The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-08
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER.
WEST POINT MEN TAKEN FROM
SOUTHERN COLLEGES.

SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
Sons Who Have Carried the Honor
ed Names of Their Fathers Back
Into the Regular Army-The Man
Wenring u Gray Suit in the Me-
kinney Pictures Neutrality-suspicious.
That Gen. Wheeler Is to BE a Can
didatc for the senate From Ala
bama-Some Account of n Lake
City, Fla, Veteran-Some Errors
of Careless Writers-rhe Whole
sale Delivery of Degrees at Yale,
The Surviving widows of Presi-
dents-Other Matters of General
Interest.
Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla, Dec.
Il have no desire to hasten the de
mise" of good old Rev. George G.
Smith, and therefore state that wrote
il denial in last Sundays letter.
May he live long and prosper"
The Rev. DR.. ]. William Jones, the
Confederate historian, writes to the
Confederate Veteran, in correction, as
he supposes. of a roster of generals,
and says: "B. M. Thomas should be
f. L. Thomas" Not so, my dear doctor,
Gen. Ed, l.. Thomas died out West a
few years ago, and was a Mexican
war hero from Georgia, but Gen. Bry-
an NJ. Thomas, another Georgian and
West Pointer and old army officer,
lives at Dalton, Ga, where he is, or
was, superintendent of education for
that country. DR.. Jones also says:
William McRae of North Carolina,
was killed in battle" If this is true,
which T doubt, he came to life again
and died years ago in Atlanta, Ca.
where he was the efficient general su-
perintendent of the Western and At
lantie Railroad.
The Chichamauga National Park
took Lieut.. Gen. Andrew P. Stewart
away from the head of the University
of Mississippi, and now the new Vicks-
burg National Park has robbed the
Mississippi Agricultural College of
Lieut.. Gen. stephen D. Lee. Both these
gentlemen are West Pointers and old
army officers, as well as distinguished
Confederate generals, and while they
were able educators they are now in
positions in which their military train
ing and experience enables them to do
more valuable service as Park Com
missioners. The work of Gen Lee at
Vicksburg National Park has been
highly commended by visiting Off
GERS of both armies who were in that
battle. He asks that Georgia be rep
resented in the monuments and mark
ers being erected there. 81.
! have frequently spoken of Capt.
Joe Wheeler, Jr., Lieut. Fitz Lee,
Jr., and Capt. Robert H. Anderson,
Jr., sons of old West Pointers and
army officers who carried their faith
ers' honored names back into the reg
ular army. But the fathers of the
former two are themselves back in
the army as retired brigadier generals
of the Spanish American war; but the
gallant father of the last named, Maj.
Gen. Robert Fl. Anderson, c. S. A, has
been in his grave many years. And
now comes the sad. news of the DEATH
by disease, in the Philippines, of his
brave sonT- Capt. Robert H. Anderson,
of his fathers old regiment. The
Georgia Legislature did a graceful act
in passing resolutions Of respect on the
death OF this gallant young officer.
There have been three r. H. Ander-
sons in the regular army, all fine sol
diers. Is.
In nearly all the newspaper and mag
azine pictures of the late President Nc
Kinley. especially those taken in Cal
ifornia. in Buffalo, and Niagara Falls.
there can be seen a chunky sort of a
man wearing a grayish business suit
and a Derby hat who bears a striking
likeness to Capt. Billy Shaw of the
old Savannah Cadets. This man is the
chief detective or guard detailed to pro-
tect the President. In one picture IN
front of the Milburp house he stands
directly back of the carriage, but in
the Niagara Falls picture he is seen
standing beside the President. and dur
ing the ride about that city he sat with
the driver on the carriage next to the
President. But wherever you see him,
In any picture, he was absolutely USE
less as a protector of the life of the
chief magistrate of the Nation. He
could be of some service, as he was,
after the assassination, which his
close proximity did not prevent. Nor
Will the abandonment of public recep-
lions, and Misunderstanding in any way
protect President Roosevelt, should any
assassin desire to take his life.
A recent writer on war topics in the
Atlanta Journal referred to his old
commander as Gen. "F'indlay," which
should have been Gen. Jesse J. Finley,
of Lake City, Fla, ex-judge, ex-con-
gresham and ex-state senator. He was
born in Tennessee, in 1912, and COM
manded a company of volunteers from
that state in the Florida Seminole war
with such gallantry aG to win the bre-
vet of major. He then settled here, and
the people have always delighted to
honor him in civil and military posi-
tons. Going into the Civil War as a
private, he soon rose to a captaincy
and then became colonel of the Sixth
Florida Infantry, from which he was
promoted to be a brigadier general
After a long life of great usefulness
Gen. Finley, in his ninetieth year, is
living quietly with his son, Editor
Chas. A. Finley. at Lake City. Among
the first prominent citizens whom 1 met
IN Jacksonville over twenty-five years
ago, was Gen. Finley for whom I have
always retained high regard.
A doubtful report is abroad firm his
old home in Alabama that Gen. Joe
Wheeler, u. S. A. (retired) Is to be
put forward as a candidate 70 s1Iccead