Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/199

Rh BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

Gen. Alfred M. Scales' Address before the Association of the Virginia Division of the Army of Northern Virginia, November 1, 1883.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Comrades:

We meet to-night to re-light our camp fires, to fight our battles over again, to renew the friendships formed in the hour of trial, and for the still nobler purpose of perpetuating the high deeds and sacred memories of our fallen comrades. I am deeply sensible of the occasion, and if I fall below its just demands, you will doubtless extend to me that indulgence which is always given to sincere effort and earnest purpose.

I speak to-night of Fredericksburg. I shall necessarily repeat much that has been said in the official and other reports, by men who were on the spot and witnessed what they wrote; sometimes, when it suits my purpose better, using the identical language.

General Joseph E. Johnston, after distinguished services at Manassas, Williamsburg and Seven Pines, fell painfully wounded at Fair Oaks, on the 1st day of June, 1862. He had deservedly secured the confidence and affection of the country, as well as of his own soldiers, and his fall, though temporary, cast a shadow of gloom over the Confederacy. The emergency was pressing—McClellan was by degrees approaching Richmond. General R. E. Lee, by an order of the President, assumed the command of the Army of Northern Virginia, on the 3d day of June, 1862. The battles of Mechanicsville, of the Chickahominy, of Savage Station, of Frazier's Farm and Malvern Hill, had been fought and Lee and Jackson, and the Army of Northern Virginia, had become immortal. McClellan, with an army of 156,838 men—115,102 of which were efficient, well organized, well equipped