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THE LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF

NORTH CAROLINA
AT

CHAPEL HILL

From

the Library of

Hugh Talmage
A

gift of his

Hugh Talmage

Lefler

sons

Lefler, Jr.

and
Charles

Deems

Lefler

C P 970.76 / MU1 / c.U

 M+1
c.4-

ADDRESS

HON.

T.

W. MASON,
BEFORE TnK

LADIES'

MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION,

AT THE LAVTJCG OF THE

COBNER-STONE OF THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT,

RALEIGH,

£. M.

N.

C, MAY 20.

RALEIGH, N.
I'UBIX, PRINT E*
1S9S.

1895.

C.

AMD BINDER

  .1 aw


n/cmx? 
  

:

ADDRESS

HON.

T.

W. MASON,
BEFORE TITR

LADIES'

MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION,

AT THE LATINO OF THE

CORNER-STONE OF THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT,

RALEIGH,

N.

C, MAY

RALEIGH,
£.

M.

T.

N. C.

ZZELL, PRINTER
I89S.

20, 1895.

AMD BINDER,

 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in

2011 with funding from

University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill

http://www.archive.org/details/addressofhontwmaOOmaso

 :

;

ADDRESS.
Mrs. Preside))! and Ladies of the Monumental Association, Veterans of the Confederacy, Ladies and Gentlemen

North Carolina bids us pause to-day aud consider the

memory

whom

of her soldiers, those

she gave to the Con-

federacy.
I know that you are busy with your affairs; that the
demands of duty press upon you. I fear that disappointed
hopes and failing fortunes may distress some of you; I am
sure that the weight of years is now laid upon those who

have survived

their comrades.

Repeating the message of our beloved State,

you

to

come away from your

us stand,

let

I

entreat

and sorrows to-day, and
with hearts aglow, and with uplifted heads, in
cares

the presence of our heroic past.

The day

invites' us.

It is

our Independence Day.

Now, and through

our day of glorious memories.
years to come,
this

it is

our Confederate

It is
all

Monument Day.

the

For

day our mountains have given their fairest treasure
hands of woman, and she has brought this treas-

into the

Our brothers have taken

ure reverently into our midst.
gratefully from her

We

hands and

watch and wait with swelling hearts.

the ear again that have been
out.

it

laid the stone in its place.

still

Voices

fall

upon

since our camp-fires went

We feel the touch of elbows again

;

our lines are form-

ing; our ensigns stream above us; our bugles are calling.

The

stone which you have laid in

ers, shall

be

lifted

up

;

and, by

its

its

place to-day,

side

and from

my broth-

its

summit,

he shall look into our faces again, our comrade, our brother
" bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh "
brave as he
;

who

followed the Eagles of

Rome,

or the Lilies of France,

 our Confederate brother: he who was

who was

first

at Bethel;

nearest the foe at Gettysburg; he whose

rifle

he

gave

the last salute to the flag which was folded with immortal
honor.

We

have waited long enough
History approves and demands
foes,

but

who

are

now our

to consecrate this stone.

They who were our
it be done.
The
hands, in blessing, upon the
it.

friends, ask that

passiug years have laid their

head of our comrade, and deepened the halo about his
If the courage of the soldier, untainted b}' evil

name.

purpose,

is

the noblest gift of time;

the

if

memory

of

Grant

sacred
if the name of Lee is our priceless heritage, then
have we waited long enough to dedicate this stone to the
memory'of the North Carolina Confederate soldier.

is

;

What moved him to leave his plow in the furrow that he
might struggle, unto death, with his brother of the North?
Was he not happy at home? Did he not love his wife and
Had. he not

children

?

fields?

Were not

he no altars at which
history to love

hewn from

the forest his fruitful

Had
Had he no name or

his barns filled with rich harvests?
to

and cherish

worship?
?

Was

he not taught to rever-

ence the Constitution next to his Bible?

Was

turber of the peace, a hater of his fellow-man
all the

?

he a

dis-

Did not

graces of a generous host adorn his fire-side?

Did

the sun, iu his course, shine upon a fairer land than his?

What moved him

to leave his

hearth-stone and go forth,

with darkened brow and compressed
die

lip, to

struggle

and

?

We know
pride of

life

that no lust of power, no worldly gain, no

moved him. He was never an aggressor. His
to himself made him careful

keen sense of what was due
of the rights of others.

the portion which

So careful was

he, so regardful of

moving forward, so contented with
God and his own right arm had given

his acts, so cautious in

 him

him

that his neighbors bantered

tues,

tor his

homely

vir-

and likened him to the good-natured Dutchman who
to have fallen into such peaceful repose that he slept

was said

crumbled with decay at
our good-natured, sleeping comrade

until the stock of his fowling-piece
his

And

side.

yet,

suddenly awoke

to such deeds of valor that "the world
wondered," and declared that he must take his place with

heroes, while his neighbors were

happy

to share the glory

of his deeds.

What moved this peace-loving. God-fearing, coutented
man; happy within the shadow of the vine that climbed
about his cottage door,

North?
that in

the

to

go forth against his brother of the

Let a true answer be given.
a

ties of

Let

it

not be said,

moment of unreasoning haste, he tore asunder
home and kindled and rushed, like a madman,

upon the sword of his adversary. Mis four years of hard
endurance gives higher meaning to his courage. Rather,
let it be said of him that he loved the union of these States.
The blood which flowed in his veins, unmixed with alloy,
had warmed the hearts of the men who struck the first
blow for independence. In the county of Alamance, hard
by the old stage-road that leads from Hillsboro
a stone has been planted, and on

to Salisbury,

are engraved these

it

words: "First battle of the Revolution.

Here was fought

the battle of Alamance, the loth of May, 1771, between

the British and the Regulators."

poured out the first libation

Four years

thereafter,

Here, by this stone, was

to

American independence.

on the 20th of May. 1775, the

ing ear of North Carolina heard the cry that the
Massachusetts had been slain at Lexington.

And

listen-

men

of

no more,

save from hostile camps, did the ensign of Britain wave

over her

soil.

Then,

it

was enough

the invader's foot was upon the

for her to

soil of

the sous of Massachusetts ever forget

know

a sister State.

how

that

Can

the battle-cry of

 (3

Lexington was answered? Can they ever forget how they
and the sons of North Carolina locked their shields until

King George, on

the 20th day of January, 1783, calling

each one of them by name, treating with each one of them,
declared these States
ent?'

Let
but

' to

be

free,

sovereign and independ-

5

it

let it

he said of our comrade, that he loved the Union,
also be said of him, his

own beloved

that his

and her

State

He remembered how

ereigns.

had refused

to enter the

proud lineage taught him
sister States

those whose

were sov-

name

he bore

Union, under the Constitution,

until the sovereignty of North Carolina

and the

her citizens had been assured.

the years of peace,

In

all

liberties of

and reared his children, he had
been taught
guard this treasure committed to him with
that supreme devotion with which the sons of Israel guarded
the walls about their sacred city.
In all these years of
peace he rejoiced in the strength and glory of the Union as
while he

tilled

his fields

to

broadened towards the setting sun. By the fire-side he
had heard his sire tell of 1812, and of Lundy's Lane, and
how he marched against the Indians with the warrior Jack-

it

son,

whom

North Carolina gave, with

many

other noble

daughter beyond the mountains.

He, himhad marched with the Star-spangled banner and
cheered it as it waved in triumph over the halls of the
Montezumas.

gifts, to

her

fair

self,

Let

it

loved the

be said of him that he loved the Union, that he
carts

of peace, that he loved repose, but let

it

also

be said of him, his repose was never so profound that the

tramp

of the

advancing host

failed to arouse

him.

In 1861, as in 1775, his sensitive ear caught the
foot-fall of

the foe upon the

ashes of Washington.
still

It

soil of

first

the State that holds the

was enough.

The plow

stood

in the furrow, the trembling wife held to his breast his

 first-born, the

unuttered good-bye was said with quivering-

and straining
him, and he went
lips

eves, the

door of his home closed behind

By his side, through all
was one whose love for him
was as the love of Jonathan for David, giving him strength
forth to battle.

the fiery struggle, be

it

said,

and comfort, caring

for the stricken ones whom he had left
behind, guarding the honor of the cause for which he bled,
and when all seemed lost save honor, leading him, by wise

counsels,

away from

the sorrows of war to the victories of
would that this one were with us to-day! How
our hearts would burn* within us to hear his voice, and look

We

peace.

into his face again!

But he sleeps well where we have laid
him, with our love for him as lasting as the mountains that
guard his resting-place— our great war Governor and leader,

we tenderly think

but, as

of

him now, our comrade and

brother, Vance!
Tt was strange and terrible to see these
men of the South
and of the North shed each other's blood. They spoke the
same language, they worshiped at the same altars, they
had been school-boys together, they had shouted together

in the .-hock of battle,

and together they had

world with their victories of peace.
the glory

of'

No

their country that did not

filled

the

ray of light touched
fall,

with

its

bene-

upon them both. And yet, above the contentions
the White and Red Hose, of Cavalier and Roundhead,
Bourbon and Jacobin, there was a solemn grandeur in

diction,

of
of

Can the Union live by force? The North
answered yes: the South answered no. And this momentous question of government was to be settled in the storm v
comitia of arms.
Each thought he had " his quarrel just,"
their struggle

and

thus, thrice-armed, they strove.

Two millions of the
men of the North stood to arms; six hundred thousand of
the men of the South stood to arms.
How grandly they
strove,

shaking the ocean with the tramp of monitor and

 ram, and teaching new warfare

How

to the nations of the earth.'

they strove, while the storm of battle howled up the

and over the mountains, and across the

valleys,

plains,

shrieking and hissing into the ear of the pale wife as she
knelt by the bedside of her children and prayed for the

husband, against whose breast the
ing!

How

ished,

and

storm was beat-

pitiless

they strove, while their flocks and harvests pertheir

homes grew

and want and hunger

desolate,

came, and through the dreary watches of the night the

widowed mother sat looking, with wan and weary
upon the dying child in her arms, while the currents

of

its

Brave women of our

ran dry in her aching breast!

life

face,

what tongue can tell your devotion
There was no
there was no soldier's
soldier's arm you did not nerve
couch of suffering you did not pillow with your gentle
hands there is no soldier's grave your love has left unblest!
If history shall say of these men of the South and of the
North that they sinned in going to battle against each
land,

!

;

;

other,

will

it

be sure

to

say also, that their rich offering of

blood has opened wide the everlasting mansions of glor\

T

for the cause each fought for.

How

did our

of virtue?

grim

face of

comrade bear himself

Let us follow his shining lance,

its

men

is

an

;

hundred and twenty-five thousand men

the annals of the earth

of the

record: a military pop-

ulation of one hundred an-d fifteen thousand
of one

supreme test
and see the

war radiant with the sublime courage

History startles us with

soldier.

in this

!

army
In

all

there a nobler record of heroic

endeavor?
Let us follow our brothers as they pour over the James,
thirty thousand of them, in the

cling

June days

of 1862, encir-

Richmond with their dark gray lines, near one-third
who had gathered for its defense; standing with

of those

their faces to the

North, waiting for the struggle of the

 Seven Days to begin; waiting for Jackson, the eagle of the
army, to swoop down from the mountain; waiting for Lee
to speak, whose voice in battle was, to them, from that day
forward, as the voice of a god; and when he told them to
go forward, see how they and their comrades twist McClellan's army, with their stern grapple, back and forth across
the Chickahominy, striking

him blows

of iron, day in and
day closed upon the
field of Gaine's Mill, he sat down and wrote to his government that he was beaten, and that his only hope was to
escape from his fierce pursuers; and, five days thereafter
Lee rode back from Malvern Hill praising his soldiers and

day

and weary,

out, until sore

as the

regretting that he had not captured the

how they

go, on the

morning

Union army.

See

of the 17th of September,

1862, double-quicking from the right to the bloody

Sharpsburg, sweeping proudly into

left,

at

and staying, like a
wall of granite, the torrent of battle, as it comes rushing in
over the dead bodies of Hood's brave Texans; see how the
foe recoils from the deadly blast of their rifles; see how
line,

they drive him back, with yells of defiance, restoring our

and standing in their ranks through the da"y, and
through another day, as firmly as the solid earth beneath
them. Read the record of their daring at Chancellorsville,
lines,

the death-bed of Jackson, in the early

One hundred and

May

days of 1863:

thirty-one Confederate regiments under

—twenty-five them from North Carolina; ten thousand two hundred and eighty-one Confederates
and
wounded — two thousand nine hundred and forty-eight
of

fire

killed

of

them from North
battle-flags
it

Carolina.

above the

moves along

its

fateful

their torn

crest of the struggle at Gettysburg, as

track of death,

Hill, surging forward with the

and when the

how they wave

See

storm

is

up the

slopes of Cemetery

throbbing of their hearts:

where the crest of the
comrade bv the side of him

over,

battle rose highest, there lies our

 ;

10

of the North,

brother.

whom

the peace of death has

As we look

into their faces, side

made again
by

his

side, the one-

clad in gray, the other in blue, each aglow with the spirit

them thus together to the open portals of
immortality, can we say of either that he has sinned ? Shall
we follow our brothers as they hold in check the unbendthat has brought

ing will and mighty forces of Grant, through the

smoke

of the

fire

and

Wilderness, in the trenches at Petersburg,

along the sullen retreat until the end came, and Lee bade

them

adieu, with his blessing, which has followed them, and

made them,

him. patieut and heroic in peace as they

like

were great in war

''.

Shall we measure the glory of our comrade by the treasure of his blood?

Then

sand uiue "hundred and

— fourteen thousand

read this record: Fifty-two thou-

fifty-tour Confederates killed in bat-

hundred and twenty-two of them
from North Carolina; twenty-one thousand five hundred
and seventy Confederates died of wounds five thousand
one hundred and fifty-one of them from North Carolina
fifty-nine thousand two hundred and ninety-seven Confedtle

five

—

erates died of disease

—twenty

thousand six hundred and

two of them from North Carolina.

Forty thousand two

hundred and seventy-five sons of North Carolina gave their
lives to the Confederacy
more than one-third of her military population nineteen thousand six hundred and sev-

—

:

enty-three of her sous were killed

wounds— more than
ulation

— while the

was ten per

Read
ment

cent,

in

battle

or died

of

seven teeu per cent, of her military pop-

average

loss of the

Confederate armies

and of the Union armies five per cent,
Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regi-

this record of the

of Pettigrew's Brigade at Gettysburg, the conflict of

over eight hundred men
and historv has declared ''this
the Twenty-sixth North Carolina at Gettysburg was

the century
eisrhtv of
loss of

:

It carried into action

them were

left;

:

 11
the severest regimental loss during the war," in which seven

hundred and sixty-four Confederate regiments and two
thousand and forty-seven Union regiments were engaged.
Read the thrilling story of Captain Tuttle's company on
the same field of death, that lost all its officers and eightythree out of eighty-four of its men killed and wounded,
and of Captain Bird's Company C, of the Eleventh North
Carolina, of this same noble brigade, that lost two of its
officers and thirty-four out of thirty-eight of its men killed
and wounded in the engagements of the first two days,
and these four who remained took their places in the historic charge of the third of July
and when his flag-bearer
was shot down " the captain brought out the flag himself."
Near the town of Winchester, in Virginia, they set apart
a soldier's resting-place, after peace had come, and when
;

those of our sister State,

who loved

memory

the

of the

brave, had brought thither the soldiers of the Confederacy

who had

near their homes,

fallen

lo!

the dead of North

among their comrades
witness moved their hearts

Carolina held so large a space

of

other States that this silent

to

reverence, and

Vance,

to

they sent here for our beloved comrade,

come and speak

noble dust gave honor

to

them

of these

men whose

to the soil of Virginia.

Shall we say of the Confederate soldier that he died in

we say

mighty struggle that it has no
Shall we stand above his
grave and declare that all was lost but honor? From the
smoking altar of his sacrifice is there no incense to virtue?
Does the world bless him. only, who wears a crown of lauIs there no beauty on the brow that wears a crown of
rel ?
vain?

Shall

of his

higher meaning than defeat?

thorns?

Were the

and language
struck

when

down

of

Rome

lost to the

her eagles?

the Stuart

men when His choRome? Were the laws

oracles of God lost to

sen people passed under the yoke of

came back

world when the Goth

Was Cromwell
to

her throne

?

lost to

Britain

 12

The Confederate

History

soldier lias not died in vain.

will tell the story of his

death and passion, that

men may
memory

be lifted up by the example of his devotion to the
of his fathers.

they did not die in vain

If

who

at

fell

Moore's Creek Bridge, at King's Mountain, at Guilford, at

Germantown,

Brandy wine,

at

did not die in vain

mond,

at

ville, at

who

fell

Sharpsburg, at Fredericksburg, at Chancellors-

Gettysburg, and on every

with their blood the covenant
this

at Princeton, then their sons

at Bethel, at Manassas, at Rich-

field,

where they sealed,

made with

their fathers that

should be a Union of sovereign States, with

ment

of express powers, limited

by the

a

govern-

letter of the

writ-

That no sinful hand might be laid upon it, they took up arms.
That
no jot or tittle of it might fail, they drew the sword. The
cause 'for which they died is not the lost cause of a dead
ten compact.

For

Confederacy, but

this

the vital cause of a living Union,

is

it

covenant they died.

its

and strength, its only hope of future life, and without
which it will dissolve and pass away like the smile of a
dream upon the wrinkled face of time.
The Confederate soldier has not died in vain. The lessoul

son he has

left

us

the only lesson that can save the

is

life

When history shall call the names of those
who have been truest to their trust in the ranks of war the
men of the gray uniform will answer to their names and

of our Union.

take their places in the world's Legion of Honor.

My

brothers, the

memory

of

In the twilight of the years to
star

which

come

to

your comrade

come

it

will

will not fade.

be as the luminous

where a new Life had
abide among men long enough to teach them how
led the Eastern worshippers,

to live like heroes

North Carolina

and

die like martyrs.

will point

children to that star.

from the Confederate

The daughters

of

our children and our children's

They

soldier.

will

never turn their faces

They gave you your

battle-

 13

flags

wet with the dew of their

tears,

and

in that sign

and

made the name of North Carolina
With each returning spring-time the grave of your
comrade blooms out afresh as they lay their hands upon itTo-day they have embalmed his memory in stone. They
with their prayers yon

noble.

have given you this token of their love, that shall not fail.
Let us lift up this token of their love, my brothers
The
light of the morning will bless it, the glory of the evening
will hallow it, the patient stars will watch over it, and the
calm face of our comrade will teach us courage for to-day
and hope for the morrow.
!

Ye men who wore

who have been brave in
You have lifted
North Carolina up, in your arms and made her as true to
our Union as the bride is true to her marriage vows. By
the gray, you

peace as you have been strong in war.

your patience, peace and order and hope are ours. Elsewhere in our Union there is trouble. Social disorder vexes
the soul of the patriot, and the cry of distress pains the
heart of him who loves his fellow-man.
Teach others the
lesson of your patience.
Teach them to right the wrong,
as you have done, by the wisdom of the law, and the purity
of its administration.
Teach them to be true, each to his
sovereign State, as you are true to North Carolina. And
by this shrine, which her daughters have consecrated with
their love, let us to-day renew our vows to our Sovereign
Queen, the brightest jewel in whose crown is the memory
of her soldiers whom she gave to the Confederacy.

  

 

 

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