News from The Cartersville Express

 
The Cartersville Express
Cartersville, Georgia
May 1, 1873, Page 3
 
Transcribed by:  
 

THE DECORATION AT CASSVILLE ON THE 26TH ULT. – Last Saturday, being the day observed by the Ladies’ Memorial Association, of Cassville, annually, we attended on the occasion, and heard the able and appropriate address of Dr. W. H. Felton, the orator selected for the day.  The address was delivered in the Baptist church in that village, which was crowded to its utmost capacity with anxious hearers,  Rev. Geo D. Harris opened the exercises of the hour with prayer, and then introduced to the auditory the honorable speaker above mentioned, who enchained his audience for about one hour with a most solemn but interesting address.  We would here attempt to give a kind of synopsis of the address, but think it unnecessary, as a copy of the same has been promised us, by the Association, for publication, which we hope to have the pleasure of laying before our readers at an early day.  No true Southron who has heretofore lightly esteemed the privilege of meeting annually, on the 26th day of April, around the sacred dust of our heroic dead and scattering flowers over their graves, as emblems of his grateful remembrance and undying appreciation of their noble deeds of valor in defense of all that he held sacred in life, and for which they sacrificed their lives, after having heard this address, but would have been convinced that to prove recreant to this duty was to acknowledge that our cause was unjust and that our soldiers met a just fate by falling in so unholy a crusade.

At the cemetery, Col. John W. Wofford, of this city, at the urgent solicitation of the Association, made an appeal to the people of Bartow county for funds to aid in the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of the three hundred patriots of the lost cause whose bones lay entombed within the radius of the sound of the speaker’s voice, and wound up his remarks by stating that he, for one, would contribute the sum of fifty dollars towards perpetuating the memory of our slumbering heroes.

“Crest to crest, they bore our banner,
Side by side, they fell asleep;
Hand in hand, we scatter flowers,
Heart to heart, we kneel and weep.”

At the conclusion of Col. Wofford’s speech, Mr. Wm. A. Chunn announced that the next order of business was the decoration of the graves, which solemn and mournful duty was immediately entered upon by the large crowd of ladies and gentlemen present, the ladies taking the lead, and, Oh!
“How beautiful in death
The warrior corpse appears,
Embalmed in fond affection’s breath,
And bathed in woman’s tears,”

And as they scattered flowers over the graves, we caught the inspiration of Timrod, the sweetest and noblest poet the South ever produced, when he said:

“Stoop, angels, hither from the skies!
There is no holier spot of ground,
Than where departed valor lies
By mourning beauty crowned.”

********************

On Thursday last, the remains of six Confederate soldiers were exhumed, in an abandoned graveyard in this city, and on the following day transferred to the Soldier’s cemetery in Cassville and reinterred.  Among that number, we learn, was Captain HUGH HILL, son of United States Ex-Senator JOSHUA HILL.

The following are the names and commands as far as could be ascertained: Capt. Hugh Hill; E. L. Simmonds, company D, 1st regiment GA. State Line; R. T. Burns, company D, 1st reg. Ga. S. L.; Thomas Caldwell, company D, 1st reg. Ga. S. L.; Alford Long, Texas.  Messrs. R. W. Murphy, Jas. B. Conyers, and T. F. Gouldsmith, Committee, requests to return their most profound thanks to Misses Mary Parrott, Carrie Gower, and Lena Williford, for the handsome contribution of money they solicited, collected, and turned over into their hands to defray the expense of removing these bodies to Cassville, and to the citizens for their liberal donations.

 

GO TO: Text Site Map
 
CONTACT US
archives@bartowhistorymuseum.org
770-382-3818 ext. 6283
13 N Wall Street
Cartersville, Georgia 30120

Home
Bartow GenWeb Coordinator: Trey Gaines   
Georgia GenWeb State Coordinator: Linda Blum-Barton

          ©2002 - 2019 Bartow History Museum

Last modified: February 18, 2007