ORGANIZATION OF ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA ASSOCIATION. Pursuant to appointment of the preceding evening, the officers and soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia met at the Theatre at eleven o'clock on Friday morning. The meeting was called to order by Colonel Robert E. Withers, on whose motion General Early was elected Chairman, and developed the objects of the meeting in his opening address. REMARKS OF GENERAL EARLY. Gentlemen-I thank you sincerely for the kind feelings you manifest towards me, but this meeting has been called for business, and the occasion is not one for speaking. Before I take my seat, however, I desire to say to you that it comes within my own knowledge that our lamented Commander was preparing to write a history of the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia. The execution of this work by him has been prevented by his death, and it devolves upon the survivors of that army to see that the truth of history is vindicated, and that the deeds of themselves and their fallen comrades are not transmitted to posterity, through the medium of crude histories compiled, by mercenary writers, from the accounts of newspaper correspondents, who remained in the rear and never went to the front, or in the libellous productions of our adversaries, who have been constantly engaged and are now engaged in the effort to make our cause and its adherents odious by all the arts of writing, speaking, painting and illustrated printing, as well as by penal enactments. Books purporting to be histories of our late war have been published, with the claim that they were written with the sanction and by the authority of General Lee; and I take this occasion to state to you that I have it from his own lips that he never gave his sanction to any such publications. I make this statement because I know that intelligent foreigners have been misled by this claim, as they could not understand how any writer could have the impudence to make such pretensions unless they were founded in truth. General Lee was not in the habit of correcting misrepresentations of his words and acts in the public prints, as, conscious of his own rectitude, he was willing to trust the vindication of his character to his country, his soldiers and his God. His views on this subject I happened to learn from a gentle rebuke he once gave me, when I undertook to correct a misrepresentation of a correspondent in regard to myself—an offence I did not repeat after that rebuke. On that occasion he informed me that he rarely ever read the papers, unless when some staff officer brought them to him and called his attention to something of especial importance. As confirmatory of what was so eloquently said by President Davis last night in regard to General Lee's extended views of patriotism and his devotion to the whole South, and as indicative of his constant regard for and his desire to do justice to the soldiers who fought under him, I will read you some extracts from two letters from him to myself, and I do this not from any feelings of egotism, but because I wish to give you his own I must say to you that just as I was leaving the country on my voluntary exile, I wrote him a letter, to be sent as soon as I was beyond the reach of danger—that is, I reported to him as my commander, as I did immediately on my return to the State, for I always considered him as such to the hour of his death; and now that he is gone, I will endeavor to follow his precepts and example, as far as a sinful mortal can do. In answer to my letter, he wrote me the one I now hold in my hand, which is dated at "Lexington, November 22d, 1865," and which reached me at Nassau, New Providence. From that letter I read you the following extracts, omitting what is personal to myself. He says: "LEXINGTON, November 22, 1865. "I am very glad to hear of your health and safety, but regret your absence from the country, though I fully understand your feelings on the subject. I think the South requires the presence of all her sons now more than at any period of her history, and I determined at the outset of her difficulties to share the fate of my people. . . I desire, if not prevented, to write a history of the campaigns in Virginia. All my records, books, orders, &c., were destroyed in the conflagration and retreat from Richmond. Only such of my reports as were printed are preserved. Your reports of your operations in 1864 and 1865 are among those destroyed. Cannot you repeat them and send me copies of such letters, orders, &c., of mine (including the last letter to which you refer), and particularly give me your recollection of our effective strength at the principle battles? My only object is to transmit, if possible, the truth to posterity, and do justice to our brave soldiers." When I arrived at Havana in December, 1865, I saw the reports of Secretary Stanton and General Grant of the military operations of the years 1864 and 1865, containing many errors of fact. Provoked by these, and also by some newspaper statements about my having applied for pardon, I wrote a letter to the New York News, which perhaps some of you saw and read. It was such a letter as General Lee would not have written himself, because he was a man of unlimited self-control, whereas I am accustomed to speak and write just as I feel, and sometimes I use what some would regard as strong language. That letter was written just in that view. Again, on reaching the City of Mexico, I found a Northern journal, which has long been in the habit of slandering our people, both by its articles and its illustrations, which contained a very abusive article in regard to Mr. Davis, written by one who had held a commission in the Confederate army, and I had also learned that some who took especial pains to be out of the country during the war, though they professed to be very strong Confederates after the close, were in the habit of speaking very harshly of our President. Indignant at all this, I wrote a letter in vindication of him, in which I took especial care to speak my sentiments freely about those who were engaged in the work of defaming that great and good man, who then was suffering a cruel imprisonment and persecution for the cause in which all of us had been engaged. This letter was first published in the Mexican Times (Governor Allen's paper), and afterwards in some of the American papers. I make this statement in order that you may understand the allusions in the second letter to me, which was in answer to one of mine, and is dated the 15th of March, 1866. In that letter General Lee says: "It will be difficult to get the world to understand the odds against which we fought, and the destruction and loss of all of the returns of the army embarrasses me very much. I read your letter from Havana to the New York News with much interest, and was pleased with the temper in which it was written. I have since received the paper containing it published in the City of Mexico, and also your letter in reference to Mr. Davis. I understand and appreciate the motive which prompted both letters, and think they will be of service in the way you intended. I have been much pained to see the attempts made to cast odium upon Mr. Davis, but do not think they will be successful with the reflecting or informed portion of the country. The accusations against myself I have not thought proper to notice, or even to correct misrepresentations of my words and acts. We shall have to be patient and suffer for awhile at least, and all controversy, I think, will only serve to prolong angry and bitter feelings, and postpone the time when reason and charity may resume their sway. At present the public mind is not prepared to receive the truth. "I hope, in time, peace will be restored to the country, and that the South may enjoy some measure of prosperity. I fear, however, that much suffering is still in store for her, and that her people must be prepared to exercise fortitude and forbearance." You must recollect, my friends, that these letters were written by a Virginian who had thought it his duty to remain and share the fate of his people, whatever it might be, to another Virginian who had taken upon himself a voluntary exile which he then expected to be perpetual. They were written under circumstances that induced the supposion that they would never meet You the eye of any one but him to whom they were written. will see that General Lee, though he was a Virginian in every proper sense of the term, did not confine his patriotism and his affections to his native State, but embraced the whole South, and claimed her people as his people-and what a glorious privilege it was to be a part of his people! You will also perceive his great anxiety to do justice to the soldiers who fought under him, and for whom he cherished a paternal affection as long as he lived. The history which he was prevented from writing must be written by some one competent to the task, and the world must be made to know that Confederate soldiers are not ashamed of the great struggle they made for constitutional liberty, and regret nothing, in that respect, except that they failed to accomplish their great purpose. The materials for that history must. be furnished by those who participated in the struggle and were in a condition to know and understand the facts, and that will be one of the prime objects of the Association which it is now proposed to form. On motion of General Trimble, of Maryland, the following Committee on Permanent Organization was appointed: Major-General I. R. TRIMBLE. Major-General C. W. FIELD. Colonel WALTER II. TAYLOR. Private E. S. GREGORY. Captain J. H. CHAMBERLAYNE. The Committee, after a brief absence, recommended the following Permanent Organization, and the report was unanimously adopted: President-Lieutenant-General JUBAL A. EARLY. On motion of General Bradley T. Johnson, the following Committee was appointed to report a plan for the organization of the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia: Brig.-Gen. BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. Major WILLIAM S. BASSINGER. Private JERVIS SPENCER. Major JED HOTCHKISS. Major A. W. GARBER. The Committee made the following report: 1. Resolved, That this meeting will at once adopt a plan of organization for an Association of the Army of Northern Virginia. 2. Resolved, That we earnestly request that similar organizations be formed by the officers and men of all the armies, and by the navy of the Confederate States, in order that the friendships formed may be perpetuated, and that the memory of the deeds achieved by the Confederate arms, on land and sea, may be preserved and the truth of history vindicated, and justice done to the living and the dead. The meeting then adopted a plan of organization for the Army of Northern Virginia Association, and elected (or appointed through the Chair) the following officers: |