The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-04
DESCENDANTS OF GEN. GREENE so
SAY of HIS REMAINS.
REPORT NOT GIVEN CREDIT
ONE OF FOUR VAULTS SUPPOSED TO
CONTAIN THE BODY.

LegendS-Mr. William Harden
Thinks the Body of Gen. Greene
Lies in One of the Vaults Near
OgIethOrpe Avenue in the Old Gem
etery.
thaniel Greene lies at Dungeness, on
Cumberland Island is contradicted by his
direct descendants in Savannah. Mrs.
Robert 7. Waller and her sister, Mrs.
Charlton, were seen yesterday. and they
emphatically declared that their great
grandfather's, the Generals, remains do
not lie at Dungeness.
Mrs. Waller and Mrs. Charlton have
spent a great deal of time at Dungeness,
the ancestral seat of their family. The
mansion was built by the wife of the Gen
eral, and it was but recently that the es-
tate passed from the possession of the
Nightingsles, descendants of the General,
by whom it was sold to Mrs. Carnegie.
Never did Mrs. Waller or Mrs. Charl-
ton know sught of the removal of the
remains of Gen. Greene from their orig
inal resting place in the old Colonial
Cemetery in Savannah. They do not be-
lieve they were moved unless al the IN
stigation of Mrs. Mossman, which would
have been IL the event of the interment
in the Grahame vault Mrs. Mossman was
sister of Mrs. Grahame, and the vault
was restored to the possession of the
family. 1t was alleged that a slave OF
Mrs. Mossman had stolen the remains Of
the General and re-interred them at dead
OF night in an unmarked grave in the
cemetery, the location of which he would
not divulge. 1t would seem that the
ghoulish work and the reputed time of
its preparation would have been suffi-
cient to convince that no negro had I'M
dertaken it, but the report was neverthe-
less given credence, and whippugs were
administered to the slave in the vain ef-
fort TO make him reveal the location of
the grave to which he was said to have
transferred the Generals remains.
The grave Of Light Horse Harry Lee
and of Gen. Knox also a brave officer
of the Revolution, both of whom died at
| Dungeness, are recalled by Mrs. Waller
and Mrs. Charlton as being in the fam
lily cemetery, the gentlemen having been
visitors at Mrs. Greene's home at the
| time of their death. We're the grave of
| Gen. Greene there too, the ladies de-
clare, they would most certainly know it,
Many legends of Light Horse Harry
Lee were common among the servants at
Dungeness when the ladies, then chill
| dren, were accustomed 20 visit the ISL
and estate. The General was spoken of
with awe, and there was a room in the
mansion that was declared by the darkies
to be haunted by a ghost as choleric as
was the General in the days when fret
ted, peevish and impatient of the re-
straint he was kept to his room by his
last illness. Only one of the servants, an
old mauma, 1t was said, would dare ap-
proach the General during those days, and
she was of much the same spirit that he
showed. Likely as not, on the mauma
entering the room of the General, she
would have one of his boots SHE'D at her
head, a compliment she would return in
kind by gathering up the footgear and
returning it as it was sent, with an ac-
compartment of terms of reproach fer his
conduct that matched the fiery exc,ama-
tions with which the General had fired
his shot.
The ladies say that successive genera
tions of their family have instituted
search for the Generals remains. Perl
odically the task has been resumed. They
think the body was most probably placed
in the Grahame vault, as Mulberry Grove
the estate presented the General, had
been confscated as the property of Gov
Grahame of the colony of Georgia. 1t
was conveyed to Gen. Greene with the
other Grahame possessions, and that it
would have been but natural to place his
body there.
Mr.. William Harden, who is a member
of the committee or the order of the
Cincinnati that, under the direction of
the Rhode Island branch, is soon to in
stitute a search for Hon. Greene's re-
mains. does not concur in the report of
IN
opinion that the body was placed in one
of the four vaults that are in a rev near
Oglethorpe avenue. These vaults stood
near the old entrance to the cemetery
opposite Lincoln street and the contem-
porary report of the obsequies has it that
the remains were placed in one of them
though without specifying which one
Johnsons history of Gen Greene was
produced by Mr.. Harden, who referred 10
a footnote, which is as follows: Judge
Stevens, who performed the funeral ser
vice, has repeatedly told the author that
the body of Gen. Greene lay in the tomb
of tine Jones. That tomb has not vet
been searched. But there is much evil
dence to prove that it was placed at first
in that of the Grahame's, as an append
age to the confiscated estate conferred
upon him by Georgia. This vault after
ward passed to the family of Mossman,
who married a sister of Mrs. Grahame
From which, the authors inquiries induce
him to believe that it was removed I'M
der the orders of Mrs. Mossman but
whittier is unknown. There is still pos
sibility that 1t may have been removed
to that of the Jones'"
The history was written in 1922, when
it had not been so long since the fun.
eral of Gen. Greene. Il was in 1856 that
the funeral was held, and it would seem
that some memory of the interment
would have fingered and that the mys-
terry might have been solved. The late
Mr.. George Wymberly Jones DeRenne
Mr. Harden said caused the bodies in
the Jones vault in the old cemetery TO
be removed years ago to Bonaventure
but the body of Gen. Greene was not then
discovered. Mr.. Harden admits that the
body might have been left in the old
Jones vault, or that, without being recog.
nized through an examination of the
name plate, 1t might have been removed
to the new vault in Bonaventure. He
however, is rather inclined to the belief
that the body still lies in one of the
three remaining vaults.
Referring to the metal plate, Mr., Har-
den directed attention to another pass
uge in Johnsons history, which makes
the positive statement: 1.-The coffin is dis
tingushed, wherever il lies, by a plate
of silver or brass. engraven with the
name and age in the usual manner"
1t Is not the purpose of the committee
from the Cincinnati, as Mr.. Harden IN
derstands IL, to discover the remains I'm
order that they may be removed 10 Rhode