Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/273

 The Mint a i a, 'i, I (o Mosby's Men. ii;.~>

some of those who succeed these heroes shall, as they will, step to the front and report that they are all absent, but accounted for in the remembrance of a j4 rate-fill country.

I look at the faces of living heroes, and to-day in this presence I can and will promise for the succeeding generation that our greatest pride shall be in your achievements, and that your memories shall be as sacred as our honor. This shaft, as it were, be another cove- nant between thee and thy people. That your cause was just, that Spartan like, you bore your part, and that peace must be unto your ashes. In closing these remarks I know of no better words than to adopt the language of your commander-in-chief, Mr. Jefferson Davis:

" In asserting the right of secession it has not been my wish to in- cite to its exercise. I recognize the fact that the war showed it to be impracticable. But this did not prove it to be wrong, and now that it may not be again attempted, and that the Union may promote the general welfare, it is needlul that the truth and the whole truth should be known, so that crimination and recrimination may forever cease, and then upon the basis of fraternity and a faithful regard for the rights of the States there may be written upon the arch of the Union 'Est Pcrpetuns: "

COMMUNICATION FROM COLONEL JOHN S. MOSBY.

Editor of the Times:

SIR In his address at the unveiling of the monument at Front Royal to the seven men of my command who were hung and shot in the Shenandoah campaign in 1864, when they were prisoners of war, Major Richards says: "We now know it to have been in strict compliance with an official order from the commanding general of the Federal armies; " and he quotes in proof of it the last line of the following dispatch from General Grant, who was in front of Peters- burg, to Sheridan, who was 200 miles away:

CITY POINT, August i6th, 1864 1.30 P. M. (Received at 6.30 A. M. i7th.)

MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN,

Commanding ; &c., Winchester, Va.

be collected. I think they should be taken and kept at Fort Me-
 * * The families of most of Mosby's men are known and can