Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/93

 Address of Hon. R. T. Ilenn,-tt. 81

Those of the United States did us Confederates but little harm during the war. Seven of them now lie in James river; most of the others are rotting elsewhere.

The Puritan and one or two others are under repair, and will be useful in harbor defence, for which alone such vessels may be ser- viceable.

I have been induced to make this summary of naval experience of the past thirty years because of the interest which has recently been aroused in improving our navy and our harbor defence, and have stripped the history of the Monitor of all but its bare facts, in the hope and duty to present it fairly. There is not a man or woman educated north of Mason and Dixon's line during the past thirty years who does not believe the Monitor was the victor in the battle in Hampton Roads. Their school histories all teach that, and from the same unwholesome source our children learn that and many other erroneous versions of the conduct of their fathers in the great war between the States.

DABNEY H. MAURY.

Washington, D. C.

ADDRESS OF HONORABLE R. T. BENNETT, Late Colonel i3th North Carolina Infantry, C. S. A.

At the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the Confederate Monument at Raleigh, N. C., May 22, 1894.

MORALE OF THE CONFEDERATE.

In happy phrase Col. Kenan introduced Col. R. T. Bennett, who said:

We ask the prayers of this great company of Christian people while we speak of the men and arms, whose memory the corner- stone just laid is to hold in perpetuity for generations to follow us after some time be past.

The sound of the war, in which the armies of the Confederate States were worn down by repeated blows of superior numbers, has grown faint.

Already, time lends to the events of that struggle, which were the