The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-07
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER.
HE MAKES INTERESTING REFER
ENCEs TO HTS "LITERARY DEN."

!
of John f. ward-Facts of a
Tragedy Restated-A Famous War
ship Found in the Brooklyn Navy
| Yard-Representa Blackburn's
Bill Relative to the Wearing of
the Confederate Cross of Honor
Commended other Matters of
General Interest.
Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla, Dec.
Con Wednesday next, Dec. 10, shah
! celebrate in a very quiet way as be-
comes an invalid, my 10th birthday.
! The Bible says, 1.-THE days of our years
are three-score years and ten: and if
| by reason of strength they be four
score years, yet is their strength Ia
| Dor and sorrow" On Wednesday 1
| shall have reached the ordinary limit
! and will then enter upon the four
score years that have labor and sor-
row. in their strength. Yet I do not
fear that l shall cry out to the Lord.
| as did one of old. least me not off in
! the time of old age; forsake me not
when my strength faileth," for, can
say with the Psalmist, 81 have been
L L
not seen the righteous forsaken. nor
his seed begging bread" In 1857 conse-
Grated myself and all my powers to
| the service of my God, my country and
my fellow men. and have lived strict
ly a life of faith to the present day
Nor have l at any time suffered for
anything I needed. Even when 1 gave
my last dollar to some good purpose
it was almost sure to come back to
- .
| line" so to speak, into the region of
"four-score years." with an mistaken
faith and an unfaltering trust, in God
unfailing goodness.
l have written the above because
some of my friends here wish to put
up for me, as a birthday gift, wood
en- tent covered with canvass. to be
called Camp Comfort" and ask me
to appeal to my outside friends to help.
But with my views of a life of faith
cannot grant their request. If the
Lord wants me to have a new liter
airy den," it will come to me without
begging for ii. He has never yet fail
ed to supply my wants. When l came
to Florida, ten years ago. an invalid,
built me a little literary den" that
became famous through a two-column
''write-up' in the New York Times,
by the late Maj. VIM. Drysdale, a tall
ented author and distinguished jour-
nalist. 1t was the biggest den" of it's
size in the world, being about 10 by
u, and containing four rooms. On its
shelves were books worth 500 or $50,
or $25 each. aside from ordinary vol
umes. Drysdale was a very large man
and he said l had to go out on the
little veranda when he called in order
to allow him to go in and look at my
old and rare books. Alas! decay has
| made the old "den" uninhabitable for
such valuable books. and I have had
to move them to my little cottage
home.
The death of Hon. John E. Ward
removes the last actor in the terrible
tragedy, in the thirties, at the planta-
ton of Hon. T. Butler King. Lieut..
Hooe, U. S. N. killed the surgeon of
his war vessel, and Hon. John E. Ward
was one of his distinguished lawyer.
Now that he is dead I think the. judges,
the jurors, the lawyers and every ma
val officer concerned in the trial have
| passed away. Capt. J. S. Kennard of
| Savannah was one of the last to die,
following Rear Admiral Thomas H.
Patterson to the grave. Lieut. Hooe
died in 1S45, after many years of sick
ness and sororw. he having escaped a
| n.
able to write up this terrible tragedy,
one full of romance on the part of the
murderer who came of a very promi-
nent Virginia family, and was defend
| ed at his first trial q think at Da-
rien) by Hon. John E. Ward and 9TH
er eminent lawyers. Lieut.. Hooe
wrote a poem in imitation of Wilde's
poem, my Life Is Like the Summer
Rose" but full of sadness and sorrow.
The Jasper Spring celebration re-
minds me that during the Civil War
there We're many instances in which
one or two, and often more, soldiers
gave their lives freely to save their
| regimental flag. Lieut.. Col. Henry
p. Thomas (also major) of the Six
teenth Georgia Infantry. commanded
by Gen. Howell Cobb and Gen. Goode
Bryan, gave his life tor the flag of a
assault upon Fort Sanders, at Knox
vile, Tenn. Maj. Gen. Sam Jones. c.
S. A. says: col. Thomas of the Six
| teenth Georgia, a brave and deter
mined officer, was killed while lead
ing his regiment to scale the works
When the assault was over he was
found in an angle of the ditch in a
sitting posture, but dead, and with
his face to the foe" An officer of the
Union army states that Col. Thomas
gained the parapet and planted there
the flag of the Thirteenth Mississippi
but in doing so he fell pierced by a doz-
en- bullets and rolled back into 'the
ditch (where he was found after the
assaulD carrying with him the flag fol
which he so heroically sacrificed his
life.
1t seems providential that the ole
British prison ship, the Jersey" also
known as the Hell Ship" has just
been unearthed in the Brooklyn navy
yard by the pile driving machine. Ir
the decayed fragments of this once in
famous place of confinement for Rev
dictionary soldiers and patriots, the
Boston anti-impefialists and their fol.
lowers, wherever they may be, car
find a better subject for criticism thar
tales of inhumanity in Northern anc
Southern prisons during the civil wal
combined. role into insignificance be.
side the story of this old Hell Ship
in which British cruelties and inhu-
manities were practiced upon mer
whose only offense was a love of Lib
erty and a desire to free the Colonies
from long endured oppression. The
critics of Gen. Jacob Smith, and other
army officers in the Philippines will
do we'll to read up on the history OF
this old prison ship Jersey" whose
horrors have never been duplicated Sc
far as / know.
feel hiphlv honorad IN, racaixIne