Book Description

Excerpt from The Dedication of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park: Address; Delivered on September 20, 1895 Having been designated by the Secretary of War as one of those to Speak for Confederates on this occasion, I take plea sure in complying with the duty assigned me. I wish, Mr. Chairman, that I could command words to give voice to my strong and sincere appreciation of the recollections which this great occasion brings with them. I wish that I had the physical power to express the gratification, the pride, and the hope which this great gathering of people, this mighty muster of veteran soldiers, calls for. We have assembled on these glorious battlefields for the preservation and perpetua tion of sacred memories to treasure the recollections of heroic deeds to compare in friendly criticism our past actions and to advance, by lessons to be learned here, the common glory of our common country. On what other day could we do this more acceptably to the shades of our heroic dead? At what place so appropri ate as around the scenes of our struggles for victory? 'here, within sight of this stand, we and they - the living and the dead, Confederate and Federal - fought for the right as each understood' it, for the Constitution as each construed it, and for liberty as each interpreted it. With sheathless swords in sinewy hands we, Confederate and Federal, fought that great battle of duty, and now, thirty two years after, we again obey the assemble call, we respond to the long roll and fall in line, not to renew the battle nor rekindle the strife, nor even to argue as to which won the vic tory, but to gather up the rich fruits of both the victory and defeat as treasures of inestimable value to our common country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.