Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/33

 "Missionary Ridge." 21

man. A man of pure life, a man of high character and in- corruptible principle, a patriot loyal to the core, high-minded and self-sacrificing to the very end. One of the glories of the Southern army is that no Benedict Arnold was developed from among all of its hundreds, nay thousands, of generals from first to last of that fearfully trying war. It is ungrateful and insulting to even associate the thought with the stainless name of Braxton Bragg. Bragg, at the end, is found fighting des- perately in that last battle at Bentonville, N. C, fighting as a subordinate officer, a voluntary subordinate ofiicer, not merely under Johnston, but under his own old corps commander, General Hardee ! Noble and illustrious object-lesson of the spirit that actuated everyone, both of the officers and men, who can say, with honest pride, "I was in at the death, I was at my post of duty when the surrender came ; when my stricken, ex- hausted country breathed her last, I zvas there, at her side, faith- ful to her! Faithful to the very end! That is better than vic-r tories ! That is better than the victor's pension !

Blessed is the rule you have, my comrades, in this Camp, viz : of exacting from every applicant but one inflexible test: "Were you a good soldier? Were you faithful to your oath? Did you stay at your post? Did you keep faith and do your duty?" That exalted rule, my comrades, kept inflexibly, makes of us a band of brothers indeed, illustrious by reason of the tie that binds, by reason of the records that verify it. by reason of the memories that on an occasion like this bridge the whole past intervening 50 years and bring back into our hearts the surging tumultuous emotions of our youth, the high resolves and pur- poses and deeds, the flushed cheek and flashing eye, the honest ennobling afTections one for another, the vanished faces and forms of comrades cut down by our sides, the dauntless daring and doing, the loving sharing of our all one with another, the buoyant, hopeful, joyous, careless, confident enthusiasm of our immortal youth ! Therefore, my comrades, although of another army, I feel myself one of you ; I feel myself among a band of brothers. It may be some of you dififer from me in some