The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-29

sion to the conclusion that the only sen-
 sfble plan to adopt in regard to the l Confederate monumental tablets was to mount them alongside of the splendid and 1 durable Telford avenues which follow the l line of battle on this field, Confederate I as well as Union. They are twenty feet I Wide and fourteen inches deep, made of l stone pavement. crushed stone and 1 screenings. They are by far the finest l and most pleasant drives on this eonti-
 nent and will last for centuries. Along l side the avenues which follow the Con- 1 federate battle lines we have mounted l a monumental tablet of ample dimen- l sions to each infantry brigade and each battery. with carefully prepared inscrip- tions stating the regiments which com 1 posed the brigade, the localities where 1 they fought, their movements and l achievements, numbers, losses, and other 1 details on each day of the battle and | likewise the rounds fired, results aehiev- l ed, and losses suffered by each battery 1 The passer-by who reads the inscriptions
 on the tablets has only turn his head and view without difficulty the ground which was the scene of the events and | achievements described on each tablet l By placing these tablets and inscriptions l as We have along the avenues and on | the ridges where the Confederates form l ed their lines of battle and moved for ward to the conflict, we have made sure | Of their being read by the tens of thou sands of visitors who come here every year; and the grandsons and remotest descendants of the heroes who fought I and bled here will have no difficulty in l locating the spot where their ancestry won undying fame.
 ' One of the best proofs of how excel lent is the plan which our commission has adopted for commemorating the achieve ments of the Confederate soldiers on this l field Is the fact that Union officers and l soldiers are now seeking to devise ways l and means to make the story of their own galantry and prowess here more | clear and emphatic than now appears l from the inscriptions on the Union mon- uments, numerous and costly as they
 are. By the way, all the Union monu- ments on this field were erected by the states of the north to their volunteer l soldiers respectively; and the Union reg l ulars are marked by monumental tablets
 similar to those erected to the Confed-
 crates. Congress at the last session took | steps looking to the erection of monu- l ments to the regulars.
 l With a view apparently of casting a
 slur on the work of our commission. MT. | Houghton states and repeats that a Un- i ion monument here mentions the death of 1 General Barksdale, as if that were the 1 only mention made of 1t. If he had read 1 the inscription on the tablet or Barks- | dales brigade alongside the Confederate | avenue prepared by myself and approved l by my two Union colleagues, he would
 have found the record of General Barks- | dale's death, and the spot where it oc- cured more accurately stated than in | the Union inscription he mentions.
 1 l am surprised at MT. HOughtOus qtatP- l ment that there is no way for stran. | ger to ascertain what particular Confed- crates fought at any point which he reiterates in varied terms again and again. Nothing could be more inaccurate:
 for the inscriptions on the monumental
 tablets tell when and where each and
 every Confederate command advanced into
 battle where it fought, and what 1t ac-
 compshed Even concerning General
 Farnsworth's charge, of which Mr.
 Houghton speaks, there are inscriptions
 telling of how the Fourth and Fifteenth
 Alabama drove his command quickly off
 the field and how a section of Reily's
 North Carolina battery aided in his dis comfture. An the tablets on which these
 facts are stated are alongside the Con-
 federate avenue where all the world can read the story, and not hidden away in the thick growth of shrubbery on the l steep rocky slope where Farnsworth fell | and where nobody would ever see them. |
 MT. Houghton also indulges an innuendo | at the expense of the undersigned inti- | mating that as l am only one of three | commissioners and thus in the minority, | l might yield to my colleagues and prob | ably believe that whatever is, is right" i 1 am not sensitive enough to resent this ] absurd insinuation. My colleagues are gentlemen and not only willing but anx- ious as any of us to see the achievements of the Confederates correctly commence rated on this field: for the greater their
 prowess the greater their glory as vc-
 tors.
 Much more might be said in answer to
 MT. Houghtons erroneous statements
 concerning our work at Gettysburg His
 purpose in coming 10 the battlefield was evidently to find fault and pick flaws for purpose Neither himself nor his
 prompters need suppose that anybody Is deceived about this l As an old soldier of Alabama who fought for the rights of that beloved | state from January 12 1861, at Fort Mor- gan, to April 9, 1865, at Appamattox car l | ing little for rank and everything for her rights and honor, my surviving com- rades and all other Alabamians need never fear that l shall fail to stand fast for whatever is right and just for her heroes Gettysburg. November IS, 1903.