Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/289

 Address of Major Graham Dams. 277

E. A. Lee, Company C, 313! North Carolina. W. H. Utley, Company C, 3ist North Carolina. W. C. Rhodes, Company C, 3ist North Carolina. Jesse Seagraves, Company G, yth North Carolina. A. J. Dement, Company B, 3d North Carolina Cavalry. A. B. King, Company H, 47th North Carolina. W. C. Johnson, Company C, 5th North Carolina. T. N. Richardson, Company C, 52d North Carolina.

At 3 o'clock the veterans met again to attend the memorial ser- vices in a body.

THE ADDRESS.

Ladies of the Memorial Association, Comrades of the Confederate Army, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with peculiar pleasure, and a kind appreciation of the honor done me, that I have accepted the invitation of the Memorial As- sociation to address you on this historic anniversary an anniver- sary so endeared to us of the South, filled as it is, with sad associa- tions, and proud memories of noble men, brave deeds and costly sacrifices. It was in Raleigh that I entered the Confederate army, at the outset of the War Between the States, as Adjutant of the 22d North Carolina Regiment under the peerless Pettigrew. In this city my family found refuge and welcome after the occupation of Newburn by the Federal forces, and here I returned after the sad end near Hillsboro when Johnston surrendered to Sherman. My life as a soldier is associated with Raleigh, and it is most grateful to speak to her people among whom I number many friends and some contemporaries of those far off, stirring days of great events in 1861-1865.

On the Feast of All Saints' Day, which according to the Chris- tian calendar, occurs on the first of November, a beautiful custom is observed in Europe and in parts of this country. The day is kept as a holiday, and many persons, laying aside their cares of life, re- pair to the burial place of their dead and decorate their graves with flowers. The day seems appropriately chosen.

In our annual gatherings at the South to offer loving tributes to to the memory of our Confederate dead, our custom is much .akin to that described, finding its expression also most appropriately in floral offerings

But on All Saints' Day the offerings are made by relatives of each