El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-01-27
GRANT ANDLEE APPEAR
They Want a National Military
Park.
TO BE LOCATED AT yICKsBURG,

Soldiers OF Both the South and North Be
hind the New Scheme-One Man Power
In the House-An Effort to Reform the
System.
WAsHGNGTON, Jan. Especial. Grant
and Lee appeared before Speaker Reed a
few davs ago to make arguments in favor
of a bill to create national military park
Mt Vicksburg, Miss They were Colonel
Fred Grant of New York city and General
Stephen d. Lee of Mississippi. Colonel
Grant was not at Nichsburg 33 years ago
last July but all the world knows another
Grant was there. General Stephen ID. Lee
was at Nicksburg Us a Confederate briga-
der He went through that lorg siege and
was captured with the 10000 Confederate
troops who were found within the city. 1t
is not often that Il Grant and a Lee appear
before the speaker of the house, or before
any other tribunal, asking something in
the name of the soldiers of both the north
and south.
The Plan Outlined.
1t will be almost Il pity if the promoters
of this military park cannot get their bill
through at this session of congress. They
have an attractive plan. They propose to
buy 200 acres of ground embracing all
the old earthwOrks which run from the
river above NickSburg to the river again
below the city The Federal lines We're l3
miles long and the Confederate lines Z
miles long. Immediately back of the city
the proposed park will be about half mile
wide and IL miles long, taking in both
the Union and rebel lines. The carthworks
of the contending armies were there thus
close together From either end of this
section of the park two narrow strips viii
run to the river, each strip taking in Il line
of carthHorlls. Thus the whole of the lines
of defense and OffCnse thrown up during
that II days siege will be taken in by the
proposed park, the narrow strips being
made Isoulevards from the park proper to
the river.
Most of the earthworks are still in exist
ence. OF course the rains have washed
them down, and undcrbrush and weeds
have grown over them. But they are for
the most part still distinguishable. 1t will
be easy to restore them to their original
condition, just as they were on that fate
full Fourth of July when both Vicksburg
and Gettysburg fell. Nearly all of the 300
pieces of cannon used by the two armies
in the siege OF Nicksburg are still in exist
ence, lying useless in government arsenals
obsolete, and these can be put in position
just where they We're when the soldiers
fought it out a third of century ago. The
sum asked for by the promoters of the bill
is only ST5, 900, and the total cost of the
park will not exceed $3.50, 600. All the Grand
Army and prominent military org1niZa
tions in the country have asked congress to
pass this bill. Yet it may never be taken
up for consideration.
Two Important Battles.
Vicksburg and Gettysburg, by a strange
coincidence, came practically on the same
day. Between them they settled the fate
of the nation. They marked the downfall
of the Confederacy. Vicksburg divided the
Confederacy in two parts. Its fall made
communication from west of the MlsSlS-
sippi to the east practically impossible.
General Lee told me he was ordered 20
times TO bring troops across from the west
side, and though he tried in every way he
could think OF he was unable to do it. The
best he could do was to get man or two
across in Il dugout boat. But as for get
ting troop of soldiers across, it simply
could not be done. Gettysburg has been
made the site of one of the grandest mill
tary parks in the world, and the old SOL
diers think NickSburg should be similarly
treated.
Nicksburg was really the only siege of
the wharf.-the only Investment of Il city
that was closed in on all sides, both by
land and water, with communication
through the lines impossible to the be
leaguercd troops. For II days and nights
the siege continued. For 20 days" Gen
eral Lee told me, ''our men subsistcd on
half ratiOns. The last ten days we lived
on quarter rations. We were compelled to
stand all the time in the trenches. The
fire was so sharp and accurate that every
time n man put up his cap three or four
bullets pierced it. There was not Il min
ute in which 13 inch shells were not burst
ing in the air over our heads. The ncrv-
Gus strain upon us was something indie
scribable. I nc wonder is we held out as
long as we did. We ConfcderatcS look up
on Niclsburg as a spot in which American
manhood displayed itself at its best, al 4
we think it ought to he cOmmemOratcd by
the erection of Il park.
A Bad System.
1t has impressed me as an odd sort of
spectacle for Grant and a Lee, with the
soldiers of the north and south behind
them, to be appealing to Speaker Reed, to
Il single man, for permission to bring up
their bill for Il worthy purpose. No crit
icism need be passed upon Dir. Reed as
speaker or as u man, but the system is Ger
tain1y wrong when Il single official stands
and blocks the way TO action in a lcgisla
tive body. 1t is contrary to the whole
spirit of our institutions. In the executive
departments the viii of the president is
rightfully supreme. But in the Legislative
branch the suppOsition is that 337 men,
and not one man, form the umpire.
In practice, however, one man does con
troll the whole thing. The speaker viz
tually has the power to say which measures