The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-17
TANNER TO
GEORGIA G. A. RS.
Says He Didn't Know of Any Feel
ing Against Him Here.

Says He Didn't Know of Any Feel
ing Against Him Here.
Editor Morning News: My friend.
Col. S. F. B. Gillespie, has been send
ing me some copies of the Morning
News, from which I learn that prior to
the annual meeting of the Grand Army
of the Department of Georgia, which
has just been held in your city, the Of
fcials of the order, who have gone ont
of office were predicting that resom-
tions would be passed at the encamp-
ment, denouncing President Roosevelt
for having failed to mention the name
of Gen. Mcclellan in the address.
which the President delivered some
time since on the battlefield of An
tietam, and it was also stated that
commander-in-ch Gen. John c.
Black, having notified the department
commander that owing to his con-
tinued i'll health, he would be unable to
visit the encampment at Savannah as
he had promised to do, but that he had
secured a promise from myself to ap-
pear there and in a measure represent
him, and had been notified in return
that they did not desire my attend
ance, as it was stated in your paper
that Tanner was too close to Roose-
velt."
This was the first 1 had heard any
thing about the matter. L didn't even
know that the department encamp-
ment was to be held at Savannah, nor
at the time it was held. Gen. Black
had never said a word to me about go
ing down there, and when l called his
attention to the statements published
he informed me that while he had been
compelled, owing to his ill health to
notify the department commander that
he could not appear at the encamp-
ment, he had made no suggestion
about my coming down there, and
didn't mention my name in any way,
shape or manner. So it seems to me
that it is up to the late department
commander, Lee, to make some eXpla-
nation as to how the newspapers came
to be imposed upon by statements
which had no foundation.
| am not aware of any just cause of
complaint, which any of my old COM
rades, who wore the blue and who are
now living in Georgia, can have
against me. 1 do know that in the fiji
teen years that l have lived here at
the capital, have been called upon a
good many times to help various ones
Of them residing in Georgia in relation
to postoffices and other matters, and
l have always responded cheerfully to
the best Of my ability, and l might
add, in passing, that quite number of
times in my life, both here and in my
former home in Brooklyn, N. Y, it has
been my privilege and my pleasure to
help smooth the way for quite num-
her of the old Johnnies, not only from
Georgia, but from the various states
of the South, and 1 have been glad to
do it, and shall keep on doing it as OPP
portunity affords TO the end.
I was a distant but a mighty sincere
mourner over the grave of that splen-
did gentleman, that great soldier, ora
tor and statesman, John B. Gordon,
who for over twenty years honored me
with his warm friendship. There is a
shadow on my heart this morning, as |
picked UP to-day's New York Sun and
| read the obituary of another son of
Georgia. who in the twenty years of
my residence in the city of Brooklyn,
was my close neighbor and friend. l
refer to John u. Shorter, who served
as adjutant of the Eighteenth Ala
bama Regiment, who was the nephew
of John Gill Shorter, war Governor of
Alabama, and whose grandfather was
a Judge of your own Supreme Court of
Georgia. 1 venture to say that no
more gallant soldier trod battlehelds
under the Stars and Bars
My advice to the boys of the Grand
Army down there is get rid OF your
bitterness, enlarge your mental hori-
zon. The world moves, and Appomat-
tox is nearly forty years behind us,
and the United States, thank God, is
one and invincible. Very truly yours,
James Tanner.