Monument Dedicated.
The dedication of the monument to Mrs. Bradley T. Johnson was the leading feature of Memorial Day at Baltimore, June 6. The Baltimore Sun says of it: The day was also the anniversary of the battle of Harrisonburg, where soldiers of the Maryland Line distinguished themselves. Mrs. Johnson's grave and the monument which now marks the spot were profusely decorated, red roses predominating. Over two thousand people gathered to assist in the exercises. The members of the Maryland Line, including about eighty veterans from the Soldiers' Home, at Pikesville, formed a line at the main entrance of the cemetery and marched to the lot, headed by the Fifth Regiment Veteran Corps Band, under the leadership of W. H. Pindell. Friends of the dead and members of the Daughters of the Confederacy had previously strewn flowers over all the graves. Capt. G. W. Booth presided at the exercises, and read this appreciative sketch of Mrs. Johnson's life: [44]Again we are assembled in this beautiful city of the dead to testify our respect and veneration for the brave men whose last resting places fair hands have strewn with flowers, while in tearful contemplation we recall their heroic deeds and unflinching devotion to duty and principle. Forty years ago our country was torn with the dissensions incident to civil strife, and from the North went forth its hosts to battle for the Union, while the South gave up the very flower of its manhood, who responded to their conception of patriotic defense of home and fireside. This appeal to arms was followed by a conflict which has passed into history as one of the mightiest in deeds and in result ever chronicled. For four years was illustrated, as only American courage and devotion can illustrate, the valor of our people. The end came only when the material resources of the South were exhausted, its defenders reduced by the casualties of a protracted war, its ports in the hands of its antagonists, its fields devastated and unproductive, while the unlimited supplies of the North, with the markets of the world at command, were comparatively unaffected. The story of Appomattox, when the remnant of the once proud army of Northern Virginia yielded its eight thousand muskets to the encircling hosts of its persistent foe, speaks in no equivocal manner of the straits to which the Confederacy had been reduced. The starry cross, the banner of Lee and Jackson, of Johnston and Beauregard, of Stuart, Hampton and Forrest, was laid away. Time is the great physician. The passions of the past have been measurably stilled, and out of a great evil and trial we can appropriate and secure lessons of good. While the cause of these dear comrades failed in the purpose for which they and we gave our best efforts and prayers, yet the memories of their valiant struggle, the gallantry and undaunted courage with which they asserted their manhood, the fortitude with which they endured privation and suffering, sanctify and illumine a principle which we then believed, and in the light of after years of sad experiences still believe, to have been the noblest to which man could dedicate his effort, and, if need be, surrender his life. From these silent graves comes forth in terms most eloquent the appeal to the young of our country to revere and cherish its fundamental laws, to respect the liberties of the people, and to maintain its institutions as a refuge for the oppressed and its mission as a protector against the oppressor. But these fallen heroes are not alone in their [45] claim to our affection. The women of the South—whose tender care was lavished upon the sick and wounded; whose Spartan courage bade their sons, husbands, and lovers go forth to battle while they uncomplaining assumed the stern duty of providing for the household; who unflinchingly preserved under all conditions of adversity and trial, and even when their loved ones had fallen, abated not a jot in their steadfastness and loyalty, but whose every word and deed gave emphasis to the sentiment, “Better an honored grave than a dishonored life” —to these daughters of our fair Southland we yield our grateful homage. To one of these we this day rear in enduring granite a mark of our loving remembrance, and place on record our appreciation of her eminent virtues and inestimable services— Jane Claudia Johnson.