Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/198

 190 Southern Historical Society Papers.

with its recruits of boys of tender years and feeble old men, laid down its arms at Appomatox Courthouse, April Qth, 1865.

Crushed to the earth, the righteousness of the cause for which they fought so grandly, remains undimmed, their achievements increasingly command the admiration of the world. Their fate invests only with incense their heroism and sublime sacrifices. May the blood of these martyrs be as that of those of the Cross who died at the stake for conscience sake, and may it be as the seed of life and noble endeavor, with just patriotic fruitage, to my comrades of this Camp.