Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06
Confederate Relic
Continued from Fourth Page

Continued from Fourth Page
ships, and turning his sailors into soldiers,
Joined Gen Johnston. The war over he went
back to Alabama, where he practiced law until
his death in 1877.
John SIIDELL, the oldest of the group, was
born in New York in 1898 After
graduating in law at Columbia, he went
to New orleans to practice his profession. That
State sent him to the House of Representatives
as a States rights Democrat. A member of the
Senate he resigned when Louisiana seeded
Appointed Confederate commissioner to
France ne and his associate James Mason.
started for that country on the English mail
steamer Trent. Capt Charles Wilkes of the
U. S. S. San Jacinto stopped the Trent and
seized the two commissioners. They were
taken to Fort Warren Boston, but were soon
released and proceeded to Paris, where their
mission, to have France recognize the COnfed-
crate states, was failure, though they secured
a large loan and supplies. Slidell went TO Eng
land after the war, and in 1871 died in London.
JAMES MURRAY MASON, who shared Sill
delrs experience his associate COnfed-
crate commissioner, was born on Masons
Island, in Fairfax County Va, in 1893 The
island can be seen in the Potomac below
Georgetown, but there is no house on it now.
grandson of the great George Mason, he was
educated at the University of Pennsylvania
and william and Mary College in Virginia.
Lawyer and political leader, he became in turn
a member of the House Of Representatives and
a Senator AS author of the fugitive slave
act in 1850, he upheld States rights and Slav-
cry. In 1861 he resigned his position and
threw in his lot with the Confederacy which
he served commissioner to Great Britain and
France. He died in 1871 at Clarens his home
on Seminary Hill, in Fairfax County Va
7 ASTLY, Joe Johnston Joseph Eggleston),
another Virginian who was born at Farm
vile in 1907. He graduated at West Point in the
same class with Lee. After serving in the
Black Hawk and Seminole Wars, in 1887 he
left the Army to become civil engineer, but
returned to it year later. Lieut.. Johnston
was wounded twice in the Mexican War. In
1861 he was brigadier general in the United
States Army and when he resigned he went to
the Confederate Army with the highest rank
of any other ex-oficer of the United States
Army.
A full general in the Confederate service, he
was a STedI ledOeT III IlTSL OaCll6 Oh Bull
Run he personally led charge with the colors
of the 4th Alabama Regiment in his hands
Unsurpassed in steadiness, he was not as bril-
liant fighter as Lee or jackson. But
Grant said of him once:
at was always anxious with Joe Johnston
in front of me. I was never half SO
anxious in front of Lee"
With an army half the size of his opponents,
he fought the last year of the war against
Sherman's army Ten days after Lees surrender
at Appomattox, Johnston was authorized to
make terms with Sherman. Followed his ca
reer writer, member of Congress from Vir-
ginia and commissioner of railroads in Presi-
dent Clevelands administration. He died In
Washington in 1891.
Who can or would wish to gainsay that these
nine faces on square of silk that hangs
framed on the walls of Washington hOpaA
make noble group, typical of the best that
the great Republic Of the United States has
produced?