The cause of Southern independence has gone down in blood. These men and their compeers had elected to try their cause in the tribunal of last resort, the forum of battle. The verdict has been rendered against them; there is no expectation, or, perhaps, wish, for further appeal. Hanson fell mortally wounded at Murfreesboro, Helm died at Chickamauga, Thompson was slain on the very spot of his birth and his infancy in Kentucky, to which he had returned after three stormy years of absence. Buckner surrendered his sword, last of all of the commanders of the South, in the extreme western confines of the Confederacy, and only when the advancing wave of Federal conquest, after sweeping across the face of the continent, had borne to his very feet the wreck of the nation whose soldier he deemed himself. Breckinridge, in exile with saddened eyes, strives through the mists of the great lakes of the north, to catch some glimpse of the land he loved so fervently and served so faithfully. Of their less distinguished comrades, hundreds are lying all along the route of the sad retreat from Bowling Green, consigned to unconsecrated earth, their requiem the sighs of their sorrowing comrades. Many are resting by the lonely banks of the Tennessee and beneath the deep shadows of the tropical foliage of Baton Rouge. They will sleep none the less tranquilly in their quiet and unmarked graves because the dear land for whose deliverance they fought so long and so well, is ground by the heel of centralized power. Some survive, their mutilated forms monuments of a heroism which would have illustrated the days of Bayard or of Coeur de Lion. The memory of neither the living nor the dead “will be rendered infamous” until the peoples of the earth have ceased to honor manliness of spirit, freedom of thought, and heroism of deeds. Imbued with the loftiest sentiments which ever animated the bosoms of men, they went forth to poverty, to exile, to suffering, to battle, and to death, for what they believed to be the maintenance of constitutional liberty and free government.
Selfish ambitions and personal aspirations had no abiding place in their world. Men bore the firelock and served as subalterns, who could, with brilliant genius, have wielded the baton of Generals. Among them but one ambition existed, who should most faithfully serve, who should most steadfastly die. Kentucky has no cause to blush for them. The principles they upheld had been taught them on her soil; they are embalmed in the archives of her Legislatures, enunciated in manifestoes of her conventions. Wayward though she may deem these children in the assertion of her rights, they are still her sons. Not now, perhaps, but in the fulness of coming time, the proud old mother will, with an eager zeal, gather these her offspring to rest in the only fitting place, her honored bosom. Not now, perhaps, but in the coming time, on that monument which she has erected at her Capital to those who have in the past, and will in the future, serve her, she will inscribe their names and write beneath them, “these, too, were my children, and died in what they believed was the defense of my honor.” We who saw the gallant dead shrouded in their gory cerements, await with calm confidence the coming of that time.
Transcriber's Note
Variable spelling is preserved as printed.
Capitalisation of place names is preserved as printed.
Page [5]—the author refers to Colonel Lloyd Tighlman, rather than the more usual spelling, Tilghman. This is preserved as printed.
The following amendments have been made:
Page [5]—Byrnes’ amended to Byrne’s—"... and Byrne’s battery of artillery."
Page [7]—Hawkin amended to Hawkins—"... and Aid-de-Camp, Thomas T. Hawkins."
Page [7]—conection amended to connection—"... where, in connection with Hindman’s brigade, ..."