“The beau-ideal of soldier and patriot.”
Attention, Comrades:
When men conspicuous for sublime action, such as heroic conduct, goodness or greatness, or other lofty attainment are called to pass over the “river of death,” it is a patriotic duty for surviving comrades to give expression to their grief. It needs not the building of a pantheon or vote of a senate to give them a place among the immortals, to keep alive their illustrious acts and virtues. Most certainly it is not necessary in the case of Longstreet,—“Old Pete,” as he was lovingly called by comrades who followed him unflinchingly through four years of warfare. “Old Pete” is dead, yet he lives in the hearts of his old corps and will continue to live in history, poetry, and song, the beau-ideal of a soldier, patriot, and a lover of liberty. Yet like all men who attain to eminent merit and conspicuous sublimity, he lived to realize the truthfulness of the poet, that
“He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow.
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below,
Though high above the sun of glory glow,
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread;
Round him are icy rocks and loudly blow
Contending tempests on his naked head,
And thus reward the toil which to those summits led.”
Such was the fateful experience of our beloved Longstreet, a corps commander and lieutenant-general in the Army of Northern Virginia. To him obedience to constituted authority moulded and shaped the ideal soldier and citizen for his distinguished life service; and became the reasons for his acts in rigidly observing his Appomattox parole. We know that he was one of the bravest of the brave and truest of the true.
Unanimously adopted by the Alexander H. Stephens Camp, U. C. V., Crawfordville, Georgia.
*****
(Marengo Rifles Chapter, U. D. C.)
“One of the hardest fighters in Lee’s army.”