The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-11
many years to bis English and French


 many years to his English and French
 ancestry.
 The interest deepened as she read of
 his coming to Alabama and forever | linking his destiny with this people. | His was a character well rounded and
 broad, not only seaman bred on the salt sea waves, but statesman and man of letters. It would make this article too long to follow closely this
 able paper but all felt indebted to Mrs. Dowdell for the research that gave so much valuable information to the Chapter.
 Mrs. Ross then in lucid way re- viewed Service Affoat." She intro duced us in the words of the comman- der his official family on the Sumter, mentioning especially Lieut.. John Me- Intosh Kell. This tribute to Lieuten- ant Kell was indeed beautiful. He said in part: When Georgia seeded Lieu-
 terant Kell was well on his way to the commanders position in the old navy, but he would have scorned the commission of an Admiral if 1t had been rendered him as the prices of treason
 to his State When 1t was decided
 was to have the Sumter I at once
 thought of Kell, who afterwards be- came my right arm"
 The reason for mentioning General Keil was that he was well known m AuDuTu WHtFS ne oIIeu NiSltou HIS
 sons who were educated at the Ala
 bama Polytechnic Institute.
 Mrs. Ross told a number of incidents
 given in the book and read a few choice paragraphs from 1t. So inter- ested did all become that to get the
 book and read 1t was the desire of all present. Will you not lend 1t to me, to me? was heard on all sides as there are but few copies obtainable nanpbfRrs of he Confaderaav if auch book had been written by a North ern man and sent out to the world, the libraries of the entire North would have been taxed to hold the volume.
 There were a number of ladies pre- sent who remeb@red Admiral Semmes's splendid address delivered here on a commencement occasion of the
 James F. Dowdell was President. Ad-
 miral Semmes was Col. Dowdells guest. This house had entertained the
 great of the land, Yancey, Clay, Clopton, Colqultt and a long line of illustrious men but to have had Semmes as a guest was the erowning
 honor. On commencement day the judges awarded to young W. l.. Dow dell the prize for oratory and the thunder Of applause that greeted the Admiral when the prize placed in his hands to deliver was his own book, Service Afloat," may only be imagin- ed, not expressed. His visit here was benediction to those who revered and loved the very name of Raphael Semmes.
 The career os the Alabama will in the future be the theme Of song and
 story. We could not in brief article detail the wonderful deeds of this
 world wide rover of the seas, who in lthe last struggle with it's iron clad foe, the Kearsarge preserved the honor of the commander and his peo- pie, when the Kearsarge failing to save the lives of the wounded and drowning, the Admiral ordered every
 boat on the Alabama lowered and filled with these disabled men, not na officer taking advantage of this means of saving his life. Tho spirit of the North was brought out m | the abuse of the commander of the English rescuing vessel, the Deerhound. by William II. Seward, Secretary of State.
 Mir Seward said in q dispatch to MT.
 Adams, Minister to Eugland: Tt was the right of the kearsarge that the ] pirates should drown. ls they had per
 ished, the KearsarBe would have had ! the advantage Of lawful destruction 1 Of so many enemies" The Alabama, our little warship, had swept from the high seas more than half the commerce | of the United States, and had the great republic trembling lest some of It's precious dollars be destroyed. There is | not an act of vandalism chargeable to this ship, yet its officers were branded as thieves, and pirates. Judging these noble men to be like the vandals, But | Ter, Banks, Sherman 6 Co.,, in their