Spencer Jones Address
Address
of
Spencer C. Jones,
Delivered at Winchester, VA,
June 5th, 1880
On the Occasion of the
Unveiling of the Monument
Erected to the Memory of
The Maryland Confederate Dead
Baltimore:
Printed by King Brothers,
163 West Baltimore Street.
1880
Published by Order of
The “Society of the Army and Navy of the
Confederate States in the State
Of Maryland.”
ADDRESS
As the chosen organ of my comrades to speak on this occasion, of the deeds
and character of those of our State who died in the service of the Confederate
States, I approach the great theme committed to my charge, conscious of
my inability to render a proper tribute to their memory, but with the hope,
that as we call to mind their endurance and sufferings to maintain what
they believed to be right, we may be stimulated to the formation of higher
purposes and nobler plans in our lives. Instead of repining over
the failures of the past, let us address ourselves seriously to the present
and future, honestly striving to build up the waste place of our Country,
and to enhance its moral, intellectual ad material growth and prosperity.
After fifteen years of peace, the surviving Marylanders, who served
in the Confederate armies, are assembled at this place, the scene of many
of their conflicts, to commemorate the heroism and virtue of those of their
comrades whose lives were sacrificed in obedience to the dictates of principle
and of patriotism. Were I to follow the promptings of my own feelings,
I should prefer to stand in silence amidst these graves, and reflect upon
the deeds and character of those who lie here and elsewhere throughout
the South, many of whom we personally knew and loved, and all of whom were
united to us by those sacred ties that “grapple them to our souls with
hooks of steel.”
Whilst it is a great gratification to us to rear this monument to our
fallen heroes, it is not needed to perpetuate their memory. Their
heroic conduct from the incipiency of the struggle between the States to
the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox Court House, has been interwoven
with the history of the South in its efforts for independence and self-government.
Whenever the historian shall record the acts of the army of Northern Virginia,
and particularly of the Valley department, the undaunted courage and chivalric
bearing of our comrades who separated themselves from home and kindred,
and died in defense of principle, will form no small part of the illustrious
record of that brilliant struggle. They proved themselves to be sons
worthy of their noble sires, and an honor to their native State.
At the beginning of the war, the citizens of Maryland were divided
in opinion in reference to the contest then inaugurated. Bitter and
acrimonious were the feelings entertained between the adherents of the
Government of the United States and that of the Confederate States.
There were family divisions, and alienations of kindred and friends.
The territory of our State was soon occupied by the Federal forces, determined
to protect their capital, situate upon our Southern border. The Potomac
river, heavily picketed by the soldiery of the Federal army, separated
us from Virginia and the Confederacy, and strenuous efforts were made by
the ivil and military authorities of the United States Government, aided
by the Chief Magistrate of our own State and sympathizing Unionists in
our midst, to suppress every feeling and sentiment favorable to the cause
of Southern independence. The Legislature of the State was disbanded
by military authority, many of its members were incarcerated for months
and years; leading citizens were supposed to be in sympathy with the cause
of the South, were arrested and convened in prison, and every precaution
taken to enter all those inclined, from crossing the Potomac and entering
the armies of the Confederate States. Under such circumstances as
these, with an ever-vigilant eye kept upon their movements, did most of
the Marylanders, who formed a part of the Confederate forces, make their
way into the State of Virginia. Traveling under cover of night and
in unfrequented ways, cautiously passing between the pickets of the Federal
soldiers, fording and sometimes swimming the upper Potomac and running
the blockade of vessels in the waters of the lower Potomac, their companions
often arrested and sent to prison, and not infrequently shot by the sentinels
on post, they escaped into the Confederacy, and who were terribly in earnest
in the work they had set out to aid in accomplishing.
Once upon the soil of Virginia, they entered heartily into the service.
You have witnessed their gentlemanly and courteous deportment in the witnessed
in the camp; their endurance in forced marches, whether of advance or retreat;
the promptness with which they obeyed the orders of their superiors in
command; their impetuous and resistless charges and assaults, in the rude
shock of battle, when carnage and destruction ruled supreme; their stubborn
and unwavering lines, contesting every inch of ground when forced to yield
to overwhelming numbers. When the searching winds of winter made
them shiver, the gathered their threadbare and tattered garments the closer
around their gaunt forms, and obeyed promptly every call of duty.
You heard no complaint fall from their lips when their long continued,
half-rationed supplies clearly indicated to them the decline and ultimate
overthrow of the cause in which they had enlisted.
To their distinct and separate organizations were often assigned, by
commanders from other States, the post of danger and of honor, and the
orders and reports of those commanders fully attest the fidelity with which
they discharged the confidence reposed in them. Their dead bodies
were found on every contested spot, from Manassas to Appomattox Court House,
and the verdure of the approaching harvest now waves luxuriantly over many
fields enriched by their blood. The affectionate hands of friends
and kindred have gathered many of their remains from the temporary resting
places, where comrades with sad hearts had deposited them, and conveyed
them to their homes to rest beside their loved ones. Others sleep
in the soil of Virginia and of the far off South. But they rest not
here as aliens and strangers, but as members of the same household, identified
by association in a common cause, and a surrender of life for that cause.
The bones of many lie in unknown but honored graves.
We have come from the quiet pursuits of our lives into a Sister State
to do homage to our heroic dead. By the memories and associations
of the past, by the recollection of their gallant lives and glorious death,
we have been moved to erect this monument to our fallen comrades.
We are indebted to our Virginia brethren for inviting us to enter their
State to pay this tribute of respect to the Maryland Confederate dead,
and for uniting with us in celebrating this occasion. Their hands
were extended in welcome greeting when we came to them in the days when
they needed assistance. We then came as strangers, but bearing a
passport to their hearts and affections by a consecration of our lives
to the cause in which they were engaged. Today they gather with us
in this beautiful cemetery, dedicated by them as the resting place of all
from every State, who fell in this lovely valley of the Shenandoah, under
the starry cross of the South, to honor in particular the dead of a State
not a member of their Confederation. But whilst we honor the dead
of our own State, we pay homage due all, who shared with them in their
glories and trials, and met the same sad fate. Not one word can be
uttered to the praise of the soldiers of any particular State who were
marshaled under the leadership of the great and matchless Lee, or led by
the immortal and unconquered Jackson, that would not redound to the honor
of their comrades of the entire army. Together they endured the privations
and hardships of the camp-life; together they made the long and weary marches,
from the Valley to tide-water, and from tide-water to the Valley, welcomed
always by the patriotic citizens of this section. Shoulders to shoulder
they stood like a “stone wall” in the hottest engagements, whilst the messengers
of death mustered thousands out of the service. Side by side, under
the direction and leadership of Officers, who counted invariably upon the
endurance and bravery of their commands, and their implicit obedience to
orders, they undertook to scale heights, up whose steep and rugged ascents,
an unarmed man could scarce make his way; whose summits fortified and strengthened
by earthworks, were crowned by frowning artillery, supported by hosts of
musketry, dealing death and destruction on their advancing columns.
“Was their a man dismayed?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blundered;
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.”
What more appropriate place than this could have been selected for the
erection of a monument to the memory of the Maryland Confederate dead?
Here where Federal and Confederate forces alternated in holding sway for
more than three scores times, and where hills and plains again and again
resounded with echoes of the advancing and retreating squadrons, and where
the camp fires kindled in the beginning of the contest burned incessantly
to its close. Near yonder hills, over which the surging tide of battle
raged with fury, and down whose sides the destructive rain of grape and
canister poured, thinning the ranks of our devoted columns, and over whose
heights, after sanguinary struggles the colors of our victorious troops
floated in triumph- for in each and all of these engagements the sons of
Maryland, fighting, fell.
This locality also brings to mind some of our misfortunes and disasters,
when, toward the close of the war, weak and worn by the long continued
contest, our lines of operation extending from Petersburg to the upper
Potomac, our regiments reduced to mere skeletons, unable longer to cope
with overwhelming odds in our front, we were driven from this lovely valley
never more to return as soldiers.
Historic spot! Consecrated as the burial ground of the bravest of the
brave, by a baptism of fire and blood, and hallowed by memories and associations,
which to-day cause the hearts of surviving comrades to burn within them,
as they here meet and remind each other of the dangers and trials through
which they passed, and recount the many daring acts of those who inhabit
this city of the dead.
This day, too, is celebrated as the anniversary of the death of him
who was the leader of the cavalry forces of the Valley department, and
whose brilliant exploits during the year in which he led his followers
with unsurpassed and chivalrous daring in every engagement with the enemy,
were the admiration and theme of all. His name had become a fmiliar
sound in every household throughout this Valley, as a leader honored and
beloved, a man held in the highest esteem by every citizen of this section.
The mortal remains of Gen Turner Ashby lie in peaceful repose here, surrounded
by those of many of his followers. With Gen. Ashby the Marylanders
had been early associated, there being a full company in his first regimental
command. He fell on the 6th of June, 1862, in an engagement near
Harrisonburg, in the Valley, whilst the First Maryland infantry was gallantly
charging and repulsing the enemy. Appropriate place and time for
the Marylanders to honor their dead.
It has been asserted by those who have had access to and were familiar
with the muster rolls of the Confederate State’s army, that Maryland furnished
over twenty thousand soldiers for the Confederate service. The separate
and distinct organizations of Marylanders did not embrace the half of those
from that State who bore arms in the Confederate cause. The young
men of Maryland were continually crossing into Virginia during the war,
and uniting with the first company, and often squads were mustered into
Virginia regiments, and, through their work, was effectually accomplished
and the requirements of military duty fully met, yet our State was not
and could not be accredited with the services of her sons enlisted in the
regiments of another State.
Time will not allow, nor is it necessary, to give a detailed account
of the part borne by the several Maryland organizations, in the army of
Northern Virginia, during the battles of the late war. The mere mention
of their names in this presence, will call to mind the gallantry displayed
by each, in all the scenes in which they were the actors.
The first distinct command of Marylanders was an infantry regiment
mustered into the service on the 18th day of May, 1861, with Arnold Elzey
as colonel, George H. Steuart, lieutenant colonel, and Bradley T. Johnson,
major, the former of which became a major general and the other two brigadier
generals. At the time of the formation of this regiment they were
without arms, except one company, which had a few old carbines totally
unfit for the service upon which it had entered. The regiment was
also without uniforms, camp equipage and the munitions of war. Maryland,
as a government, had not united its destiny with its Sister States of the
South. Virginia had not the arms, and was not in a condition to thoroughly
arm and equip the thousands of its sons who, in obedience to its summons,
were hurriedly leaving their homes and enrolling themselves into companies,
battalions and regiments for its defense. It was a critical period
in the history of this band of brave men which, in after days, gained a
reputation equal to any in the service, and covered itself with imperishable
renown. There was no home government to look for supplies.
Whilst almost despairing of being able to participate in the struggles
that were about to ensue, the accomplished wife of one of the officers
of the regiment, a native of North Carolina, and who had accompanied her
husband from Maryland to Virginia, conceived the idea of going to her native
State to appeal for aid to arm and equip the sons of her adopted home.
The plan speedily put in execution. Hastening with an escort to Raleigh,
her native city, she represented to her kinsmen and former neighbors the
condition of this body of Marylanders that had linked their destinies with
the fortunes of the South. North Carolina generously responded to
her appeal, and through its Governor and Council, sent five hundred Mississippi
rifles and equipments with ten thousand cartridges to the men, who, in
the language of one of the orators, at a public meeting in Raleigh, called
for the purpose of assisting the Marylanders, “were fighting our battles
with halters round their necks.” On the reception of the arms, appropriate
resolutions were passed by the command, and among them a pledge that at
the close of the war they be returned to North Carolina without stain or
dishonor. The results of the war forbade the return of the arms,
but the history of that regiment on every field in which it was engaged,
fully attests the manner in which that pledge was kept. Participating
in the glories of the first Manassas, it marched in triumph with Jackson
in the memorable Valley campaign: “The History of the Maryland regiment
gallantly commanded by Col. Bradley T. Johnson, during the campaign of
the Valley, would be a history of every action from Front Royal to Cross
Keys. On the 6th, near Harrisonburg, the Fifty-eighth Virginia Regiment
was engaged with the Pennsylvania Bucktales, the fighting being close and
bloody. Col. Johnson came up with his regiment in the hottest period,
and by a dashing charge in the flank, drove the enemy off with heavy loss,
capturing Lieut. Col. Kane, commanding. In commemoration of this
gallant conduct, I ordered one of the captured bucktails to be appended
as a trophy to their flag. The action is worthy of acknowledgement
from a higher source, more particularly as they avenged the death of the
gallant Gen. Ashby, who fell at the same time. Four color bearers
were shot down in quick succession, but each time the colors were caught
before reaching the ground, and were finally borne by Corporal Daniel Shanks
to the close of he action. On the 8th inst., at Cross Keys, they
were opposed to three of the enemies’ regiment in succession.” Gen.
Jackson in his report of the same campaign makes honorable mention of this
regiment.
The Second Maryland Infantry Battalion was formed in the winter of
1862 and 1863, and offered by Lieut. Col. James R. Herbert and Maj. William
W. Goldsborough , and in discipline, efficiency and all the dash characteristic
of the true soldier, equaled the First Maryland, and on many occasions
received the commendations of brigade, division and corps commanders for
its meritorious conduct in the field. It participated in the battle
here at Winchester against Gen. Milroy, and in campaigns of Maryland and
Pennsylvania, leaving nearly one-half of its men killed and wounded on
the gory field of Gettysburg. It was in the battles of Gain’s Mills,
Cold Harbor, and with Gen. Lee in the long and bloody struggle in front
of Petersburg, and always sustained a high standard for endurance and courage,
and finally surrendered a little remnant at Appomattox Court House, its
pathway during the war having been strewn with the lifeless bodies of many
of its gallant spirits.
The following companies of artillery were formed early in the war,
and connected with the Confederate army: First Maryland- Captain (afterwards
Lieutenant Colonel) R Snowden Andrews; Baltimore Light- Captain (afterwards
Major) J.B. Brockenborough; Third Maryland- Captain Henry B. Latrobe; Forth
Maryland- Captain William Brown. These all did valiant service, and
on many hard contested fields the rapid thundering of their guns and the
dismantled batteries and broken columns of the enemy in their front clearly
indicated that they were no small contributors to the successes of the
Confederate forces, whilst the mangled and bleeding forms of the men around
their guns showed that they had the pluck and nerve to stand their posts
during the hottest fire.
In the winter of 1862 and 1863, the First Maryland Battalion of Cavalry
was organized and officered by Lieut. Col. Ridgely Brown and Maj. Robert
C. Smith. It was first assigned to duty in this Valley, in the brigade
of the lamented Gen. William E. Jones. Its history is intimaly associated
with that of nearly all the cavalry engagements in Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania, after its formation. It was assigned to the posts of
honor in the invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania, being the van guard
of the advance and the rear guard of the retreat, the first to cross and
the last to re-cross the Potomac.
When this battalion, for the last time during the war, crossed the
Potomac, under Gen. Early in July 1864, and for the first and only
time as an organization, traversed my own native county of Montgomery,
it was a sad homecoming to our boys. For a month previously our loved
and trusted Colonel, the lamented Ridgely Brown, had fallen at the head
of his command near South Anna river. He had been the chosen leader
of a small band that crossed the Potomac and offered their services to
Virginia in the very beginning of the war. Promoted in spite of his
unassuming modesty, by the speedy recognition of his military genius, his
unflinching courage and his unselfish devotion to the cause he had espoused,
he was the idol of his command, and especially of the companions of his
youth who knew him best. Every solicitous for, and watchful of, the
welfare of his men, gentile, kind and courteous to the humblest of them,
proud of his battalion an mindful of the traditions of “The old Maryland
Line,” there are those here to-day who can never forget his favorite and
characteristic appeal when the storm of leaden hail decimated his line
of battle, as his clarion voice rang out, “Steady men: remember who you
are; remember who you are!” No more true and gallant soldier, no
more thorough gentleman, no purer Christian than Col. Ridgely Brown gave
his life to the cause of the South. The effects of his noble example
and inspiring influence survived him, and his battalion had the honor of
making the last charge in the army of Northern Virginia, cutting through
the enemy’s lines at Appomattox Court House, and essaying to join the forces
of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston then in Georgia. This battalion was not
disbanded until nineteen days after the surrender, and only upon receipt
of the following letter from Gen. Thomas T. Munford, under whom it was
serving, and whose orders it was awaiting:
“CLOVERDALE, BOTETOURT COUNTY, VA., April 28, 1865.
“LIEUT. COL. DORSEY,
“Commanding First Maryland Cavalry:
“I have just learned from Capt. Emack that your gallant band was moving
up the valley in response to my call. I am deeply pained to say that
our army cannot be reached, as I have learned that it has capitulated.
It is sad, indeed, to think that our country’s future is all shrouded in
gloom; but for you and your command there in the consolation of having
faithfully done your duty. Three years ago the chivalric Brown joined
my old regiment with twenty-three Maryland volunteers, with light hearts
and full of fight. I soon learned to admire, respect and love them
for all those qualities which endear soldiers to their officers.
The recruited rapidly, and, as they increased in numbers, so did their
reputation and friends increase, and they were soon able to form a command
and take a position of their own. Need I say when, I see that position
so high and almost alone among soldiers that my heart swells with pride
to think that a record so bright and glorious is in some part linked with
mine? Would that I could see the mothers and sisters of every member
of your battalion, that I might tell them how nobly you represented your
State and maintained our cause. But you will not be forgotten.
The fame you have won will be guarded by Virginia with all the pride she
feels in her own true sons, and the ties which have linked us together,
memory will preserve. You who stuck the first blow in Baltimore and
the last in Virginia have done all that could be asked of you. *
* * * * * I have ordered the brigade to return to their homes, and it behooves
us now to separate. With my warmest wishes for your welfare, and
a hearty God bless you, I bid you farewell.
“THOMAS T. MUNFORD,
“Brig. Gen., Commanding Division.”
The battalion of Lieut. Cols. Elijah V. White and Harry Gilmore were
composed largely of Marylanders, and full Maryland companies were formed
in the following Virginia regiments: Capt. George R. Gaither’s company,
First Virginia Cavalry, toward the close of the war transferred to the
First Maryland Cavalry; Capt. Frank Mason’s company, Seventh Virginia Cavalry,
and Capt. Lyle Clark’s company, Twenty-first Virginia Infantry. The
history of these Marylanders, during the war, is that of the regiments
to which they were attached, wherever enrolled, exhibiting the same undaunted
courage and soldierly bearing, and contributing their proportion in acquiring
reputation for commands, of which Virginia is justly proud. Virginians
and Marylanders thus united, heroically striving for the accomplishment
of the same great purpose, together bearing their breasts to the storm,
and together falling in the path of duty. “Alike in blood, alike
in faith, they sleep the last sleep of the brave.”
The Marylanders who formed a part of the Army of Northern Virginia
were mostly young men, and the flower of the State. They gloried
in an ancestry who in early colonial days had guaranteed religious freedom
to all and whose struggles and trials and heroic conduct on many fields
in the war for American independence, had implanted in their youthful breasts
an ardent love for liberty, and a determination to repel wrong from whatever
quarter it might come. They thoroughly counted the costs before starting
from their homes to enter the Confederate service. They knew it was
no holiday parade upon which they were going- that the resources and powers
of the United States were immense, and that if the South were successful,
it would be after along and tedious conflict, and over the dead and mangled
forms of thousands of its sons. The citizens of the other States
of the South rallied to the call of legal authority. The Marylanders,
whilst the voice of the State was silent, whether by suppression or not
is immaterial, responded to the promptings of their own hearts. They
were aware when they crossed the paternal threshold and bit adieu to the
scenes of their childhood, that many would go who would never return.
Having intelligently considered the situation, with a fixed and determined
purpose, they left the ease and comforts of home to swell the volunteer
forces of the Confederacy. Desertions were scarcely known in the
ranks. From the time of their enlistment to the close of the war,
they exhibited in all the phases of the soldier’s life, an dominitable
will and purpose to meet the full requirements of the hard and perilous
lot they had chosen.
Many noble, generous souls, among them, upon whom we relied for strongest
aid and succor in the hour of danger, and whose elbow touch in the time
of peril, inspired that confidence which a soldier can only know, fell
to rise no more.
Brave, heroic dead! The flag which ye followed, has been furled,
never to be thrown to the breeze again, and the cause which ye died has
gone down into the gloom of eternal night; but your glorious deeds are
green in the memory of your comrades and of those for whom ye gave your
lives.
We are here to honor these brave Maryland dead who fell in the Army
of Northern Virginia, whether in their own, or the organizations of another
State. The pure and generous-hearted, whether in sympathy with their
cause or not, will commend this exhibition of affection and devotion to
fallen comrades.
The passions and prejudices engendered by the war have long since died
out among those who were the participants on many hard fought fields.
They have learned to mutually respect and admire the military achievements
of their late opponents. It is only the discordant and croaking voices
of the place hunters who now cry war; those who would re-open its wounds
that they might profit thereby. The great body of the whole country
wants peace. The Southern people desire it above every earthly thing
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks,” so panteth their souls for
peace and rest from civil commotions and strifes.
Having appealed to the arbitrament of the sword and failed, we accept
the results in good faith, and plight anew our fealty to an dissoluble
Union. There burns no resentments within our breasts. Clinging
only to the glorious deeds chivalric conduct of our comrades who have gone
down in the strife, with tender sympathy for the hearts and homes made
desolate by the loss of husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, we turn our
backs upon the dead realities of the past, with all of its untold horrors,
and by faith look forward to a brighter and more glorious future for our
country. The monument this day unveiled tells in its inscription
tersely, but truly and eloquently, the story of the gallant dead whom we
commemorate.
Let us, their surviving comrades, as we leave this sacred place to
resume the duties of our diverse careers, as incitement to “the high purpose
and the firm resolve,” and ever proudly remembering that we are their living
representatives, bear with us, inscribed on our hearts, the epitaph of
our fallen heroes engraved on their tomb: “Unheralded, unorganized, unarmed.
They came for conscience sake, and died for right.”
ERRATA=- On page 16, 14th line from the bottom, the word “dead” should
read “dread.”
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