thy of the women of the South whose noble devotion in
this war has never been exceeded in any time. With
such incentives to brave deeds and with the trust that God
is with us, your generals will lead you confidently to the
combat, assured of success.
A. S. Johnston, General Commanding.
The following epitaph was found shortly after the interment of General Johnston in St Louis cemetery, New Orleans, pasted upon a rough board attached to his tomb:
IN MEMORIAM.
Behind this stone is laid, for a season,
Albert Sidney Johnston,
A General in the Army or the Confederate States,
Who fell at Shiloh, Tennessee,
On the Sixth of April,
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-two.
A man tried in many high offices
And critical Enterprises
And found faithful in all ;
His life was one long Sacrifice of interest to Conscience;
And even that life, on a woeful Sabbath,
Did he yield as a Holocaust at his Country's need.
Not wholly understood was he while he lived;
But in his death his Greatness stands confessed
In a People's tears.
Resolute, moderate, clear of Envy, yet not wanting
In that finer Ambition which makes men great and pure;
In his Honor, impregnable ;
In his Simplicity, sublime;
No country e'er had a truer Son— no cause a nobler Champion;
No People a bolder Defender— no Principle a purer Victim
Than the dead Soldier
Who sleeps here !
The Cause for which he perished is lost —
The People for whom he fought are crushed —
The Hopes in which be trusted are shattered —
The Flag be loved guides no more the charging lines;
But his Fame consigned to the keeping of that Time which
Happily, is not so much the Tomb of Virtue as its Shrine,
Shall, in the years to come, join modest Worth to Noble Ends.
In honor, now, our great Captain rests;
A bereaved People mourn him ;
Three Commonwealths proudly claim him ;
And History shall cherish him
Among those choice Spirits who, holding their Consciences unmixed with blame,
Have been, in all conjunctures, true to themselves, their People and their God-
