The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-18

0ii TIC rails Old ABE and Cousin |
Jehn" split. AS to the JEFF Davis
"hovel," or cabin; he was not horn in
the woods, nor in a log cabin, but in a
very comfortable looking house on the
main road. l have a picture of his
birthplace taken by a Kentuckian. who
presented 1t to me. All of President
LincolnAs humble life was spent in
pam log cabins, but President Davis
started better and improved faster.
WINE Abraham Lincoln was building
TINS Macon county log cabin, in 1880.
Davis, who graduated from West Point
IN 1873, was a second lieutenant of the
FIRST United States Infantry, on duty
at Fort Winnebago, Wis The writer
VINO calls the birthplace of Jefferson
DAVIS "a howell" shows himself to be
d Diue-ribbon donkey" Lincoln and
laws We're not born in the cabins now
On eXhlpltlon at Buffalo, and any man
familiar with American history ought
10 know this to be a fact.
A recent issue of the Ledger Month
~ OF New York contained an article on
-, ~ mous Hymns and What Inspired
Ihem," by William G.. Jordan. If his
Iacts about other hymns are as I'M
rehaDle as his statements about Hold
tne Fort, for l Am Coming the ar
tlcle is worse than useless He SAYS
a Gen. Corse commanded the Union
troops at Allatoona Pass, Ca, in Oc-
tooer, 1864, and ''Fresich, the Southern
General" attacked the garrison. The
Gen. Corse referred to was Bt Mai.
Gen. John M. Corse, u. S. ", appoint
ed from Iowa, but who died a few
years ago at Winchester, Mass, hav-
ing been postmaster at Boston. Ere
SIGN was Maj. Gen. Samuel G. French,
=. ). A, late resident of Winter
Park, Fla, near me, but now living
with his sons in Pensacola and At
lanta. He was born in New Jersey, but
married a Miss Abercrombie, near Co
lumbus, Ga, before the war; He was
captain in the quartermasters depart
ment when he resigned, in 1856, and be-
came cotton planter IL Mississippi
He is distinguished as being perhaps
the sole survivor of the class of 1S43
at West Point, from which Gen. u. s.
Grant graduated. He also, l think, is
the ranking surviving Confederate ma
jor general, but is in very feeble health.
1t is singular fact that Grants class
gave the Confederate army three noted
Northern born generals French,
Franklin Gardner of New York and
Roswell S. Ripley of Ohio. French and
Gardner married Southern women, and
as Ripley spent most of his army life
in the South, he also may have mar
r1ed here. When he resigned from the
army in 1858, at Fort Moultrie, S. c.,
he was brevet major of artillery. Ten
years previous he was in charge of the
arsenal at Augusta, Ga. The facts in
regard to the hymn are pretty familiar.
Corse was being hard pressed by
French, but Sherman signalled to him
to hold the fort, as reinforcements were
coming to his relief. Rev. P. P. Bliss,
the well known writer of sacred songs,
caught the idea and used it in his
famous song, Hold the Fort, for / Am
Coming" A few years ago, Gen.
French was confirmed at the Church
of the Good Shepherd here in Matt
land by Bishop H. B. Whipple, who
gave the congregation a little talk
about Gen. French and the hymn.
We were not many-we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many gallant spirit would
Give half his years if but he could
Have been with us at Monterey.
Our banners on those turrets wave,
And there our evening bugles play;
Where orange boughs above their
grave,
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.
We are not many-we who pressed
Beside the brave who fell that day;
But who of us has not confessed
He'd rather share the warriors rest
Than not have been at Monterey.
Thus wrote the gifted poet Charles
Fenno Hoffman, years ago, of one of
the bioodiest battles of the Mexican
war, and of some of the bravest and
noblest heroes of the American army.
Poor Hoffman, I think, his last years
were spent in an insane retreat; but
his stirring poem-"Monterey'
bear his honored name down through
the ages-an inspiration to other gen.
erations to be brave and patriotic.
1t is doubtful If there lives to-day a
soldier who was in that terrible con-
fiict, and 1 simply refer to it to speak
of the dead heroes buried there pro-
vided their bodies have not been re-
moved. They rest in dreamless sleep
in the most beautiful spot of all this
earth. Years ago 1 met at Green Cove
Springs, Fla. highly cultured lady
who had been "all over the world" sew
eral times, and she told my wife that
the lovelieSt and most charming spot,
the world over, she had found in Mon
terey, Cal. Her description of it's
beauties was simply enhancing. When
Stanley. the famous explorer, came to
America with his bride, Dorothy Ten
nant, and the question of lovely seem
cry was under discussion, both these
great travellers gave Monterey the
name of being the earthly paradise, If
there be such place, 81
call it," says Chauncey Depew, the
noted orator, 1.-The most beautiful place
in the world" And now comes my tai
ented young name-sake, Editor Sid
ney Herbert Blan, of the Troy, Ala,
Daily Messenger, and confirms all that
has been said of Monterey, and adds:
ut cannot be fittingly described; you
must see it for a Lifetime memory of
a visible harmony that has no dis
card" And yet, on this transcendantly
beautiful spot, with "a visible har-
mony that has no discard" (as Editor
Blan says, in his charming descriptive
letters to his paper), was fought one
of the worlds bloodiest battles, and
the heroes who fell there beneath the
Stars and Stripes found soldiers graves
where all Nature paid lavish tribute to
their valor and patriotism. Capt. Ran
dolph Ridgely, of the Third u. s. Artil-
lery, killed by being thrown from his
horse, was buried in the beautiful
grove of st. Domingo. Gen. Twiggs,
Gen. McLaws, Gen. Gardner, Gen
Lamar, Gen. Hardee and other Geor-
gians were in Gen. Taylor's army. Gen.
Henry r. Jackson of Savannah, wrote
his famous war poem. my Wife and
Child" at Camargo, on the line of
A E.A-