Watson's weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1907, July 18, 1907, Page PAGE THREE, Image 3

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SONE PAGES FROM NS ‘BOOK SAD HISTORY OF THE CONFED ERATE GENERALS. The Men Who Offered up Their Lives and Property on the Altar of Their Country, and How They Accepted the Arbitrament of the Sword and Abided By It. (Special to The Constitution.) New York, January 3. —What a strange, and in the main, what a sad history is that of the generals who led the Confederate armies in the late war! It is a story of poverty and deprivation, lit up here and there by a gleam of good luck —but of poverty borne manfully, and of de privation met with the same courage that led these men to the front of their legions. The fate of the ‘ 1 rebel brigadier’’ at the close of the war was enough to depress the most buoyant among them. They had put everything on the turn of the sword and had lost. Property, bus ness and all had living, but not much more. Major- General L. L. Lamar, who was a brave soldier, has some position about the house, probably being in the document room. Major-General Cadmus M. Wilcox is with the sergeant-at-arms of the senate, and has little fortune out side of his position. Major-General Sam Jones is in the adjutant gen eral’s office, where he has a good though not a prominent place. Major-General Harry Heth, who was a classmate and great friend of Burnside, has a comfortable position in the treasury —and this closes the roll, I believe, of the generals of the Southern armies about Washing:on in any capacity, unless General C. L. Stevenson, who was formerly clerk of a congressional committee, still holds his place. The cause of education has engag ed the time and gives support to a good many of the old leaders of the boys in gray. General Custis Lee is at Washington-Lee as before noted. General Kirby Smith is chancellor of the University of the South at Su wanee, Tennessee, his necessities making him greatly dependent on his salary. Lieutenant-General D. H. Hill is president of the State Agricultural College of Arkansas, at Fayetteville, at a salary of $3,500. He has been poor ever since the war, and lost much time and money in publishing a periodical that was, however, a creditable and pure publication, and in teaching school. Biigadier Gen eral M. P. Lowry has charge of a fe male school at Salem, Miss., and is prospering finely. Lieutenant-Gen eral A. P. Stewart is chancellor of the University of Mississippi, where he gets a good salary and has a fine position. Brigadier-General Lilly is a professor somewhere, I think at Washington-Lee University, and this, I believe, closes the list of generals who are engaged in training the young men of the South. And yet there is General J. Argyle Smith, now superintendent of state instruc tion for Mississippi. There are very few of our old gen erals who have accepted office from the federal government. Lieutenant- General Longstreet is minister to Turkey. Colonel Mosby, who won the promience of a general, is con sul to Hong-Kong. Major-General LaFayette MeLaws, who was one of the powers of the Army of Virginia, is postmaster at Savannah. Major- General James Fagin was United States Marshal of Arkansas under Grant, but I believe is out of the service now. I do not know of any others that hold political appoint ments, and believe there are none other. Oh, yes, there is General Jack Wharton, of Lousiana, who took the marshalship of the New Orleans dis trict a few years ago. The railroad business has captured its quota of the generals and pays good salaries for light and genteel work. Major-General John C. Brown, of Tennessee, is first vice-president of the Texas Pacific, with headquar ters at Marshall and a salary of $lO,- 000 a year and expenses. He had money* before he • took this place, having had practice of SB,OOO to SIO,OOO from soon after the war. Major-General John B. Marma duke is railroad commissioner of the state of Missouri on a salary of $5,000 a year, on which he lives with dignity and ease. He is a bachelor and will probably leave his position with a competency. He stands high in St. Louis. Major-General M. D. L. Rosser, one of the most daring cavalrymen that ever drew a saber, is chief en gineer of the Northern Pacific at a big salary, and has made a fortune in lands along the line. He is a bachelor, and divides with Pierce Young the honors with the fair sex. Lieutenant-General John B. Gor don is counsel for the Louisville and Nashville road, at a salary of $14,000, and General E. P. Alexander, the best artillerist of the army, is prac tical manager of the same road at probably as large a salary. Neither of the gentlemen is rich, but will both probably save money from their salary. General R. H. Ransom was in charge of the freight agency of an important southern line. Major-General E. C. Walthall lives in Grenada, Miss., and is general counsel for the Mississippi Central road at a salary of SIO,OOO per an num, and is well off in the world’s goods. There are three of our generals who have become chiefs of police. Brigadier-General R. H. Anderson, a dashing cavalry officer, is chief of police in Savannah. Brigadier-Gen eral Tige Anderson, is chief of police in Atlanta, and Brigadier-General W. W. Allen is chief of police in Montgomery, Ala. There is a number who have turn ed the sword into a plough, and are leading bucolic lives. Besides the Lee’s, who have gone to farming, there is Major-General Frank B. WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. Cheatham, who has a fine place in Coffee county, Tennessee, on which he makes a good living. General W. H. (“ Red Jackson, who mar ried a daughter of General Harding, and has charge of the famous Belle Meade farm, the home of Bonnie Scotland, Great Tom and Enquirer, and from which came Bramble, Ben Hill and Luke Blackburn. He is rich and is up to his knees in clover, lit been sacrificed in the ardor of war, and they were left, in the fierce light of fame, without any resource —ex- pected to support a certain dignity and nothing to support it on. There was no standing army into which they could be retired with adequate salary. There was no hope for them in the thousands of lucrative offices that the republicans distributed among the federal generals. Their states were impoverished and were unable to support civil establish ments that would furnish offices out of which anything could be hoped for. Os course the privates of the Confederate army were deserving of all sympathy; but it seems to me that the generals had somewhat harder lines. At any rate, I am sure that there is no old soldier that fol lowed the stars and bars that will not read with interest a kindly in quiry into the history of these old leaders and their families. I believe the annexed will be entirely accurate, certainly nearly so: I hardly know where to begin, but suppose we take the living Lees with which we open the hurried review. W. H. F. Lee, the oldest son of Robe it E. Lee, is living at present in Fairfax county, on a farm that be longed to the estate of his aunt, Mrs. Fitzhugh. It is a fine place; the general is an attentive" and success ful farmer, and he gets a comforta ble living out of it. Custis Lee, the next son, succeeded his father as President of Washington-Lee Uni versity, and lives in Lexington. He is a bachelor, and his two sisters live with him. He has fine expectations, Judge Hughes having decided that the Arlington estate, now used as a federal cemetery, is his by right of law. The case has been appealed, but the judgment will hardly be re versed —and the place will be ap praised and payment made for it. Robert Lee lives on the old Lee es tate in Westmoreland county, where he is moving along smoothly, mak ing enough to supply his wants. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee has a farm on the Po tomac, that belonged to his aunt, Mrs. Fitzhugh, and it is said is show ing considerable enterprise, though not amassing money. He has a saw mill, I think, in connection with his farm. The house and the senate have a good many of our generals, and I think with the exception of Generals Cockrell and Vance, all of them find their salary very important. Gen eral Vance was living very easily, and added to his fortunes by his late marriage. Senator Cockrell, who was a brave and dashing officer, built up a lucrative practice in St. Louis be- fore he came to the senate, and is well fixed. Besides these there are in the senate, Major General Matt. Ransom, who is struggling to clear his property of encumbrances that he was forced to put upon it to make it productive. Brigadier-Gen eral John T. Morgan, of Alabama, who depended upon his law practice, which was larger in volume than in income; Lieutenant-General Hamp ton, of South Carolina, who is a com paratively poor man, though a large land owner; Major-General Butler, his colleague, who lost all in the war and has not recovered much; Major- General Maxey, of Texas, who, by the way, has an independent income from his practice, and owns a beau tiful home in Paris, Texas. In the house theie are many brig adiers, and a few heavier generals. Gen. Joe Johnson leads in rank, though his service in the house has not been brilliant. He has a fine insurance business, and his wife, a daughter of Judge McLean, had con siderable property. His book has not paid him much, I hear, being published under a poor contract. Alabama has done well by her gen et als, having in the house: Major- General W. H. Forney, who has lit tle beyond his salary, and Brigadier- Geneial C. M. Shelley, who is in about the same condition. Georgia has Brigadier-General Phil Cook, who has a good law practice in Americus, Ga., and who has had four terms in the house. Brigadibr-General Dib rell, of Tennessee, is comfortably fixed, and is re-elected to the house for his third term —and Atkins and Whitethorne, of the same state, were generals of state troops. Virginia has Brigadier-General Bealle, who is doing well outside of congress, and General Eppa Hunton, who retires at the close of the present congress, perfectly able to take care of him self. North Carolina has Gen. Robert Vance in the house, to balance Gen eral Zeb in the senate. Lousiana has General Randall Gibson, who has been elected to the next house, and to the senate also. He is a rich man, having had means of his own, and his wife having had some property. General Chalmers is representative of the famous shoe-string district of Mississippi, and is moderately well off.' This finishes up the list of “rebel” generals in the house and senate, I think, without omission. There are a number of Confeder ate generals in the departments and in various service in Washington. First in the importance of his work is General Marcus J. Wright who has charge of the Confederate rec ords, and who was looking towards a literary connection when he was offered this place that would have brought him fame and money. Major-General C. W. Field, who fought to the last day in the morn ing with Lee, is door-keeper of the house, having formerly had an in surance business that gave him a erally and deservedly. Major-General A. Buford has a (Continued on Page Seven.) PAGE THREE