Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/225

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Captain Screws escorted Miss Lena Hausman to the statin, em- blematic of the artillery branch of the service.

Miss Hausman, re-leasing the canvas drapery that enfolded the statue, recited the inscription that is underneath, and which was writ- it n by Mrs. I. M. 1'. Ockenden:

" When this historic shaft shall crumbling lie,

In ages hence in woman's heart shall be A folded flag, a thrilling page unrolled, A deathless song of Southern chivalry."

"Tenting on the Old Camp (iround " was creditably rendered by Powell's quartette, and then came the introduction of Hon. Hilary A. Herbert, ex-Secretary of the United States Navy, who had been selected to deliver an oration preliminary to the unveiling of the statue emblematic of the Confederacy.

HON. H. A. HERBERT'S SPEECH.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Ladies of the Memorial Association:

I thank you, ladies, lor the opportunity given to me, a Confede- rate soldier, to say a few words for the Confederate sailor. A simple recital of the circumstances by which our sailors were surrounded and mention of a few only of their achievements will be more elo- quent than any eulogy I could pronounce.

When the Confederacy was born on this hill in 1861, it had, in a few days, a Secretary of the Navy, a broad-minded, far-seeing, re- sourceful statesman, Stephen F. Mallory; it soon had many able naval officers officers who had parted in tears from their comrades in the old navy to follow the call of duty. But the new government had not a naval vessel for its naval officers to command, not a mer- chant vessel that could be changed into an efficient man-of-war, no ship yard, save one at New Orleans, and that had never built or attempted to build a naval vessel, no shop that could build an engine complete, no foundry that could cast a large sized cannon or a can- non ball. The Federal government had its naval vessels afloat on every sea; it had numerous ship yards, foundries, machinists and machine shops; it had ports open to the world; it had the shipping that did our vast coastwise trade, and the sails of its merchantmen whitened all the great waters of the habitable globe.

All its vessels could be utilized; there were sailors to man them. The task of the Federal government was, with the vast fleets it could