The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-27

sage OF Maitland" and saws he runs
the risk of being corrected by me.
ne evidently felt sure that he was
making slip" in his historical
sketch of Appling county. 1t was not
the battle of Plattsburg. N. Y, that
won fame and a Sword of Honor
Tor Maj. Daniel Appling, u. S. A, but
the famous battle near Sandy Creek,
n. Y, on May 30, 1914, which won him
the brevet of lieutenant colonel. But
the later (Sept. III battle of Platts-
burg brought him the brevet of colo
mel. Part of the inscription on the
Sword of Honor voted by the Geor-
gia Legislature reads: For his cool
and deliberate valor displayed through
out the action at Sandy Creek"
AS to Col. Appling's burial place: he
was not inferred at Plattsburg, as sug-
gested, for he came home and resigned
from the army, June, /, 1916.
Col. Appling is reported to have died
at Fort Montgomery, Ala, March IS,
1917, yet Whites Statistics" as we'll
as other authorities, gives 1918 as the
date. While the manner of his death
is not recorded, 1 infer that he died a
soldier, and with soldiers surrounding
his death couch. My reason for this
is founded upon the fact that in July,
1877, Gen. Gaines, then at Fort Mont
5OAiCiJ, dPPlASQ " GONs Iednuu 4OA lWO
battalions of Georgia troops, to aid
him in his operations in that section
against the Lower Creek Indians. Col.
Appling had not long been home from
the army when this opportunity offer
ed for him to aid his old Comrade, Gen.
Gaines. and no doubt he went to Fort
Montgomery some time before his
death. which was the result of a sud-
den. brief and severe illness. 1t is to
be presumed, therefore, that he died in
the midst of martial scenes and war
like surroundings, and that his last
hours were made peaceful and serene
by the familiar voices and we'll known
faces of former comrades in the army,
who proved, no doubt, in making
smooth the pillow of his final rest, that
the bravest are the tenderest. 1 know
not whether they buried him there with
the military honors due his high rank,
or sent his remains back to his native
state for interment; but this do know,
that wherever his ashes now repose,
There lies a face that never paled,
A pulseless heart that never quailed."
The great cutlery against inhuman
treatment of insurgents in the Phil
lppines appears to me to be more polit-
ical than sympathetic. When Gen.
Sherman said War is hell" he utter
ed no new or modern truth. War is
no more "hell' now than it was in the
early days of creation, when tribes
fought against tribes in hand to hand
contests. The Hebrews used clubs, ar
rows, spears, swords, etc, and their
warfare was at times most brutal and
inhuman. And from that day to this,
with all our great improvements in
warlike appliances and our humane
societies, the brutal and inhuman
of I,ax
or less active. This is true of all
Christian nations, as well as the saw
age tribes. I challenge any modern
critic of our army in the Philippines
to prove that there has been any I'M
usual cruelty practiced there. All
past wars have had their bloody, bru-
tai and inhuman records.
If any Doubling Thomas" reads this
letter, he can confirm my statement by
reference to his Bible. There he will
find that in Hebrew warfare the soldiers
killed in battle were plundered and
their bodies mutilated. But worse than
this, helpless prisoners of war were
mutilated so as to be unfit for future
service, or killed on the spot. Who
that is familiar with Revolutionary his
tory does not recall the awful horrors
and inhumanities of the famous pris-
on ship Jersey" out of which came
so many patriotic soldiers disabled for
life The war of 1872, the Indian wars
in Florida and Georgia, the Mexican
war, and the Civil War, all had their
acts of brutality and inhumanity. The
Mexican war was called a Democratic
war and the Wings and Peace advo-
Gates were active then in parading be-
fore the public acts of cruelty on the
part of our soldiers, just as is now
being done in regard to our soldiers
in the Philippines. 1t is, however, the
same old story.
A Writer'S" -in the Augusta (Ga.)
Chronicle of April 6, goes back to
Revolutionary days and asks Where
was the White House." which he says
was, in it's day, probably the most
famous building that has ever stood
in Augusta" He refers to the terrible
scenes of horror enacted in that build
ing where Brown, the Tory leader,
lay wounded, and where he solaced
his own pain by gloating over the
death agonies of Capt. Ashby and
eleven other patriot prisoners whom
he had hanged to the staircase" This
writer wonders why no one has copy
of a pamphlet by the late Judge Ebe-
nezer Starnes on THE Death of Girl
erson.' This shows the Importance
of preserving pamphlets of a historical
character. I have a collection (many
are autograph copies from eminent
mem that is almost priceless. No
doubt Judge Starnes' pamphlet would
be invaluable to-day to the historian
of those early events in Georgia. In
a sketch of Gen. Henry Lee, better
known as Light Horse Harry" pub
lished in 1886, l find this foot note
about Augusta and the death of Girl
erson: THE war in Georgia had been
conducted with circumstances of mu-
tual cruelty. So far had this spirit
extended that quarter was often re-
fused and men were butchered after
they had thrown down their arms, Girl
erson was shot by some of the militia
after he had surrendered, and though
Lee offered a large reward for the dis
covery of the murderers they were
never detected" Sidney Herbert
Saw Hatteras TOpsy-Turvey.
From the Baltimore Sun.
To few men in their sober senses is
granted the privilege of seeing Cape