Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/223

 Major-General Stephen D. Ramseur. 223

point with pride to the fact that the declaration that " these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free," was penned by a Southern statesman ; that this declaration was made good under the leadership of a Southern general ; that " the Father of the Constitution " was a Southern man ; that through a president, a Southern man, our boun- daries were extended from ocean to ocean and from the gulf to the lakes; and that prior to the late war all assaults against the integrity of the Union were compromised and accommodated mainly through Southern statesmanship. When, after fifty years of its existence, the government was turned over to the statesmen of the North, in the language of one of her gifted and eloquent sons, the South surren- dered it to her successors "matchless in her power, incalculable in her strength, the pride and the glory of the world." It is of

STEPHEN D. RAMSEUR

that we now propose to speak his life, his services, and his lamented death. In the Piedmont section of our State there is a county named in honor of that Revolutionary hero, Benjamin Lincoln, who at the time was in command of the Continental soldiers in Charleston harbor, fighting for the freedom and independence of the American colonies. This county was originally a part of Mecklenburg, the " Hornets' Nest" of the Revolution, and her sons partook of the sturdy patriot- ism of their neighbors. In her territorial limits was fought the battle of Ramseur's Mill, and other stirring scenes of like nature. Lincoln, though one of the smallest counties in the State, gave to history such well-known Revolutiouary names as Brevard, Dickson, Chronicle, and others, who, though less generally known, were no less patriotic and determined in upholding their principles. The county-seat of Lincoln, with that want of imagination and originality for which Americans are celebrated, is called Lincolnton, a small village long distinguished for the culture, refinement, and unobtrusive hospitality of her people. While her citizens were not wealthy they enjoyed such affluence as enabled them to be independent and self-reliant. About the year 1837 there was born in Lincoln county three children, each of whom became distinguished in war before attaing his twenty- seventh year; and also from among her accomplished daughters came the wives of Stonewall Jackson, Lieutenant General D. H. Hill, and Brigadier General Rufus Barringer. Ramseur, Hoke, and R. D. Johnson were born within a year of each other, and for distinguished services in the field were promoted and entitled to wear the coveted