24
THE BATTALION.
casion as this, but I am consoled by the reflection that I
mourn not alone, but that I am one among thousands, whose
hearts, like mine, feel pangs of keenest anguish.
Never, in the history of Texas, did such instant, profound
anti universal sorrow, smite the hearts of her people, as when
the tidings were flashed from this place that Lawrence Sulli
van Ross was dead.
Those who had been his comrades in arms, and who re
called the hardships of of the march and the dangers of the
field shared with him, and who remembered his dauntless
courage, his unfailing fidelity to duty, and his heroic service,
mourned the soldier called to rest.
Those among whom he had lived so long and to whom
lie was so deeply endeared, mourned the loss of neighbor,
citizen and friend. The students and faculty of this institu
tion sorrowed for one who was at once their chief, their coun
selor and guide. Those who in humility had served him as
slaves and as freemen, with grief shaken frames and tear-
dimmed eyes, beat above his bier, in touching testimony to'
his justice and unvarying kindness. His family in unutter,
able anguish, bowed above his slumbering clay, for they
knew, as no others did, his devotion as a husband and his 1
love and tenderness as a father and brother, while the people
of his beloved State, whom he had served with unswerving
fidelity and consumate ability, to the swelling volume of sor
row, added the tribute of their unbidden and unrestrained
tears.
To one whose life had been so conspicuously unselfish and
heroic, even life itself were scarce too high a price to pay for
such manifestations of res pcct, reverence and love.
Apart from the stricken and broken circle of his family,
it is indeed hard to say where the blow of his death fell hard
est, but if such a sorrow can Ire measured and apportioned,
perhaps the faculty and students of this institution have felt
most keenly the inscrutable dispensation of providence. In