Southern Historical Society Papers/Volume 41

Southern Historical Society Papers.

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New Series Richmond, Va., Sept., 1916. Volume III.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Poem—The South. Father Ryan 1
II. Robert E. Lee—The Flower of the South, Bishop Collins Denny 3
III. Oakwood Memorial Address Dr. Douglas S. Freeman. . . 14
IV. The Great Seal of the Confederacy. Wm. B. Smith. . . 20
V. The Original Confederate Constitution. W. Gordon McCabe. . .34
VI. The Third Day at Gettysburg. Col. T. M. R. Talcott. . . 37
VII. Jefferson Davis and Repudiation in Mississippi. John D. Van Horne. . . 49
VIII. Books Made in Dixie. James W. Albright. . . 57
IX. Cabinet Meeting in Charlotte. Mrs. James A. Fore. . . 61
X. Theodore S. Garnett. Capt. W. Gordon McCabe. . . 68
XI. Walter H. Taylor. The News-Leader. . . 82
XII. John Warwick Daniel. Prof. W. M. Thornton. . . 88
XIII. Miss Kate Mason Rowland. . . 113
XIV. Failure of the Confederacy—Was it a Blessing? Dr. J. H. McNeilly. . . 115
XV. Battle Field Markers—Spotsylvania and Jefferson Counties. . . 145
XVI. Books—Long Arm of Lee, The New Market Campaign. . . 150
XVII. Gen. Lee's Traveller. The General's Description. . . 158
XVIII. From Bache's Life of Meade—On Sheridan in the Valley. . . 160
XIX. Letter of Col. Edward Willis—From Port Republic. . . 161
XX. Eggleston's Narrative of the Merrimac. . . 166
XXI. Valor of New Market Cadets. Captain F. E. Town. . . 179
XXII. Treatment of Prisoners. Letter of General Beauregard. . . 184
XXIII. Funeral of General Lee. Letter from Lexington. . . 188
XXIV. General Lee's Dispatches. Judge George L. Christian. . . 192
XXV. Life and Letters of John Hay. Col. D. G. McIntosh. . . 194

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34 Southern Historical Society Papers

THE ORIGINAL CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION.

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To the Editor of The Times-Dispatch:

Sir,—I find that a good many of our people have been much perturbed in mind by a special dispatch from New York to your paper, which appeared in your issue of Friday, January 14, in which your correspondent states: "At the auction sale of the library and curios of the late John E. Burton, of Milwaukee, at the Anderson Galleries here, there were many original official documents of the Confederate government sold, and they brought high prices. Among them were the Provisional and Permanent Confederation Constitutions, together with the Acts and Resolutions of the First Session of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, passed at Montgomery in 1861, sold to George D. Smith, a collector, for $500."

If your correspondent thought that these were the originals (as readers here did), he is mistaken as to both of them.

The "Anderson Galleries," of New York, always kindly send me (some weeks in advance of the sales), their handsome catalogues of rare books and manuscripts to be offered at auction, and I had long ago noted in Part V of the "Burton Library" the item, to which your correspondent alludes. It is honestly catalogued as follows: "Confederate Provisional and Permanent Constitutions, together with the Acts and Resolutions of the First Session of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, etc., 8 vo. half-sheep, pp. 190 Montgomery, Ala. 1861."

You will thus see that it was not the original, but a printed copy of these documents that was sold. Even this is excessively rare, as it is the first publication of the Confederate government, issued in March, 1861, shortly after President Davis took office (February 18, 1861). This copy, offered by the "Anderson Galleries," "evidently belonged to some member of the Confederate Congress, and contains a number of notes in ink on the margins."

As to the originals, that of the "Provisional Constitution" was purchased in February, 1884, by W. W. Corcoran, Esq., of Washington, D. C., vice-president of the "Southern Historical Society," and at once presented by him to that society. The document is beautifully engrossed on parchment, and bears the autograph signatures of the members of the Provisional Congress, together with the certificate of the clerk attesting its genuineness.

The first draft of this "Provisional Constitution" (before official engrossment, as I learn from my friend, Mr. Gaillard Hunt, the accomplished "chief of archives" in the Library of Congress, is now in the "Confederate Home," at Pikesville, near Baltimore, Md.

But the official engrossed original is here in Richmond in the Confederate Museum, the officers of the Southern Historical Society having some months ago turned it over, along with other rare documents, to the Confederate Memorial Literary Society for safe keeping.

The original (official and engrossed) copy of the "Permanent Constitution" was for some years deposited among the archives of the Congressional Library, but I learn from Mr. Hunt that it has been withdrawn and is now in the hands of its owner, Wymberely Jones de Renne, Esq., of Wormsloe, Ga. It will be remembered that Mr. de Renne is also the owner of "Lee's Confidential Dispatches to Davis, 1862-65," which have recently been edited with conspicuous learning and accuracy by Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, of this city.

The first draft of this "Permanent Constitution" is, according to a letter from Mr. Hunt, dated January 24, 1916, in the University of Georgia, at Athens, in that State.

To sum up:

1. First draft of "Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States" is in the Confederate Home near Baltimore, Md.

The original engrossed document, signed by the members of the Provisional Confederate Congress and attested by the clerk, is in the Confederate Museum of this city.

2. First draft of the "Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States" is in the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

Original engrossed document, signed by members of Permanent Confederate Congress, and attested by the clerk, is in the hands of Mr. W. J. de Renne, of Wormsloe (and Savannah), Ga.

As, with all the good will in the world, I cannot find time to answer the many letters that come to me concerning these and other Confederate documents, I shall be glad if you will print this letter, and I would further suggest that those interested in such matters should cut out this letter and paste it in their scrapbooks. I bitterly regret that I did not do the like about other documents year ago. It would have saved me many weary hours of search.

W. Gordon McCabe,

Member Executive Committee, Southern Historical Society.

Richmond, January 16.

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Miss Kate Rowland. page 113

MISS KATE ROWLAND.

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Miss Kate Mason Rowland, the author of several historical works, a loyal daughter of the Confederacy, died in Richmond, Va., June 28th, 1916, seventy-seven years of age.

Miss Rowland was the daughter of Major Isaac S. and Mrs. Catherine Armistead (Mason) Rowland. She spent her early girlhood in Detroit, Mich., coming with her family to "The Cottage," on Seminary Hill, near Alexandria, where they lived until forced by the War between the States to move to Richmond. Here she often nursed the soldiers with her aunt, Miss Emily Mason, and became so wrapped up in Confederate work that thenceforth it was the one object and interest of her life.

Not only was Miss Rowland beloved by the soldiers, but she contributed valuable Confederate articles to magazines, edited "The Diary of Julian Le Grand, of New Orleans," and was an authority on Southern history, as well as on genealogy. As a genealogist she was an authority widely sought.

Her works on "The Life of George Mason" and "The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton" and other books are considered invaluable contributions to the history of those times. She contributed in recent years to the Southern Woman's Magazine and other publications.

RELATIVE BECAME GOVERNOR.

Miss Rowland was the great grand-daughter of Thompson Mason, brother of George Mason. She with her aunt, Miss Emily Mason, and her uncle, Stephens Thompson Mason, formed an interesting trio. Her uncle was appointed governor of Michigan when it was a territory. He was then about twenty years old. Michigan became a State within his term of office. He immediately resigned, saying he had no right to the position after the State had the right to vote. He was unanimously elected by the people and was so useful as a governor and so well remembered that a few years ago a handsome monument was erected to him in Detroit.

Miss Emily Mason was a devoted worker for the Confederate soldiers and nursed in a large hospital known as Camp Winder. The soldiers she had nursed were so grateful that after the war they presented to her a sum of money with which she purchased a home, "Westwood," in Maryland. She devoted herself to the education of Southern girls after the war.

LEADER IN U. D. C. WORK.

Miss Kate Mason Rowland began the United Daughters of the Confederacy movement in several cities and held several offices in this work. She was an enthusiastic worker in every Southern organization with which she was identified. She received the degree of LL. D. from William and Mary College last month. She was the only woman in Virginia to ever receive such a degree from a college in this State.

Miss Rowland was a member of the Virginia Historical Society for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson Corporation, and other organizations. She is survived by a nephew, Stephens Thompson Mason, a prominent lawyer of Detroit, and other relatives.

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Southern Historical Society Papers.

Richmond, Va., Sept., 1916. New Series, Vol. 3, Old Series, Vol. XLI.

page 188. Southern Historical Society Papers.

FUNERAL OF GENERAL R. E. LEE.

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Lexington, Va. October, 1915.

Forty-five years ago today General Robert E. Lee was buried in the basement of the Lee Memorial Chapel, situated on the college campus. Imposing, yet simple, ceremony marked the occasion. General Lee died on Wednesday morning, October 12, 1870, at 9:30 o'clock, in the President's house at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University. The body was conveyed to the chapel on Thursday, October 13, at noon, and the funeral services were held at 1:30 P. M. on Saturday, October 15.

The casket in which General Lee was buried had an interesting history. The greatest freshet in North River (renamed "Maury River") remembered by the oldest people occurred the first week in October, 1870, when the lumber-house at the Point conducted by Archibald Alexander and James D. Anderson on the old canal was washed away, and among the goods stored there was a consignment of metallic caskets for C. M. Koones & Brother, furniture dealers and funeral directors, which had arrived only a few days before the freshet. No casket could be secured in Lexington for General Lee's body, and these caskets at the lumber-house were thought of. Search was made along the river with the hope that they might have lodged in some place. One of them was found on the island just below the first dam clown the river from East Lexington. It had been caught in a brush pile and was lodged in the forks of a tree.

TWO CABINET MAKERS SECURE THE CASKET.

W. P. Hartigan and J. L. Root, who were cabinet makers with Koones & Brother, secured the casket and brought it to Lexington, and this was used in which to bury the mortal remains of the great Confederate chieftain. But for this find it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to secure the right kind of a casket, as the canal was practically destroyed, roads ruined and no communication for some time with other towns.

The following report of General Lee's obsequies is reproduced from the Lexington Gazette of October 21, 1870:

"It is done. The remains of the brave soldier, the peerless hero, the great and good man, our noble and beloved President, have been consigned to the grave! We have looked for the last time upon all that was mortal of him, and he now belongs to immortality and to fame. It is our mournful duty here to record the last tribute of respect that has just been paid to his memory.

"According to arrangements of the printed program, at 10 o'clock Saturday, October 15, 1870, the procession was formed at the Episcopal Church, in front of the late President's residence, and, to the sound of solemn music, it moved in appointed order. We here present the order of procession: escort of honor, consisting of officers and soldiers of the Confederate army; chaplain and other clergy, hearse and pall-bearers, General Lee's horse, the attending physicians, trustees and faculty of Washington College, dignitaries of the State of Virginia, visitors and faculty of the Virginia Military Institute, other representative bodies and distinguished visitors, alumni of Washington College, citizens, cadets of Virginia Military Institute, students of Washington College as guard of honor.

BELLS TOLL AND MINUTE GUNS SALUTE.

"The procession moved, to the sound of solemn music (furnished by the band of the Military Institute), down Washington Street, up Jefferson Street to Franklin Hall, thence to Main Street. In front of the hotel the ranks were opened, and the committee from the Virginia Legislature, the representatives of the faculty and students of the University of Virginia and other distinguished guests, took their appointed place. Moving on, in front of the courthouse, it was joined by the large body of citizens, and thus the long line moved slowly and solemnly down to the Military Institute. Meanwhile all the bells were tolled, and minute guns were fired from the parapet of the institute. In front of the institute the Whole corps was drawn up, with presented arms, and as the procession slowly defiled past, it was joined by the visitors and faculty, who took up their places immediately behind the legislative committee, and by the cadets, who took their places just in front of the students of the college, to whom, as a post of honor, had been assigned the duty of closing the procession. Moving up to the college chapel, the front of the procession was then halted, and while its front was at the chapel door the rear was still in the institute grounds, so great was the number of those that had crowded to do honor to the lamented chief. After the procession had halted, the students, and after them the cadets, were marched to the front and proceeded into and through the chapel, past the remains, where they were drawn up in two bodies on the southern side of the chapel. The procession then moved in and were seated by the marshals. On the platform were the officers of the college and of the Military Institute, the legislative committee and other representatives from abroad. The body of the chapel was appropriately filled by the officers and soldiers who had followed the dead hero through the shocks of battle. The gallery and side blocks were filled with ladies and citizens, while the students and cadets held their post of honor outside in front of the tomb.

"The funeral service of the Episcopal Church was then read with impressive solemnity by Rev. W. N. Pendleton, D. D., the pastor of the church to which General Lee belonged, himself a distinguished officer who had served under him throughout the war in the Army of Northern Virginia. The congregation was vast and impressive, and the deepest solemnity pervaded the entire multitude. When the services in the chapel were concluded the corpse was removed by the pall bearers and conveyed to the vault in the basement of the chapel, which had been prepared for its reception. The coffin had been literally strewed with flowers, which had to be removed separately. The body was then solemnly deposited in its last resting place, and amid the tears of the countless multitude the venerable minister pronounced the solemn words, 'dust to dust' from the lofty bank in front of the tomb."

"The pallbearers were:

"Judge F. T. Anderson and David E. Moore, Sr., trustees of Washington College.
"Ex-Governor John Letcher and Commodore M. F. Maury, for Virginia Military Institute.
"Professor W. Preston Johnston and Professor J. Randolph Tucker, professors of Washington College.
"William L. Prather and Edward P. Clark, students of Washington College.
"Captain J. C. Boude and Captain J. P. Moore, soldiers of Confederate States of America.
"William G. White and Joseph G. Steele, citizens of Lexington."

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