The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-09-11
SIDNEY HERBERTS LETTER
Facts Of Interest to War Veterans and others

Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla,
Sept. 10 see that the Blue and
Brown soldiers in the Third Manassas
Battle are to make believe they are
wounded, and are to be carefully TAX
en- off the bloody CD field and tenderly
nursed in the hospital. I only wish
that plan had been adopted at Black
burns Ford and the first Manassas,
in which event I would probably be
sound and well man to-day. l lay on
the field at Blackburn s Ford, uncared
for until Col Burnside and Gov.
Sprague happened to ride along and
discover me. They at once sent for
an ambulance and had me carried to
camp. Then, on Sunday, at Manassas.
or Bull Run, after my horse was shot
from under me and I was really not
able TO walk. / had to "hOOf it," as
the boys said, like the rest of them.
We old battle-scarred soldiers don't
take much stock" in the fancy ma
neuvers OF the Blue and the Brown.
There is as much difference between
sham battles and the real fighting as
there is between daylight and dark.
4 battle in which nobody is to be
hurt" smacks too much of the States
boro bloodless campaign. The court
OF inquiry ought to have Lieut.. Nc
Intire and the two soldiers Court-mar-
tialed for trying to hurt some of the
lynchers, or else give them medals of
honor.
The New York World refers to
Gen. Alden r. Chaffee, commander
in-chief Of the United States army"
This is an Old bull" and one that
ought to be laid on the shelf. There
never has been in the United States
army any such office as commander
in-chef. or general-in-c chief, or com
manding general Congress. in viola
ton of the constitution, once appoint
ed Lieut.. Gen. George Washington as
'commander-in-chi of the armies
for a short time. Virginia, in viola
ton of her constitution, appointed
Maj. Gen. Robert T.. Lee as "comman-
der-in-chief' of her forces for a very
brief period. and he was also a gen
eral-in- chief of the Confederate army.
The titles above named. all of them,
are used, and have been used in the
United States army and We're used
and are yet mentioned in connection
with the c. S A, but none of them
are official, simply used by courtesy
The President has always had it in
his power to appoint the commanding
officer of the army by and with the
consent of the Senate. Still there has
been no such permanent Office.
A cartoon representing Bishop Potter
and the Archbishop of Canterbury
standing at the bar of the Subway sa-
loon, is not correct. The Bishop has
his trousers turned up at the bottom
English you know-while the Archbish-
ops trousers are in the American style
Both are wrong, as the Bishop does
not thus turn up his trousers. and the
Archbishop landed in New York wear
ing neither trousers nor pants, nor
even pantaloons. but knee breeches,
showing a small and crooked pair of
legs. This item is for the benefit of
my highly esteemed old friend, Judge
Norwood. Burton says that when
women usurp the authority of their
husbands, they wear the breeches,"
or briches. A modern critic
thinks Shakespeare was misquoted in
a sea of troubles" that it should be
a seige of troubles" a more warlike
idea. But if we adopted the latter. as
suggested. what becomes of Sha kes-
peare's grammar Was he also mis-
quoted in "end them" which should
be END it," TO conform to "a seige."
There is wide difference, grammati-
cally. between "a sea Of troubles" and
"A seige of troubles" The Russians.
however. have been given both by the
wonderful military and naval skill Of
the Japs, who seem determined, s'by
opposing" 10 end both lit" and them
in the speediest manner possible. Rus
sia iron will now be Japanned to or
der.
Mai. A. w. Wills has printed
sketch of Gen. George H. Thomas, U.
s. A. tfamiliarly called "Old Pap
Thomas by his loving soldiers) in
which he says: "A graduate of West
Point and a classmate of Gen. Robert
r. Lee. This is a grave error as
Gen. Lee graduated No. 2 in the class
of 1929 and Gen. Thomas No. 70 in the
class of 1870. He was a classmate Of
Gen. William T. Sherman md 81.
Gen. Stewart Van Vliet and Gen. Geo,
W. Getty. all of the Union
army. But the class was remarkable
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