The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-08
SIDNEY HERBERT'S LETTER.
THE ANNUAL BANQUET Of THE
fe~ PAUL JONES CLUB. re-.-r

The Death of Gen, Farrar Smith Re-
garded in the Light of Personal
Bereavement - GeOrgians in the
Regular Army-The Lindsay Cor
don Divorce Case-SOme Account
of the War Record of Lindsay
GOrdOn's Father-An Enthusiastic
Critic who Makes BIunder.
other Matters of General Interest.
Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla,
March IL wrote that G. A. r. posts
had given Gen. ]. B. Gordon a ban
quet' several times after his lectures
in Northern cities, but the Intelligent
compositor" made it a bouquet" which
is a very different thing. = 1t is
all right to honor Dewey and Schley
for their naval victories with our mod
ern iron clads and improved guns, etc,
but we should not forget the heroic
deeds of Decatur and Bainbridge and
Tattnall and the earlier naval COM
lnanders of old wooden war vessels. In
those days it was the cutlass and hand
to hand fight, that often won the vic
tory. I am reminded of this by full
page picture in the Womans Home
Companion of Springfield, o., for
March, of Decatur Cutting Out the
Philadelphia at Tripoli. This was
one hundred years ago, and in the
opinion of Lord Nelson, it was the
boldest and most daring act of that
period, a hand to hand fight with cut
lasses, knives. clubs and fists 5Deca-
tur. then. only "a years old, was made
a captain and given a sword by Con-
gress. Decatur county, Georgia. and
cambridge, its county seat are. named
in honor of the two great naval heroes
of that event.
My old friend, Col. o. L. ,Frisbee of
Portsmouth, N. H, prominent mem
her of the Sons of the Revolution, and
the Paul Jones Club of that naval city,
writes me that the annual banquet of
the club viii this year be on April "a.
which is the one hundred and twenty
fifth anniversary of the battle between
the Continental sioop of war Ranger,
under John Paul Jones and the Eng
fish sloop of war Drake, off the coast
of Ireland, which lasted an hour and
five inmates, during which forty-two
were killed on the Drake before she
surrendered, including Capt. Burden
and his lieutenant. Jones lost Lieut.
Wallingford and one man killed and
six wounded. Now, for a comparison Of
ancient and modern naval battles, put
this alongside of Dewey's wiDing out
whole Spanish fleet at Manila, or
Schley's gobbling up a whole Spanish
feet at Santiago, in both OF which
battles the losses were hardly worth
mentioning. We need more patriotic
clubs of the Paul Jones kind to keep
in mind the gallant deeds of the old
wooden navy heroes-the hand to hand
and face to face fighters of their day
The Sunny South is a little off on
It's military information. BRIG. Gen.
Lloyd Wheaton, u. S. N, retired, to
whom 1t refers, has been major gem
eral since June, 1900. r. j..
Massey, in writing about the once fam
Gus Bunkley Identity case, speaks OF
Hon. Hugh A. Harralson as brother
ln-law to Gen. Gordon" / have al
ways supposed that Gen. John b. Cor
don married the daughter Of Harral-
son. As 20 the Bunkley case, IL
~as a great cry and little wool" In
writing my article on The Two Dro-
MOS and Personal Identity" / made q
iul Investigation Of that case, assisted
by the venerable father Of Judge
George Hillyer, who personally knew
me parties in the case Elijah Par
ger bore no close resemblance 10 Jesse
blnkley. II was a very weak case, and
oAly the great array Of eminent law
feIs made the case famous, and caus-