Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/526

Rh in thirty-one states, the District of Columbia and city of Mexico, Republic of Mexico.

In 1894 the chapters of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which had been previously formed in many of the Southern states met in Nashville, Tennessee, and organized themselves into one general federation, the objects of which are "memorial, historical, benevolent, educational and social, namely to honor the memory of those who served and those who fell in the service of the Confederate states; to record the part taken by the women of the South, in patient endurance of hardships and patriotic devotion during the struggle, as well as their untiring effort, after the war, in the reconstruction of the South; to collect and preserve the material for a true history of the war between the states ; to protect and preserve historical places of the Confederacy; to fulfill the sacred duty of charity to the survivors of that war, and to those dependent upon them; to promote the education of the needy descendants of worthy Confederates; and to cherish the ties of friendship among the members of the association."

With such aims and purposes, the women of this organization—worthy daughters of noble sires — have cared for the living veterans, and urged upon the legislatures of the Southern states the payment of pensions and the establishment and maintenance of homes for these old heroes, and for the needy Confederate women. By their own efforts they have erected monuments throughout the South, to commemorate the heroism of the "men behind the guns," and their great leaders—among whom stand high on the scroll of fame, the name of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart and a host of others who have now become, in our re-united country, a common heritage, as types of American courage and valor.

Under a well-organized educational system, much valuable work is being done for the higher education of worthy sons and