation."