Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/315

 The Confederate Dead of Mississippi. 315

far the largest that was ever in the city, and was most quiet and orderly.

The afternoon was spent by the military companies in giving exhi- bition drills, which were witnessed by thousands. Twenty-five hun- dred veterans registered at headquarters, and the crowd numbered fully twenty thousand. Not an accident or unpleasent incident oc- curred. The crowd was admirably handled. No one went away hungry, or failed to find a place to sleep. The old veterans coming from a distance were cared for free.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT.

While the memory of Mississippians of their Confederate dead has never slumbered evinced by the erection in various counties, notably at Woodville and Liberty, of monuments to commemorate the deeds of valor of their fallen sons in the lost cause still the idea often suggested of erecting a monument on the Capitol grounds at the Capitol of the State never took shape until 1886, when Mr. Luther Manship made the first effort toward doing something to start the monument by giving a concert and devoting the proceeds to that purpose. Soon after this the ladies organized the Confederate Monu- ment Association. There were only nine ladies present at the first meeting. Mrs. Sallie B. Morgan presided at this meeting. Mrs. C. E. Hooker was elected president; Mrs. Brunson, vice-president; Miss Andrews, treasurer ; Miss Fontaine, secretary; and Mrs. Manship, corresponding secretary. While the officers of the association were changed from time to time on account of the removal from the city, or other unavoidable reasons, the organization continued to grow, and was chartered under the laws of the State on March 17, 1887. An executive committee, consisting of Mrs. C. E. Hooker, Mrs. W. W. Stone, Mrs. Nugent, and Mrs. Dunning, was appointed, and under their legal charter, new officers, with Mrs. Sallie B. Morgan as presi- dent ; Mrs. C. C. Campbell, vice-president ; Mrs. W. W. Stone, treasurer ; all the other former officers being re-elected, except that Miss Kate Power took the place of Miss Andrews, removed from the city.

The Legislature of 1888 was called upon to make an appropriation of ten thousand dollars, and the bill passed the Senate, but was de- feated in the House by a vote of fifty-nine to forty-two. The Legis- lature, however, at this session, donated a site for the monument in