Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 25.djvu/350

 346 Sou If urn Historical, Society Papers.

GENERAL RALEIGH E. COLSTON, C. S. ARMY.

A Tribute to the Memory of the Gallant and Accomplished

Soldier.

AN ODE BY HIM.

A Monument Proposed to be Erected over his Remains in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

For years as he lay helpless on a bod of physical anguish, which was only partially alleviated by opiates, the fortitude with which the accomplished gentleman and gallant soldier bore his constant suffering, was as pathetic as his gallantry in the field had been im- pressive. The representative of a family long seated in the State, an ancestor, William Colston, having been for years the clerk of Richmond county in the Seventeeth century, in General Colston were united the traits of the Virginian which are held in such regard.

General Colston was twice married. His first wife was Louise M. Gardiner, the widowed daughter of Captain John Bowyer, of "Thornhill," near Lexington, Rockbridge county, Virginia. Of this union two daughters survive: Mrs. Louise E., wife of Captain James D. Ragland, of Petersburg, Virginia, and Mrs. Mary F., wife of Captain A. D. Lippitt, of Wilmington, North Carolina.

The spirit of good-will and charity which pervaded his being in the last days of his pilgrimage, is manifested in his own words which preface an address of his which was published in Vol. XXI, of the Southern Historical Society Papers, pp. 38-49:

" Prejudices on both sides have melted away and there are now no better friends than those who fought each other in the blue and gray. Mr. Beecher's prophecy proved conspicuously false, and all the Southern land is now dotted with monuments growing more numer- ous each year, erected to the memory of her fallen heroes. Peace has made us in many respects the most powerful nation in the world, and the most prosperous.

" We shall always cherish the memory of our struggle, which was inevitable, and in which we acted our part honorably and gloriously; and now looking to the future and realizing the magnificent destiny placed before us and our children, as one people, with one country, and one flag, we accept the verdict of Fate, and say: It it well! "