Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/298

 292 Southern Historical Society Papers.

These were men worthy of renown in any field. Their courage knew no danger. On the restless front of battle they were stars. I count it my greatest pride to have been their humblest follower.

And of that following what shall I say ? I will say that I count it 'the best of all academics, the noblest university. No craven gradu- ates in the firm tuition- of God's discipline. The lesson of courage in daily jeopardy; of patience under privation and strain ; the pur- suit of high aims in disdain of earthly menace or disaster was taught to me, I trust not all in vain, by the Howitzer battalion. The heart to scorn death nay, the heart to scorn self, the surrender of all for duty was preached by their detachments from Bethel to Appo- mattox and from Manassas to Manassas and then at the last, the highest, the bravest of all courage, the courage which shrinks not from defeat.

NO SILK-AND-SATIN WARRIORS.

They were no warriors of the silk-and-satin kind, who joined their throat of thunder to the grand tones of that epic of w r rath. Sea- soned veterans, with the faces of boyhood, stood behind the ord- nance, which had been drawn from Yorktown to the Chickahominy, and which rang from Gettysburg to Petersburg. Never once were the cannoneers driven from the guns which had been captured for them from the enemy. The strength of conflict was in their sinews, the strength of conviction in their hearts. They moved in obedi- ence to a principle which ruled the whole heart, and wielded the whole strength. They were made by pressure and fire as a dia- mond is made. As they faced storm after storm they added cubits to their stature. Far beyond all material triumph in building the character of a people is the struggle for that "baptism" which we name " the answer of a good conscience." From this source only comes the fortitude for that unshaken struggle with life's reverses which counts for more than all the exploits of romance. None really, none lastingly conquer who trim their sails or their souls for every breeze and have no permanent chart. " All that pass from this world," said John Foster, "must present themselves as from battle, or be denied to mingle in the eternal joys and triumphs of the conquerors."

BATTLES OF SPIRITUAL VICTORY.

I witnessed that wonderful sight as tried by all the past, four years of battles, which stand forth as scenes of a transfiguration; wherein as the war strain grew more tense, the warrior grew more noble