Reunion at Austin, TX (UCV)

Confederate Veteran
Volume, Number 8, Page 341-342
August 1899

One of the most enthusiastic and interesting Confederate meetings of the year was the eighth annual meeting and reunion of the United Confederate Veterans of Texas, held in the city of Austin May 3 and 4. Old Confederates from every quarter of the Lone Star State were in attendance, and the presence of many leaders of the glorious cause made the meeting a memorable one. Among these were Gen. Polley and staff, Congressman Lanham, Adjt. Gen. Scurry, Col. J. B. H. Miller, Judge Carleton, H. W. Graber, ex Gov. Lubbock, Hon. John M. Raegan, Col. Sam Maverick, Gen. W. L. Cabell, of the Trans Mississippi Division, and Col. H. M. Dillard.

The veterans were welcomed by Commander J. H. B. Miller, whose fine address was responded to by Gen. Polley, on behalf of the Texas Division. The orator of the day was Hon. S. W. T. Lanham, who began by paying a beautiful and well deserved tribute to Hon. J. H. Raegan, the only surviving member of the Confederate Cabinet. He spoke of the war with Spain and the Southern heroes who made record therein

Ensign Bagley, Hobson, Wheeler, and Lee. Continued applause followed the speaker's allusion to the heroism of the privates in the Southern army, to Jefferson Davis, and to the women of the Confederacy.

The grand parade was participated in by mounted police. Sons of Confederate Veterans, fire department, and members and officers of the different camps with their sponsors and maids of honor. Upon arrival at the capitol the veterans were cordially welcomed in the governor's reception room by Gov. and Mrs. Sayers.

Gen. Gano, of San Antonio, addressed the meeting on the return of the flag of Terry's Rangers by the Governor of Indiana. He stated that at the Dallas Fair there would be Confederate Day, Texas Day, and Indiana Day, and that on one of these the flag would be returned.

From the, published proceedings of the convention the following is taken:

Gen. Polley announced that a resolution had passed at the reunion at Atlanta for each State to present a flag to Gen. Moorman, the adjutant general, who has done much work for the Association free of cost. He said that the flag had been ordered at a cost of $50. He wanted to know how it was to be paid for. The answer was a shower of silver on the stage, and soon the $50 was contributed.

The report of Adjt. Gen. and Chief of Staff S. O. Young, was very satisfactory, and his address in connection with it was practical and encouraging. These quotations from it may be read with profit by camp members everywhere: "To my mind this question of reaching each individual adjutant directly and personally from division headquarters is the most important problem that confronts us. If expenses were great, if our proposed constitution did not relieve the camps of one fifth of the per capita they pay now, if anything more than a little zeal and activity on the part of the officers of the various camps were asked, I should be silent. However, nothing more is asked, nothing more needed than that the camps perform their plain duty and promptly remit to these headquarters their per capita tax. It is disheartening to see where so much good can be accomplished, and then to be debarred from accomplishing almost anything at all by the lack of interest and cooperation and the want of zeal on the part of the officers and members of the various camps."

The report of the Committee on Credentials was submitted and adopted, and a vote taken on the constitutional revision. Comrade Hess, of San Antonio, offered an amendment to Section 3, Article 6, reducing the per capita tax from ten cents to five cents. He argued that five cents would be sufficient for all expenses, and that his camp was not in favor of making the division a banking institution. Gen. Polley then spoke in favor of the proposed amendment to the constitution doing away with brigadier generals. He also spoke on the financial amendment, and said that ten cents per capita was sufficient, and that there were a great many incidental expenses that should be met. The vote was put on the financial amendment and lost by a viva voice vote. A division was called for. The Adjutant General was asked if five cents per capita would be sufficient. He said "Yes," and the amendment was unanimously adopted. By a unanimous vote all the constitutional amendments were adopted.

The report of the committee on the condition of the Confederate Home was heard, and included the following: "The Legislature, now in session, has seemed disposed to meet the wants of the Home. The Senate has already acted liberally. The House of Representatives has been urged by your committee in the attached communication and by personal appeal to the members to be a little more liberal than their appropriation bill, as reported by the finance committee, indicates, and to increase their appropriation, and we have good reason to believe that they will do so, and that the Home will be provided for during the next two years."

When the chair announced the election of officers F. A. Wood nominated Gen. Polley for reelection. His election was unanimous.

Gen. Cabell in an address told the veterans not to allow any old soldier to be buried in a potter's field. He eulogized the women of the Confederacy and urged the veterans to give the Daughters of the Confederacy all the assistance they could. He spoke of pensions, and said that if he were in Congress he "would vote to give the old soldiers $40 per day." "The men who whipped us ought to be well paid." He said that it was not a war of the rebellion, but a revolutionary war, "and a pretty big one, too." At the conclusion of his address the orchestra played "Dixie." Gen. Cabell announced that he would invite all the camps in the Trans Mississippi Department to be at Dallas when the Terry's Rangers' flag was returned.

A resolution was introduced asking the Legislature to make an appropriation for a tombstone over the grave of Gen. Ben McCullough.

Fort Worth was selected by acclamation as the next meeting place, and it was decided to hold the next meeting May 22, 1900, "as long as necessary."

The following resolution was unanimously adopted: "Resolved, That we tender our sincere thanks to the citizens of Austin, John B. Hood Camp, the press, Daughters of the Confederacy and Republic, and the railroads for the many kindnesses, also our sympathy for Joe Brown, who lost his hand in doing us honor."