(From Natchez Weekly Courier, June 16, 1847.)
Yesterday was a day
which will long be remembered in our annals—a glorious day, alternately
illuminated by sunshine or darkened by clouds, and one of the hours of which
will be deeply traced with every sentiment which could do honor to an admiring
people, or to our glorious returned volunteers, "the bravest of the
brave" who have so gallantly won and so nobly worn the brilliant chaplets
of fame which adorn their brows. It is to be regretted that our city of the
bluffs was not honored by all the companies of the regiment, although those who
were present had performed deeds, worthy, if possible, (which could not be) a
reception more enthusiastic. But, it is useless to talk about that. No reception
could have been warmer, more whole-souled, or more heart-inspiring. It was a
sight to make the pulse throb, and the heart beat with accelerated motion to
see those gallant soldiers those glorious boys of our own State-the "Star
Regiment" of Gen. Taylor's army—THE MEN who had stormed the rocky steeps
of Monterey, and met with unquailing hearts the iron storm that raged in that
doomed city—now a glorious monument of their valor. There were the men who had
breasted unflinchingly the crimson tide of battle at Buena Vista. There were
the men who had never faltered in the fiercest of the death struggle and when
frightened fugitives were frantically flying from the sanguinary conflict, they
remained as firm and unmoved as the rock which for ages has breasted the surges
of the billows of ocean. There were their ever-glorious commanders,the noble
Davis, the fearless McClung—scarred with honorable wounds yet suffering from
the injuries they had received in their country's service-but full of patriotic
devotion and with spirits unsubdued, and with hearts as free and souls as high
as when they first responded to the call of their government and flew to the
field of conflict. They were, officers and men, a spectacle which reminded us
of the times of our revolutionary ancestors of the "times that tried"
the "souls" of the men who were led to battle by Washington,
Montgomery, Greene, and many others, whose names illumine as with a glorious
stream of sunlight, the history of that eventful epoch,—and they were evidently
from the same stock, for such men could not have sprung from any other stock.
But, to the arrival
of our laurelled volunteers. The shades of night had scarcely yielded to the
bright beams of morn, ere the loud-toned cannon thundered forth the signal,
announcing to the citizens of our city and the country round about, the approach
of the pride and glory of our chivalrous State. The whole city was moved as if
with one mighty inpulse,—citizens from the country flocked in in thousands—stores
and other places of business remained unopened, and one general thrill of
joyous enthusiasm appeared to animate the vast mass of moving and excited
humanity which crowded our streets and thronged the bluffs of the mighty river
which flows past our city, to render "honor to the brave."
At about 9 o'clock,
the companies of our First Regiment of Rifles were formed at the landing, and
at about the same time the fine military companies of our city—the Fencibles,
the Light Guard, the Natchez Guards, the Jefferson College Cadets and the
Natchez Cadets,—marched under the hill to escort them to our city. The military
was formed in the following order: the Fencibles and Light Guard on the right,
the Rifles in the centre, and the College Cadets and Natchez Cadets and Natchez
Guards in the rear, and thus the long line moved up upon the bluff.
The procession then
moved up Main street to Pine street, and down Franklin street to the bluff,
where preparations on a scale commensurate with the importance of the occasion,
had been made to receive our honored guests.
When we arrived upon
the Bluff, a scene of rare and surpassing beauty, never excelled and rarely
equalled, burst upon our sight. The Promenade ground was thronged with the
bright and beautiful, and wherever he turned a blaze of loveliness was sure to
dawn upon the vision of the beholder. But of all the scenes that pleased us in
the highest degree was that presented by the pupils of the Natchez Institute-six
hundred in number—who, under the admirable supervision of the Principal of the
Institute, Mr. Pearl, were formed in two lines on each side of the central
promenade the young ladies immediately in front and the boys in the rear. Each
young lady held in her hand a boquet of beautiful flowers, and, as the war worn
veterans, with their bronzed visages and toil-hardened frames filed slowly past
them, presented each with a boquet. It was a touching as well as a soul
inspiring spectacle and deeply did this manifestation of respect strike into
the hearts of the toil-tried sons of gallant State. We heard dozens give
expression to sentiments of high gratification. It was an offering from the
young, the lovely and the guileless, that came from bosoms untainted with the
vices and strifes of the world, and went directly home to the inmost cores of
the hearts of these well-tried veterans. It was a beautiful sight, and which
would inspire any man with feelings of the liveliest satisfaction that he lived
in a State that possessed such men to send forth to the field of glory and victory,
and such hands to strew with flowers the pathway of their return to the State
that sent them forth to perform their daring and brilliant deeds.
After performing
various military evolutions, the Rifles and our volunteer companies were formed
in mass around the rostrum prepared for the reception of the officers,
committees, orator of the day, and other distinguished citizens. At this point
the presence of the crowd was intense. No consideration of personal convenience
appeared to operate upon the nerves of any, either ladies or gentlemen, in
endeavoring to get within hearing distance. When all the arrangements were
completed, the orator of the Day, Col. Adam L. Bingaman, arose and delivered
the following address—an address sparkling with the highest coruscations of
genius, and abounding with the brightest attributes of intellect-an address to
the purpose, eloquently delivered, and which went home to the hearts of the
brave men whose gallant deeds and glorious achievements he was recounting.
We will not attempt
to give a description of the address—for that would be a work of entire
supererogation. The speech will be found below and will rivet the attention of
every reader.
SOURCE: Dunbar
Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters,
Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 74-6
