The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-18
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER
Many Matters of Historical Interest to Confeder
ates and Others


greatest care. All matter going into
ITS columns should be sifted if it con-
taIlS mlsstatements, and editorial cor
Iectlon be made of the eliminated mat
Ter. This course would make the Vete-
ran reliable publication for reference.
AZ present however, this course is not
pursued, and in consequence every is
sue contains unedited communications,
IN winch errors go forth as facts. In
the past l have corrected MANY such
errors ana In a late issue find a sketch
OF the death of Col. Stephen Heard
Darden, who is called the last sur
vlVor OF tine Texas delegation in the
confederate Congress" Now the edi
tor OF the Veteran must have known
that hon. John H. Reagan was alive.
ana should have known that Gen. T
~. Waul was also then alive, although
since deceased. 1t is a singular fact.
however, that all three served onlv
part or term each. Col. Darden
hlled vacancy near the close of the
war, while Reagan and Waul left the
provisional Congress, the former 70 he
postmaster general. and the latter to
become a brigadier general in the c.
D. A. Reagan is now the only Texas
congressman living,
Hon. Hiram P. Bell of c,ur,,,,i,,er
Ca, the sole survivor of all CTeorgia7s
confederate congressman and senator's
writes me as follows: so far as am
ADVISED, 1t is in the main correct. Bur
nett OF Kentucky, was living on JuIv
~ last, and one year ago j. D. C. At
klns OF Tennessee. was alive This
refers to my list of surviving Confed-
crate congressman. Now, as To At
klns, am very sure that he is not now
living. In regard to Burnett, there
were two in the provisional congress
Henry c. Burnett went from this con-
greSs to the Senate of the First and
Second Congresses. while Theodore I,
burnett was in all three of the Con-
crosses. / cannot, therefore, tell which
one Col. Bell refers to as being alive
Iast july 1t is possible that T. L.
Burnett may be living, but 1t is safe
to believe that H. c. Burnett is dead
Gen. Roger A. Pryor, now Judge Pryor,
OF New York, is the sole surviving
Confederate general of the Senate and
the three Congresses. And that means
great deal. Just think of it-Bar-
tow, Anderson, Toombs, Hodge, T. r.
Cobb. Marshall, Gartrell, Howell Cobb.
Clark, Bouhan, Chestnut. Waul. Cling
man, Gregg, Chambliss, Jenkins,
Smith, Wickham-all have passed from
earth, and of these twenty Congress-
men, who also served as generals, the
venerable Judge Pryor alone survives.
The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. in an
editorial about Mrs. jefferson Davis,
says: She was a Miss Howell and of
Northern birth. New Jersey lady"
But the ST. Louis Republican saws:
She was Miss Varina Howell, and
we think she was born in Georgia,
though her fathers family lived MANY
years in New Orleans" I cannot say
as to New Jersey, but am sure Mrs.
Davis was not born in Georgia l al
ways supposed her birthplace was in
the South. Her father, Lieut.. William
Burr Howell, of the United States
army (artillery corps), was born in
New Jersey, but resigned from the
army soon after it's reorganization in
1915. and married Miss Margaret Ora
nam Kemp, native of Virginia, but
then residing in Natchez, Miss, where
Lieut.. Howell took up his residence.
After living there several years he
removed to New Orleans, and it is rea-
sonable to suppose that Mrs. Davis
was born in Mississippi. She married
Mr.. Davis in 1845, and her youngest
brother born a year later, at Natchez
was named Jefferson Davis Howell
He served in the Confederate navy.
lastly as lieutenant of marines under
Admiral Semmes, but was with
President Davis and his sister when
NAAOS "SAN NoPNdACOs anu WIFI them
carried to Savannah. From Fortress
Monroe he was sent as a prisoner to
Fort McHenry at Baltimore, and sew
eral months later was again imprisoned
at Savannah.
The October issue of the Home Maya
zine of Washington, D. c., has another
installment of 1.-The Story of Georgia"
by John Corrigan. The illustrations
are the Pulaski and Greene monuments
in Savannah, the old state capitol at
MllledgeVille and pictures of Gen.
James Jackson. Button Gwinnett and
Eli Whitney, who is enormously called
a Georgia boy He was born in Mas
sachuSetts and came to Georgia. on a
visit to the wife of Gen. Nathaniel
Greene, a relative, on whose plantation
Mulberry Grove-he invented the cot
ton gin. Lieut.. Carl Boyd, u.
S. A, the young Georgian, who was
TO marry Miss Peoples of Chattanooga
next spring, seems to have sprung a
surprise all around, as he and Miss
Peoples recently met in St. Louis, mar
ried and left at once for his command,
the Third Regiment, at Yellowstone
Park THE next" WHY is II
that Georgia is so far behind South and
North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi
and Alabama in historical matters? Ala
bama has a Gulf States Magazine, ably
edited by Col Thomas NJ. Owen, with
Joel c. Du Bose of Montgomery as
business manager. Some six issues have
already appeared, and they are full of
valuable historical matter. Hon. Will
liam Harden of Savannah, Charles Edge
worth Jones of Augusta and Hon. w. P.
Collins of Thomson, a talented and ris-
ing young historian, are among the
Georgia contributors. Mr.. Collins treats
of important events in the early his
tory of Georgia and does so entertain
ingly.
It was not Maj. John T. Weedale
who read Secretary of State Hays war
poem at the meeting of the Society of
the Army of the Cumberland, at Wash
ington. on Wednesday last, but Maj.
John Tweedale, the venerable but eff
cient assistant to Gen. Ainsworth of
the record and pension Office, to whose
courtesy and ripe experience many
Southern people are indebted for the
records of their soldier relatives in
many wars, from Revolutionary times
to the present day. Capt F. w.
Coe, United States Artillery Corps, ad-
iutant at West Point, in a private let
ter to me, has this complimentary men,
ton of Cadet r. G. Wilson: when he
left he had not taken any position in
the class, as the written examinations
on which the class is rearranged in
mathematics had not yet taken place.
Wilson seemed to be a nice sort of
boy, and not at all vicious, but he had