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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston, South Carolina (1865-1880) Memorial Day, May 10th, 1877, at Magnolia Cemetery, under the auspices of the Ladies Memorial Association, Charleston, South Carolina

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06080 Author/Creator: Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston, South Carolina (1865-1880) Place Written: Charleston, South Carolina Type: Broadside Date: circa 10 May 1877 Pagination: 1 p. ; 26.1 x 17.5 cm. Order a Copy

Contains an announcement for a prayer and memorial ode delivered by Reverend W. H. Campbell. Includes odes by Grace Raymond and Reverend Charles Stuart Vedder. Announces the decoration of graves to be completed by ladies of the Association. The precise print date of this document is not included.

MEMORIAL DAY,
MAY 10th, 1877,
AT MAGNOLIA CEMETERY,
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
Ladies Memorial Association,
CHARLESTON, S. C.

PRAYER.
BY THE REV. W. H. CAMPBELL.

MEMORIAL ODE,
BY GRACE RAYMOND
Each year our old State bends the knee, She loves to tell that when they died,
And brings her tribute blooms, To her and Honor true,
To keep a tryst with Memory, They yearned to slumber side by side,
Beside her heroes' tombs. Beneath her arch of blue.

She loves to tell, with mingled pain, She sought them 'mid the buried throng,
And tender mother-pride, And hid them in her breast ;
The grand old story o'er again, And made each forest-voice a song
Of how they fought and died. To croon them to their rest.

They! - the brave sons within whose hearts She loves full well to celebrate
Her surest kingdom lay ; These sad Memorial Days,
Who shielded her from poisoned darts, To hear the woods reverberate
Who wore and crowned the Grey! Her martyr'd children's praise.

She loves to boast their bannerets To rob May of her blossom crown,
Oft triumphed o'er their foes ; For garlands for each tomb ;
And, mother-like, too oft forgets But when she gently lays them down,
How long her story grows. A tear gems ev'ry bloom.

A MEMORIAL ODE,
TO BE READ BY REV. W. H. CAMPBELL.
MEMORIAL ODE,
BY C. S. VEDDER.
Ye sleep, at last, our dead, No more, O Honored Dust !
Beneath a ransomed sod ; Shall love for you be bann'd ;
The State for which ye freely bled Your graves - no less our private trust -
Is free again, thank God ! Shall claim your MOTHER'S hand:

Your brothers do not come, For, in her seat of power,
Almost by stealth, to weep, The spotless knight and true,
With low and hushed lament - as some Your leader, HAMPTON, sits! The hour
Forbidden rite to keep. Of justice strikes for you.

No alien ruler fears The years of faith cannot
Dire treason in the grief, Be ever spent in vain ;
Whose heaving breath and bitter tears Avenging time has quickly brought
Find here a blest relief. CAROLINA'S own again.

The flowers your sisters bring, To God, alone, the praise,
Bloom not from their despair; Who only smites to heal ;
Their hopes have hail'd a brighter spring Be He, through future, brighter days,
Than blossoms in this air. Our Help, our Hope, our Weal.

DECORATION OF GRAVES
BY LADIES OF THE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.
The Trains will leave Magnolia, to return to the city, at seven o'clock, P. M.

Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston, South Carolina, 1865-1880
Campbell, W. H., fl. 1860-1877
Raymond, Grace, fl. 1877
Vedder, Charles Stuart, 1826-1917

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