The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-28
A CABIN JOHN BRIDGE STORY.
Hon. Galusha A. Grow Shows 1t Has
No Foundation.

Hon. Galusha A. Grow Shows 1t Has
No Foundation.
Editor Morning News: Oblige me by
publishing the following correction of
a statement made in the following clip
ping from the Morning News:
Il have often mentioned the fact
that Maj. Gen. Montgomery c. Meigs,
U. S. A, the distinguished quarter
master general and eminent engineer,
was born in Augusta. Ga, where his
father, a son of President Meigs of
Franklin College. at Athens, was tenn
porarily residing. This fact led Hon.
Galusha Grow, a member of Congress,
TO tell Hon. Caleb b. Smith, then Sec
rotary of the Interior. that that rebel
Meigs has put Jeff Davis name on the
bridge This referred to the famous
Cabin John bridge, the erection of
which was started under President
Franklin Pierce and Secretary of War
jefferson Davis. Secretary Smith, in
June, 1862, inspired by Congressman
Crows statement, ordered the name of
Mr.. Davis to be cut out of the tablet,
and it was done, leaving a blank place
that is there to-day. Gen. Meigs was
a loyal citizen and brave soldier, and
this bridge stands to-day the wonder
of the world, having the longest and
best stone arch ever constructed. JEFF
ferson Davis. at that time. was Secre-
tary of War, a graduate of West Point,
and the first graduate to win a brig
adler generals commission in the reg
ular army, a reward for his heroic serv-
| ices in Mexico. The cutting of his
name from the tablet was an unwar-
ranted insult. one not justified by his
future career in the Confederacy. The
same rule would exclude the name of
Mr.. Davis from the list of Secretaries
of War, and the name of Gen. Robert
E. Lee from the list of superintendent
| of West Point Military Academy"
Stories similar to the foregoing have
been published in some Northern pa
| pers, but, as far as l know, they have
| been duly contradicted. Gen. Meigs
| my brother, who died in 1892, once told
me the name referred to was erased
during his absence from Washington,
| and without his approval: and that he
thought as the record was a matter of
| history, it should have remained there.
AS 1 was sure the Hon. Galusha A.
Grow was friendly to my brother
| asked him to write me a contradiction
of the story and / received this reply,
| dated Oct. Z, 1901.
Yours duly received, inclosing news
| paper slips in which is the following
| statement: Opposite Cabin John
bridge several of the party disembark-
| ed and walked to the bridge for a near
view, returning in hot haste. DO you
| know said Galusha Grow to the Sec
rotary, that id rebel Meigs has put
Jeff Davis name on the bridge?'
Il never was at Cabin John Bridge,
either alone. or with anybody else.
When 1 first saw the above statement
in print l corrected the statement on
the floor of the House of Congress, and
it is printed in the Congressional Rec
ord. Last month the Philadelphia
Times had a conversation printed in it's
columns containing the statement you
sent me. Next day it printed a letter
of mine denying the truth of the state
ment.
Il never made such a remark or any,
thing like it. to anybody anywhere"
(Signed.) "Galusha A. Grow"
So I think it Que to the memory of
the late Gen. Meigs and to Mr.. Grow
that this denial should be published by
you. The original inscription on the
bridge recited that the Washington
aqueduct was begun A. D., 1853,
Franklin Pierce, President: Jefferson
Davis, Secretary of War; also that it
was still building in 1861, Abraham Lin
coin. President: Simon Cameron. Sec