The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-27
FOR GREENE'S BODY
SEARCH WILL BE INSTITUTED BY
COMMITTEE THIS WEEK.
COL. GARDINER HEARD FROM
HE WILL REACH SAVANNAH TO-DAY
OR TO-fORROW.

D
Ills Departure for Savannah-He Is
Chairman of the COmmittee-Gen-
tIemen on Committee VIII Meet
Him Upon His Arrival and Talk
over Their Prospective Work.
The search for the remains of Gen. Ma
thanael Greene, under the conduct of the
Society of the Cine matt in Rhode Island,
will be instituted this week. Col. Asa
Bird Gardiner, president of the Rhode
Island Cincinnati, is expected in Savan-
nah to-day or tomorrow, and will meet
the gentlemen of the committee to prose-
cute the search, Immediately upon his ar
rival.
1t is expected that no time will be lost
! after Col. GARDENERS arrival. The COM
mittee will meet at once for consultation
and a discussion of the several theories
regarding the burial place of the hero
patriot. From the tangled mass of evil
dence, reports, legends and fox lore will
be extracted the story appealing to the
committee as most worthy of credence,
and 1t will then begin to work upon the
clue.
With Col. Gardiner upon the committee
will be associated Mr.. Alfred bearing
Harden, a member of the Society of the
| Cincinnati in South Carolina, Hon. W.
Harden, Mr.. Walter G. Charlton, Col
George A. Mercer and Mr.. P. D. Dafin,
chairman of the Park and Tree Commits
sion. These gentlemen were all named in
the resolutions adopted by the Society
in Rhode Island, when it was determined
to undertake the search for the remains
of the Revolutionary patriot and the first
president of the Rhode Island Cincinnati.
Col Gardiner will act as chairman of the
committee, and the Rhode Island Cincin-
natl will bear all the expense of the
search
The strongest belief in any one of the
| traditions is that the remains still lie in
one of the four vaults in the old Colonial
| cemetery in which history declares the
General was buried. 1t is very probable
that search viii be made there first of
all, though that is matter for the COM
mittee to decide. The health officer of
Savannah has required that the opening
of the vaults in the cemetery must be
effected before May /, as sanitary rea-
sons demand it.
In which one of the four vaults the re-
mains were buried was not set forth in
the historical accounts of the burial, but
1t is believed that it was In that which
had belonged to the Grahame family The
estate of Royal Governor Grahame had
been confscated and conferred upon Gen.
Greene in recognition of his services, and
1t is thought the vault went as one of
the appurtenances. In that case, it is
probably true that the interment was
made in the vault.
The story that the remains were stolen
at dead of night from the grave by a
slave of Mrs. Mossman, a daughter of
| Gov. Grahame, to whom the estate and
the vault were restored, will be investi-
| gated and also the story that young
| George Washington Greene, son OF the
| General displeased that his fathers re-
mains should lie among the bodies of Eng
lish. whom he had learned to regard with
a fierce hatred during his tutelage in
France, under Lafayette, secretly opened
the vault and spirited away the remains
to renter them at Dungeness on Cum
berland Island, where it is declared by
some that they now lie
Northern soldiers, it is declared when
camped in and around the old cemetery
during the occupancy of the city by Sher-
| mans forces broke open the vaults and
ransacked them. The boys of that Sec
| ton of the city, after the withdrawal of
| ago, were familiar with the condition Of
| the vaults, and many of the hardy young
| sters, restrained by no superstiti 1us
J dread, were bold enough to crawl through
! the openings into the dark, damp and
! grewsome receptacles for the bodies of
| the dead. Men now tell stories of their
entrance into the tombs in search of
/ CHASTITY relics. One young man says hi
chief ambition at that time was to dis
cover a skull but the bones had been
subjected to careful picking, and skulls
were not to be found. 1t is the opinion
of this gentleman, whom his friends
would never suspect of having been 50
| ghoulish youth, that the remains of the
! General will not be found in one of the
vaults his own careful inspection of
them had discovered no coffin with metal
! plate bearing the name of the General.
! History has 1t that it was in such an
one that the interment was made.
Mr.. Alfred bearing Harden has been
advised by Col. Gardiner of his intention
to be in Savannah not later than to-mor-
row. For some seven weeks the Colonel
has been incapacitated from work v
govt in his eye. but he has now re-
covered sufficiently to admit of his UNDER
taking the search. He expressed the hope
| that the gentlemen of the committee
would be prepared to go promptly 10
work.
| TO ELECT CEMETERY KEEPER