The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-28
Address Made by Gen. Ferguson. LAUDS CAREER AND
 MOTIVES OF SEMMES Traces Career During Past Days
 of Strife. Service With the Confederate states One ct the Brightest Pages of History of United
 Country.
 

 Memorial exercises held yesterday morning at the Grand Theatre was made by Gen. Fred s. Ferguson. of Birmingham General Ferguson came to Montgomery especially to deliver the address. Its complete text follows:
 Ladies of the Confederated southern
 Memorial Associations:
 Permit me, first. to thank you for the great honor you have conferred in selecting me to address you on this oc- casion. Conscious of my limitations. I shrank from undertaking task so far beyond their reach; but regarding your invitation as call of duty, dared not disobey--sustained as I am by the be- lief that
 ""Though my faults were thick as dust In vacant chambers, I could trust
 Your kindness.
 Today, in obedience to your sum mons, the> sons and daughters of the South have met to do homage to one of the grandest characters of modern history; and, from this hundred-ter- raced height of time. to review the in- cidents, episodes and events of his life, that we may rightly know why it is, that to the roll of immortals has been added the name of Raphael Semmes. Just a century ago in typ  born. Of French and English lineage. his first American ancestor was Mar. maduke Semmes, who came to this country with Leonard Calvert in the Ark and Dove, A. D. 1888. and be- came a distinguished citizen of Lord Baltimore,s colony of freemen, who. first of all the world. proclaimed and maintained the principle of religious freedom-the right to worship God ac- cording to the dictates of one's own conscience and non-interference with that sacred right in others. In imag- ination we can see this boy growing from childhood to youth; sport with him as he hunted along the banks and fished and, swan in the waters of the lordly Potomac; and sympatnize with him when the balmy breezes or that historic stream invited his ardent spirit to the ocean which was to be the scene Of his life's activities, his warfare and his glory. His earliest yearnings were for a sea-faring life. and his great ambition was to solve the oceans mys- teries and subdue its tides and cur rents. its winds and storms to the needs and pleasures of mankind.
 Al the age of 15 he was appointed nidshipman in the United States Navy from Maryland and soon afterwards assigned stos duty on the sioop~or- war I.exington At that time there was no naval academy and he was compelled to study the intricacies of astronomy navigation. seamanship ana sunnery ln the reefer's den or on the breezy foretop. In rapid succession he served on the Erie and the frigate Brandy wine. until in 1881 he was ordered 10 Norfolk navy yard to undergo his ex- animation. This ordeal he stood sue cessfully, and in January. lsS2, receiV- ed his warrant as passed miosnip- Uh novttiate he was distinguished TOT his etudious habits, courteous deportmen' ana rigid adherence to the exacting oe- roenSs of naval discipline. It was then he learned to control himself, tnat ne might he fitted to command other men
 sIn 1883 he was placed on duty m tha Bureau of Navigation. and m 1889 he was ordered to the frigate Soms'ei. oaz E Nation as acting master. Tn 1881 nc zee nromoted to lieutenant and sta s,o,,a5 at Norfolk Navy Yard. In this .,sar ha married Miss Annie E. Spencer. vbo became the queen of his nome anu the mother of his children. She exer- cised over his life that gentle ana en- nobling influence, without when no man can be truly good or great
 thjs time he was granted leave or shsance on shore for one year. ln- stasd of idling. he utilized his time by .,rs rf,cine law in Cincinnati. In an tS,arcvtanf case he measured lances with Saf,non P. Chase. afterwards Chief Jus tsns.of inc Supreme Court of the United states and came or victorious from the encounter. / steamer Pofnsett and shortly afterwarS on the receiving ship at Norfoik. The aama Year he was assigned 10 the coast survey and served on the Con- sort. In May, 1841 he was on duty at inc PensacoIa Navy Yard and two years afterward we sec him on the sloop ofwar Warren and in command of the Poinsett. It was about this time that the splendid lighthouses at Pensacola and on Sand Island off Mobile Bay were erected under his supervision. and that he assisted the army engineer of f,cers in giving the finishing touches Id Fort Pickens and Morgan.
 'Tn 1842 he settled his family in home on the romantic shores of Per- dido Bay, and from that time became, hv choice, a citizen of Alabama.
 In Mexican War.
 During the war with Mexico he was in command of the brig Somers. and while blockading the port of Vera Cruz. suffered shipwreck in one of those peculiar gales that in the days of sailing craft made the navigation of the gulf a terror to mariners He was rescued from the waves by the orew of . British an-of-war and af-