Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1922-04-27
OLD DAYS ON
GUANTANAMO BAY

Willacoochee, Ga, April 18, 1922.
Editor Gazette:
In reading your last Saturday night
Sketch ! saw you mentioned the fact
that Fitzgerald sent band to the
front in the war with Spain. | shall
always love and remember that band
1t was said to be the finest band at
that time in the whole army, in either
branch, the regular or volunteer army
Within three weeks after we reached
Guantanamo we were in the unmerci-
full grasp OF yellow fever. The little
field hospital was full to OVERLOOKING
and every day several of our gallant
Georgia boys were carried over to the
little knoll on the river side for the
last sleep. The few men who were
able to be up were respondent and
home-sick The band every night
would give a long concert. 1t did all
it could to cheer and to enthuse and
put life once more into the men, The
Cubans understood the situation They
would come out in droves from the
city every night to our camp, and the
better class of them at that, and the
senoritas (girls) would dance to the
music of our band They were very
pretty and the most graceful little
creatures | ever saw; and they present
ed a very pretty spectacle, indeed,
| gliding around and around like SO
many butterflies in the beautiful moon
| light. They danced only with each
other, the girls with the girls. They
would not think of dancing with one
of our gallant boys, as to that matter,
| oil h.
of chaperone. never knew why,
but when l had yellow fever l was
not carried to the hospital. / fought
it ought in my own headquarters, and
the band headquarters were about
| 90 feet in the rear of my headquarters.
While was convalescing from an
attack of yellow fever, I was not suf-
| fering anv pain. / was only extremely
weak. The doctor kept life in me,
kept my heart going, by the use of
the most powerful stinulants at reg
lar intervals The fever had left my
hearing badly impaired, but at the
distance I could still hear the band
distinctly, and it lulled me to sleep
everv night with the strains of THE
Girl | left Behind Me-" Jesus Paid
1t All" "The Old Folks At Home"
or some other well-known melody. My
! love for the Fitzgerald band has been
| strengthened and sanctified and made
more sure by the passing years, and
when | finally pass behind the last
| sunset, # am so fortunate as to find
my house in order, I shall think the
music in Heaven is not complete I'M
less the Fitzgerald Band of 1898 is
there to play.
I was much interested in Mr. Bra
| dy's statement that the Lincoln assas-
sin was an Atlanta minister. Mr..
Brady, I suppose has nothing with
which to back up that statement, only
the newspaper reports which have
been going the rounds occasionally for
the last so years. When | was a
young man, more than 40 years ago,
I was reading medicine in the office
of DR.. G. G. Ray of Atlanta. DIR.
Ray was Virginian, and served thru
the Confederate war as Major of
Virginia Volunteers. The statement
was then going the rounds that John
Wilkes Booth and Presbyterian min
lister by the name of Armstrong q
thinkwas the name) were one and the
same man DR.. Ray said there was
not one word of truth in that state
ment; said he knew Booth personally;
had seen him time and time again as
an actor on the stage. Said he was
in Washington when the remains of
the man whom Sergeant Boston Cor
bitt had killed and claimed to be
John Wilkes Booth was brought in;
said he viewed the corpse and had no
difficulty in identifying it as that of
Booth. Said he examined his frac-
tured ankle ;said his ankle was frac-
tured when he leaped from the box to
the stage and uttered his immortal
Sic Semper Tyrannis" Ever Thus
With Tyrante). DR.. Ray clipped a
strand of hair from Booths head and
had it fashioned into a miniature rope
and wore it attached to his watch
chain. have seen it thousand
times, and had it in my hands more
than once
Respectfully,
Jefferson Wilcox.
Late Capt. Co. B.. 3rd Reg U. S. Vol.
Infantry, War With Spain.
P. 81 neglected to state at the
proper place that the man who beat
the kettle drum in the Fitzgerald
| Hand xuac ho,, o,I..