Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/149

 Presenting Portrait of Gen. Wade Hampton. 137

chieftain; sans peur et sans reproche, Wade Hampton III, our Wade Hampton, of whose military genius and achievements and civic and social virtues we think and speak in grateful remembrance to-night, descended in direct line from men likewise distinguished in the his- tory of the State and country. His paternal grandfather was a col- onel of cavalry in our first war, of independence, which we won. (Our second war for indepence, which we lost the more's the pity was, as none know better than these Confederate veterans, that from 1 86 1 to 1865.)

After a review of the life of General Hampton, his birth and en- vironment in which he was reared to manhood, the speaker spoke in detail of his noble military career and his services to the Confed- eracy. He then said :

In all his engagements with the enemy I have named, and many not named, Wade Hampton demonstrated to all the world, for all the world was looking on in admiration and in wonder, his right to hold in history a place in the front rank of the greatest soldiers of ancient or modern times. A born leader of men, a consummate strategist, a skilful tactician, with a topographic eye, to take in at a glance the advantages and disadvantages of natural positions; saga- cious therefore in choosing his ground, his point of attack or de- fense; unsparing of self, but ever watchful of the safety and comfort of his men; cautious in manoeuvre, but impetuously crushing and destructive, in the charge, breaking doivn and riding over every- thing and everyone in his way, towering above himself, as it were, as above all others, a veritable giant of battle, in the hurly- burly of the intricately entangled melee; none quicker or more ac- curate with the pistol, none with more hurcnlean strength or greater skill to sabre and thrust, none to ride with firmer seat or more per- fect control of his steed; and, with all and above all, none, paradox- ical as it may seem, of a gentler nature, of a kinder heart, truly a lady-like and therefore loveable man.

Time does not permit me to dwell longer on the great soldier's arduous work and mighty deeds in the red field of gory war; not even when that field had been transferred to South Carolina and his foot planted once, after an absence of nearly four years in defend- ing Virginia altars, Virginia wives, Virginia children, and Virginia maidens had been planted once, MacGregor-like, on his native heath, in a vain endeavor to beat back the ruthless, torch-bearing invaders, from other homes, other firesides, other altars, other wives, other children and other maidens, no less dearer to him for