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