previous next
[432]

That night there were magnificent fire-works at the Park. The last day was even ‘the best of the feast.’ Captain Lee Hathaway spoke in eloquent terms of the ‘Confederate Home’ which had been established at Georgetown, and for which Mrs. General Roger Hanson is laboring so successfully. Mrs. Hanson and Miss Morgan were received with cheers as they took their seats on the platform.

Hon. J. C. C. Black, of Augusta, Ga., who rode with Morgan, was now introduced and made one of the happiest speeches we ever heard, at the conclusion of which he very gracefully and appropriately presented to Miss Morgan, in behalf of the men who followed her father's feather, a beautiful watch, chain, and diamond ring. With deep emotion, but exquisite grace, she received the beautiful gift, and the veterans made the woods ring with ‘rebel yells.’ Colonel W. P. C. Breckinridge, ‘the silver-tongued orator,’ who led so gallantly a regiment, and then a brigade, in Morgan's command, was now enthusiastically called for, and in response spoke eloquently and well for an hour, recalling some deeply interesting and valuable events connected with the history of the command.

Then followed another pleasing episode in the presentation of a beautiful gold-headed cane to Captain Tiffany, a Federal officer, who was Postmaster at Camp Chase prison when many of Morgan's men were prisoners there, and who had always shown them every kindness in his power. Colonel Breckinridge made the presentation speech, Captain West responded for Captain Tiffany in eloquent terms, and the old gentleman himself melted down in attempting to say a few words. He found that these hard fighters knew how to appreciate kindness shown them in the hour of their need.

The exercises were appropriately closed with the benediction by Rev. Dr. J. L. Burrows, of Norfolk, Va.

The homes of the city were thrown wide open to the men whom Lexington always gladly greeted in the shifting scenes of the war, and far famed ‘Blue Grass hospitality’ was abundantly illustrated.

We found our home with our old friend Major H. B. McClellan, who used to ride so gallantly with Stuart and Hampton as Adjutant-General of the cavalry corps, Army of Northern Virginia, and has, with his accomplished wife, made the Sayre Female Institute so renowned for honest teaching and accomplished graduates.

Major McClellan has made considerable progress in his Biography of J. E. B. Stuart, and having had the privilege of reading some of the chapters, we do not hesitate to say that the work is admirably done, and will be a very valuable contribution to the history of the Army of Northern Virginia. It is to be hoped that when he has finished the biography of Stuart, he will complete the history of the Cavalry Corps. Then when some one shall write up the Artillery and Colonel Charles Marshall shall finish his Military Biography of Lee, the world will begin to know something of what our grand old army, ‘with its small numbers and scant resources,’ accomplished.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Norfolk (Virginia, United States) (1)
Blue Grass (Kentucky, United States) (1)
Augusta (Georgia, United States) (1)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: