Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/256

 248 Southern Historical Society Papers.

The words on the rear of the base are:

" They died for the principles upon which all true republics are founded."

On the left of the base is:

" Remember their valor,

Keep holy the sod, For honor to heroes Is glory to God."

The Monument Committee had the plinth so designed that at some future day four bronze medallions of Louisiana soldiers can be at- tached to it. These will probably be Colonels Taylor, Hays, Stark, and Stafford, who commanded the Louisiana regiments which were most constantly engaged in the Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

When Colonel William Laughlin attended the reunion in Houston last year, he met Captain T. J. Bantz, of Winchester. The New Orleans veteran told his Virginia comrade about the superb collection of relics in the Confederate Memorial Hall, and interested him so much that he volunteered to secure a number of relics for che hall from the Winchester battlefields. He kept his promise, and when Colonel Laughlin met him again at Winchester, he had collected a fine lot of battle mementoes. These included minie balls, bayonets, two United States army belts, gunstocks, and pieces of shell and canister from Monacacy, the first and second Winchester fights, the battle of Milroy Fork and other skirmishes about Winchester. These precious relics Colonel Laughlin brought back with him to New Orleans, with infinite pains (as they are bulky and heavy) and will present them in a few days to Memorial Hall. They will shortly be supplemented by a collection of shells and other bulky articles which it was impossible to bring by hand, and which will be received by express and placed among the other relics.

One of the most striking of the many monuments in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery is that which marks the grave of Major Thomp- son, a gallant Winchester soldier, who received his death wound on almost the last day of the war.

The monument is a massive block of granite surmounted by a wondrously polished granite globe several feet in thickness. It is as smooth as polished crystal, and one seems to see into its depth for several inches. So perfect 'is the reflection that the globe presents