The Washington herald., 1907-05-26


address in every great center North and south
To-day the living civl-gar generals may he counted
by tAe score and their number is iessening rapidly
every year.
In tie forty-two years since AppOmatt0x macti-
cally every one Of them on both sides has lived up
10 his exceptional reputation by Sighting for the
right as he saw it in the '60S The nation is
proud Of them, and should be. All honor TO the
galaA dead. Al honor also. % the gallant Fed
ersl surviyors-geneTal officers. lesser officers and
pIiyatcs shkc-Who next Thursday viii pay tribute
to their comrades gone before All honor TO the
Confederate survivors in the South who have already
done so.
Retired from active life only a year less
than a quarter century ago because Of
desperate wounds. Gllusha Pennypacker.
Union veteran and youngest man on either
side TO reach the rank Of general officer in
the great dispute. is now living quietly in
Philadelphia.
Writer and cotton planter by occupa-
ton, the oldest surviving general Of the
contest. Samuel G. French, Confederate,
is now living at Pensacola, Fla, aged
elghty-nine, hale and hearty, and active
for one of his g+eat age.
Pennypacker was born June 1, 1874 and
was over three years less than twenty
when the first call for troops was issued,
on April Is. 1851, three days after Sumter
was fred uDon. He hastened to enlist,
was made a non-cOmmIssiOned staff Off
Ger Of the Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers,
and was at the front soon after his seven
teenth birthday.
He was FIVE days less than twenty-one
and a full brigadier general OF volunteers
when Kirby Smith. last Of the Confeder-
ate commanders 10 hold ont, surrendered
on May 25, just forty-two years ago. Pet
tus was forty when he went in a major
in the Twentieth regiment Of ALBANIA. He
was a brigadier general at the wars close
Pennypacker first enlisted for three
months only. serving in the Shenandoah
Valley; he re-enlisted for the war on
August %, 1851, having won his commits
sion as captain two days before. In the
next three years and a half he served in
many actions. He was brevetted brigadier
general at Fort Fisher on January Is,
1865, where he was well shot to pieces.
and his rank was confirmed a month
later.
Battered and worn as he was. young
Pennypacker-nOt a West Point man
Joined the regular army as a colonel and
planned a long military career. But he
had to give up to his wounds in 1888. re-
firing as breyet major general United
States army. In 1904 he was made a full
brlgadier general. L. S. A. retired.
French went into the war at forty
three. He showed desperate bravery, too,
and his career was one Of the most note
worthy in the war He was a New Jer-
sevman by birth and was graduated from
West Point in lsi3, in time to serve in the
Mexican war. which he did with distinc-
ton. He resigned and settled down in
1886 at Greenville, Miss, which was his
home when not in the field until 1875.
He was chief Of ordnance in the Missis-
sippi State army for while; after join
ing the Confederate forces he served in
Virginia, North Carolina. Mississippi, and
the Atlanta and Dalton campaign, shelled
McClelian's army at Harrison's Landing
and was one Of the principals in the note
worthy fight at Allatoona, on Kenesaw
Mountain.
The fame Of this action has been per-
petuated in Hold the Fort" one Of the
most widely sung gospel hymns ever
written. On October l. 1854, Gen. John
II. Corse. in command Of one Of Sher-
mans divisions on the march 20 the sea,
was in possession of Allatoona Pass.
French was headed his way with strong
force. From a distance on the mountain
side Sherman himself saw the situation
before Corse perceived 1t, and wigwagged
this message; Hold the pass; I am
coming" This encouraged Corse, who
withstood the assault. FrenCh's most i'm
portant book is entitled Two Wars"
Second and fourth in age come the two
famous Alabama Senators. Edward W
Pettus, eighty-six. and John T. Morgan
three years younger, both of whom live
at Selma. Pettus, like French, was in
the Mexican war, though he modestly
saws he didn't work much at the business
of fighting in that contest. But he was
a great fighter i'm the civil war. He went
in a major, at forty, and came out a
brigadier general One Of his promotion:
was won in a certain fierce fight wheI
the superior officers Of his command los
control and he. rallying the forces, saved
the day. At Vicksburg he led a lot o.
Texans so CALAMITY in a desperate sortit
that they unanimously elected him {
Texan. He is q lawyer, has been in tE'
United States Senate ten years and vii
serve another term. One of the wisest
wittiest. most interesting men Of the up
per House, he is noted for his quaintnes
and his fondness for plug tobacco, which
he uses ike a gentleman. Most folk for
get that he was ever a general and ad
dress him Senator" but old-timers from
his beloved Alabama call him General,
and that warns his heart
Morgan went in a private and came on
a brigadier He has been in the Senat
thirty years and will serve six years more
He championed the Nicaragua Canal from
the first and was its strongest supporte
until the day Of its death, his creates
political grief
He was a lawyer before the war. bu
was forbidden 70 practice by the Fedora
authorities Immediately after the close o
hostilities. Accordingly he went to farm
inc. one day he met Col Arthur Mac
Arthur. now a major general. L. S. A.
but then colonel commanding at Nor
ean's home town. Selma. Morgan tolC
the Yankee officer that if called to Wash
ington on certain charges. as he expect
cd to be. Federal troops must guard hi
smoke house.
you won't be called" said Macarthur
Go home and guard your own smoke
house. Don't mind the order agains
your practicing Jaw. You'll never hear o
il again
And he didn't Morgans ability .
talk measures 10 death is marvellous. H
says he can speak three or four days ol