Lee-Jackson-Maury •• January 1994
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Lee-Jackson-Maury •• January 1994. ADD: -- And what is it that we remember? First, and foremost, in this month of birthdays, are the three leaders of the Confederate cause. Robert E. Lee was born Jan 19, 1807, 187 yrs ago tomorrow, noble hero 'Who stands tall on everyone's list of outstanding spirits; Thomas Jon• athan Jackson was born Jan 21, 1824, 170 yrs ago this Friday. They called him Stonewall, and with reason,for he confronted a succession of invaders into his state with courage and imagin• ation, whtle marching his foot-cavalry eastward to the Richmond region when reserves were needed. Matthew Fontaine Maury was born Jan 14, 18061 188 yrs ago last Frid.:zy-. Another Virginian, Ma~ry was an internationally honored oceanographer and seaman who, with Lee and Jackson, answered the call of mother Virginia in 1861. These three heroes serve as monuments of memory for all the others, the sung and the unsung, who put a tear in our eyes and a lump in our throats, as we remember. Lee-Jackson-Maillzy" Jan 1994. My dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to engage in an exercise of remembering. Next to life itself, memory is the greatest gift of the Creator, for it is one of those traits that set mankind apart from other animals. Without memory we would not know who we are, or how we got here, or what there is for us to do. And yet, how easy it is to forget, to turn to other inter• ests, to live only for the moment, to let the drama and the emotion of the past fade away with the years. So, to help us keep fresh the memory, we erect monuments, altars of piled stones, and we make for ourselves regularly repeated ritual events. And what is it that we remember., we who gather here because of,our blood relationships with the past? We renember the sacrifices and the actions of men and women of courage and valor and g allantiy and loyalty and endurance. Three of them whose birthdays we celebrate in the month of January are heroes of a very ~cial quality, and may serv~ to remind us of them all. Robert Edward lee wasi:orn Jan 19, 1807, 187 yrs ago tomorrow, fifth child of Henry Lee, himself a hero of the war for American Independence, and learned about duty and honor and country from his family, and his neighborhood, and his schooling. Folwg the example of his soldier-father, Robert attended the military acadeil\V at West Point, where he distinguished himself by his scholarship and by his proficie rey in the arts and sciences of warfare. In 1829 he graduated without a single demerit on his record, a feat that put him into the highest rankings in the history of that rigorous academy. From that training Lee entered the Army as a professional soldier of character and integrity, intelligence and compassion. Thirty yrs after his commissioning, when his state seceded from the union in defense of the principles which had given that union its birth and its constitution, he chose to go with Virginia rather than with the United States. He resigned his commission, sadly, because his nation was not centered in Washington, but in his state. Although he hoped hew ould not be called upon to participate in a war he deplored, when his state asked for his sword in its service he readily complied. He became military advisor to~President Jefferson Davis, and then commander of the Armies of Northern Vir• ginia, to confront and to repel repeated invasions of the state. When he was given the command, Federal General George McClellan with 100,000troops was within 7 miles of Richmond. In the cri• sis Lee demonstrated his superior skills as tactician and respected leader, moving his forces to outwit and outflank his opponents, and in the process humilia:.ing his enemy while winning the un• dying love and trust of his troops. He knew them personally, he knew their families and their interests, he cheered them into battle, Hoorah for Texas, or brave Carolina, he would shout, wav• ing his hat in the air, standing in the stirrups of Traveller to see them. They responded with deeds of heroism that rach Confederate Flag Day. Raleigh, March 1994. 5, · David .i.. • Smiley. In a world filled with things,· one of the oldest of human activities has been the use of a thing to remind people of another, and far more important thing. The rainbow in the sky following the storm tells us of the covenant promise of Never Again; the dove-with a green twig in its beak is a symbol of peace and the drying-up of the genocidal floods; the vision of the fire on the hearth awakens all the emotions and the memories of home and family, of warmth and good will. Among man• kind's reminders, one of the oldest and most effective is the bit of cloth, richly colored, that we call a flag. The word itself is of norlh European origin, meaning a swath of bunting that rep• resented something much larger than itself. It sent a message to all who saw it that they were in the presence of a community, an armed force, or an official of importance. We know them by many names--colors, standards, banners, ensigns, pennants, guidons. They are descended from solid metal·or wooden standards, carried before rulers and military forces, so theycould be identi£ied from a distance.~The pharoahs of ancient Egypt had standards as symbols of their pwer, and there are inscriptions~owing them, with the words indicating that they were sacred icons, "agents of the enemies 1 ·discomfo.:rtune. 11 The legions of the Roman anny carried standards giving their designa• tion and their campaigns, and ~ere were also units which tied a piece of colored cloth to a· spear as they went into b~ttlel'\f'lags thus,begAn a~ insignia of leadership, and as a means of knowing friend and foe, and ~s a center toWiich embattled warriors could rally. There was a tradi tion of hbno~ expressed by symbols and standards long before our contiQent was discovered by Euro• peans. Before our national independence was daclared, a c ontinehtal flag flew over American troops beseiging Boston in 1776. It had 13 red:and white stripes; and the British Union Jack, wit~ its two crosses superimposed, on the upper left corner. Alroost a yearr after the d eclaration of inde• pendence, the continental congress adopted a design for a national flag. As the resoiutio~ stated its appearance, "' The flag of the United States shall be 13 stripes alternate red and white, with a union of 13 stars of white on ablue field, representing a new constellation." It was the old continental .flag, with all traces of British allegiance erased from its d~sign. But even before that change, the tiny Dutch island ofSt. Eustatius in the West Indies fired cannon to salute a ship flying the stars and stripes, marking the transfer of power formerly exercised by nobles and momrchs to a new order based upon the consent of the governed1 written com titutions, and freely (r.~lJ!cted representatives. A similar, and to us gathered here today equally as important, change a:::- ~~he political bands which united sovereign states prior to 1860. When people of seven Gulf• south states acted upon what they understood to be their civil rights·, dissolved those bands, to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to 'Which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled them--to quote the familiar and respected language of Thomas Jeffer• son in the Declaration of Independence--they acted quickly to provide a flag for their new nation. Early in Feb., 1861, at the Montgomery convention, a committee wasappointed to select a flag. Its report was adopted on March 4, 1861--133 yrs ago yesterday, and .the same day-·that Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president of the United States,. the 27 Qf ±hem. that remains&. The symbolism of the selection of a flag to represent the new union, and the swearing-in of a leader who denied the dissidents the right of choice, of consent of the governed. The resolution adopted in Montgom• ery read as follows: the flag of the Confederate States of America shallCX>nsist of a red field with a white space extending horizontally through the center equal to one-third the width of the flag, the red spaces above and below to be of the same width as the white; the union blue, exten• ding down through the white space and stopping at the lower space; in the center of the union a circle of white stars corresponding to the number of States of the Confederacy." This flag became known as the Stars and Bars, and was first displayed over the state house in Montgomery. There have been disputes through the;>ears abou~ who designed that banner, whe~her a North Carolinian named Orren R. Smith, or Nicola Marschall of Marion, Alabama, born in Pru~iJ., an artist and craft man. Whoever did it, it was the Confederate ins1gnia, officially approvedlfAnother was celebrated in the song many consider the confederate national anthem--the bonnie blue flag thatl::aars a single star. And then there was the more familiar battle flag. At the first large battle of the war for southern independence, at Manassas Junction, near Bull Run, July 21, 1861, where the rebel yell first frightened the 1Bderal t roops , the officers noticed that the stars and stripes, and the stars and bars, looked alike from a distance.