Part 26 (1/2)

It was the brilliant prowess of the Confederate army on the battlefields of Spotsylvania that shed such dazzling l.u.s.tre on the Union arms at Gettysburg. If we should blot out the battlefields of Spotsylvania, we should rob Gettysburg of all its glory; we should filch from General Grant half his fame as a great commander, and should obscure to the future student of the art of war Grant's invincible pertinacity and his sagacious and successful policy of concentration and attrition, which alone explains and vindicates his famous march of eighty miles from Culpeper Courthouse to Petersburg, with a loss of tens of thousands of his brave troops, when he might have transferred his army by transports to the shadow of the Confederate capital without the loss of a man.

Grant knew that the destruction of Lee's army, and not the capture of Richmond, was the profoundest strategy. The Army of the Potomac, under the consummate leaders.h.i.+p of General Grant, won infinitely more prestige at Appomattox, where eight thousand worn-out Confederates laid down their arms, than the German army, under its great field-marshal, Von Moltke, won at Sedan, where the French Emperor, Louis Napoleon, and 86,000 French soldiers, neither footsore nor hungry, surrendered, and for the plain reason that no such conflicts as those in Spotsylvania lay across the march of Von Moltke to Sedan. The march to Appomattox was over the battlefields of Spotsylvania, and Appomattox was only the culmination of the courage and carnage of those fields.

It was the conspicuous characteristic of both the Union and Confederate armies that their courage was alike invincible; defeat could not quench it; it shone with additional splendor amid the gloom of disaster, and no soldier on either side need blush to have borne a part in any one of the great battles of the Civil war, whatever fortune may have decreed as to its temporary result.

It is noteworthy, above almost any other events of history, that the two most memorable and momentous struggles in which the Anglo-Saxon race has embarked, both closed on the soil of Virginia, a century apart, by the surrender of one Anglo-Saxon army to an army of the same race, and without the loss of prestige on either side.

For our great race, when vanquished by itself, proudly rears its crest unconquered and sublime!

One of those memorable struggles closed at Yorktown, where colonial dependence perished, national independence was secured and our great republic born. The other closed at Appomattox, where the doctrine of secession and the inst.i.tution of slavery perished and a more perfect union than our fathers made was established.

Secession and slavery perished on Virginia soil, and her people, though impoverished by the loss of the latter, have shed no tears over the grave of these dead issues; but they love and cherish the memory of the Southern heroes whose sacred ashes repose in her bosom, and they proudly spurn any suggestion that such moral heroism and sublime self-sacrifice as they exhibited could be born of other than conscientious conviction!

If the South was, by a wise providence, denied in that grand struggle the honor of final triumph, her people to-day share equally with the victors of that day the glorious fruits of their victory in a more perfect and indissoluble union of indestructible States, under that superlative symbol of a world-power--the glorious Stars and Stripes.

All through this splendid address Mr. Fitzhugh was vociferously applauded, the President and his cabinet heartily and enthusiastically joining in the applause, and when he closed the demonstration was kept up for several minutes.

Gov. Tyler was then introduced and welcomed the veterans to Virginia, and a.s.sured them that when their visit to Fredericksburg was ended, Richmond, the Capital of the Confederacy, awaited them with extended hands and outstretched arms. Gen. McMahon responded in a short address, full of harmony and good feeling, and introduced Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, the orator of the occasion.

At the conclusion of the able and patriotic address of Gen. Sickles, the presidential party and Gen. Sickles, lunched at Mr. Fitzhugh's and the society and visitors were provided for at the Opera House. After lunch the visitors and citizens marched to Mr. Fitzhugh's residence, where the President held a reception and where several thousand people greeted and shook him by the hand.

The procession then formed and marched to the National cemetery, to witness the laying of the corner-stone of the monument to be erected by Gen. Daniel b.u.t.terfield to the memory of the men of the Fifth Army Corps, who fell in the several battles in Fredericksburg and vicinity.

The Masonic ceremonies were in charge of Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M. In accepting the invitation to preside on the interesting occasion, Gen.

Horatio C. King said:

I deeply appreciate the honor of being asked to preside on this most interesting occasion, and in presence of the honored Chief Magistrate and the members of his official family. I recall with pride the fact that I first saw the light of Masonry in the Blue Lodge at Winchester, in this magnificent State, in 1864, when I was a soldier in the great war, and that from that day to this I have continued in good standing in our n.o.ble order. It may not be amiss for me to add that he who honors and graces this occasion to-day by his presence, our President, was also initiated at or about the same time in the same lodge, and that he has also held fast to the tenets of the organization through his lodge at his home in Ohio.

It is most fitting that this dedication should be made by this time-honored Fredericksburg Lodge, whose history antedates the Revolution and in whose precincts the Father of his Country was enrolled.

The occasion is one to inspire every patriot, and the generosity of Gen.

b.u.t.terfield, in raising this memorial to the fallen comrades whom he so gallantly commanded, will s.h.i.+ne through ages to come on the pages of American history.

MASONIC CEREMONIES.

The ceremonies were then conducted by the Masonic Lodge, the following officers, members and visitors being present and taking part:

Alvin T. Embrey, senior warden, acting wors.h.i.+pful master; Right Wors.h.i.+pful James P. Corbin, senior warden _pro tem_; Wm. H. Hurkamp, junior warden; Edgar M. Young, Jr., treasurer; Right Wors.h.i.+pful Silva.n.u.s J. Quinn, secretary; Maurice Hirsh, senior deacon; Allan Randolph Howard, junior deacon; Rev. James Polk Stump, chaplain, and John S. Taliaferro, tiler; Wors.h.i.+pful Brothers Albert B. Botts, James T. Lowery, Thomas N. Brent, Isaac Hirsh.

_Members_: Joe M. Goldsmith, John Scott Berry, John R. Bernard, John C.

Melville, Robert A. Johnson, O. L. Harris, James Roach, George A. Walker, A. Mason Garner, Wm. T. Dix, Wm. Bernard, H. Hoomes Johnston, Charles L.

Kalmbach, Edgar Mersereau, Adolph Loewenson, George W. Wroten, Joseph H.

Davis, J. s.h.i.+rver Woods, Edwin J. Cartright and Maurice B. Rowe.

_Visiting Masons_: Most Wors.h.i.+pful J. Howard Wayt, P. G. M., Staunton, Va.; Wm. D. Carter, 102, Va.; W. J. Ford. 163, Ky.; W. C. Stump, 5, D. C.; B. P. Owens, 14, Va., and Dr. J. W. Bovee, of B. B. French, D. C.

The handsome silver trowel used in laying the corner-stone, was made by order of Gen. b.u.t.terfield for that occasion and then to be presented to the Masonic Lodge performing the service. After the service of laying the corner-stone, Gen. Edward Hill, who spoke for Gen. b.u.t.terfield, in an able address, presented the monument to the Secretary of War to be kept, cared for and preserved by him and his successors in office, to which Secretary Root responded in a brief and appropriate speech, accepting the monument and promising to preserve it as requested.

CAMP FIRE AT OPERA HOUSE.