Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/322

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316 -Soul her a Historical SWvV/y I'a

so much sought and admired by the young. Those who possess an intimate acquaintance with this kind woman are most fortunate."

Mrs. Davis's home is still in Mississippi, although she spends much time in New York city. She is a warm personal friend of the family of Justice Leslie W. Russell, in Canton. Miss Winnie Davis made her last visit before the fatal trip to Atlanta at the house of Judge Russell, she being a close friend of Mr. and Mrs. Hartridge. She stood as godmother to Mrs. Hartridge's child, Harriet. Og- densburg (N. K) Journal.

WHAT IS A CONFEDERATE VETERAN?

The definition of a Confederate veteran has been very concisely and beautifully given by Judge Robert L. Rodgers, the gifted his- torian of the C. V. A., of Fulton county, Ga., as follows:

"In taking an account of ourselves as Confederate veterans we need not speculate about the facts before the war. A Confederate veteran was not a fact before the war. We frequently hear of things which existed ' before the war.'

"Some people were rich before the war. Some people were slaves before the war. Some men were born and lived before the war who are living yet. There were governors, senators, judges, and 'militia majors,' but never was a 'Confederate veteran' before the war.

"A Confederate veteran is to-day a unique figure in life, and will ever be unique in history.

" Unique ? Yes, sir, that is the single word which may define him, signifying incomparable, alone!

"Nothing else, and nobody else, on earth to-day like a Confed- erate veteran. He is an evolution of a revolution a relic of the ' Lost Cause. '

" In the sorrows and ruins of his defeat he stands like Napoleon, grand, gloomy, and peculiar, though the veteran is not by any means a fossil.

"A Confederate veteran to-day is. a living and active factor in pub- lic events. Coming as a result or product of the war, he is grand