Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/232

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Southern Historical Society Papers.

II. The Fredericksburg and Adjacent National Battlefields Memorial Association of Virginia was chartered February 12, 1898, Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and organized February 22, 1898, Washington's birthday. Among the incorporators a. over two hundred gentlemen, ex-officers and soldiers of the war of 1861-'5, from thirty-eight States of the Union and the District of Columbia. In these incorporators are many of the leaders on each side of the war of 1861-'5, such as General Horatio C. King, its president, and for twenty-five years the secretary of the Army of the Potomac; General Orland Smith, the present president of the Army of the Potomac; General Daniel E. Sickles; Governor W. A. Stone, of Pennsylvania, and ex-Governor Beaver, of that State; ex-Secretary of the Navy Tracy; General Felix Agnew, of the Baltimore American; General F. D. Grant, Charles Broadway Rouss, ex-Governor Chamberlain, of Maine; Congressman Amos Cummings, ex-Senator Faulkner, of West Virginia; Judge Walter James K. Jones, of Arkansas; General M. C. Butler, of South Carolina; General James Longstreet and Congressman Livingston, of Georgia; Chief Justice Woods, of Mississippi: ex-Senator Blackburn, of Kentucky; Senator Caffery, of Louisiana; Senator Bate and Congressman Richardson, of Tennessee; Congressman Lanham, and ex-Congressman Culberson, of Texas; besides very many more equally as prominent. All of these gentlemen not only consented to become members of the association, but are warmly in favor of the Fredericksburg park.

III. Virginia has, through her Legislature, taken up the Fredericksburg Park proposition as a State matter. Her Legislature has endorsed it, and Governor Tyler is of the opinion that it is the one park that should be first established, and that other propositions should stand in abeyance pending action on that by Congress. In the list of incorporators from Virginia are Colonel James D. Brady, of Petersburg, a gallant Union officer, than whom no one has a better war record, who is a member of the Executive Committee of the association, and there are over fifty Virginia incorporators, including Congressman Lamb, of Henrico, and Captain B. C. Cook, of Richmond city; Speaker Ryan, Dr. J. W. Southall, and others.

IV. The Fredericksburg Park proposition is earnestly en-