Excerpt from General William Lee Davidson Fourth of July celebrations are usually expected to be ac companied with flights of eloquence and streams of oratory as the deeds of our ancestors and the blessings they have secured for mankind are brought to memory. Although a century and a fourth have elapsed since he of whom I speak to you gave his life as a part of the price of the independence of America, yet so little history has been written concerning his services that a simple memorial oration would be but little understood or appreciated by my audience. In order to have true history, we must first collect the ana or account of the individual inci dent or deeds of the individual. These the annalist arranges with reference to date of occurrence and then the historian is ready for his work. Comparison of events and individuals with panegyrics, etc follow. Todav I come not with an ora tion, but with some ana. Some annals, some history concern ing my subject, and hope I may furnish a paper that will be iseful to the writer and student of North Carolina history. I fear that many of our people do not appreciate the claims of the State to the glories and blessings of the Fourth of July hail its coming with joyful acclaim and have a just pride in all that concerns it. The men of whom vou shall hear today rendered their services and gave their lives to establish the Fourth of July as an important date in the calendars of the nations of the earth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.