PREFATORY LETTER TO THE HOLLYWOOD EDITION.

My Dear Madam:

NORFOLK, VA., October 10, 1866.

As a slight evidence of my cordial sympathy with the pious task you and your associates have assumed, and my lively recollection of your great personal kindness to me when an inmate of the Hospital which you cheered by your presence, I beg leave to place at your disposal the accompanying MS.

In doing this I trust you will not hold me guilty of egotism if I remark to you, and through you to my readers, that this Poem was written in the midst of engrossing labors; and upon a notice so short (from the 26th of July to the 8th of August) as to render it less wortny the occasion than it might have been had I possessed more ample leisure for its composition.

I now transmit it to you in the form in which it was recited, and beg you when you mark its defects, to bear in mind that my position was one of peculiar delicacy; the time allowed me short; and the Ode itself composed to be spoken: but this I may say, that if my performance could have given expression to my feelings, it would not have required so elaborate an apology for its imperfections, as that with which it is now set to you, by Your friend and obedient servant,

JAMES BARRON HOPE.

To Mrs. LEWIS N. WEBB, President Hollywood Memorial Association, Richmond,

THE WARREN COUNTY LEE MEMORIAL.

MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF ANNIE CARTER LEE.

[From an account written at the time referred to-August, 1866.]

THE MEMORIAL CEREMONIES.

The 8th of August was the day named by the committee of arrangements for the completion of the monument which now lifts itself above the remains of ANNIE CARTER LEE.

Before the ceremonies of the day began, I cantered over to view the spot, held in such tender reverence by us all. My way lay through a pine forest, whose growth gradually gave place to a breadth of lordly oaks. Here and there several brooks, like silver threads, crossed the road, which, gently undulating, at last opens upon the crest of a bold ridge. On emerging from the woods, I confess that I was surprised at the sight I beheld. In the center of this broad plateau, which has been cleared for the space of several acres and carefully rolled until its grassy slopes are almost lawn-like, a clump of stately trees rises, spreading their arms like priests in benediction over the quiet burial ground, which was yesterday consecrated by blessings from a multitude of reverential hearts.

The grave yard is a parallelogram seventy-one by fifty feet in extent, and is enclosed by an iron railing, firmly set in granite sills, supported by granite columns, at once strong, tasteful and simple. Here I found a group of country gentlemen, masons and field hands, engaged in the final preparations. Various teams were busy dragging great branches of pines over the road and sward; and I was particularly struck by the profound silence which reigned over the scene. Even the faces of the negroes wore an expression of gravity and decorum. Here I dismounted, and was received by JOSEPH S. JONES, Esq., who must pardon me if I venture to give him a prominence which may pain his modesty. My apology for this, as indeed, for my general treatment of the subject, is found in the fact that the ceremonials of yesterday have become a part of our domestic history; and hence I feel authorized to speak of private individuals with a freedom which, under other circumstances would not be justified. Two years ago Mr,

JONES, in whose ancestral grave yard the monument now rises, conceived the idea of its erection. The first step was to obtain a competent mason to do the work, and at that date, in the very agony of the Confederacy's struggle, this was no easy task. There was one man whom he might obtain, and he determined to make the effort. The stone mason whose services he desired to secure was an invalid soldier of the Forty-sixth North Carolina Infantry, and there is a story which he tells himself with touching simplicity that illustrates one of General LEE's noble traits of character, and it may, therefore, fairly claim a place here. It has its historic worth, as will be seen.

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ZERRAL CROWDER was a broken-down soldier. Unfit for active service, he was detailed as a light duty" man, and failing daily in health he wrote to General LEE himself, asking instructions as to the proper mode to pursue in order to have his application for a discharge acted on by the War Department. In reply he received a letter of minute instructions, with a line or two of kind and cheering words at the bottom of the page in the General's own handwriting. This paper he preserves with pious care, and he cherishes it as a precious evidence of the tender sympathy which our great Captain felt for the humblest of his followers.

In the meantime, however, Mr. JONES applied to General BRAGG for the detail of the sick soldier, which was at once granted by that officer, in consideration of the reason assigned in the application of Mr. JONES. Discharged from the army, and with health partly re-established, the grateful mason began his labors, the results of which are before me.

By the time the monument was completed, the fame of the enterprise had gone abroad, and the limits originally set by the managers to the consecration ceremonies, expanded day by day, in obedience to the wishes of the sympathetic public.

The narrow circle of those originally invited was gradually enlarged, and I have before me a mass of letters which would be of priceless value to an autograph hunter.

Among these I have the invitation from the ladies to General LEE, from which I venture to extract a beautiful passage congratulating him on the escape of his sons and himself from the perils of battle and disease. It runs as follows:

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Through the kindness and mercy of our Heavenly Father, your gallant sons fought the good fight even to the end, and you were spared amid the shock of battle and its horrid carnage for four long years. Spared to us, a grateful people, who feel linked to you in the closest ties of friendship and the closest bonds of sympathy.

We cannot honor you with too deep a reverence, nor love you with an affection too pure and fervent. You have a home in every heart, a welcome