The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-16

tered the service of the Confederacy"
Now, Uriah Wright of Virginia entered
West Point in 1919, but failed to grad
uate. As he was never in the United
States army he could not have resigned
his commission to enter the Confederate
service. 1 have several times
referred to the late Rev. DR.. Edward
Eggleston as a Virginian, and 1 still
think he was, yet a magazine sketch
says he was born in Vevay, Ind. How
ever. his parents may have moved to
Virginia while he was a boy. At all
events. his brother, George Cary Egg
gleston, the author, was a Virginia
Confederate soldier and wrote "A Reb-
els Recollections," spicy book of
army life, which he dedicated to his
more famous brother. Edward Eggles-
ton, who remained loyal to the Union.
A notice of the death of a sup
posed last survivor" of the brave men
who manned the famous Confederate
iron clad Merrimac, or Virginia, has
brought to light the fact that there
are several living survivors" still
ION deck" one of whom is Rev. DIR.
R. C. Fonte, of San Francisco, but
formerly of Sit. Phillips Church in
Atlanta. The latest newspa-
per fad in the South is a syndicate
Question and Answers" or Answers
to. Correspondents" department. The
writer asks his own questions and
gives his own answers, and often does
it in a careless, unreliable manner. AS
an example, he gives the cabinet at
Washington and leaves out half of
them. First term it consisted of Jay
and Jefferson and Hamilton, and
Knox and Randolph and Osgood, sue
ceeded by Pickering. Second term it
was Jefferson, Randolph and Pickering
and Hamilton, with Walcott, and
Knox, Pickering and McHenry, and
Randolph. Bradford and Lee, and
Pickering, with Joseph Habersham, of
Georgia. as postmaster general. Only
one change in first cabinet and nine
in the second cabinet, Pickering
being changed three times.
1T is a singular factor it appears
to be a fact-that the first IS contrib
uted to purchase Beauvoir, the Jeffer-
son Davis residence for a Confederate
soldiers home in Mississippi, were
raised by a Northern printer named
Willis L. Hall, of Denver Col, who
was spending the winter in Meridian,
Miss, at the time, and was a prime
mover in starting the fund that re-
suited in the purchase. At that time
there were said to be over forty old
Confederate soldiers in the poor houses
of the state. and this sad fact stirred
the Sons of Veterans to take hold of
the movement and push ii to q most
speedy and successful termination
Now, what this Northern man did for
this Confederate soldiers home has
been done by scores of other Northern
men for similar institutions in Florida,
in Georgia, in, Alabama and in other
states. And yet Bill Arp and Mrs
Nv al
walls of wrath upon the Yankees"
The United States Navy is not only
short" on seamen and apprentices.
but also on officers of all grades. and
consequently an order has been issued
by the Navy Department cutting off
one year at the Naval Academy at An
napolis, and making the course three,
instead of four years, as has been the
rule. The eXclusiveness of the navy
has made this deficiency in officers
possibly. In the army a private soldier
can-aS many have done-win a COM
mission and rise to the grade of brig
adler or major general. Not so in the
navy, for there has been no such adj
vancement allowed. If every senator
can be permitted to send a cadet to
the Naval Academy. as he is now al
lowed to do at West Point the desired
increase in midshipmen could be easily
reached. But in these days of modern
war vessels there should be some in
ducement for educated young men to
go into the navy and win commissions,
that there is in the army, where the
sons of generals, and senators and mil
lionaires enlist to win commissions.
Admirals' sons might, perhaps, be
tempted to try this path to promotion
if offered to them. Georgia has a doz-
en- officers in the army who came up
from the ranks.
I have very valuable and interest
ing letter from Mr.. M. r. Tunno of
Savannah in regard to Gen. B. E. Bee
Gen. c. H. Stevens and Col. (Bishop)
Stevens, his brother. Such letters help
greatly in making up a reliable record
of military men and events, and show
the Importance of having in each state
an official historian to whom such let
tiers as well as official reports could
be sent for compilation and presenta-
ton. Mr.. Tunno, however, errs in re-
gard to Gen. Longstreet. AS he is now
back into full fellowship with the Con-
federate organizations, I do not think
his being Republican now had any
influence with him in the Civil War.
Malone, Walker, Chalmers, Rosser,
Nancy and other brave Confederate
generals became Republicans after the
surrender. 1t is true, as wrote more
than a year ago, that the failure of
Longstreet ito move promptly gave
Sickles the opportunity to reach the
best natural defensive point at Gettys-
burg. Had Longstreet first secured
the position 1t might have enabled Gen.
Lee to have won the battle.
Gen. Corbin seems to have brought
home with him. and put into his an
nual report, the German objection to
early marriages of second lieutenants
in the army. But his reference to d.
viding their pay between their office
and family" does not carry much
weight. The majority of army officers
who are court-martialed for duplicating
their pay accounts, as the records will
show, were guilty of gambling and 9TH
er vices that led them into financial
troubles. Few of them were married
men, and the demands of the family
did not divide" or lessen their incomes.
Gen. Sherman was also violently op-
posed to the marriage of second lieu