 |
| Published in 1896 |
This is the fifth in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise. If you missed the previous posts you can find them here: part one, part two, part three, part four.
Today's post is about the South's Battle Abbey which would not be completed until 1922. Two very good history resources are available online. The first is The South's Battle Abbey, published in 1896, which called for the creation of a Confederate "Battle Abbey" which is most likely the basis for the article in the Dresden Enterprise.
The second publication was called Sketch of the origin and erection of the Confederate Memorial Institute at Richmond, Virginia 1921.
Battle Abbey
We desire in this big edition of our county paper, The Enterprise, to appeal again to every old confederate in Weakley county in behalf of the Battle Abbey. It is to be the historic building of the South, and we wish the name of every man in the county that it may be inscribed in this mural monument to our uncrowned heroes. The majority of those who enlisted long since laid down their arms, crossed the river and are resting with Stonewall Jackson and others of the immortal company under the shade of the trees. Some yet remain, but the shadows are longer growing as you face toward the West and the setting sun. The march for all will soon be over. It remains, therefore, that what is to be done be done quickly.
Send us your name and one dollar for membership in the Confederate Memorial Association. Each dollar subscribed entitles the subscriber to a certificate of membership in the Confederate Memorial Association in his or her name, or that of any person designated by the subscriber. This subscription is made and accepted with the understanding that if not used within one year from this date for the purpose intended it shall be returned to the subscriber. The undesigned are authorized to solicit subscriptions for the Confederate Memorial Association, subject to the following instructions: Subscriptions shall be evidenced by printed receipts issued to the various soliciting organizations by the executive committee, which receipt shall be in book form, like a bank check book, with a stub bearing the same number as the receipt and both made to correspond when filled for issuance. All money collected must be deposited to the order of the United Confederate Veterans, to the use of the Confederate Memorial Association, in a bank or other safe depository of the localities where collected and notice of said deposit must be sent monthly to the manager's office, 44 Perido street, New Orleans, La.
Subscriptions are not limited to members of camps or other confederate associations, but those empowered to obtain subscriptions are authorized and urged to obtain all the outside subscribers possible in their respective localities. The receipt books must be carefully preserved and when called in be returned with all stubs attached and all receipts remaining unfilled and with all receipts may have been mutilated.
Send us your name and one dollar for membership in the Confederate Memorial Association. Each dollar subscribed entitles the subscriber to a certificate of membership in the Confederate Memorial Association in his or her name, or that of any person designated by the subscriber. This subscription is made and accepted with the understanding that if not used within one year from this date for the purpose intended it shall be returned to the subscriber. The undesigned are authorized to solicit subscriptions for the Confederate Memorial Association, subject to the following instructions: Subscriptions shall be evidenced by printed receipts issued to the various soliciting organizations by the executive committee, which receipt shall be in book form, like a bank check book, with a stub bearing the same number as the receipt and both made to correspond when filled for issuance. All money collected must be deposited to the order of the United Confederate Veterans, to the use of the Confederate Memorial Association, in a bank or other safe depository of the localities where collected and notice of said deposit must be sent monthly to the manager's office, 44 Perido street, New Orleans, La.
Subscriptions are not limited to members of camps or other confederate associations, but those empowered to obtain subscriptions are authorized and urged to obtain all the outside subscribers possible in their respective localities. The receipt books must be carefully preserved and when called in be returned with all stubs attached and all receipts remaining unfilled and with all receipts may have been mutilated.
J.R. McIntosh,
Ch'm'n. Ex. Com.
The minimum subscription shall be one dollar, but subscriptions may be made for any amount. Now, we wish to secure a sufficient sum to make all the old soldiers in Weakley members of the Confederate Memorial Association. Also their wives and daughters, and the widows of those who fell fighting, or died in hospitals, or in camps, or along the march, or who breathed their lives out sweetly in the re-united home circle. some alas, are very poor--too poor to pay even the membership fee. Therefore let the grace of liberality abound in those on whom prosperity has smiled.
Emulate the noble example of Charles Broadway Rouss, now a citizen of New York. He served as a private in the Clack House cavalry regiment of Virginia, than which no nobler ever leaped into battle. Mr. Rouss served throughout the war, conspicuous for bravery, and now after the lights and shadows of more than a quarter of a century he immortalized himself and his comrades by the gift of one hundred thousand dollars for the erection of Confederate Memorial Association, A Battle Abbey, in which shall be collected, preserved, and displayed relics of every kind, archives containing records and documents of every kind complying history. A grand work.
Emulate the noble example of Charles Broadway Rouss, now a citizen of New York. He served as a private in the Clack House cavalry regiment of Virginia, than which no nobler ever leaped into battle. Mr. Rouss served throughout the war, conspicuous for bravery, and now after the lights and shadows of more than a quarter of a century he immortalized himself and his comrades by the gift of one hundred thousand dollars for the erection of Confederate Memorial Association, A Battle Abbey, in which shall be collected, preserved, and displayed relics of every kind, archives containing records and documents of every kind complying history. A grand work.
This association is to be composed of confederate soliders, their wives, children and friends, under the control of the confederate veterans. Mr. Rouss sent his check for one hundred thousand dollars to the re-union at Houston. It was presented by Col. Robt. C. Wood, and to be delivered to the Confederate Veteran Association, whenever a like sum shall have been raised by our people for an endowment fund, and chartered by the Confederate Veterans' Association. such in brief is the history of the proposed Battle Abbey. Its erection is a sacred duty. Let us have your name and subscriptions before our holy day the first of May, when
"Sad, wistful eyes and braking
hearts that beat
For the loved sound of unreturning
feet.
And when the oaks their leafy
banners wave
Dream of the battle and un unmarked
grave."
Mrs. Sue. F. Mooney,
Miss Mamie Tansil,
Committee.
The complete list of links in this multi-part series:
part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen, part eighteen, part nineteen, part twenty, part twenty-one, part twenty-two, part twenty-three.
