The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-01-11

probtsbly two months afterwards Now
that - the history of this letter.
There is another matter that / wish to
call the attention of the court. If it be
proper, and that is this: At any time as
] conceive it, from the goth of August
until this court was organized, could
have rendered my resignation to the
commander-in-chiefa and believe 1t would
have been accepted, and this whole mat
ter would have been stopped, but / pre-
ferred for my own honor and for the
good of the service. that l would stand
the notoriety of this matter and the pub
iication that was being made and come
and face the court rather than to resign
voluntarily and be treated in that way.
II will state to the court that since
this proceeding became known to the
public that l have not myself nor has
any friend of mine. with my knowledge
or consent, ever given out a word for
publication in the papers. l make that
statement because since l have been in
Montgomery, l find some of them are of
the opinion that when the newspaper re-
ports were published l gave out my
letter for publication, but as a matter of
fact, have not at any time or under any
circumstances, given out a solitary word
for publication, nor has any one of my
friends with my knowledge or consent
and every word that has been published
is without my knowledge or consent. That
is the whole case as | understand it."
ON reference to the statement in
that letter about there being a question
as TO Higdon's election. State what that
was based on, colonel. A. / will state,
gentlemen, that Lieutenant Pride, Captain
Pride now, was made member of Gov
ernor Johnston's staff. l was on Gov
er1ior Johnstons staff myself and resigned
the position. Lieutenant Pride was made
lieutenant colonel
Q.-Was he a lieutenant colonel at the
time? A. Lieutenant of Company e, and
accepted the position as lieutenant col
onel. but never resigned the position as
lieutenant. He voted FOR Colonel Higdon
and held position that as matter of law
by accepting the position as lieutenant
colonel his position fas lieutenant OF
Company L became vacant, and thereup-
on had no right 10 cast a vote. / was
also informed that Lieutenant vogel of
Company F, Huntsville-that his resig-
nation as lieutenant had been accepted
before this election was held, but that he
voted for Colonel Higdon and that his
vote was counted for him. That Is what
mean by saying that II was a matter
of grave doubt as to whether he was
legally elected; and / also know Colonel
Huey had either protested or contested
the election of Colonel Higdon. l meant
no disrespect to the Governor OF Ala
bama or anybody else by making that
statement, and l do not think that any
body else but Colonel Higdon has ever
construed 1t in that light.
O. Did you and Major Smith and Major
McCloud state to Higdon at the time you
went to him as a committee on the part
Of the officers of the First Regiment at
Jacksonville, Fla, that the reason you
wanted him to resign was that he repre-
scented the men, and you all represented
the officers. and you all wanted to go to
Cuba? A. We certainly did not.
@. What reason did you give him for
asking his regiment? A. The only rea-
son we gave him was we knew he was
incompetent to command the regiment.
@. How many officers did you repre-
sent at that time? A. Forty-fve out of
City officers in the regiment
O. Now is it a fact that that request
for his resignation was before or after the
movement In reference to the mastering
put of the regiment began. A. 1t came be-
fore; 1t was the night before Colonel Hig-
don left on q furlough. as / stated to
the court, and the next morning he left
and went to Birmingham. and few days
afterwards the movement was started in
Birmingham In Birmingham papers, and
because of the movement coming from