He came into military and political life like some blazing meteor, with exceeding brilliance and splendor speeding across the horizon of history. His activities in politics and war covered only a brief span of seventeen years, 1848 to 1865, and in so short a period but few men ever received more, maintained their parts better, were the recipients of greater honors, or bore themselves with nobler dignity, greater skill or more superb courage either in victory or defeat. BENNETT H. YOUNG _John C. Breckinridge dies, 1875_ May Eighteenth Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum, The sabres are sheathed and the cannon are dumb; And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furled The flag that once challenged the gaze of the world. JOHN R. THOMPSON (_From "Lee to the Rear"_) May Nineteenth But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides, And down into history grandly rides Calm and unmoved as in battle he sat, The gray-bearded man in the black slouch hat. JOHN R. THOMPSON (_From "Lee to the Rear"_) May Twentieth You can get no troops from North Carolina. GOV. ELLIS (_Reply to Washington administration, April 15, 1861_) _North Carolina secedes from the Union, 1861_ May Twenty-First The Dixie girls wear homespun cotton, But their winning smiles I've not forgotten; Look away, away, away down South in Dixie. They've won my heart and naught surpasses My love for the bright-eyed Dixie lasses; Look away, away, away down South in Dixie. Chorus: I'll give my life for Dixie; Away, away; In Dixie's land I'll take my stand, And live and die for Dixie. Away, away, Away down South in Dixie. MARIE LOUISE EVE May Twenty-Second How brilliant is the morning star; The evening star how tender; The light of both is in her eyes,-- Their softness and their splendor; But for the lash that shades their sight, They were too dazzling for the light, And when she shuts them all is night,-- The daughter of Mendoza. MIRABEAU B. LAMAR May Twenty-Third Great Chieftain of our choice, Albeit that people's voice No comfort speaks in thy lone granite keep; Through those harsh iron bars There come back from the stars Low echoes of the prayers they nightly weep. WILLIAM MUNFORD _Jefferson Davis puts in irons at Fort Monroe, 1865_ May Twenty-Fourth Yet to all Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when it is remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of state, a distinguished Indian fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had held a seat in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United States, and who for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate States. MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY (_Davis in chains_)