Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/314

 298 Southern Historical Society Papers.

the most brilliant victories of the war; and when we remembered that this was still the residence of Rogers, Hume, the Settles, Goree, Vidor, and others of our surviving comrades, we knew that you would take it ill should we change our resolution; and we are here to-day to accept of your hospitality and to mingle together in social reunion. We are glad to find your city not prostrate and despairing, but still strong and self-reliant. Like Neptune, you have taken your bath in the sea; and though your locks may be dishevelled, you are full of hope and faith in the future; and with such determi- nation as is yours, you will yet scale the walls of adversity, and, like the Venice of old, the city of the Adriatic, Galveston, the metropolis of the new Mediterranean, will receive into her lap the riches of the Orient and rival in wealth and splendor the most renowned cities oi ancient or modern times.

Forty years have passed since the three regiments of Texans, who subsequently became known as " Hood's Brigade," left their native State and went forth to meet the invader and to do battle for the cause they believed to be just, on the historic fields of the Old Do- minion years full of events; some of sorrow, some of joy, but all filled with hope as our country forged forward in the race of pro- gress. So rapid has been the advance of the achievements of civ- ilization, such the rush and hurry incident to a money-making age, while the old generation has been passing away, and new men, who knew not our fathers of 1861, have taken their places, it is to be feared that we are unmindful of much that added glory to our Com- monwealth; we are forgetting much that contributed lustre to the name and fame of the Texas soldier. But amid all this change, to us, the survivors of the Lost Cause, nothing has occurred to dimin- ish our pride or dim our eyes to the prowess and splendor of the noble heroes who offered their lives a willing sacrifice upon the altar of their country. I trust I shall be pardoned if I recall on this oc- casion, at the risk of being considered prosaic and perhaps boastful, some of the events which made the name of the Texas soldier the synonym of heroism throughout the world. And to-day my theme shall be, How Hood's Brigade Won Its Spurs in Virginia. To tell all of its achievements would make a book, and would worry your patience. I shall, therefore, undertake a glimpse of the campaign of 1862 the first real campaign of the war, and one in which that band of heroes carved for themselves and their State immortal fame. Had I the gift of genius or the skill of the literary artist, I might weave a romance that would set at naught the march of Xenophon