General Jackson was buried today, amid the flowing tears of
a vast concourse of people. By a strange coincidence, two cavalry companies
happened to be passing through Lexington from the West, just at the hour of the
ceremonies: they stopped, procured mourning for their colors, and joined the
procession. . . . The exercises were
very appropriate; a touching voluntary was sung with subdued, sobbing voices; a
prayer from Dr. Ramsay of most melting tenderness; very true and discriminating
remarks from Dr. White, and a beautiful prayer from W. F. J. — The coffin was
draped in the first Confederate flag ever made, and presented by Pres.
Davis to Mrs. Jackson; it was wrapped around the coffin, and on it were laid
multitudes of wreaths and flowers which had been piled upon it all along the
sad journey to Richmond and thence to Lexington. The grave too was heaped with
flowers. And now it is all over, and the hero is left “alone in his glory.” Not
many better men have lived and died. His body-servant said to me, “I never knew
a piouser gentleman.” Sincerer mourning was never manifested for any
one, I do think. . . . The dear little
child is so like her father; she is a sweet thing, and will be a blessing, I
trust, to the heart-wrung mother.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and
Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 165-6
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