The age-herald., 1898-09-09
THE SURVIVING i SOUTHERN CAPTAINS

| Beauregard, who died several years ago, | was the last full general. but of the lieu l tenant generals seven survive-Simon B. | Buckner, Wade Hampton, Stephen D. Lee, | Joseph Wheeler, Alexander P. Stewart, | James s. Longstreet and John B. Gordon. l Of these all but Hampton, Lee and Gordon | are graduates of West Point Buckner and | Grant were classmates at that institution, 1 and In this connection an interesting and | little known story is told. A few weeks be- | fore the first Bull Run several confederate | officers were dining together in Richmond. | The talk at the table turned upon the mer- 1 its of the men who then held high com l mand in the union army, and it was the | opinion of the majority that the ablest sol l diers of the old army had cast their for
 tunes with the south. Buckner was the on- | ly one present who failed to agree with
 this belief
 "Gentlemen," he said, "there was a man
 in my class at West Point whom you must
 not omit from your calculations. He left
 the army years ago, and I don't know
 whether he is still alive or not, but if he is' | and turns up on the northern side, he will | cause us trouble. His name is Grant" | Buckner proved a true prophet During
 the following four years three of the men at the Richmond dinner table-Lee, Penn
 berton and Buckner himself-surrendered | their armies to Grant, who, in 1S61, 'had | fallen so completely out of sight that his | old classmate did not know whether he was | dead or alive General Buckner, who is | veteran of two wars, was elected governor | of Kentucky in 1887. Since his retirement from that office he has lived a quiet life, | with his family and servants about him. | His home is in the mountains of Kentucky, | and is only to be reached by water on his | private steamer, and, although only lUO miles from Louisville, it requires an entire | day to make the trip. He keeps a large | retinue of ante-bellum dependents, and | probably is as near feudal lord as can be | found in America.
 | Than Wade Hampton no braver man | served in the confederate armies. Among | the earliest in the field, he led the ''Hamp- | ton Legion at the first Bull Run. He was 1 wounded in this battle, but as soon as pos
 sible resumed service in the army, and was wounded for the second time in the battle l of the Seven Pines, where he commanded | the cavalry of the Army of Northern Vir- 1 gInia. Later he commanded the cavalry op- | erating in Virginia, was wounded the third | time at Gettysburg, and was leader of the | rear guard which fell back before the victo- I rious advance of General Sherman. When l the army in which General Hampton was 1 serving surrendered to the union forces, 1 his military experiences were ended. Ills public career since then is familiar story. General s. D. Lee, another civilian gen. eral conspicuous for skill and bravery, is now a farmer and president of the state | agricultural college of Mississippi; General 1 A. F. Stewart is a member of the Chlcka- mauga state commission; General Joseph 1 Wheeler, before the opening of the present l war, was for several years member Of l congress from Alabama and General Jas. l S. Longstreet has lately been appointed 1 railroad commissioner by President Nc l Kinley. General Longstreet, or "Old Pe- l ter" as he was called by his men, is count | ed by many careful students of the civil | war as the ablest of all the confederate captains. Cautious, clear-headed, and l master of military science, no sobriquet fits him so well as the Thomas of the | Lost Cause"
 John B. Gordon was its Murat. The son | of a Baptist minister, General Gordon, | when the war broke out was trying to de- velop a coal mine in Northwest Georgia. Down there in the mountains he raised a | regiment of natives and reached Virginia | in time to take part in the opening of the | war. In the first engagement of his hardy | mountaineers two-thrdS of them were | killed or wounded. Every officer except | Gordon was slain, and his escape was l miracle, his clothing being riddled with l bullets.
 The mark of mimic ball in General Cor | dons cheek is a reminder of the bloody and wrathful day when the battle of l Seven Pines was fought. The Sixth Ala l bama, commanded by Gordon, was at the | front of the fight. Suddenly there came an order, from whom was never discovered, | directing the regiment to charge across an open field and capture battery that was l stationed in thicket, and pouring ter- | rible fire into the confederate ranks. It | was like the charge of the Six Hundred. Some one had blundered. But at the head | of that yelling and racing thousand of men and in the face of that murderous l fire, Gordon sprang to obey the fatal com- l mand. When the shattered remnants of | the regiment were hurled back across that l death-strewn field, it's colonel, bleeding 1 and wounded in five places, was carried to l the hospital tent. where for weeks his life | was despaired of Nevertheless, he recov- l cred, and within two years rose, by hard | fighting and merit as a commander, to the | rank of lieutenant general. As commander | of the Confederate Second Army corps he | was the first to attack at Gettysburg, and | he held the last line at Petersburg, fight | ing with stubborn valor for every inch of | space. Yet General Gordon had not had | a particle of military training, and when
 the war closed was only 30 years of age. l Since then he has been twice governor of | his state and twice a member of the fed | eral senate.
 Among the surviving confederate veter- | ans who held the rank of major general | John H FOrneV. who iq living n | tirement at Jenifer, Ala; Samuel c. | French, now a planter in Florida; William I. I. l.. Cabell, a merchant in Dallas, Tex;
 James R. Chalmers, of Fort Pillow mem- | ory, at present leading member of the l Nashville bar: G. W. C. Lee, until lately 1 president of Washington and Lee Universi- | ty, at Lexington, Va, post his father l Robert E. Lee, held before him; Matt Ran- 1 son. long a United States senator and
 minister to Mexico, under Cleveland; Mat 1 thew c. Butler, who lost leg at Brandy | Station, and who, after three terms in the 1 federal senate is ending his public career