Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/97

 Last Days of Johnston's Army. 97

our allegiance to truth, honor and vested rights impugned, or our genuine manhood drawn into controversy at our own homes and within the shadow of our cherished monuments. To our descendants do we naturally and confidently look for the protection of our pos- thumous reputations. They should be the guardians they are the legitimate transmitters of the aims, doctrines, and principles which we held dearer than life.

Permit me, then, to make this suggestion for your consideration and future action. Let our sons, by virtue of heirship, be admitted as junior members of this Association ; so that when we pass into the realm of shadows there may be those, sprung from our loins and in- heriting our sentiments, who will regard with pride and cherish with devotion the recollections which we deem sacred, and see to it that in the Pantheon wherein honest history shall set up the images of the good and great, there shall be room ample, honorable, and pre- eminent accorded to the statutes of Davis and Lee and Jackson and and Johnson and Hampton and of their noble compatriots who im- periled all in the defence of home, in the cause of truth, in the main- tenance of right, in the support of freedom, and in the exhibition of every trait appertaining to exalted manhood. .

LAST DAYS OF JOHNSTON'S ARMY.

A Comrade's Experience with Gen. L. S. Baker's Command at Weldon,

N. C., During the Fifteen Days preceding Johnston's

Surrender at Greensboro, N. C.

An Address delivered before A. P. Hill Camp Confederate Veterans, at

Petersburg, Va.

BY JAMES M. MULLEN.

COMRADES:

Looking back, perhaps I am justified in saying that my lines during the late war were, in one sense, cast in pleasant places. At the time, and while the conflict was raging, I did not think so; but " blessings brighten as they take their flight." Hudibras says

that

" He who fights and runs away, Will live to fight another day ";