The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-26
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER.
,xTEREsTING REFERENCES TO
DOZENS ON "THE BAREFOOT BOY"

r.o oldest Living Field officer of
the Army of the POtOmac-The
Mistake of the Buffalo Express i'm
If, Article on Generals who Came
", From the Ranks-The Only Col
mel to Be Promoted to the Rank
Of Brigadier General in the New
"lump"-A Reference That Has
Been Observation-Disclosures on
Pension Systems-A Fact COnpli-
mentnry to West POint-Other Mat
ters of General Interest.
Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla, July
al am sorry for my talented and
ambitious young namesake, Sidney
Herbert Blan of the Troy (Ala.) Daily
Messenger, who has been over in Can
ada with the Alabama Press Assocla-
ton Bryon thought fame consisted
in being killed in battle and having
your name printed wrong in the news
papers. Editor Blan has discovered
that in these later days it consists in
stopping at first-class hotel and suf-
fering the same fate. His name APP
81 uedTS as >. II. bldlT ana IL bIdQQ,
and being an editor himself l hope
s. it will learn him a lesson in regard to
n the careless manner in which such
names are printed. see that
one J. c. Stewart has written a popu-
lar little poem on 1.-The Barefoot Boy
that is going the rounds of the press.
The subject seems, in one sense, unpo-
etical, and yet Whittier left behind him
Il grand poem on THE Barefoot Boy"
that will live as long as anything he
wrote The late Gen. Henry r. Jack
son of Savannah, in his early manhood,
was given to writing poetry, much of
which still holds a place in current
81 literature. One of his early poems
was entitled 1.-The Barefoot Boy and
it hits off the boys with high-heeled
boots and calfskin shoes.
Col. Elijah Walker of the Fourth
Maine Infantry, now residing in a Bos-
ton suburb, is said to be the oldest
surviving field officer of the Army of
the Potomac, and he was a marked
feature in the Hooker monument cere-
monies at Boston recently. He is IS
years old, and on his birthday Kinsley
Post G. A. r. of which he is a mem
Der. presented him a handsome easy
chair. Col. Walker missed only one
"a battle of the Army of the Potomac,
a and at the battle of the Wilderness
q he had two horses shot from under
q him and was wounded five times. And
yet he las outlived thousands of his
comrades and is to-day the Oldest sur
4 wing field officer of that famous
4 army. The statement that
a Maj Gen. oliver o. Howard, u. S. A,
retired, is the sole survivor of the great
n in a
on the Union side, is not correct. How
ard commanded the Army of the TenneS-
see, but Lieut.. Gen. John M. Schofield.
L, S, A, retired, commanded the Army
q of the Chic, and is still alive. Hunter,
& Curtis, Ord, Thomas, Lyon, Buell.,
Rosecrans, Steele, Slocum, Logan, Nc
X Pherson were among the subordinate
commanders of similar armies. Howard
and Schofield, however, are the sole
survivors.
n The Buffalo Express. in an article
on "Privates Who Become Generals"
falls into the common error of class
ing Maj. Gen. Young with Maj. Gen.
Chaffee and other generals who came
up from the ranks. In the regular
army a private soldier is a different
a person from a private soldier in the
volunteers. Young was a volunteer
and Chaffee a regular. Young had
been brigadier general of volunteers
When he entered the regular army as
a second lieutenant. Chaffee had only
been private, a sergeant and a first
sergeant of regulars when he became
second lieutenant. Young and Chat
lee, therefore, cannot be classed to-
gether. Few persons know
that the famous James McNiel Whis-
Ter, the American artist recently dead
& IN England, is the James A. Whistler
IA Dot, IL, hrTf
dld not graduate, having to ''fess' in
chem fact that this eccentric in
ulNdual made much fun of in his later
years The change in his name re-
MINDS me that an autograph of James
Fehnlmore Cooper recently sold for
less than a dollar. but it was plain
Il James Cooper" the name he bore
When he was a midshipman in the
United States navy.
N !, The only colonel to be promoted TO
the rank of brigadier general in ac-
1--WE service in the new lump" is Col.
Camlllo c. c. Carr (not C. G. CARR
Vi the Fourth Cavalry. He is Vir-
glnlan and entered the First United
States Cavalry as a private in August,
a aooz and passed through all the
,noih-coms" and from sergeant
mayor of the regiment was
made second lieutenant in
-ooo Having passed all the
grades, he now becomes, by long and
Iathful service in every grade from
private up, a brigadier general in the
regular army. / notice that
some of the newspapers refer to Col.
q D. =. Mills, U. S. A., who has been on
ouly IN the Georgia camps, as "in-
spector general of the army This is
~ ~. correct, as he is only AN inspec
oor general, same as Col. Darlington
iu Col. Heyl, who are inspectors
tHqmeraI' with the rank of colonel; the
I5Spector general is Brig. Gen. George
90, burton. This may seem a trihing
s,uiIection, but it is in reality a very
NJ ortant one in army circles.
~ william B. Collins of Thomson,
NJ mas an excellent article in the
1CD1qfhe Progress of July II on 1.-THE
70 51olcles of Confederation" on July "a.
nc: IN which John Walton Edward
heiIalr and Edward Longworthy rep
9eHted the state of Georgia.
IL palachicola, Fla, reader of these
~ ers writes me in regard to an ar
ca. IN the Baltimore Sun, in which
j X ,f De-. 10