The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-29
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER.
FACTS ABOUT G. A. r. ENCAMPMENr
AT BIRMINGHAM.

Mistake I'm Respect TO washing
toms Cabinet-A Confederate Gold
DOIIar-An Interesting sketch of
an Old Friend-SOme Facts About
Two JudEes-Twenty Years I'm
journalism and Mixed Up I'm Only
Two Political Campaigns-othcr
Matters of General Interest.
Pine Crest Villa. Maitland. Fla.
March 2s.-This date. etc. is a little
misleading as I mail the letter from
| Birmingham, Ala, on Wednesday. Yes
terday 1 attended with the commander
in-chief of the G. A. r.. the fifteenth
annual encampment of the Department
| of Alabama, which was a most enjoy
| able occasion. Gen. Stewart installed
the newly elected officers in such 8
splendid manner that he was often ap-
! plauded, a very unusual compliment.
! He also made a fine address, after
which the encampment escorted him in
| a body TO the hotel. en- route TO New
| Orleans. During the morning he held
a reception at the elegant Hotel Hill
man, where Brig. Gen. T. G.. Bush. L.
| C. ", and staff and Judge Pagan and
| other Confederates called and paid their
respects in a most cordial and patri-
| otic manner. Mrs. Stewart and my
wife were also given many attentions
|. by the ladies of Birmingham, city
whose wonderful growth makes IT the
Magic City, of Ala bama, one in which
SKY scraper" buildings, now point
heavenward, and four first-class morn
ing and evening papers give up-to-date
reading matter. Gen. Stewart comes
from the great coal and iron state of
Pennsylvania, but he acknowledged
Alabama her close rival.
Maj. Gen. George P. Harrison, COM
manding the Alabama division of the
u. c. ", names Lieut.. Gen. Joseph
Wheeler" as a member of his staff by
virtue of his service in the G. S. A.
Now, although Harrison was briga-
der general in the C. S. A, some
Smart Aleck" ought to write and tell
him that Wheeler was only a major
general. Ex-Gov. Thomas G.
Jones is now holding United States
court in Birmingham, and when l Wis
tied the court room he ordered a re-
cess and in his private room We re-
newed our warm friendship of thirty
years ago. He was amused at that
the Morning News three Sundays ago,
as a most absurd article. Why, to go
way back, one of his own grandfath-
ers was in the Continental Line" and
served under Washington, and from
that day to this no drawer or more pa
triotic soldiers than those named Jones
have ever marched to battle. Judge
Jones was a major on Gen. John B.
Gordon's staff and he still follows his
oil c.cYp a n in Of n n
nation the grandest and noblest as it
is the best the world has ever seen.
Birmingham is full of live Yankees"
and yet the Blue and the Gray have
only friendly rivalry as to which
shall do the most and best work in
building up the Magic City" and it's
many f1ourishing suburbs.
Brig. Gen. w H. Carter, U. S. A., in
1.-THE United Service" magazine for
March, has an article on THE Passing
of a High Office" which refers to the
adjustment of the so-cAlled Office of
"General-in-C Chief and Commanding
General" under the General Staff
Corps" law. The article simply covers
the same ground l have frequently
gone over in these letters, from Wash
ington to Miles, and sustains every
point I made in my arguments. Lieut..
Gen. John M. Schofield is the only Of
ficer who held the position of Com
manding General" with a proper I'M
derstanding of his duties. All his pre-
decessors and his successor especially,
had conflicts of authority more or less
serious with department officers or the
President himself. Washington, it is
true, declined the rank and title of full
general, as he claimed it would trench
upon the authority vested solely in the
President. His trouble, however, arose
from conflicts in the appointment of
his staff officers, and some spicy cor
respondence ensued.
The newspapers have been having
lots of fun over a break made by
temporary reading clerk in Congress.
1t reminds me. as President Lincoln
used to say, of similar scene years
ago in the Georgia Legislature. Clerk
Mark A. Harden, the veteran clerk,
was worn out with steady reading and
sub took his place at roll call.
But when he sang out "Tal-i-a-fer-ro"
county, Mark jumped up and grabbed
the rolls, exclaiming in his excitement
Hell! That's Tol-li-ver county" And
the representatives were conVulSed
with laughter in which Speaker Ba-
con Joined most heartily. The
military spirit has struck the Boys
High School of Atlanta and two bat
to be commanded by Col. John W.
Quillian and Lieut.. Col. Dan Y. Sage.
The six companies will also be we'll of
ficered and their parade next Memorial
day, on April 26, will no doubt attract
marked attention and win high praise
The Boys Club of Jacksonville, Fla,
has also been formed into a battalion,
and DR.. Taylor the founder, proposes
to make fine young soldiers out of
them in the future
Frank Leslie's Weekly is mistaken
about President Washington's cabinet.
There were five-not four-officials who
sat at his council table. They were JEFF
ferson and Hamilton and Knox and
Randolph and Osgood. The Secretary
of the Navy came into Adams cabinet
on May II, 1898, ranking next to Post
master General Joseph Habersham of
Georgia. The Secretary of the Interior
came into Taylor's cabinet on March
s, 1S49. The Secretary of Agriculture
came into Cleveland's cabinet on Feb
| H. 1882 And the Secretary of Com
merce has just come into Roosevelts
cabinet. That's the correct record, and
| 1T does not show, as Leslie's Weekly
claims, that the number of cabinet Of
| ficers has "a little more than doubled
since the first Presidents days" The
Weekly is way off" when it says the
| Postma ster General came into Jack
| sons cabinet in 1929. Lord bless your
| SOUL" Samuel Osgood of Massachu-
| sets, was postmaster general in Wash
| ington's first cabinet. and was follow
ed by Pickering and Habersham and
| Granger and Meigs and Mclean before