The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-29

and Gen. Alexander were on engineer
duty in California. and were devoted
comrades. Mcpherson begged of Alex
ander to remain in the army as an en-
gineer and keep out of the battles.
But he resisted all appeals and came
home to Georgia and became Long
streets able chief of artillery. AS to
government pap" since the war, he
has never held a public office, but has
been employed as a skilled engineer.
The FELTON, family has had the politi-
cal pap"
In Henry Watterson's recent Grafton
1 was struck with the eloquent trib-
ute paid to the soldiers of the "Tippe-
canoe" Indian campaign, under Gen.
VIM. Henry Harrison in 1918. His refer
ence to no Pullman cars, etc, was
timely, and in marked contrast with
the modes of army travel in those early
days. Now, if a regiment goes to or
comes from San Francisco, the SOL
diers have comfortable tourist cars"
while the officers and their families oc-
cupy luxurious Pullman sleepers. /
wish every reader of these letters
could have a copy of ''Waubun", a
narrative of THE Early Days in the
Northwest" by Mrs. John H. Kinzie
of Chicago, mother of Mrs. Gen. w. w.
Gordon Of Savannah, who writes the
introduction and notes to this very in
teresting volume. 1t is not hard to
understand the privations and suffer-
ings of the pioneers, soldiers and civil
ians, in the early days of old Fort
Dearborn, Fort Pitt, Fort Defiance,
Fort Howard, Fort Winnebago and
other frontier defenses, but it is al
most incredible, the narrative of what
the cultured and delicate women suf-
fered who accompanied their husbands.
In this respect "Waubun" is more
thrilling than any modern novel of
wild adventure.
The commencement exercises at the
Virginia Military Institute, at Lexing-
ton, Va, following close upon those at
West Point Military Academy, remind
me that during the Civil War the v.
NJ. l. was called the West Point of
the Confederacy. Good old Gen. Fran
els II. Smith (whose memory l revere),
a distinguished graduate of West Point
IN It's early days, made the Virginia
Institute second only to West Point as
a fine military school 1t gave to the
c. S. A. such gallant officers as Maj
Gems. Malone, Rodes and Humes, and
Brig. Gen. Payne, Echols, Walker, Col
ston, Wharton, Jones, Garland, Terry,
Vaughn, Elliott, Lane Walker, Penn;
MCOduSldHQ ana 1serrlll, not TO speak
of host of gallant subordinate Off
GERS. The Confederacy also had
regularly established naval academy,
but it was, in one sense, on wheels"
In 1858 the c. S. steamer Patrick Hen
ry was fitted up as the academy, and
stationed near Drewry's Bluff, Va, a
location that afforded the cadets am
pie experience in real naval warfare.
A son of Admiral Semmes and a son
of Gen. John c. Breckenridge were ca
diets there. Also, Jefferson Davis
Howell, brother of President Davis
wife. 1t is a singular fact that the
naval cadets were in President Davis
escort as far as Abbeville, S. c.,
where, under Lieut.. William H. Parker,
c. S. N, commandant, on May 2, 1865,
by order of Secretary Mallory, they
were paid off and disbanded. But the
old Virginia Military Institute, de-
stroyed by the Union troops, was re-
habilitated and again became the fore
most military school, next to West
Point, in the country. Georgia has
been a liberal patron of the institute
and Savannah has many citizens who
were cadets there. Gen. Supt w. B.
Denham of the Plant System is not on
ly a distinguished graduate but was
for time a highly esteemed assistant
professor of the institute, and his res
ignation was very reluctantly accepted.
Sidney Herbert.