Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/73

 The Address of Hon. John Lamb. 65

of their fate without a sigh. They were spared from witnessing the glorious flag furled. A large number of these did not turn from the fated field of Gettysburg, as did some here, with the burning thought that "Some one had blundered."

The tragic scenes at Appomattox could leave no regretful and sorrowful memories in their hearts and lives.

"As the mists of the past are rolled away,

Our heroes who died in their tattered gray,

Grow taller and greater in all their parts,

Till they fill our minds, as they filled our hearts;

And for them who lament them there is this relief,

That glory sits by the side of grief,

And they grow taller as the years pass by

And the world learns how they could do or die."

PRIVATE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

We sing praises to the officers; we erect monuments of bronze and marble to their memories; we hangportaits on the walls of our camps that will remind our children's children of their undying fame and imperishable valor, but we do not emphasize on every occasion, as we should, the self sacrifice and noble devotion to duty of the private soldier and sailor who made possible the fame and glory of their officers.

The Confederate private soldier was by far above the average of the armies of the world. No country ever had a larger percentage of thinking and intelligent men in the ranks; men more thoroughly imbued with moral principle.

To their everlasting honor stands the fact that in their march through the enemy's country they left behind them no wasted fields, no families cruelly robbed, no homes violated.

An English writer contemporaneously wrote:

"In no case had the Pennsylvanians to complaim of personal injury or even discourtesy at the hands of those whose homes they had burned; whose families they had insulted, robbed and tor- mented. Even the tardy destruction of Chambersburg was an act of regular, limited and righteous reprisal."

"I must say that they acted like gentlemen, and, their cause aside, I would rather have 40,000 rebels quartered on my premises