  AT ARLINGTON The dead had rest; the Dove of Peace May First The linnet, the lark, and oriel May Second A strange fatality attended us! Jackson killed in the zenith of his successful career; Longstreet wounded when in the act of striking a blow that would have rivalled Jackson’s at Chancellorsville in its results; and in each case the fire was from our own men! A blunder! Call it so; the old deacon would say that God willed it thus. Col. Walter H. Taylor Stonewall Jackson wounded at Chancellorsville, 1863 Emma Sanson directs Forrest in pursuit of Streight, 1863 May Third Chancellorsville, where 130,000 men were defeated by 60,000, is up to a certain point as much the tactical masterpiece of the nineteenth century as was Leuthen of the eighteenth. Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B. General Pender, you must hold your ground, you must hold your ground. Jackson’s Last Command May Fourth The productions of nature soon became my playmates. I felt that an intimacy with them not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on frenzy, must accompany my steps through life. John James Audubon John James Audubon born, 1780 May Fifth Lord of Hosts, that beholds us in battle, defending Battle of the Wilderness; Lee, with 60,000 men, attacks Grant with 140,000, 1864 May Sixth It depends on the State itself, to retain or abolish the principle of representation, because it depends on itself whether it will continue a member of the Union. To deny this right would be inconsistent with the principle on which all our political systems are founded, which is, that the people have, in all cases, a right to determine how they will be governed. (Rawle’s text-book on the Constitution, taught at West Point before the War between the States) JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, AMERICAN DISRAELI Who is the man, save this one, of whom it can be said that he held conspicuous leadership at the bar of two countries? Sir Henry James Tennessee and Arkansas secede, 1861 Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, dies, 1884 May Seventh The slaves who ran away from their masters were set to work at once by General Butler and made to keep at it, much to their annoyance. One of these, having been put to it rather strong, said: “Golly, Massa Butler, dis nigger nebber had to work so hard befo’; dis chile gwine secede once moah.” Ohio Statesman, 1861 May Eighth Having completed our repairs on May 8th, and while returning to our old anchorage, we heard heavy firing, and, going down the harbor, found the Monitor, with the iron-clads Galena, Naugatuck, and a number of heavy ships, shelling our batteries at Sewell’s Point. We stood directly for the Monitor, but as we approached they all ceased firing and retreated below the forts. Col. John Taylor Wood The “Virginia” again challenges the “Monitor” to battle, 1862 Battle of Palo Alto, 1846 May Ninth MOTHERS’ DAY Because I feel that, in the Heavens above May Tenth Fearless and strong, self-dependent and ambitious, he had within him the making of a Napoleon, and yet his name is without spot or blemish. Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B. ... Ask the world— Stonewall Jackson dies, 1863 May Eleventh The Spanish legend tells us of the Cid, J. E. B. Stuart mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, 1864 May Twelfth General Lee, you shall not lead my men in a charge! Gordon General Lee to the rear!—His Soldiers. I do wish somebody would tell me where my place is on the field of battle! Wherever I go to look after the fight, I am told, “This is no place for you; you must go away.” Robert E. Lee Lee, with 50,000 men, repulses Grant with 100,000, at Spottsylvania Court House; Lee “ordered” to the rear, 1864 May Thirteenth Good is the Saxon speech! clear, short, and strong, Landing at Jamestown, 1607 Texas troops, C. S. A., defeat Federals in last battle of the War, at Palmito Ranch, 1865, the victors learning from their prisoners that the Confederacy had fallen (Chas. Wm. Ramsdell) May Fourteenth [This exploration] was undertaken at the instance of President Jefferson, and together with the voyage which Captain Gray of Boston had made to the Columbia, in 1792, gave the United States a claim to all the territory covered by the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Philip Alexander Bruce Lewis and Clark start from St. Louis on northwestern expedition, 1804 May Fifteenth Throughout the events that led up to the Revolution, it seemed ordained that Massachusetts was to suffer and Virginia to sympathize. Until the outbreak of actual hostilities scarcely anything of moment occurred on the soil of Virginia to incite her sons to champion the cause of freedom. Indeed, from the beginning of the controversy between the colonies and the mother country, the British Ministry seemed to have avoided any special cause of irritation to the people of the Old Dominion. The part, therefore, which Virginia took in the events of those days must be attributed to her devotion to the principles of liberty, to her interest in the common cause of the colonies, and particularly to her sympathy with Massachusetts in the suffering which that province was called upon to endure. If we lose sight of these motives as the springs of Virginia’s conduct in that struggle, we shall be unable to appreciate either the nobility of her spirit or the wisdom and energy which marked her initiative. S. C. Mitchell Virginia opposes Boston Port Bill, 1774 May Sixteenth I refuse to make any acknowledgments for what I have done. My blood will be as seed sown in good ground, which will produce a hundred fold. James Pugh Battle of Alamance Creek, 1771 May Seventeenth He came into military and political life like some blazing meteor, with exceeding brilliance and splendor speeding across the horizon of history. His activities in politics and war covered only a brief span of seventeen years, 1848 to 1865, and in so short a period but few men ever received more, maintained their parts better, were the recipients of greater honors, or bore themselves with nobler dignity, greater skill or more superb courage either in victory or defeat. Bennett H. Young John C. Breckinridge dies, 1875 May Eighteenth Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum, May Nineteenth But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides, May Twentieth You can get no troops from North Carolina. Gov. Ellis North Carolina secedes from the Union, 1861 May Twenty-First The Dixie girls wear homespun cotton, May Twenty-Second How brilliant is the morning star; May Twenty-Third Great Chieftain of our choice, Jefferson Davis puts in irons at Fort Monroe, 1865 May Twenty-Fourth Yet to all Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when it is remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of state, a distinguished Indian fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had held a seat in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United States, and who for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate States. Myrta Lockett Avary May Twenty-Fifth A rich and well-stored mind is the only true philosopher’s stone, extracting pure gold from all the base material around. It can create its own beauty, wealth, power, happiness. It has no dreary solitudes. The past ages are its possession, and the long line of the illustrious dead are all its friends. George Davis May Twenty-Sixth Cease firing! There are here no foes to fight! The last Confederate army, under General Kirby Smith, surrenders at Baton Rouge, 1865 May Twenty-Seventh Representing nothing on God’s earth now, May Twenty-Eighth Old time negroes intuitively knew who “belonged” to them and who did not. The following incident is told of Senator Sumner’s visit to friends at Gallatin, Tennessee, some years before the war; the colloquy is between the Senator and “Old Virginia Jeff:” “Jeff, I hear you call all the white folks down here ‘Marse’—‘Marse Henry,’ ‘Marse John’ or what not, isn’t that true?” “Yas, sah.” “And you always call me ‘Mister Sumner.’ Now, Jeff, here’s a quarter. During the rest of my visit you call me Marse Charles, you hear?” Major John C. Wrenshall P. G. T. Beauregard born, 1818 May Twenty-Ninth If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending—if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! Patrick Henry Patrick Henry born, 1736 May Thirtieth Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon any philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race. For, in their so-called Constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race so inferior and degraded as to exclude them all forever from Kansas, whether they be bond or free. Robert J. Walker Kansas given territorial rights by Congress, 1854 May Thirty-First SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE ... All down the hills of Habersham, British Government declared suspended in North Carolina (Mecklenburg) 1775 |
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