The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-30

which went to Savannah in response 10
one distribution, a well-known and prom
inent young Savannah man writes me
.nus periodically: IT am in receipt of
ewo beautiful silk American fags sent
with your compliments. l desire to ex-
press 10 you my sincere thanks AL
though my father fought for the Stars
and Bars four years, the ardor ana pa
trfotism displayed in his devotion to
the Lost Cause does not affect nv
loyalty to the Stars and Stripes, and l
am proud of the fact that l devoted five
months of my life to the Old Fag' in the
volunteer service during the Spanish
American war"
Inc Van Vleet-Mansfield Drug Company
puonshed a souvenir pamphlet for free
distribution at the Memphis reunion. 1t
gave pictures of many Confederate gen
erals as they appeared in war times, and
as they look in these days of peace. The
contrast is quite marked. There are some
serious errors, however, in the sketches
or these officers. Gen. r. z. Lee is said
to nave resigned as major in the United
states army to enter the Confederate
states army. Gen. Fitz Lee. it says.
was commissioned brisadier general of
volunteers, U, S. A, and lately retired
from the service" The facts are these:
- ''NS AitSt q llldJOE S6HSTdl OF NQlCu-
teerS, then bTagadier general, and final
ly given the same rank in the regular
army and placed on the retired list. There
are no volunteers, y. S. A." in the SER
vice. II refers to Gen. Joe Wheeler as "a
major general of volunteers in Cuba" and
lately retired from the regular army"
but fails to state that his record is the
same as that of Gen. Fitz Lee. OF Gen.
p. G. I. Beauregard it is said that he
JlNI f.-1
nassas." This is only partially true, as
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and his forces
arrived in time to participate in the bat
tie and he was then a full general while
Beauregard was only a major general. At
ter the battle Gen, Johnston asked Presi-
dent Davis, who had come on the field
to promote Gen. Beauregard to a full
generalship which he said he proposed
doing.
I do not object to Southern man for
President. not even such a Georgian as
Gen. John B. Gordon or Hon. Henry G.
Turner. but Mr.. L.. D. McCord of Ten
nessee has aiken the wrong course to
secure the nomination of a man from a
Southern state. His last article takes up
the army and navy and attempts to
show that the South has not been fairly
treated in either branch of the service. He
goes back to the old army and navy reg
listers of 1899 to show up the supposed
injustice. Mr.. McCord seems to forget
all about the Civil War, and how the
South held the leading places in the
army and navy before that war. And
the history of the world shows no such
restoration to official positions as the
South has secured since the war, in
both the volunteer and regular service.
He says only one Southern general is on
the retired list, and yet there are eight
now living, as he says, lin elegance and
comfortable ease on half pay" God for
bid that "Old Joe" Wheeler or gallant
Fitzhugh Lee should be held up to con-
tempt for being rewarded for their rare
devotion to duty in the hour OF their
reunited country's peril,
Take the May 1891 Army List" and
read over the names there-names of old
Confederate generals-such familiar
names as Lee, Wheeler, Gorgas. Hagood,
Cheatham. Wright, Longstreet. Fauntle-
roy, Darlington. Anderson, Clayton, FL
lott and others. Nearly half the faculty
at West Point Military Academy is com
posed of Southern officers. The inspector
general at Washington is a. Southerner,
and the chief of ordnance, quartermaster
general and judge advocate general of not
long ago, were also Southerners. No. Mr..
McCord must pull some other string
and pull it more truthfully and patriotic
ally before he can arouse popular sympa-
thy for his project. The great mass of
the people of the South will not be moved
by any such specious reasoning. They re-
member that IL was an Ohio G. A. R.
man-President Mckinley. who put
Wheeler, Lee, Butler, Rosser Gordon,
Oates, Hood. Cheatham and other South
ern heroes into the volunteer army of the
country.
Confederate generals have never been
neglected by the national government, but
have filed many important positions at
home and abroad. might name Johnston,
Hampton, Longstreet, Moury, Lawton,
Young, Heth. Wilcox, Field. jackson,
Thomas Of Georgia and Thomas of Flor
ida Alexander, Wright, Jones, Kirkland,
Mckay, Ransom. Shelley, Fitz Lee, Shell
by, Allen. Nancy and others. Take Geor-
gia, for example, and see how well she il
represented in the army and navy; and to
her sons promotion has never been slow.
The South has made wonderful progress
since the Civil War IN all departments OF
commerce. industrial pursuits and public
stations Her young men in military. ma
val and civil positions, have shown
themselves equal to all the increased obli-
cations Of a reunited and rapidly devel-
oping country. Still, do not think the
time has come for the nomination of
Southern man for President, but such a
man might with propriety be nominated
for Vice President In 1908 the country
ought to be in a condition to put a good
Southern man into the presidential chair.
Georgia has fifty able men, any one OF
whom would make a better President than
William Jennings Bryan.
Sidney Herbert.