Zachary Taylor born, 1784
September Twenty-Fifth
We are gathered here a feeble few
Of those who wore the gray—
The larger and the better part
Have mingled with the clay:
Yet not so lost, but now and then
Through dimming mist we see
The deadly calm of Stonewall’s face,
The lion-front of Lee.
Henry Lynden Flash
Memoirs of the Blue and Gray read at Los Angeles, 1897
September Twenty-Sixth
Summer is dead, ay me! Sweet summer’s dead!
The sunset clouds have built his funeral pyre,
Through which, e’en now, runs subterranean fire:
While from the East, as from a garden-bed,
Mist-vined, the Dusk lifts her broad moon—like some
Great golden melon—saying, “Fall has come.”
Madison Cawein
September Twenty-Seventh
All America will soon treasure alike both Federal and Confederate exploits, in the greatest of wars, as a priceless national heritage. Then Semmes and the Alabama will shine beside John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, Decatur and the Philadelphia, Lawrence and the Chesapeake, and be ever lauded with the victories of Old Ironsides, the intrepid deed of Farragut sailing over the mines in the channel of Mobile Bay, that of Dewey entering Manila Harbor, and of Hobson bringing the Merrimac under the fire of the forts at Santiago.