The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia Part 25

The hospitality of the people of Fredericksburg is as well known probably as any other characteristic of her citizens. It has been thoroughly tested on many occasions, and has never failed to measure up to the demands and even exceeded the expectations of the recipients. It is gratifying, too, to be able to say that even our former enemies have been partakers of the hospitalities of the town, at our private residences and in our public halls, and have found language too poor to properly express their gratification of the warm welcome and the generous hospitality they received while in our midst. This was the case with the Society of the Army of the Potomac in May, 1900.

It had been suggested by some of the prominent citizens of the town that it would be a gracious thing, and would testify our kind feeling towards the members of that organization, for the City Council to invite the Society of the Army of the Potomac to hold its thirty-first annual reunion, in 1900, in the city of Fredericksburg, as guests of the town.

The society had never held a reunion on southern soil, and it was deemed appropriate that its first meeting should be here, where they could meet and mingle with Confederate veterans, where so many b.l.o.o.d.y battles were fought between the two great armies of the Civil war.

It had been intimated that members of the society, and even officials of the organization, had expressed a desire to hold a session in Fredericksburg, which would give many old soldiers an opportunity to visit again the historic grounds, over which they had fought, and view the country in times of peace. The City Council caught the spirit and approved the suggestion, and on the 27th of July, 1899, unanimously pa.s.sed the following resolution:

"Resolved by the Common Council of the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, That his honor, the Mayor, be and he is hereby, authorized and instructed to extend a cordial invitation to the Society of the Army of the Potomac to hold its annual meeting for the year 1900 in this city, and to urge the acceptance of this invitation by said society, a.s.suring its members that they will meet with a cordial and fraternal welcome by our citizens generally, and that every effort will be made on our part to make their sojourn here pleasant and agreeable to them."

While the resolution did not authorize it, it was understood that the Mayor would attend the reunion in September of that year, either in person or by a representative, and urge the society to accept the invitation of the city authorities. Mayor Rowe, being unable to attend the meeting of the body, requested Judge James B. Sener to represent him, which he did, and presented the resolution of the Council in an eloquent and patriotic address, which was well received by the society. The result was Judge Sener was elected an honorary member of the society and the invitation was unanimously accepted.

Upon the information that its invitation had been accepted, and that May 25th and 26th, 1900, were the days fixed for holding the reunion, the Council appointed a reception committee of fifteen--five of its own body and ten from the citizens, which was increased by the committee itself to twenty--to make all the necessary arrangements and see that the members of the society, and the visitors on that occasion, were properly received and entertained. Those appointed of the Council were Col. E. D. Cole, John T.

Knight, Wm. E. Bradley, H. B. Lane, George W. Wroten. Those from the citizens were Capt. S. J. Quinn, Major T. E. Morris. St. Geo. R. Fitzhugh, H. F. Crismond, John M. Griffin, Isaac Hirsh, James A. Turner, H. H.

Wallace, Thos. N. Brent and James P. Corbin.

The committee met and organized, with Col. E. D. Cole, chairman, and Capt.

S. J. Quinn, secretary, and the following gentlemen were a.s.sociated with the committee: Capt. M. B. Rowe, A. T. Embrey, Judge John T. Goolrick, Capt. T. McCracken and George W. Shepherd. The committee was then divided up into sub-committees and a.s.signed to necessary and appropriate duties, which were well and faithfully discharged.

To a.s.sist at the banquet and lunch on the occasion, the committee requested the services of the following ladies, who responded cheerfully and did so n.o.bly the parts a.s.signed them that they merited, and received, the hearty thanks of the committee and visitors: Mrs. James P. Corbin, Miss Mary Harrison Fitzhugh, Mrs. Wm. L. Brannan, Miss Mary Shepherd, Mrs.

Vivian M. Fleming, Mrs. H. Hoomes Johnston, Miss Lula Braxton, Mrs. L. L.

Coghill, Mrs. E. Dorsey Cole, Miss Corson, Mrs. H. F. Crismond, Miss E.

May d.i.c.kinson, Mrs. Wm. F. Ficklen, Miss Goodwin, Mrs. John T. Goolrick, Miss Alice Gordon, Miss Sallie Gravatt, Mrs. John M. Griffin, Miss Louise Hamilton, Miss Roberta Hart, Mrs. David Hirsh, Mrs. Henry Kaufman, Mrs.

Harry B. Lane, Mrs. H. McD. Martin, Miss Annie Myer, Miss Eleanor McCracken, Miss Carrie Belle Quinn, Mrs. Wm. H. Richards, Miss Lena Rowe, Mrs. Edward J. Smith, Mrs. R. Lee Stoffregen, Miss Bertha Strasburger, Miss Sallie Lyle Tapscott, Mrs. W. Seymour White, Miss Nannie Gordon Willis and Mrs. Mary Quinn Hicks.

The presidential party was met at Quantico by a sub-committee consisting of Hon. H. F. Crismond, Hon. A. T. Embrey, Postmaster John M. Griffin, Major T. E. Morris, James A. Turner and S. I. Baggett, Jr., and escorted to Fredericksburg.

At half past ten o'clock on the morning of the 25th of May, most of the members of the Society of the Army of the Potomac having arrived, the procession was formed at the courthouse, the society, under command of Gen. Horatio C. King, secretary, with the reception committee, Confederate veterans and citizens generally, headed by Bowering's band, proceeded to the depot to meet the presidential train. Col. E. D. Cole, chief marshal, with his aides, Capt. Dan. M. Lee, John T. Leavell, A. P. Rowe, Jr., and W. J. Jacobs, with a cordon of mounted police, had charge of the line.

At the depot an immense crowd of people had collected, and when the train arrived there was a vociferous greeting to the President and cabinet and Fighting (General) Joe Wheeler. The presidential party consisted of President McKinley, his private secretary, Cortelyou, Secretary Hay, Secretary Root, Attorney-General Griggs, Postmaster-General Smith, Secretary Long, Secretary Hitchc.o.c.k--every member of the cabinet except Secretary Wilson--Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, his aide, Col. Michler, Lieut. Robert S. Griffin, secretary to Secretary Long, Gen. Henry E. Tremain, Gen. W. J. Sewell, Gen. J. W. Hawley and Gen.

Joseph Wheeler.

Headed by the celebrated Marine band, of Was.h.i.+ngton, sixty strong, the line of march from the depot was up Main street, to George, thence to Princess Ann and thence to the courthouse. All along the march the streets were thronged with citizens and visitors, and the waving of handkerchiefs and cheering kept the President constantly bowing to the right and left.

When the courthouse was reached the presidential party filed in, followed by the Society of the Army of the Potomac, visitors and citizens. The courthouse was densely packed and hundreds were turned away, being unable to get even standing room.

CHAPTER XVIII

_Society of the Army of the Potomac Enters Town, continued._

When this great crowd entered the courthouse, after making such a long march in hot weather, most of them were willing to rest awhile before the exercises commenced. Yet Gen. King is not one to rest long when business had to be attended to, so he called the large a.s.sembly to order, and announced that illness had prevented the attendance of Gen. D. McM. Gregg, president of the society, and in his absence Gen. Martin T. McMahon would preside in his stead. Dr. J. S. Dill, pastor of the Baptist church, was presented and offered a most earnest prayer. Mr. St. Geo. R. Fitzhugh, who had been selected by the committee of entertainment to extend the welcome, was then introduced and made the following address:

MR. FITZHUGH'S ADDRESS.

MR. CHAIRMAN: It is with feelings of profound pride and unfeigned pleasure that our entire community extends a cordial and hearty welcome to the ill.u.s.trious Chief Magistrate of our country, who honors us with his presence to-day. We recognize in our President the pure patriot and the stainless statesman, whose wise and courageous administration, in both war and peace, has endeared him to the hearts of his countrymen and has shed new l.u.s.tre upon the exalted office which he fills.

Our people also welcome with much pride and warmth his eminent official family, and the brilliant commander of our invincible army, and all these distinguished men before me, who are guests of the Society of the Army of the Potomac and of our city.

And now, our friends of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, I find it difficult to command adequate words with which to express to you the supreme gratification and enthusiasm of our people at your prompt acceptance of their invitation to hold your annual reunion in this old town and at your presence here to-day in such numbers.

We not only welcome you with open arms and glowing hearts, but we feel that this action on your part rises to the dignity of an impressive epoch in our national life; and we are not surprised that our ill.u.s.trious President, and all these distinguished men, should desire to grace this inspiring occasion with their presence.

It is the first time that your society has held one of its annual reunions on southern soil, and, in making this new departure, it was preeminently fit that you should honor Fredericksburg with your choice.

A French philosopher has written, "Happy the people whose annals are tiresome," but the far n.o.bler and more inspiring thought of the Anglo-Saxon race is that "character const.i.tutes the true strength of nations and historic glory their best inheritance."

As American citizens you are proud of the grand traditions and heroic memories that crowd your country's history; and nowhere else on this continent could your feet tread on ground more hallowed by historic memories than here.

I think before you leave us you will acknowledge that if the immortal names and deeds that this locality suggests should be stricken from the annals of time, most of the present school books of our country would be valueless and our national history itself would be as the play of Hamlet, with Hamlet left out.

The school boys and girls of our whole country are familiar with the story of Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas, and history records that right here Captain John Smith battled with and repulsed the Indians. So we may fairly claim, without the exercise of poetic license, that the struggle of the Anglo-Saxon race, to establish its civilization and supremacy on this continent, commenced on this spot in 1608, just one year after Jamestown was settled.

If we should draw a circle around this ancient city, with a radius of less than fifty miles, we should find within that narrow compa.s.s the birthplace of George Was.h.i.+ngton, of Thomas Jefferson, of James Madison, of James Monroe, of Zachary Taylor, of Chief-Justice John Marshall, of the Lees of the Revolution, of Patrick Henry, of Henry Clay, of Matthew Maury and of Robert E. Lee. If we should extend the circle but a very, very little, it would also embrace the birthplace of William Henry Harrison, of John Tyler, of Winfield Scott, and likewise the birthplace of this Republic at Yorktown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Tombstone in St. George's Churchyard, remarkable for its date. (See page 246)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Confederate Monument in Confederate Cemetery. (See page 189)]

Is there any other similar segment of s.p.a.ce on the habitable globe so resplendent with stars of the first magnitude!

Seven Presidents of the United States and three of the greatest military leaders of modern times were born within two hours' ride of this city, estimated according to the most improved modern methods of travel!

That meteoric Mars of naval warfare, John Paul Jones, lived and kept store in this town, and went from here to take command of a s.h.i.+p of our colonial navy. He was the first man who ever raised our flag upon a national s.h.i.+p, and he struck terror to the heart of the British navy by his marvellous naval exploits during the Revolution.

It was right here that Was.h.i.+ngton's boyhood and youth were spent, and that he was trained and disciplined for his transcendent career, and it was to the unpretending home of his mother, still standing here--which you will visit--that Was.h.i.+ngton and Lafayette came when the war closed, to lay their laurels at her feet; and her ashes repose here, under a beautiful monument, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

But there are other memories of heroic type, suggested by this locality, which come nearer home to our hearts, whose mournful splendor time cannot pale!

Here, and within fifteen miles of this city, in Spotsylvania county, more great armies manoeuvred, more great battles were fought, more men were engaged in mortal combat and more officers and privates were killed and wounded than in any similar territory in the world. More men fell in the battles of this one small county during the Civil war than Great Britain has lost in all her wars of a century; and more men were killed and wounded in four hours at the battle of Fredericksburg than Great Britain had lost in killed, wounded and prisoners in her eight months' war in South Africa.

When the fog lifted its curtain from the bleak plains about Fredericksburg on the morning of December 13, 1862, the sun flashed down on a spectacle of terrible moral sublimity!

One hundred thousand Union veterans, with two hundred and twenty cannon, were in "battle's magnificently stern array," and in motion, with nothing to obscure their serried ranks from the view of their expectant adversaries, safely entrenched on the sloping hills adjacent. The different sub-divisions of this great army were commanded that day by consummate masters of the art of war, whose names and brilliant exploits now illumine the pages of our national history, but its commander-in-chief was deficient in both strategic and tactical ability, and his most conspicuous merit seemed to be his perfect faith in the courage and invincibility of his army.

General Burnside did not overrate the magnificent courage and sublime self-sacrifice of his army, whose contempt of death that day on the open plains about Fredericksburg seemed to strike the electric chain wherewith we all are bound, and a thrill of admiration swept down the line of Lee's army for four miles whilst yet the battle raged; but General Burnside did underrate the strength of the positions which, without inspection or information, he rashly a.s.sailed, and he did underrate the valor of the men who held those positions. The appalling magnitude of his mistake was soon apparent, alike to his officers and his men, and yet column after column of that devoted army advanced, without a halting step, to the carnival of death, over a plain swept by the ceaseless and terrible fire of protected infantry and artillery--a plain of which General E. P. Alexander, in command of the Confederate artillery, posted on the heights, remarked the evening before, that "not a chicken could live there when his guns were opened."

No honors awaited the daring of these heroes that day; no despatch could give their names to the plaudits of their admiring countrymen, their advance was uncheered by the hope of emolument or fame; their death would be unnoticed, and yet they marched to their doom with unblanched cheeks and unfaltering tread.

Pause a moment and picture those serried ranks as they marched undismayed with grim precision and intrepid step to certain death, and, very many, to unknown graves, and tell me whether heroism did not have its holocaust, and patriotism and courage their grand coronation on these plains about Fredericksburg; and tell me whether a nation's grat.i.tude and meed of honor to these unknelled, uncoffined and unknown heroes, who thus gave up their lives for their country, in obedience to orders, should be measured by the accident of victory or defeat, or by the unclouded grandeur of the sacrifice they cheerfully made. Tell me whether the majestic memorial, which that splendid old veteran, General b.u.t.terfield, proposes to erect on the plains of Fredericksburg, to perpetuate the fame of the Fifth corps, will not commemorate a higher type of heroism than any similar memorial to that corps on the heights about Gettysburg! Tell me whether there was not more courage and more manhood required to a.s.sail Marye's Heights than to hold Cemetery Hill!

The charge of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg was far grander, even with its dreadful recoil, than was the defence of the stone wall at Fredericksburg; and the heroes of the former deserve more of their country than do the latter.

Napoleon, after the battle of Austerlitz, addressing his army, said: "Soldiers, it will be enough for one of you to say, 'I was at the battle of Austerlitz,' for your countrymen to say, 'There is a brave man.'"

Impartial history will record that the Union soldiers who fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Courthouse were not only brave men, but that their valor on those immortal fields decorated the Stars and Stripes with imperishable glory. And no American army of the future, composed of those who wore the blue and the gray, or their descendants, will ever permit that glory to be tarnished!