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 The Soldiers Home, ^Richmond. 315

THE SOLDIERS' HOME, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

The Origin and History of This Noble Institution.

THE ROLL OF INMATES.

Some of Its Benefactors Its Several Buildings The Management Legis- lative Appropriations.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, November 27, 1892.]

In none of her monuments erected since the war, more than in Lee Camp Soldiers' Home, does Virginia teach the reverence she bears those who stood by her in her hour of sorest trial. None of her monuments speak more eloquently of the cause for which so many of the flower of the South laid down their lives ; none of them appeal more powerfully to the generation now upon the stage to cherish the memory of the deeds and sacrifices of their fathers.

The Home is now in better condition financially and in respect of accommodations than it has been since its establishment, and to-day is fulfilling its noble mission more thoroughly than it has ever done. But that is not saying that it is compassing its sphere of possible usefulness. The calculation is that within the next quarter of a cen- tury most of the youngest of those who served. in the Confederate army will have answered the last roll-call and grounded their arms in the citadel of graves. Yet within the next ten or twelve years the numbers whom exposure and wounds will have incapacitated for work will materially increase, and it follows that any further dona- tions to, or enlargement of the facilities of the Home would be in

the line of patriotic duty.

HISTORY OF THE HOME.

The inception of the Home and the inception of Lee Camp Con- federate Veterans are coeval and their histories run parallel. In March, 1883, seven gentlemen met in this city and informally talked over the matter of raising funds to support a few disabled Confede- rate veterans whose condition had been brought to their attention.