Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/321

Rh spread flowers and shed tears; while over his unmarked grave most likely the winds would sing a sad requiem and no loving hand would plant a single flower.

No story of our war; no record of the gallant defenders of our stainless banner; no recital of the deeds of daring and the unselfish sacrifices of these men would be complete without mention of the heroic spirit and undying devotion of the noble women of the South. The old stories of the Roman matrons and self-sacrifices of the Spartan women, were reproduced in every State, and nearly every home of this Southland.

It would be easy to furnish from memory of the stirring events during the War between the States, incidents that would show the most exalted patriotism and highest conception of duty on the part of the noble women of the South that the history of any people in any age can furnish.

We are proud of the fact that their mantle has fallen upon the shoulders of the Daughters of the Confederacy, whose hearts burn to-day with a love and devotion as pure and sacred as that of their mothers when they sent forth their sons to battle with the Roman matron's injunction; or gave their parting kiss to loved ones, whom they cheerfully resigned to their country's call.

The unselfish devotion of the noble women of the South upheld and prolonged the unequal struggle, while their patience and sacrifices at home, rearing their children, and praying for the absent husband and father, often with no protector save the faithful slaves who stood guard at their doors, furnishes the most striking example of love and devotion that this world has ever seen. When under the Providence of God our vexed problems are settled, and the South comes again to her own, as under the unvarying law of compensation she surely will, another monument will rise in our Southland, erected by the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, and dedicated to the noble women of the South.

A land without ruins is a land without memories. A land without memories is a land without history. "Crowns of roses