The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-29
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER
Many Matters of Historical Interest to Confeder-
ates and Others.

Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla, Nov.
2s-In my last letter seem to have
drawn fire" from two directions. Mrs.
George W. Lamar may be right in her
statement, but I am not the man to
criticise at this late day. The Morn
ing News man, who originally wrote
up the "Stonewalr' Jackson medal was
my authority. have one of the medals,
but my eyesight is too defective to
read any of the inscriptions. If Mrs.
/. will refer to a back file of the
Morning News she will get hold of the
guilty party who misled me into what
she calls an error injurious to the sale
of the medals for a worthy cause. The
medals are just as valuable for souven-
Mrs with the errors as without, only
a few persons caring for such exact
accuracy. I am sorry, however, to
have been led into the error, for I
made the corrections in good faith and
with no idea that they would cause
any one trouble. 1 am compelled to
depend upon other people sometimes
for information, and once in a while,
as in this case, am led into the COM
mission of errors.
think I have got on the track of
Gen. H. o. Jeffries," to whom ] re-
ferred In a. recent letter as not a grad
uate of West Point or Annapolis. One
Alfred Jeffries did graduate into the
United States navy from Annapolis in
1879, became an ensign in 1881, but
was dismissed in 1885. 1t is rumored
that he went into the service of Colom-
bia. and 1 presume he goes under the
name of H. o. Jefferies. He was not,
as claimed in the item 1 corrected, a
West Pointer. = Last Sunday
gave an example of how the I'M
common name of l.. w. Spratt was
made into l.. w. S. Pratt in a magazine
article. A few days ago the death of
Gen. George H. Stuart" of Maryland,
was announced and yet his name was
Steuart, not like Gen. ]. E. B. Stuart,
nor Gen. A. p. Stewart Then came a
tribute to the late Prof. Leroy w.
Brown" formerly of Athens, Ca, and
yet his name was Broun, not Brown.
And because of such mistakes 1 heart
lily favor a national law to regulate
names. Why should one man be
Mitchell and another Mitchell? Why
should good old Rev. DR.. S. H. Cox
have son calling himself A. Cleve-
land Coke? Or Asa Bird Gardiner
A recent item in the Morning News
stated that Bishop Richard H. Wilmer
of Alabama was the only Southern
Episcopal bishop consecrated during
the Civil War, which is correct. He
was consecrated on March g. 1862 The
last Southern bishop consecrated be-
fore the war was Bishop Alexander
Gregg of Texas on Oct. 49, 1859. Bishop
Lay, consecrated Oct. 23 was a mis-
sionary bishop. The first Southern
bishop consecrated after the war was
Bishop Charles T. Quintard of Ten
nessee, on Oct. IL, 1866. Bishop Joseph
Pere Bell Wilmer of Louisiana was
the next, on Nov z, 1866. who succeed
ed Bishop Oieut. GEM Leonidas Polk
killed June a. 1864. Bishop r. II. Will
mer of Alabama was successor to
Bishop Nicholas Hammer Cobbs, a
very remarkable man, who died Jan
IL, 1861. Bishop Wilmer was no more
entitled to be called the Rebel Bish-
op" than some Of his associates. Many
Of the new bishops after the war, were
officers in the Confederate army.
Quintard, Harris, Dudley. Elliott, Ca