Dear Editors:
As a retired veteran, Civil War re-enactor and
member of the Augusta Civil War Round Table, I am saddened by the lack of
knowledge regarding the inscription on the Confederate Monument in Augusta. The line, " No nation rose so white and
fair, none fell so pure of crime" was taken from a poem written by an English
poet and author, Philip Stanhope Worsley, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in
Oxford, England.
Worsely was a
friend of Gen. Robert E. Lee's nephew,
Edward Lee Childe of Paris, France, and sent his book "A Translation of Homer's
Iliad" to General Robert E. Lee, whom he greatly admired, in 1866 and wrote the
poem in the fly leaf of the book comparing the fall of Troy in the Trojan War to
the defeat of the South.
One stanza of the
poem reads as follows:
Ah realm of
tears--but let her bear
This blazon to the
end of time:
No nation rose so
white and fair,
None fell so pure
of crime.
In none of these
verses was the English scholar referring to race but he was using poetic license
to compare the rise and defeat of the Confederate States to a flower which
blooms and quickly fades. Worsley
obviously knew of Lee's sorrow and wrote the poem in an attempt to soothe and
comfort the old soldier.
Obviously the
women of the Ladies Memorial Association were aware of Worsley's tribute to Lee
and felt it was an appropriate
verse to inscribe upon the memorial to Richmond County soldiers who died in the
War Between the States.
The Confederate
Monument on Broad is a monument to our fallen veterans--nothing more and nothing
less. Those who would criticize it
should consider learning its history before doing so.
Sincerely,
Dr. Arnold M.
Huskins
Major, USAF,
Retired
The most stainless of living commanders and, except in fortune, the greatest, this volume is presented
Tribute To General Lee
By Philip Stanhope Worsley
“The grand old bard that never dies,
Receive him in our English tongue!
I send thee, but with weeping eyes,
The story that he sung.
“Thy Troy is fallen,–thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiler’s heel–
I cannot trust my trembling hand
To write the things I feel.
“Ah, realm of tears!–but let her bear
This blazon to the end of time:
No nation rose so white and fair
*************************************
(This poem is on
the back of my Great Aunt Dixie's original oil of Lee which has been
lost. I have a copy which shows Great Aunt Dixie's signature on the
left, and lists her as the artist with a copyright of 1906 on the
right. It is dedicated to her brother, John P. Leach, Commander Junius
Daniel Camp, United Confederate Veterans, Littleton, North Carolina. BT)
Link
To General Lee,
To General Lee,
The most stainless of living commanders and, except in fortune, the greatest, this volume is presented
Tribute To General Lee
By Philip Stanhope Worsley
“The grand old bard that never dies,
Receive him in our English tongue!
I send thee, but with weeping eyes,
The story that he sung.
“Thy Troy is fallen,–thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiler’s heel–
I cannot trust my trembling hand
To write the things I feel.
“Ah, realm of tears!–but let her bear
This blazon to the end of time:
No nation rose so white and fair
None fell so pure of crime.
“The widow’s moan, the orphan’s wail,
Come round thee; but in truth be strong!
Eternal Right, though all else fail,
Can never be made Wrong.
“An Angel’s heart, an angel’s mouth,
Not Homer’s, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South–
Virginia first, and LEE.
“The widow’s moan, the orphan’s wail,
Come round thee; but in truth be strong!
Eternal Right, though all else fail,
Can never be made Wrong.
“An Angel’s heart, an angel’s mouth,
Not Homer’s, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South–
Virginia first, and LEE.
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