Page 206 - Arkansas Confederate Women

The Women of the Confederacy : God Bless Them 181

upon the altar of the fatherland, she stifled her sobs in her bos-
om, and with her blessing a younger son left for the front to

close the widening breach in that fatal firing line. When at

last, crushed by overwhelming numbers and worn out by long
years of fierce fighting against tremendous odds, you laid down
the arms with which you had wrought for yourselves crowns of

undying fame, "When the stars upon your banner had gone
back to the heavens from which they came ;" when you returned

broken-hearted at your cause's fall, to find your homes laid
desolate by the ruthless hand of long continued war; when you
were called upon to face the horrors of those dark days of the
reconstruction, she was by your side, and by precept and by
example, she taught you to be as noble in defeat as you had been
grand in battle. Beared in the lap of luxury, accustomed to

every comfort that wealth could bring, she accepted poverty for

your sake without a murmur. Hiding in the sacred recesses of
her heart the grief she felt for dear ones lost and a cause forever

dead, she set herself to the task of bringing back the smile to
your face and happiness to your heart, until inspired by her ex-

ample, you have brushed away all obstacles, and have made this
fair Southland of ours to bloom and blossom like the rose.
# Sons of Confederate veterans, how plain your duty is ! You
are the sons of those noble women, and you are the sons of the

men, engaged in a righteous cause, whose hands they sought

to uphold. You have as a precious heritage the proud knowl-

edge that your father was a Confederate soldier, and that your
mother was a Confederate woman, and you and your children
and children's children should rise up and call their memory
blessed. It has been said of the United Sons of Confederate
veterans that they are ffbanded together for the purpose of sooth-
ing the declining years of those who bore, unflinchingly, the
burden of that tremendous struggle, and of handing down to

future generations the true story of a great lost cause." How

better can we tell the story than' in imperishable marble and
bronze? The Southland is dotted with monuments Southern
women have erected to Confederate valor ; every cemetery where
the heroes sleep is beautiful by their tender care; every page
of our history is made sacred by the devotion with which they