Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 26.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

From Shiloh to the last days in North Carolina, such scenes as I have here depicted occurred on many occasions, but whether successful or not the boys who wore the gray honored it and never faltered, and when the end came there was no better organized command in the entire Confederate Army than Wheeler's Cavalry Corps.

Fellow soldiers, this monument is not complete. We soldiers should add to it a statue showing the most queenly woman of which the human mind can conceive, to represent the most queenly women the world ever saw. These, the grandest, greatest, purest, noblest and best of God's handiwork, who went about as ministering angels during that dark period and who never faltered in caring for our sick and wounded, and giving us courage in every way — to them we are indebted for this and every other monument which has been erected, and for much of the history that has been written. While our best men were slain in that struggle, we saved our jewels, consisting of our women and our children and our honor.

Major Falkner led the way to the cavalryman's statue for Miss Laura Elmore, who, revealing the sculptured form, repeated the inscription that is carved under it. The lines are from the pen of Francis O. Ticknor:

The knightliest of the knightly race,
     Who, since the days of old,
Have kept the lamp of chivalry
     Alight in hearts of gold.