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CoL John Augustine Washington, C. S. A. 
 
 of Mount Vernon 
 
 By 
 
 Colonel Arthur Herbert 
 
THE 
 
 WASfflNGTON Address 
 
 BY 
 
 Col. Arthur Herbert 
 
 1915 
 
 J. P. Bell Co.. Printers 
 
 Lynchburg, Va. 
 
£37/5 
 
 ■ ffSZ 
 
 John Augustine Washington 
 
 of Mount Vernon 
 
 Lt.-Col. and Aide-de-Camp to General Robert Edward Lee, 
 C. S. A. Killed, Valley Mountain, Sept. 13, 1861 
 
 No soldier of fortune, no seeker of pelf, 
 
 No lover of glory and fame, 
 But simply a man who was true to himself, 
 
 The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 
 
 He rode far away at the call of the land, 
 
 Unmindful of peril and fate, 
 A smile on his face and a wave of his hand, 
 
 For children who stood at the gate. 
 
 He rode by the side of the kingliest knight, 
 
 And deemed it a guerdon to share 
 His tent and the march and the danger and fight. 
 
 To kneel by his chieftain in prayer. 
 
 He lay where he fell, with the light on his face. 
 
 Untouched by dishonor and shame, 
 Defeated, yet true to the pride of his race. 
 
 The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 
 
 The tears were like dew in the eyes of the chief. 
 Who gazed on the form of his friend. 
 
 And thought of the children at home and their grief. 
 The blossom of life and its end. 
 
 He sent, all entwined with his pity and love, 
 The flowers that grew where he fell, 
 
 And angels, who walked on the ramparts above, 
 Eepeated their call, "It is well." 
 
 'Tis well, if for years he has slept 'neath the sod. 
 
 Uncrowned by the laurels of fame, 
 And simply a man who was true to his God, 
 
 The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 
 
 
Address on the Presentation of 
 
 Colonel Washington's Portrait 
 To Lee Gamp 
 
 Mr. Commandant, Ladies and Gentlemen, and My 
 Old Comrades of the days that tried mens souls: 
 
 I am glad to be with you once more on so interest- 
 ing an occasion as the reception from Col. Walter 
 Taylor, in behalf of Lee Camp and the Washington 
 family, of the portrait of Col. John Augustine 
 Washington of Mt. Vernon — a sketch of whose short 
 military career that promised so much for its future, 
 and his tragic death has been so interestingly told 
 and graphically given by Colonel Taylor to-night — 
 and for which in behalf of Lee Camp and the Wash- 
 ington family we heartily thank him. 
 
 Let us go back some years into the past and state 
 that the first of the Washington family, John and 
 Lawrence, emigrated to Virginia in the year 1657 
 from England, bringing with them all the intelli- 
 gence, hardihood and manhood of an English an- 
 cestry. It was a great day for the country at large, 
 and Virginia in particular, when these men landed 
 on our shores. Educated in heart and in mind as 
 well, they became at once factors in the development 
 of their adopted country. 
 
 From one of these, John Washington, sprang 
 Gen. George Washington, the central figure in Co- 
 
lonial days and the master leader and military mind 
 of the American Revolution. Upon him eulogy has 
 exhausted itself, and iconoclasts have tried to bring 
 him down from the heights upon which his country- 
 men had placed him, but without avail. The 
 grandeur of this man has stood the test of time. His 
 self-abnegation, his pure and lofty ideals of duty, 
 and his love of country before all else, except his 
 God, have been reproduced once only in this country, 
 in the character of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the second 
 great Rebel Virginia has given to this country and 
 the world at large — in both of whom dwelt every 
 manly virtue and God-like attribute. 
 
 Col. John A. Washington was bom at Blakely, 
 Jefferson County, Virginia, May 3d, 1821, and was 
 a great-great-nephew of General Washington of Mt. 
 Vernon. A more beautiful country than that of 
 his birth my eyes have rarely ever rested upon, a 
 country of brave men and fair women, an environ- 
 ment that no doubt had its effect upon him as sho^vn 
 in his after-life. 
 
 Looking down the dim vista of fifty-six years 
 when I first became a guest of the Washington fam- 
 ily, I will try and recall from memory and give some 
 idea of the life at Mt. Vernon and of the personality 
 of its owner. I was first introduced to Mr. Washing- 
 ton by my brother, an old schoolmate and cotempo- 
 rary of his, and nothing could have been more graci- 
 ous than his reception of me. If memory sei^ves me 
 right, he was nearly six feet in height, his figiTre 
 well knit, well proportioned and graceful in move- 
 ment. His head, well poised upon his shoulders, 
 was covered with wavy chestnut hair. His face was 
 
all aglow with good humor and intelligence. Large 
 browTi eyes that sparkled with mirth looked the world 
 squarely in the face, and seemed to take in only the 
 bright side of life — and thus you have him as I first 
 saw him. As our acquaintance deepened into friend- 
 ship and I got to know him better, I was charmed to 
 know how well read he was, and with what ease and 
 fluency he talked of Avhat was best in all the old 
 standard authors, and upon the current topics of the 
 day. You had but to ask for information and he 
 gave it clearly and intelligently. He would have 
 adorned any position or shone in any walk of life 
 where his wellnstored memory and culture could have 
 been brought into play. 
 
 He seems to have been without ambition as to a 
 political life, or of worldly advancement, for which 
 his talents so eminently fitted him. Yet he had all 
 the prestige that an illustrious family name could 
 give in the pursuit of either. But his classic and 
 beautiful home on the Potomac, and the charm in 
 the life of a Virginia planter (which when I first 
 knew him was the ideal one) outweighed all else in 
 his well-balanced mind. 
 
 In Mrs. Washington he had a charming help- 
 mate and companion, who loved her home and kept 
 a well-ordered establishment where hospitality and 
 true courtesy abounded. 
 
 Apart from that intangible, subtle spell and in- 
 fluence that all old houses of the good and the great 
 throw around you, ]\It. Vernon had another charm 
 peculiarly its own, which was the perfect union in 
 feeling and sentiment of the master and mistress of 
 the house, which seemed to pervade children and 
 
servants alike, that made the giiests of Mt. Vernon 
 glad of the repose and peace found within its portals, 
 and there were many guests, distinguished and other- 
 wise, that sought its shelter. 
 
 At breakfast, the first family reunion of the day, 
 the charming and heart-felt salutations of parents 
 and children, the deferential courtesy to each other, 
 and their easy and unconstrained courtesy to guests, 
 spoke well for the pleasure of the coming day. Con- 
 versation led by the master of the house flowed in 
 easy channels, without personalities or pedantry, 
 touching on topics that brought out only the best in 
 the character of each guest. 
 
 Strongly attached to his beautiful old home, filled 
 as it was with the memories of three generations of 
 Washingtons, Colonel Washington for many reasons 
 — among them and perhaps the most weighty of all 
 was the constant influx of visitors from all parts of 
 the country, and the impossibility to any longer en- 
 joy the privacy of his home — consented at last to sell 
 it to the Ladies' Mt. Vernon Association. With a 
 far-sighted business sagacity he invested a part of the 
 money received from the sale of Mt. Vernon in 
 Chicago real estate, which but for the war between 
 the States would have been of great value to his heirs. 
 
 After leaving Mt. Vernon he moved to his estate 
 in Fauquier, called Waveland, after which, to my 
 great regret, I saw very little of him. 
 
 That Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was a judge of men 
 and character beyond any man of his day, should 
 have selected Colonel Washington to be one of his 
 military family, showed the high estimation in which 
 Colonel Washington was held by him. And surely 
 
no greater compliment conld have been paid him as a 
 man of ability and as a gentleman than that by Gen- 
 eral Lee. 
 
 When the war came on, our ways parted, never to 
 reunite in this life — he to a position as aid to General 
 Lee in West Virginia and I to a lieutenancy in the 
 17th Virginia Infantry. His death was a great 
 shock to me, my association with him being closer 
 than usually falls to men with such a difference in 
 years. Some years prior to the war he became 
 deeply interested in spiritual things ; he became a 
 vestryman in his parish church, held family prayers, 
 and in this new life exemplified by his walk and con- 
 versation the teachings of our Divine Master and 
 was prepared to go when He called him hence. 
 
 His call was a sudden one, but in it the love and 
 mercy of God was shown, in that he was spared the 
 humiliation of the reconstruction era, which crushed 
 the hopes of so many of the survivors of our struggle, 
 when God's face seemed to be hidden from us and 
 hope found a grave in the hearts of so many of our 
 survivors. Such, old comrades, ladies and gentle- 
 men, is an imperfect sketch of Col. John A. Wash- 
 ing-ton, whose portrait we come to-night to place 
 among Virginia immortals — her best and bravest in 
 her heroic age from 1861 to '65. 
 
 From the portraits of these men who look down 
 upon us to-night, though varied in feature, they were 
 one in heart and soul in their love and fealty for Old 
 Virginia. For her they lived and fought and died, 
 being as they were true followers and descendants of 
 the pioneers, jurists, statesmen and soldiers that in 
 bronze and marble adorn your public buildings and 
 
parks to-day. When time shall efface these features 
 that now call forth our love and admiration, and 
 those effigies in bronze and marble crumble into dust, 
 the lives and virtues of these men shall shine on for- 
 ever and ever as stars to light the ages yet to come. 
 
 89 w 
 
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