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<p>a very trap of death. No reinforcements reach them; there had been delays that have never been satisfactorily explained. The high tide ebbs; the effort failed; and the broken fragments of the Southern columns drift sullenly back down the slopes whence they came. Here they were met by Lee, who, with tears in his eyes, magnanimously took upon himself responsibility for the failure.
But Lee did not really fail. He was never more triumphant than at this moment fraught as it undoubtedly was with even greater peril to his stricken army. The military critic of the London Spectator, after describing Gettysburg says of him: “He was probably the greatest soldier since Napoleon, the embodiment of every gift of mind and character … Every day his power grew and his last campaign is a flawless example of how great a force may be baffled with slender resources. And with it all he remained the ideal of a Christian soldier, humble, courteous, gentle, so that with Sir John Moore he may stand as the true type of the Happy Warrior.”
In this connection let me say that we have been highly honored in the selection of a site for this memorial in such close proximity to the magnificent equestrian statue of General Lee, the gift of our sister state of Virginia. The devotion to this matchless leader displayed by North Carolinians, who followed him to the end, was surpassed by none – not even by the valorous sons of his native state.
While we are met here especially to honor the North Carolina Heroes of this momentous conflict, I cannot let the occasion pass without expressing admiration for and paying tribute to the valour [sic] here displayed by the soldiers of Virginia, with whom North Carolinians have stood, shoulder to shoulder, in every struggle from the fight for American Independence to this hour.
Our past failure to erect a suitable memorial on this battlefield has not been due to any lack of appreciation of the part North Carolina troops took in this battle, but it was entirely due to a proud poverty now proudly overcome. Throughout the years, that devoted band of women, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, never ceased to call the attention of those in authority to the State’s responsibility to those who died upon this field.
It was largely due to the urgent insistence of the Committee of the Daughters of the Confederacy, of which Mrs. Marshall Williams was chairman, that in 1927, while Governor of the State, I included in my message, an appeal to the General Assembly to provide the necessary funds for this memorial. 
Hon. Walter Murphy and Judge N. A. Townsend rendered distinguished service in the presentation of the matter in the Committees; and on the floor of the assembly their superb management resulted in an unanimous vote.
It afforded me distinct pleasure, as the son of a Confederate soldier, to throw the weight of my official influence into this movement. Pursuant to the act authorizing the appropriation, I appointed the following on the part of the State, as members of the North Carolina Gettysburg Memorial Commission: Mrs. Marshall Williams, Mrs. J Dolph Long, Mrs. Felix Harvey, Sr., Mrs. L. B. Nowell, Mrs. Glen Long, Capt. Dougald Stewart, Capt. Samuel S. Nash, H. C. McQueen, Col. Virgil S. Lusk, General Albert L. Cox, William A Erwin, Pollock Burgwyn, A. L. Brooks, Major W. C. Heath, and Col. A. H. Boyden, who recently passed to his reward, after devoting much of his life first to service in the Confederate army itself, and second in caring for the widows and orphans of his former comrades in arms. He was to have taken official part in these exercises, and his presence is sorely missed by those of us who came under his benign influence. 
An advisory commission was appointed to serve with the Memorial Commission, in choosing a design composed of W. W. Fuller, of New York; Major Bruce Cotten, of</p>
<ul><li>Keywords: Gettysburg; Gettysburg National Military Park; Photography; monuments; memorials; virtual experience; battlefield</li></ul>
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