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They knew their cause was just. They put their trust in God. They gave their men to the war, and cheered them on to immortal deeds and endurance and to death. They ministered to the sick, the wounded and the dying. They braved unspeakable dangers in their defenseless homes. They welcomed poverty as a decoration of honor. In defeat and desolation they inspired the rebuilding of States. They have adorned the whole land with monuments to their fallen heroes.

Erected in memory of those who in the sorrow of the silence and separation endured the agony of a conflict they might not share, whose courage sustained the Southern soldier amid the carnage of the battlefield, whose love and fidelity soothed the suffering of his sickness, whose gentle hand brushed from his pale face the gathering dews of death, whose faith and fortitude faltered not in the darkest hour, whose inspiration transformed the gloom of defeat into the hope of the future, and whose memory shall not be forgot even in the hour of peace.