12
THE BATTALION.
and they were being; slowly pressed back, when Stuart, with
the true spirit of a forlorn hope rushed to ihe front and com
manded: Forward ! and again they charged, and those men
rode down to death with their gallant leader “as gaily as the
bride goes out to meet the groom.” It was at this crisis of
the battle when a fugitive rushing by Gen. Stuart tired the
fatal shot, and the hero of a hundred battles fell as a warrior
falls—dead at his post of duty. Truly the words of the poet
•could be applied to this chieftain, when he said:
“Oh, if there be on this earthly sphere
A boon or an offering that Heaven holds dear,
’Tis the last libation that liberty draws
From a heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause.”
His death was that of a Christian warrior who has placed
his body a willing sacrihce upon his country’s altar. Duty
•certainly was to him the sublimest word in the English lan
guage, for his last words were: “I am ready and willing to
die if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destity
and done my duty.”
Knightly and chivalrous soldier ! Wonderful leader of
men ! Unselfish patriot ! On liberty’s altar never was
poured a higher sacrifice than his precious blood. With his
great qualities as a soldier was combined the gentleness of a
woman. See him how he bows his head in grief at the death
of Jackson and how he weeps over the mangled form of the
heroic Pelham. He needs no monument to commemorate
his deeds, for in future generations the name of Stuart will be
reverenced wherever courage, dash and high-born chivalry
hold sway.