 | Memoirs of the war of secession |  |
General Hagood in Charleston.
General Hagood's last public appearance in Charleston was at
the reunion of the Confederate Veterans, nearly two years ago.
The News and Courier of April 23rd, 1896, said:
When it was decided to stop the reading of the report the
veterans out in the hall wanted a speech, and especially one from
their beloved Hagood. Some one cried out "Hagood," and that
settled the matter. There could be nothing more done until the
gallant Hagood had been seen and heard by the veterans. General
Hagood did not want to talk, and especially not to interfere
with the proceedings, but the veterans insisted and he was always
too willing a man to do his duty not to respond, and so he stepped
out to the front of the stage, and it must have made his heart
gladden to see how he was received by his old soldiers as well as
by those who fought for the same cause under different commanders.
But General Hagood is always equal to an emergency,
and last night he made a short talk to his old soldier friends that
touched them deeply, and left even a brighter picture of the gallant
soldier. General Hagood said in brief:
"I thank you for your kind greeting. It is a long time since
we have met, since we have looked into each other's eyes and
grasped each other's hands. In the long ago we together toiled
in the weary march and looked upon `battle's magnificently stern
array.' Together we have felt the mad excitement of the charge,
the glorious enthusiasm of victory, the sullen anger of defeat.
And harder, sterner duties have been our lot. Together we have
passed through the valley and the shadow of political reconstruction.
We have seen civil rights, sacred from tradition and baptized
in the blood of a patriot ancestry, trampled in the dust.
We have seen the accumulations of two centuries of thrift and
industry swept away, and the State plundered as a ship by a
pirate crew. But `God fulfills Himself in many ways.'
"Today our fair Southland, thanks to the indomitable energies
of her blood, and the abounding resources of her gracious endowment,
with her wounds cicatrized and her plumage renewed, is
moving like the eagle's flight, upward and onward.
"You have met these varied fortunes as they came, and in the
part you bore, you believed then, and you believe now, you were
right.
"Old friends, welcome—and perhaps, good-bye. I am with you
today as I have been in the past, body and heart and soul. Our
gone. They are passing now. Even while the drums were beating
the assembly for this reunion the youngest but one of your
brigadiers answered the last roll call on earth. John Kennedy,
patriot, soldier, knightly gentleman, is dead. His honored place
in your midst is vacant. The peace of God is on his brow.
"Younger men, as they should, are filling the ranks. They, too,
are ready to live or die, `for the ashes of their sires and the altars
of their gods. For us there is little more left than to prepare
for the final inspection and review.
"Let us humbly trust that we will there meet the approval of
the Great Commander beyond the river."
General Hagood was quite frequently interrupted by applause,
and at the conclusion of his brief talk there was another round
of applause for Hagood.
| Memoirs of the war of secession | |