Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/209

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THE UNVEILING.

Grandchildren of Mrs. Wright, Draw the Drapery from the

Monument.

When General Lee closed, Master Allen Wright and little Elmira Wright, the beautiful grandchildren of the deceased president of the association, Mrs. E. D. Wright, unveiled the monument, which was immediately saluted by the guns of the Warren Light Artillery and by repeated cheers, hardly less loud.

Major W. T. Walthall, as proxy for Miss Sallie M. Adams, daughter of the late General Wirt Adams, who was unavoidably absent, then read the following poem, written for the ceremony by J. E. Battaile:

Shades of our heroes dead,

Sleeping in glory, Here, where your blood was shed,

Carve we your story ! Marble must sink in dust,

Fame lives forever. Though your true blades be rust,

Forget we ? Never !

Yon sculptured sentinel

Watches your sleeping. Tells how you fought and fell,

Loyally keeping Life's trust. You met death's hour

Stern and undaunted. Ours 'tis to nurse the flower

Your vaior planted.

Here, 'neath the giant hills,

Rest warriors, rest ye ! Lulled by the murm'ring rills,

None shall molest ve ! Fanned by our south wind's breath,

Sleep, soldiers weary! Yours was no fameless death,

Darksome and dreary.