The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-11-05
THE GEORGIA MILITIA
HARD HIT.
a southern woman Asks What 1t
Gained by EnIisting Under
the Dick Bill.

the Dick Bill.
Editor Morning News: Kindly aI,or
subscriber the use of your columns
1 should like to ask the military of
Georgia what they have gained by en-
listing under the Dick bill.
The cunningly-devised Dick hill
that first baited our Southern soldierv
with tempting sugar plums, in the
shape of guns. equipment, etc. and
then, when it held the very flower Of
our Southland in it's strenuous;
clutches, sent them to Manassas
plains, where the South's best blood
was shed, to mix up with negro req
iments, to salute negro officers. or be
reprimanded for unsoldierly conduct
/ would ask the soldiers of Georgia
what have they gained by toadying
to militarism, by neglecting their pri-
waite interests to go to Manassas and
mix up with negroes?
I answer: "A very bitter experience"
Falsely accused by the North Caro-
linians, accused of stealing by the
people of Virginia let tn BruteN
slapped in the face by an United
States regular army officer, placed on
record, in the army journal, as ''un-
disciplined, unsanitary, disorderly.
VIII l be allowed to say, under the
military code Cor will I be court-mar-
tialedO that 1 honor Col. Grayson
for defending his comrades in arms
against the unjust attack made on
Georgia soldiery, even if it is lin bad
taste to criticise a superior off1cer?"
What the people want is less of mill
1tary etiquette, more of justice and
fair play. The people of Georgia, who
have any grit" are getting tired of
militarism, big Stick rule"
Again, might be permitted to sug-
gest to the august commander of the
Department of the Gulf, that he polish
his memory as well as his sword?
The former seems to have gathered
rust. He asserts that the Georgia
Regiment has no history connected
with it," AS remember, at least, one
company Of the regiment, the Ogle-
thorpes, lead by Francis Barlow, won
laurels on the battlefields of Virginia,
and lasting place on historys page,
bring to the union forces at Bull Run
and Manassas.
AS regards the report, the only ex-
cuse I might make for the general is
that traits Of character are inherent.
We of Georgia know we have been CIV
en- a spiteful stab because Georgian
refused to salute a negro officer.
ing or shaking hands with color
ed man who knows his place as such;
but, when Georgia soldiers, on Virginia
soil, where Francis Bartow's blood was
shed, are expected to salute insolent
arbitrary negro officers, and are ad-
Vised so to do by men calling them
selves Southrons it is enough to make
the South's dead heroes arise from
their graves.
Georgia soldiers have been classed
with rag-a-muffins because they re-
fused to eat humble pie. While, nat
urally, 1 feel indignation that they
should have been unjustly maligned,
yet to me ii seemeth the irony of fate,
that some of the very officers who
treated a brother officer Capt. HITCH
with injustice, who mercileSsly con-
demned him in order to toady to mill
itarism, are themselves under con-
demnation. Soldiers of Georgia, all
this disgrace comes to you through
Dickbillism. Dickbillism stands for
militarism, Imperialism, Bigstickism,
Republicanism. But a short time ago
the Mississippi Star expressed the
opinion that the Southern people had
made a mistake about the Dick bill.
How pernicious are the effects of its
teachings have been shown in the case
of the officer who lately expressed
himself as willing to shoot down his
own relatives and friends in order to
protect "the most atrocious of Grim
mails" OF course, it is a question II
he would put this into practice.
AS the saying goes. Seeing is be-
lieving" For when the shaft strikes
nearer, when the wolf enters our own
fold, tears our own lambs, when the
horror more to be feared than the
bubonic plague or the black death,
comes to our own door and casts its
dark shadow across our own thres-
hold, then we see things in diner
ent light Such strenuous speeches, IN
behalf of extreme measures, are cal
culated not only to encourage lawless
blacks, but to incite them to deeds
of violence, while they are provoca-
tive of an intense bitterness in the
hearts of Georgia farmers, against
the military and the black race. This
may sound sensational, but / am SIM
ply stating facts, and they are empha-
sized with a great big f. Women OF
Savannah, honor Col. Grayson! he is
willing to stand up in defense OF his
comrades, the Georgia boys we love,
even is he has to display bad taste
(what Is bad taste along side OF JUS
tfce?. and commit a breach OF mill
tarv etiquette. Mothers of States
boro. honor Capt. Hitch! He would
rather bear the stigma CD Of dismiss
sal than to have murdered innocent
citizens to defend two monsters OF m
iouity who should not be classed with