The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-13

OF the Army of the Cumberland and of
the OHIO, the Loyal Legion, and the
Medal of Honor Legion in unwilling the
STATUE or Gen. William r. Sherman.
II promises to be a magnificent military
gatherlng, under the auspices of the
society OF the Army of Tennessee.
A subscriber in far West Florida. in
qulres for books on the Seminole In
olan wars in Florida. I do not know
OF any special books now in print. My
own are out of print and are very old
ana very valuable. Perhaps some one
can give the desired information =
ma that several letters of inquiry
nave been mislaid during my spells
OF sickness, but will now be attended
10 as soon as possible. A Georgia
inquirer wishes a History of the u. S.
Army, of the navy and the marine
corps All these, in separate volumes,
are published by the L. X Hamersly
Company, at No. 40 Wall street, New
York.* *Any old Confederate SOL
der of the Army of Northern Virginia
who fails to read "a Chip of the Old
Confederacy," by the famous actress
and gifted writer, Clara Morris, in
the Cosmopolitan magazine for Sept
will miss rich treat. 1t is a spicy
narrative of her intercourse in New
orleans with 1t. Gen. Jubal A. Early
Z. ). A, better known as "Old Jub,"
the champion cusser. Two pictures
of him adorn the article which is in
terspread with "damns" enough for a
dozen rivers There were several
bad 'outs" in my last letter and some
typographical errors that the intelli-
gent reader could not correct Gen
Ward was judge of common pleas, not
common, court. Also few people who
heard the humorous or read
the humorous articles-"of ARENAS
Ward" Another, U. C. V. reunion and
G. A. R. encampment, instead of u
c. V. and G. A. r.
am still harping on the so-caIled
Commanding General" as l wish to
confirm my oft-repeated declaration
that there was no such officer in reali-
ty Brig. Gen. w. H. Carter, u S. A.
the General Staff has an article in
the September issue of 1.-THE United
Service" magazine, on the New Re
gime at War Department in which
he says: 1.-THE form of orders from
Washington has for many years recog-
nized the military fiction involved in
having commanding general" Again,
he says: AT no time has the COM
handing general of the army ever had
the power to control the business of
the various staff bureaus of the War
Department" AS far back as 1875, for
example, Gen. Sherman wrote: Il
have no hesitancy in saying that if
the Secretary of War has the lawful
power to command the army through
the Adjutant General, then my ohice(0
is sinecure and should be abolished"
Only recently a writer, who signs him
self P. Tecumseh Sherman, and is
probably relative of Gen. Win. Te-
cumseh Sherman and Lieut. Gen
Miles, comes out against the General
Staff as Miles did and expresses the
fear that Some inexperienced Presi-
dent or Secretary of War, a mere civil
liam, might virtually command the
army This fear is groundless so long
as Maj. Gen. Henry c. Corbin, T.. S.
A, remains Adjutant General. He has
been it for years past and will boss
the ranch" until his retirement. The
addition of a rich wife has enlarged
his sphere of influence and increased
its power. Alas! for the better days
of good old Roger Jones and Lorenzo
Thomas in the Adjutant Generals Of
| ice. They were veterans in modesty,
! efficiency, economy and faithful serv-
ice. If they were alive to-day Miles
| gorgeous uniform and Corbin's high
sounding title would astonish them.
They were simply colonies through
| long years of arduous, efficient service.
McClure's Magazine for September
contains new narrative of the famous
| Andrews Railroad Raid" on the West
J ern and Atlantic Railroad in 1862, when
/ the locomotive General was run off
by the raiders from Big Shanty, the
breakfast house, but was captured by
| the conductor and his party near Ring
! gold, after most exciting chase. AL
though the writer was one of the raid
ers, he fails to spell correctly the name
of his commanding general, who was
the eminent Ohio astronomer, Gen.
| Ormsby NJ. Mitchel-not Mitchell-as
this writer spells it. The best and
| longest narrative of this raid that
have ever seen is by Rev. William Pit
finger, one of the raiders, but now a
Methodist preacher in California. He
was led into the ministry by good old
Rev. George G. N. MacDonell, well
! known in Savannah, who visited the
raiders that were in Jail in Atlanta.
| He loaned religious books to them and
! talked kindly to Pittinger, who has
never forgotten the true Christian
! spirit manifested by this consecrated
servant of Christ, of whom he says:
81 was in prison and We visited me-"
! But more remarkable case of this
| kind is related by Rev. DR.. j. w. San
! derson, chaplain of the Wisconsin
| Commandery of the Loyal Legion, who
was a captain of the Third Pennsyl-
vania Artillery, and for a time guard
ed jefferson Davis and c. c. Clay and
! John Mitchell, as officer of the day at
| Fortress Monroe. He was not then
even a Christian, but through his in
tercourse with Mr.. Davis, his prisoner,
| (whom Gen Miles put iron shackles on),
| he was led to Christ and became in
| due time a prominent and jealous
preacher of the gospel. Capt. Sander
son was a soldier with a kind heart,
/ and he in several ways relieved Mr..
| Davis of irritating surroundings, for
which he was given "the courteous
! gratitude of Mr.. Davis" Capt. San
| derson, in an address before his COM
manderv. in 1896, says: Somehow he
! (Mr Davs), took very kindly to me
when my duty brought me on, and as
that duty required my presence every
time the guard was relieved, 1 formed
the habit of spending the evening with
him. found him quite reli-
gious. another puoint where l was at
variance with him, but he had the ad-
vantage, for 1 was not then eligible
for chaplain of your commandery But
his ad1noniton was frank and wise,
and I thank him for that consistency
to his religious faith that would urge
a Young soldier to be likewise true
soldier of Jesus Christ" Capt. San
derson was not at all pleased with
the ultra fierce spirit that was evil
dent in the rules and regulations for
the keeping of" Mr.. Davis. and he
softened the harshness of some of them
as far as he could This case is
bright oasis in the prison life of JEFF
s,ea,, Taxyis whose fidelity to his