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A monument to the Ashby brothers is proposed to be erected in the “Stonewall Cemetery” at Winchester, and we most cordially second the following appeal of the committee having charge of the matter.
If it would be a convenience to any of the contributors we would cheerfully receive and forward their contributions.
It is now fourteen years since the interment of the remains of Ashby beneath the Valley sod, upon which and for which he had yielded his life, supplied the chief feature in the dedication of the first of the beautiful military cemeteries which have overspread the country.
Within that period scores and hundreds of monuments to the heroic dead of the war have tested the sculptor's skill and imagination.
Upon these stately proofs of pride and affection large sums have been lavished.
The Southern people, impoverished though they were, found means of paying this melancholy tribute to those who had so richly earned it.
Yet the resting-place of the brothers Ashby remains unmarked save by that simple inscription.
Neither marble nor granite supports the imperishability of that gallant name.
It is desired to remedy this long neglect.
A movement is on foot to erect a monument not altogether unworthy of Virginia's Mountain Cavalier.
Two costly shafts have been reared in the Stonewall Cemetery at Winchester-one of them wholly, and the other largely, by the efforts of the ladies of that city and its immediate vicinity; to say nothing of their contributions to the other expenses of the cemetery.
They are able to do little more than invoke the exertions of citizens elsewhere in behalf of this additional memorial.
This appeal, it is hoped, will be promptly and liberally responded to. In that event it may be practicable to signalize the next decoration day, June 6, 1881, the nineteenth anniversary of General Ashby's death, by consecrating this crowning honor to one who by word, life and death, taught us how to “keep the lamp of chivalry alight in hearts of gold.”
Your hearty co-operation in this matter is requested.
All communications must be addressed to
Miss Tillie Russell, Mrs. Holmes Conrad, Or Mrs. Marshall Willis, Committee Ashby Memorial Association, Winchester, Va.
