Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-07
KEEN AND POINTED.
COL. PRICE WILLIAMS REPLIES AT LENGTH
To the Assaults in a Journal Upon the Mli- tsry of the State-Eyery Asser-
 ton Refuted.

To the Editor of the Mobile Register:
 An editorial assault in the Birming ham State of July 3. written long after the breaking of the brigade encampment, and evidently with the studied intention of misrepresenting it, is so full of palpa- ble misstatements as to demand correc- tion. It begins with the assertion that "the Mobile@people are disgusted with the eueampment. They think the whole affair was fizzle, both from a financial and a military standpoint
 This point is a misstatement to begin with; and it is, besides. an impertinence. The State may possibly represent some- thing or somebody in Birmingham; it certainly cannot assume to represent the sentiments of Mobile. Three daily newspapers here wrote of the encamp- ment during it's continuance and after it's close. One of them was independent enough to criticise some points and to call attention to misconduct of some individual soldiers outside of camp lines and three miles away on furlough in the city. Not one of the three, differing as they do on many matters, ever 1ntl- mated that the people of Mobile We're "disgusted or that any of them thought the camp 'fizzle." The papers of this city surely must reflect the thought of the people; and the State must have ''relied' upon it's imagination for its facts.
 The Birmingham slanderes further says the camp was turned into polit- ical machine" It states that petitions were circulated for signatures recom- mending a politician for speaker of the next house of representatives Such may have been circulated. but the State should be honest enough to tell the truth that none were ever signed, or even recommended for signature, by any com manding officer. If they were, call upon that paper to give the names of such signers, and not to stab body of repre- sentative citizens in the back ana out ot the dark.
 Next, the editor of the State asserts that gambling was allowed" and crap games were openly carried on" This statement is as well founded as the rest of his attack. and l challenge his proof, and a statement of the times and places on which he bases 1t. If gambling did oc- cur, which may be the case in mixed body of nearly 2000 men, from many sec tions, the editor of the State should know that 1t was known to the commanders, and was tolerated, before he writes such general charges against the oincers.
 The paper condeScendingly admits tnat 'there were some gentlemen among the soldiers" This is certainly high praise when over 1700 of the farmers, mef- chants, professional men, clerks ana other citizens of Alabama were assem- bled but even that he nullifes by stat ing that "many of the men were little better than hoodlums;" that they hiied the streets with drunken orgy and that little or no effort was made to correct the evil" ,
 The truth of this, so far as there is any truth in it. is that Mobile paper on Wednesday called attention to the fact that some soldiers on furlough were acting badly in town while on leave, but the paper expressly slateu that they were young boys, ana sug- gested that the hand of discipline would reach them and check their thought less misconduct, as soon as the fact was known to their commanding officer. The paper was right. The paper had not been in camp ten minutes when Coi; Harvey D. Jones. the governors cnleI or staff and personal representative, was in communication with the civil authori- ties and had ordered military patrols for town to check any and all miraculous or discipline. So much for that charge or the State and its others are on similarly slender basis.
 The Birmingham paper goes on to carp that ''the camp was in charge of stair officer-a most unmilitary proceeding. The staff officer alluded to was the adJu- tant-general of the state Of Alapama the chief of staff of the governor and commander-in-chief He was not in com mand for every order was signed By command of the governor, who was practically in command from the hrst day, and who was on the ground in per son a great part of the duration of the camp. So much for this weak and not glittering generalization.
 I have been in camps of state troops and have commanded many of them ever snce the establishment of military sys- tenn in post bellum Alabama. l say ,1-Jxr .ifi a T1d n recall no camp in which there was more quiet order and adherence to imT~Sed dis cipline than in the one just closed. with in the lines of the camp there were few CT infractions of discipline than usual, and I call upon the Birmingham officers of the Second regiment to instruct this nasty scribe upon this point.
 He makes an unfair and wilful misuse of language when he states that squads of men filed down to the brewery to i'm bide free beer" He does not explain, as he should in fairness. that this brewery is three miles from the camp ground, across town, and that only men in the city on furlough could possibly have formed those squads. If the writer was ever soldier he must know enough to comprehend that a man on furlough al distance from his camp, is amenable to the civil authorities, and not to the mili- tary code.
 In this attempted fling at the military seemingly made for political effect by paper which scruples at nothing to gain political notoriety-The State directly at- tacks the good name of Mobile, and her municipal and police control. This is, tosay the least, in bad taste for paper published in a city which owes largely the conservation of it's law and order, if not indeed of it's material substance, to Mobile troops, commanded by Mobile officers, during last summer. The only excuse for what the French would call the betse of the State, is the fact that ia was not then in existence, and is still tod crude and green to know the facts and the proprieties of that occasion, when it's own city fully realized them.
 The State winds up it's tirade by the threat to find out who was at fault and to let its readers know it. For the sake of those readers, hope it will first get it's facts, then read the regulations and finally write what it has to say in good and truthful English.
 PRICE WILLIAMS, JR.,
 Colonel First Regiment.