The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-24
COLONEL hiGD0F
NOT l CANDIDATE
For Commander Of Third Regiment, Ma
tiOnal Guard.
MAJORS SMITH AND KYLE
Are Both Mentioned as His Probable
Successor.
NO VOICE IN CHOICE OF OFFICERS
Colonel Higdon Charges That the Mill
tary Has Been Made Into Politi-
cal Machine-Gossip ofthe
Reorganization.
MAJORS SMITH AND KYLE
NO VOICE IN CHOICE OF OFFICERS

The military appropriation bill which has
just passed the general assembly of the
state, is going to have the effect for which
it was designed-that is, it will cause
wholesale shake-up in the National Guard
organization of the state. The friends of
the bill openly admit that one of their main
objects was to get Colonel Higdon out of
his position at the head of the Third regi-
ment, and to make other changes which
will make the whole National Guard of the
state strictly harmonious with the admins
tration at Montgomery.
The BILL 1t will be remembered, provided
that every officer in the organization above
the rank Of captain shall be deposed, so to
speak. and when all of the companies have
been reorganized. then their officers to Sc
lect their majors, colonies and other rank
ing officers. 1t Is left entirely with the
governor just what companies shall COM
pose the different regiments. and he can
swap them around from one regiment to
the other If he so desires. It Is considered
almost a certainty that the Woodstock
Rifles from near Admission, and the Tom
Jones Rifles from Vernon the two compan-
les of the old Third regiment which did not
have enough men to volunteer last May,
will not be members of the reorganized
regiment, and that Decatur, Major Kyle's
town, and some other place still unknown,
but possibly Pratt City, will have the other
company.
OF course 1t will be an easy matter for
the administration to put administration
men at the head of these companies, that
Is, men who will oppose Colonel Hgdon.
Col. Higdon Not Candidate
Colonel Higdon was asked by an Age
Herald reporter yesterday If he would be a
candidate for colonel of the Third Alabama
to which he replied that he most positively
would not.
1T would be worse than folly for me to
do So said he, "for everybody knows ex-
actly the relations which exist between me
and the most of the other officers of the
regiments especially those who enlisted
last May in the volunteer army The fight
which one or two of the other officers and
l had with the remaining officers of the
regiment to bring the First Alabama home
from Jacksonville and have the companies
mustered out, instead of letting 1t to go
to Cuba, is still fresh in the minds of the
public. These officers don't want me as
their colonel, and certainly wouldn't have
them as my subordinate officers. My opin-
ions on the question are fully expressed In
this letter which I sent to each member
of the legislature when the military bill
was being considered
The following is the letter:
81 am axious to see the Alabama national
guard reorganized on a sound basis, and ask
that you give the bill now on the calendar
In the house your attention, and have 1t
amended SO as to exclude all the commits
stoned officers, or none at all.
ut is not fair to the enlisted men who
have all the hardships to bear in military,
and who make the volunteer service what 1t
Is, who, when called upon, drop their posi-
tons and good salaries to defend the honor
of our great state or the United States, as
the case may be-.
"If the Alabama national guard is to be
reorganized as the bill provides, let 1t be
a thorough one, and let the men select the
officers under whom they desire to serve.
They may select the same officers they now
have, but give them that privilege and
let the officers elected select the field Of
ficers.
Personally, I have no objection to my
commission being annulled, but feel that
fairness should be given the enlisted men,
IL the state expects them to make the ma
tiona1 guard an honor to Alabama and to
the United States"
A Political Machine
81 would be willing" continued Colonel
Higdon, ito be a candidate for the office,
If the men who are to compose the reor-
ganized regiment could have any voice In
the matter. That is, IL they could elect Of
ficers of their own choice, by whom my
candidacy would be decided. But under
the bill which has recently passed politi-
cal machine has been created which it is
perfectly useless for me to fight, and which
wouldn't fight If I could.
mo, since things have taken their pres
-ent course, I shall leave the military and
devote all my energies to my candidacy for
sheriff in the race which comes off next
year. My greatest regret Is that the men
who are to make up the regiment will have
no say in selecting their officers. Not
even their own company officers, no mat
ter how distasteful they may be to them.
For this will be the case unless all of the
officers show the good taste that the Of
ficers of the Jefferson Volunteers have
done by resigning and either be reelected
or let more favored officers be selected in
their places"
Smith, Kyle or Who?
This decision on Colonel Higdon's part
not to enter the race for colonel of the
regiment, brings on lot of gossip as to
who will be the candidates. Major 7. o.
Smith, who before and during the war COM
manded the Birmingham battalion, VIII I'M
doubleday be candidate, SO everybody be-
lieves, though he has made no formal an
nouncement. Then there are others who
think that Major Kyle, who during the
war commanded the Third battalion of the
regiment. is not an impossbility for the Of
fee, for as recent events have demonstrated
Kyle has little pull of his own. Whether
Kyle is made colonel or not, he is sure to
be major In the reorganzed regiment He
was not in the national guard before the
war;.
Whether he or Major Smith gets the COM