Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/198

 190 Southern Historical Society Papers.

of the sharpshooter. Where is the dark cloud of blue uniforms that that night and day we heard the boom of the cannon and the crack fringed the horizon like a cloud of ill omen 75,000 men encircling the city ? And where are the 20,000 gray uniforms that resisted ? The gunboats that thundered by the batteries the mortars that lit up the darkness with fiery meteors ? Seventeen thousand Federals rest in yonder National Cemetery. Who can find the unknown graves where the Confederates rest in the trenches ? This is holy ground every hero laid down his life conscientiously as a sacred duty. We, the survivors, and this glorious assembly, meet to-day to unveil a monument in their honor, to commemorate the invincible courage with which they endured hardships into danger and death. Nobler men never drew breath than those whom the green grass covers from sight. Memory recalls those stirring scenes to the survivors of those bloody days. Many here recollect Baker's Creek, Port Gib- son, and Chickasaw Bayou. And how the circle narrowed around us, until the entire force was entrenched in the city of Vicksburg. Then began the siege that gave her hills a world-wide fame, which will go ringing down the ages. For forty- seven days and nights the Confederates lay in the trenches, slowly starving on scanty rations that diminished with no hope of replenishing; when shot and shell were poured into the doomed city, and our ammunition was giving out, and no more to be had ; when the slain were buried where they fell, and no reinforcements to take their places.

WAR TIMES RECALLED.

July 4th, 1863 nearly thirty years ago. Can you realize it ? We, their comrades, were then young, ambitious, anxious for glory and promotion. Now gray hairs crown our heads, and we scan these scenes with calmer pulses. All we recall is gone vanished utterly! We stand again upon the soil of Vicksburg, glorious in her past and present. Once she was a wealthy commercial centre noted for refinement and cultivation, wealth and hospitality a queen enthroned upon the hills. Now, ennobled by her misfortunes, almost destroyed by shot and shell, scarred by battle, she stands the " heroic city " of the South. Shattered almost to extinction, see how she has revived. Energy and brains have more than restored her former glory. She gave herself a willing sacrifice on the altar of her coun- try. She has risen from her ruins again a queen. Suppose we