Part 32 (1/2)

Chaplain and other Clergy.

Hea.r.s.e and Pall-bearers.

General Lee's Horse.

The Attending Physicians.

Trustees and Faculty of Was.h.i.+ngton College.

Dignitaries of the State of Virginia.

Visitors and Faculty of the Virginia Military Inst.i.tute.

Other Representative Bodies and Distinguished Visitors.

Alumni of Was.h.i.+ngton College.

Citizens.

Cadets Virginia Military Inst.i.tute.

Students of Was.h.i.+ngton College as Guard of Honor

AT THE CHAPEL.

After the first salute, a gun was fired every three minutes. Moving still to the sound of martial music, in honor of the dead, the procession reentered the grounds of Was.h.i.+ngton College by the northeastern gate, and was halted in front of the chapel. Then followed an imposing ceremony. The cadets of the Inst.i.tute were detached from the line, and marched in double file into the chapel up one of the aisles, past the remains of the ill.u.s.trious dead, which lay in state on the rostrum, and down the other aisle out of the church. The students of Was.h.i.+ngton College followed next, pa.s.sing with bowed heads before the mortal remains of him they revered and loved so much and well as their president and friend. The side-aisles and galleries were crowded with ladies, Emblems of mourning met the eye on all sides, and feminine affection had hung funeral garlands of flowers upon all the pillars and walls. The central pews were filled with the escort of honor, composed of former Confederate soldiers from this and adjoining counties, while the s.p.a.cious platform was crowded with the trustees, faculties, clergy, Legislative Committee, and distinguished visitors. Within and without the consecrated hall the scene was alike imposing. The blue mountains of Virginia, towering in the near horizon; the lovely village of Lexington, sleeping in the calm, unruffled air, and the softened autumn sunlight; the vast a.s.semblage, mute and sorrowful; the tolling bells, and pealing cannon, and solemn words of funeral service, combined to render the scene one never to be forgotten.

The sons of General Lee-W.H.F. Lee, G.W.C. Lee, and Robert E. Lee-with their sisters, Misses Agnes and Mildred Lee, and the nephews of the dead, Fitzhugh, Henry C., and Robert C. Lee, entered the church with bowed heads, and silently took seats in front of the rostrum.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES AND INTERMENT.

Then followed the impressive funeral services of the Episcopal Church for the dead, amid a silence and solemnity that were imposing and sublimely grand. There was no funeral oration, in compliance with the expressed wish of the distinguished dead; and at the conclusion of the services in the chapel the vast congregation went out and mingled with the crowd without, who were unable to gain admission. The coffin was then carried by the pall-bearers to the library-room, in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the chapel, where it was lowered into the vault prepared for its reception. The funeral services were concluded in the open air by prayer, and the singing of General Lee's favorite hymn, commencing with the well-known line-

”How firm a foundation, ye saint of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”

and thus closed the funeral obsequies of Robert Edward Lee, to whom may be fitly applied the grand poetic epitaph:

”Ne'er to the mansions where the mighty rest, Since their foundations, came a n.o.bler guest; Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed A purer saint or a more welcome shade.”

II.

TRIBUTES TO GENERAL LEE.

In the deep emotion with which the death of General Lee has filled all cla.s.ses of our people-says the Southern Magazine, from whose pages this interesting summary is taken-we have thought that a selection of the most eloquent or otherwise interesting addresses delivered at the various memorial meetings may not be unacceptable.

LOUISVILLE, KY.

On October 15th nearly the whole city was draped in mourning, and business was suspended. A funeral service was held at St. Paul's Church. In the evening an immense meeting a.s.sembled at Weissiger Hall, and, after an opening address by Mayor Baxter, the following resolutions were adopted:

”Resolved, That, in the death of Robert E. Lee, the American people, without regard to States or sections, or antecedents, or opinions, lose a great and good man, a distinguished and useful citizen, renowned not less in arms than in the arts of peace; and that the cause of public instruction and popular culture is deprived of a representative whose influence and example will be felt by the youth of our country for long ages after the pa.s.sions in the midst of which he was engaged, but which he did not share, have pa.s.sed into history, and the peace and fraternity of the American Republic are cemented and restored by the broadest and purest American sentiment.”