The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-09
s. : p
Dr. Humphreys ''77" prevents
Pneumonia and breaks up
hard Colds that hang on
c RIP


of the United States Engineer Corps,
to push ahead, though of humble par
entage and graduate QS64) at the
head of his class. Sickles appointed
him through a competitive examina-
ton and when the boy said, II will
try" Congressman Sfckles retorted,
Trying is no good; you must do it."
And he started in to do it," but after
he had gotten ahead of about forty
cadets he begun to be discouraged,
and wrote Gen Sickles. So Dan wrote
back: you have beaten thirty or for
ty good men, and you mustn't tell me
that you can't get ahead of three or
four" That settled it, and Cadet Ly-
decker bravely pushed ahead and
graduated No. in his class. How
hard the task was and how persist,
emily and heroicaily he worked, only
he and Gen. Sfckles knew.
Col. Estill says the, town of Cumming,
in Forsyth county, was named in hon
or of Col. William Cumming of Au-
gusta, but L feel sure that a higher til
tie ought to have been given him in
Georgia. Col. Cumming, dixie Maj.
j. B. Cumming of Augusta, of the
present day. was not only a brave and
accomplished soldier, but a cultured
officer stood higher in the old United
States Army before the reorganization
of 1915. He entered the service as
senior major of the Eighth Infantry,
in March, 1913, the junior major be-
ing Philip Cook, also of Georgia, it
being a Georgia regiment commanded
by Col. Patrick Jack. But in Febru-
airy, 1914, he was promoted to- be colonel
and assistant adjutant general, which
10 ~
leaving behind him such a fine record
as a field and department officer that
when, a few years later, division quar-
termasters were abolished and a quar-
termaster general, with rank of brig
adler general, provided for, he was APP
pointed to that important position. His
commission was dated April 18, 1918,
but he declined, and BIT. Col. Thomas
S. Jesup was commissioned on May
8, following. Hammerslay, in his his
tory of the army, refers to Gen. Cum
ming" as declining the appointment. L
have a very valuable bound volume of
the old Army Registers from 1915 to
1887, and I find in a General Order,
dated April 30, 1918, this extract: Brig
adler General William Cumming, to
be quartermaster general, 18th April,
1875" 1 feel safe, therefore, in claim
ing that the town of Cumming is
Cumming, U. S. A, an "officer and
gentleman" whose services to his coun-
try and his state should keep his mem
DRY green in the hearts of patriotic
Georgians.
Col. EstilPs letters are proving val
liable from a biographical and histor-
ical standpoint, and form a sort of
gazetteer of the counties visited by
him. His Forsyth county letter speaks
of Col. Hiram P. Bell as the sole sur
viving Confederate congressman from
Georgia. This has only been true of
him for a few weeks, as Judge Mark
H. Blandford, of Columbus, the one
armed Confederate, was also a MEM
Der of the Second Congress with Col.
Bell, and he died only short time
ago. There is one more Georgian liv-
ing who was in the provisional and
first Congress, but he represented AL
ALBANIA l refer to Rev. DR.. J. L. M.
Curry of the Peabody Educational
Fund. The other Georgia associates of
Col. Bell in the Second Congress were
William ("Tete'O E. Smith George N
Lester, j. H. Echols, T. R. r. Cobb
(O, Jas. NJ. Smith, Clifford Anderson,
Warren Akin and Julian Hartridge.
The latter also served in the U. S.
Congress, after the war; with Col. Bell.
"Tete" Smith was also in the United
States Congress and Judge Lester was
a defeated candidate for the same
honor. Jim" Smith became Governor,
Cobb a general, Anderson, attorney
general and Akin, Eohols and Shen-
make prominent in public affairs Bell
survives them all and is, 1 think, the
last or near the last, survivor of the
Georgia Secession Convention.
Georgia congressman gave more gem
erals to the Confederate army than
those of any other state, except Vir-
ginia. There were Francis S. Barlow
and Thomas R. R. Cobb who fell in
battle, and Howell Cobb, Robert
Toombs and L. ]. Gartrell. Virginia
sent Roger A. Pryor, William ('Extra
Billy') Smith, A G. Jenkins, John r.
Chambliss and William c. Wickham.
Kentucky sent Humphrey Marshall and
George B. Hodge, South Carolina sent
James Chestnut, Jr., and M. L. Bon
ham. Texas sent T. N. Waul; North
Carolina sent Thomas L. Clingman;
Missouri sent John B. Clark; Florida
sent J. Patton Anderson; Mississippi,
think, sent Reuben Davis. OF all this
list of congressional Confederate gem
erals 1 am of the opinion that Judge
Roger A. Pryor of New York is the
sole survivor, unless John B. Clark is
still alive. 1 have lost sight of him
since he. ceased to be the clerk of the
House of Representatives at Washing
ton. Postmaster General John H. Rea-
gan, now reported quite i'll at his home,
in Palestine, Tex, was a member of the
provisional Congress until he became
Postmaster General. He and Bell and
Pryor and Curry are the sole congress
sional survivors, so far as 1 know.
Sidney Herbert.