The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-21
their compose

ed colonel of his regiment, the Second Alabama, and as such commanded during the great strike of railroad employees and subsequently, during the coal miners strike of 1894, being In charge of the active operations in the field, which were complimented by the Governor. On De- cember g, 1896, Colonel Clark was appoint ed by Gov. Joseph F. Johnston, the first brigadier general of the organ ized militia in Alabama since the war between the states, and as his commission expired, he has since been reappointed without opposition by Governors Sanford, JellSs and Conner, and now holds the first position in the Alabama National Guard. His unbroken record as a commanding of ficer since April 27, 1887, or for over P years, is one in which he, the officers of Alabama, and his friends generally justly feel proud.
 History of National Guard.
 Maj. David M. Scott, one of the oldest men in the service, furnishes the meat , of the neat little volume.
 You request me to write a history of the Alabama National Guard from the standpoint of veteran, built will be more of a reminiscence than history, and I shall be compelled to indulge in much ego. though not intended as ego tism.
 My first experience In the state mili- tary was, l believe, in the year 1859, while a school boy at old Ruhama High school, where now stands Howard college, and at that time l was about 12 years of age.
 In those days the law required that every man between IS and 45 years of age should go into military service, if not within the exemption class, and they held what was then called Yearly Musters." The occasion I shall refer to was a Brigade Muster" and took place at or 1u fbA AII I Huntsville road. above old Elyton. School turned out, that day and the boys went to the muster" A miltiamen then could hire a substitute if he did not care to muster" himself, so one good militia man hired me as his substitute that day and paid me the magnificent sum of 20 cents to muster in his place. We went through various evoutions on a hot sum mer day which I don't believe the gen. eral himself understood and which I am sure the militiamen under him did not The only man in uniform was the gen. eral, and l distinctly remember his gaudy uniform, bright red sash and big chapeau. and I thought-Oh! how grand. This experience as a soldier lasted only a few hours, and after muster I spent my service pay for ginger cakes and pop a treat in those days
 My next experience in the service of the state was during the Civil War fin loOo, hlteI ldNiHS dllcf1ueu a military school. The governor called for volun- teers under the military age of IS years to serve as Alabama state reserves and I enlisted in the first company-the Lock- hart Cadets-at little over 15 years of age. This company was afterwards Com pany A, Lockharts battalion, state troops, and the battalion was commanded by Mai. James l.. Davidson of Centreville, Ala. The battalion was formed in Selma and our company (A) was commanded by Capt w. c. Ward. now an honored cit izen of Birmingham. We elected old sol- diers as our officers, selecting men who had been at the front before. Captain Ward was much beloved by all of his men and as brave as Julius Caesar. We were the prize drill company of the bat talion. as our captain was splendid drill master This battalion fought the first battle fought on Alabama soil during the war, aided by small detachment from the Alabama Corps of Cadets-not over 600 men all told. We met General Ros- seau with 2500 splenddy equipped caval. " at Chehaw station, 40 miles northeast of Montgomery, and turned his raiders back and saved Montgomery, our capi- tol. Our battalion was complimented in a special order by the governor.
 In 1864 Lockhart's battalion volunteered