Evening journal., 1911-02-08
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Another Mans Misfortune
Made Gen. Burnside Senator
BY "HOIlanG-

or all the men Of military renown
gained in the Civil War who served in
the United States Senate during the
two decades following Appomattox
none attracted more attention than
did Ambrose B. Burnside OF Rhode
Island. Visitors to the galleries never
failed to ask that John A. Logan and
General Burnside be pointed out to
them. Both we're spectacular figures in
the Senate, but in a different way.
Logan. with his swarthy complexion,
long black hair, and dropping black
moustache his Indian cast of counten-
ance and his vivacity and energy, was
like a moving picture upon the floor
Of the Senate.
A few seats away from the one occu-
pied by General Logan sat General
Burnside. He was easily recognized.
He continued 10 shave his beard upon
the chin, to wear the familiar side
whiskers which. In war time. caused
that form Of beard to be universal
ly spoken of as "Burnsides. He was
very neat In his dress, being, in fact,
one OF the best dressed men in the
Senate, while Logan always wore the
conventional black frock coat. Burn
side sometimes sat through an entire
session OF the Senate without leaving
his seat He had a perfect set of teeth,
and when some friend took a seat near
him and began to chat Burnside would
frequently smile, and the glistening of
his teeth could be easily distinguished
from the gallery General Burnside
was the successor in the Senate of a
famous figure of Civil War times, Will
liam Sprague. and the predecessor in
the same body of Nelson w. Aldrich,
who retires therefrom next month.
It was in the winter of 1881. the year
of his death, that / met General Burn
side. | took occasion to congratulate
him upon his reelection as Senator,
and | said to him: 1T is an interest
ing fact that you, the great military
leader who came from Rhode Island In
the Civil War days, should have sue
ceeced Senator Sprague, who was the
only Governor in the East during the
war TO assume command Of State reg
iments and take them into the field"
Il have sometimes thought" said
General Burnside" that as dramatic
an incident of the war as any that I
became familiar with was the manner
in which Governor Sprague mobilized
NAAD AAot ANhRA0 AoAanu anu
departed from Providence at their |
head only four days after President !
Lincoln's proclamation of April IA, |
1861, was issued. You know, he be- 1
came Governor Of Rhode Island when /
only twenty-nine years Of age; that |
was in 1860. He was a slender young /
man of medium height, wore a faint /
black mustache and was of very fair |
! have heard II said that |
no young man in the United States had /
a greater public career in the future |
than he. As you know, he made a |
highly creditable record at the front |
from the first Bull Run through the
Peninsular campaign. while still Gov
ernor; he declined a commission as
brigadier-general, and was chosen
United States Senator in 1852, when
In his thirty-first year. The next year
he was brought more closely, II pos
sible, to the notice Of such men as |
Lincoln and his advisors by his mar
riage with the brilliant Kate Chase,
daughter Of the Secretary OF the Trea-
sury Moreover, he was thought to be
one of the richest of the manufactur- |
ers of the United States He and his
brother Amasa we're the owners of
great cotton mills.
but here I am in the seat that he
occupied, and all because Of