Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/192

 186 Southern Historical Society Papers.

In July, 1887, the Pegram Battalion Association, composed of the surviving members of batteries, everyone of which were attached to the brigades forming A. P. Hill's Light Division, and afterwards as Pegram's battalion attached to the same division, and to the Third Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, feeling that it would be becoming and proper in their Association, in the absence of any other organization to take the lead, as well as to show their admiration and love for their old division and corps commander, to organize an association for the purpose of erecting a monument to his memory worthy of his gallantry and fame. From this movement the A. P. Hill Monument Association was formed, and after five years' con- tinued struggle they accomplished their purpose, and on the 3Oth of May last dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in a measure worthy of the man. Having preserved the plaster cast of the figure, our Association thought that it might be acceptable to the A. P. Hill Camp, of Petersburg, and now as president of the A. P. Hill Monument Association, I take great pleasure in presenting the same to your camp, bearing his name, knowing that it will be pre- served and handed down to future generations, not for its intrinsic value, but for the love and admiration that we all have for him, not only as a man, but as a gallant officer and a true patriot.

CAPTAIN M'CABE'S SPEECH.

Major Brander and Gentlemen of the Monument Committee

of the Pegram, Battalion Association:

On behalf of the A. P. Hill Camp of Confederate Veterans, which I have the honor to command, I accept with profound gratitude your munificent gift of this statue of our old corps commander.

And, at the outset, I am sure I may be pardoned for recalling with a soldier's honest pride that it is my good fortune to be knit by no common ties, both to the donors and the recipients of this superb work of art.

For, while I stand here to-night, through the too generous parti- ality of my comrades, as the official representative of this Camp, never can I forget, while life lasts, that, as Adjutant of the famous " fighting battalion " of the Army of Northern Virginia, I followed with you on more than a score of crimson fields the headquarter battle- flag of our boy-colonel, William Johnson Pegram the pride of of his corps, the most brilliant artillerist of all Virginia's immortal