The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-29
A BATCH OF BLUNDERS.
CARELESS PEOPLE HAVE Mann
THEM THOUGHTLESsLY.


of Confederate Generals-Hons.
That Jefferson Davis Is said tn
Have BuiIt-Gen. Phil Cooks Mill.
tary Record.
Pine Crest Villa, Maitland. Fla. Oct q
1t is astonishing how careless people cer
be in writing or speaking of other peon5.
or important events. Much Of this is fts
result of want of due consideration an,
proper knowledge of the people or events
written or spoken about. Within the past
few days a dozen marked instances bara
come to my notice, some of which demand
prompt attention.
A few nights ago the Georgia Sociat,
held meeting in Chattanooga, Tenn. ann
denounced the exclusion of Mrs. Lees bfs-
tory from the public schools of mat civ
Judge W. P. McClatchy, who was Con.
federate captain, was the mover in tb.
matter and said the author of the HISTORY
Mrs. Lee, was a daughter of Gen. Penn
berton, who commanded at Yicksburg and
who was the right hand man of Gen. Rob.
ert E. Lee, most astounding announce
ment.
Now Gen. Pemberton of Vicksburg no.
toriety was Pennsylvania, and had no
daughter capable of writing history. The
Mrs. Lee referred to is Mrs. Susan Pen
dleton Lee, the widow of Cen Edwin G.
Lee, and daughter of Rev DR.. W. N
Pendleton, graduate Of West Point Mil
itary Acadamy, and general of artillery
in the Confederate army For many
years he was a prominent educator
and minister of the Episcopal Church ana
a devoted friend and pastor in his later
years of Gen. Robert E. Lee As his
daughter was also an educator for quar-
ter of century, and lived under the shad
ow of Westinghouse University. and
the Virginia Military Institute she was
emiuently fitted to write school histories
and as the wife of one Confederate gem
eral and the daughter of another, she was
fitted both by education and environment
for that kind of literary work As an Old
friend of the late DR.. Pendleton l cannot
believe that his accomplished daughter.
who IS noble Christian woman, has writ
ten history unfit for our public schools.
because of its unfairness of statement
In the September issue of the Confeder-
ate Veteran, published at Nashville.
Tenn, there is another inexcusable blum
der, or series of blunders. On page 419 ap-
pears picture and sketch of Gen. (Rev)
A. T. Hawthorne, who died last May.
while on the succeeding page is a list OF
Y surviving confederate NTelGEdlS,''
which appears the name of Hawthorne.
A. T., Camden, Ark" Now this list is
given as revised" by Rev. DR.. J. William
Jones, chapiain-in-chief of the L. C. v;
Charles Edgeworth Jones' The Georgia
historian; Maj. Sidney Herbert, the we'll
known military writer" and several 9TH
ers. For myself, l desire TO state that not
one of the corrections suggested by me
last June has been made in this now re-
published and falally incorrect roster Of
surviving Confederate generals of the
various grades in the SECULAR and provis-
ional service.
Gen. S. G. French is located at Winter
Park, but has lived in Pensac cola. Fla,
for several years. Gallant Harry Heth
of Washington and A. j. Vaughn of Ten
nessee have recently died. Gen. E. NJ.
Law is assigned to Yorkville, S. c., and
yet he has been presiding over the Flor
ida Military Institute at Barlow over two
years past and is major general command
ing the Florida division, u C. Y. The
name of L. L. Iona should be Lomax
and j. II. Fornay should be Forney. Gen
George B. Hodge of Kentucky died at
LongwOod, Fla, five or six years ago.
George d. johnson should be Johnston,
and George H. Stuart should be Steuart.
G. NJ. Sorreu should be Sorrel Gen. G.
T. Wright of Griffin, Ga, should be G. j.
Wright but he has been dead many
years, and he told me that he never was
Confederate general, simply commanded
a brigade
The address of Gen. W. w. kirkland is
given as New York, but he has been for
several months with his married daughter
in West Virginia carried there after te-
ing stricken with paralysis in New York.
The names of Gen. VIM. Phillips of Ma
rietta, Ga, is not in the list, nor that Of
Gen. Bryan NJ. Thomas, of Dalton. nor
that of Gen. Alfred Iverson of Kissimmee,
Fla, nor that of Gen. Robert Buloch Of
Ocala, Fla. AS 1 have before stated, it is
a very difficult matter to trace out the
surviving Confederate generals or ascer-
tain who ready are survivors and who are
with the dead For example, it took me
twenty years to find out that Gen. Bryan
NJ. Thomas was alive and living in Dalton
Ga, as superintendent of schools in that
county, and yet he was a West Point Mil
tary Academy graduate and came from
the United States navy into the Confeder-
ate service.
The Chicago News gives its readers what
purports to be an account of a house that
Jefferson Davis built and lived in when
a regular army officer at Fort Gibson, in
Indian territory, in 1913 The story would
be very interesting were il not for the
cold fact that Davis was not in the army
in 1S4S and was only stationed at Fort
Gibson a short while in 1894 going off on
a leave of absence that year and resigning
his commission in June, 1895. In lS4S he
was a Onlleu states senator from AlSalo-
sippi, having served CALAMITY in Inc
Mexican war as colonel of the First Reg
iment Mississippi Volunteers, and de-
cned in May, 1847, a commission as a
brigadier general in the regular army.
From 1858 to 1857 Mr.. Davis was secretary
of war and when called to the presidency
Of the Southern Confederacy he was major
general of the Mississippi state troops.
His ability and ripe experience as a mill
tary man were unquestionable.
Some military blunders are really laugh
able, as for example the editorial state
ment of a prominent daily paper, that
Young Phil Cook, secretary of state in
Georgia, is a son of Gen. Phil Cook who
graduated al West Point, fought through
the Mexican war, resigned his commission
in the regular army to become a lieutenant
general In the Confederacy." Now Gen.
Phil Cook was never at West Point, nor
in the regular army. nor a Confederate
lieutenant general, but he was a brigader
M q pOn6 THE old original