Augusta Military Academy - Recall Yearbook (Fort Defiance, VA)

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marches, the pangs of hunger, the desire for sleep, all the suffering s for the poor, ragged and starving soldiers in grey he patiently en- dured. Many times he was in the whirlwind of the charge, and in the smoke and fire and rain of shot and shell which he always met with characteristic courage, facing death for the cause he loved. The day before the surrender of Lee at Appomatox he was wounded and captured by the Union Soldiers and for a short while remained a prisioner of war. There are those who would induce our govern- ment to maintain a large standing army in time of peace as prepar- atory to some future emergency which may require it. The bul- wark of the defense of our country lies not in such an army, but in the hearts of the American people. It is the citizen soldier like Chas. S. Roller, and not the mercenary hireling that this Republic must look for the protection of its rights and life. “Mr. Roller accepted the issue of the war between the states as the unerring verdict of high heaven. Disappointed he was that the cause for which he fought had not been victorious, but discouraged never. He went to work bravely and earnestly to do his part in re- storing the Southland to the old order of things. Like his illustrious Commander-in-Chief, Robert E. Lee, he chose the life of teaching as the field affording him the largest opportunities of repairing the havoe made by war. He was himself an educated man, a college bred man, and he knew, as every intelligent man knows that from the days when Themistcles led the educated Athenians at Salamis, the sure foundation of any government and the well-being of any people are laid in knowledge, not in ignorance, and that every sneer at education, at culture, at book-learning is the demagogue’s sneer at intellectual liberty, inviting national degeneration and ruin. He well knew that Tis education forms the common mind, Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined,’ and so he set himself to train the rising generation of his beloved land. , “Tn 1866 he began his first work as instructor at Old Stone Church in the Old Brick School house under the massive spreading oaks on yonder near-by hill. 10

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mands upon his friends and students imperative. He was as im- movable in his principles as the lofty hills among which he lived. He could not be approached by any unworthy inducements. Neithr proffered honor nor intimidation could bind him. His life lies before us as an open book which contains no double meaning, no crooked passages, no mysteries, no concealments. It is clear as crystal. It needs no interpreter. The ends he sought were always noble; the means he used were always direct. Neither deception, nor conceal- ment, nor disguise of any kind or degree had place in his nature or methods. He walked in the light, and wrote his heart's inmost pur- pose of his forehead. No man can now recall a single word of tol- eration for a low and equivocal design which ever fell from his lips, but many a man can remember the kind encouragement which he warmly bestowed upon human and wordly purposes. He abhored with all his soul falsehood and dishonesty, and he had the severest scorn for the one who ventured to inform him against his fellow student. While not regardless of the good opinion of men, he looked first for the approval of Heaven. However one might differ with him on any question all readily accord to him their respect for his manliness and unflinching opinions which were always founded upon his honest convictions of right. “He found the straight and narrow way and to him it was safe. To him there came the clear sight that is ever the reward of unbend- ing recitude. His unyielding grasp upon the truth and the right as he saw it, his thorough dedication of himself to the highest and best: in life, combined to build for him in the hearts and lives of others an imposing monument whose symmetry and fine proportions no mere chance could create and which no accident can destroy. “Mr. Roller was a true patriot. He loved the land of his birth and was willing to sacrifice his life upon its altar of service. The call to arms in 1861 drew him, one of the best educated and most scholarly of the young men of the Southland, from the peaceful walls of the State University to the celebrated Stuart’s Cavalry, in which he served throughout the entire Civil War. He who knows the conspicious part played by that cavalry can understand some- what of the hardships he had to endure, the weariness of long i}

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‘Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot; To pour the fresh instinction o’er the mind, To breathe the enliv’ning spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast. ’ “When it was announced that he had opened a school he could not accommodate the applicants and for the first two years he taught chiefly young soldiers whose education had been cut short by service in arms. That was the beginning of what was afterwards to be- come the Augusta Military Academy, our beloved Alma Mater, which he so long conducted in person as principal and teacher. “Por some years after he had built the splendid Academy build- ings the Old Brick School house in the grove of the Old Stone Church continued to be used as a recitation hall. It was most fitting that over the hallowed ground where that old building once stood the lifeless body of our lamented preceptor should be borne by sorrowing friends to its committal back to the earth from which it had come. “Prof. Roller was a prince among teachers. He was gifted with the instinctive talent of being able to impart knowledge to others. He was not only the master of the subject to be inculeated, but he understood the student whom he sought to teach.. He had the happy faculty of adopting himself to each individual student. Coupled with these was his commanding presence which enabled him to bring out and develop the best there was in a young man in in- tellect andin morals. He entered heartily into the life of those under his care. He kept himself in sympathetic touch with them. He had a way of gaining their confidence and of pursuading them to ; follow his leading in learning and in life. He had a magnetism that was irresistable and his more than 2,000 students held him in the highest respect, both as teacher, friend and man. He dealt with all the subjects he essayed to teach witha master hand, but he exceeded as ateacher of the Ancient Classics, especially those in the Latin tongue. Here he was at his best. No one could be under his in- struction in Latin very long without having awakened within him enthusiasm for that language. The passion of his life was to inspire his boys with a sober interest in the hard work of life and to pro- al