Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 6.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[130] vain. They always came when you commanded ;. and always stayed until you sent them away.

There are rich and precious memories clustering around it — memories that we will not willingly let die. It has been in battle with the immortal Lee. It has followed the dashing Stuart over the hills and slopes from the Susquehanna to the Roanoke. It has followed in the charge of the chivalric “Rooney” Lee, and has seen service with Johnston, Beauregard, Hood, Magruder, the Hills. and Longstreet; and last, but not least, sir, it was flung to the breeze upon nearly every battle field in which you led the Southern horse during those trying years.

May the command on whose behalf you receive this flag never have occasion to bear it save in holiday processions, and may they prove as loyal in preserving South Carolina's honor through the peaceful agencies inaugurated by your administration, as their predecessors were faithful in defending it at the cannon's mouth. [Immense applause.]

During the delivery of these burning words, which stirred every heart to its inmost core, the tall, proud form of Governor Hampton had remained immovable, but o'er his features could be seen to play the emotions which the vivid picture of the past conjured up to his mind's eye; and as he stepped forward to receive the sacred relic, so intimately interwoven with his own military history, his heart was too full for utterance, and his sight became dimmed with tears. Smothering the sad emotions which welled up from his soul, he came to the front with the guidon in his hand, and was received with prolonged and vociferous applause.