Evening Star Newspaper, May 30, 1926, Page 45

' Slavery Question Was a Handicap - For.Early D. C. Congregationalists [ Rambler Begins Story of Small Group Which Attracted to National Capital a § N the stories of old musicians, p Prof. Frederick Widdows, chimer of Metropolitan M. E. Church, and Dr. John W. Bischoff, organ- ist of the % Congregational Church, were written of. In getting facts about Prof. Widdows, the Pambler came upon the fundamentals for the stories on the Metropolitan Church, h stories have been pub- lished. ~While writing of Dr. Bischoft the history of the Firsi Congrega- tional Church was given to the Rambler, and he will pass much of it to you today with belief that you will think the facts of interest and that the names of old members of the church will move your memory. No credit is due the Rambler for eollecting the facts of this story. They are to be found in addresses made at the meetings in observance of the | v (l:» foynding of The anniversary services ovember 11-14, inclusive, 1915. The address of most importance for the Rambler’ pose was that of Walter L. Clfi, his own knowl . paper by Wi 2 the twenty-fi'th annive and certain re 8 gathered by Prof. A George P. Whittlese: A meeting of a fe gationalists then 1 ton was held Augus law office of Bigelow eugh, at the corner of Seventh and L streets. This resolution was adopted: “Resolved, that we proceed to the organization of a cregational Church in the city of ashington, essentially on the p of the Cam- bridge platform; whose standard of plety shall be high, whose doctrines shall be evangelical and whose action favors the leading reforms of the day, including Bible, missionary, tract, anti-slavery, Sabbath school and tem- perance_efforts.” The Rambler reads in Mr. Clift's paper this: “It must have been the first time in the history of this city and of the entire South that a re- liglous body was organized having an anti-slavery plank in-its platform. It is doubtful if there were many churches in the North that as early as the 40s had that idea in their church creed.” ‘The group of W gationalists, accord tional historian everywhere,” an met at homes of o the Congre- ng in Washing- 1847, in the shington Congre- to n Congrega- net here, there and 1 assume that th members. A one Cook- 1d_a church 1 have not Cookman, the baptismal » Vas! and the name s not | directory for the years 13 Cookman cau a building on Congregati: The site of the by the synagogue Hebrew Cong alism was ngregation- rught of in of opinion a nomination. Let me read you thi n of Congrega- of the them. church— church} was an 1t was Southern “They found whole cily arr: They were a more than an and the Washington of 1848 extremely pro-slavesy eity completely ~dominated by influence. Nor was this the opinion National Church Council. (which it did by turnl B. W. BEEBE. took up worship in the buflding, and they established a Sunday school in which two young ladies taught. I do not know their maiden names, but they became Mrs. J. E. Rankin, wife of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Eames Ran- kin, pastor from 1869 until his resig- nation in 1884, and Mrs. F. H. Smith, wife of a church member who was trustee from 1873 to 1878. * Kk X %k \OON after Mr. Grinnell left—I have not the date—the Rev. Alexander Duncanson, not long out of Scotland, came to the Washington Congrega- tionalists. He knew the congregation was small and it was plain to him that it could not support a pastor. He called a council of the Congregational Church of the whole country to meet at Washington. The church historian says: “And now this practical young theo- logian, seeing that the church was about the weakest one of our denomi- nation in the country, determined to call the largest council ever held in the United States; and the small church sent out 150 letters missive to 150 of the largest churches in the land, asking them to attend by pastor land delegate. Every church was of the rabble merely; it was the be- | lief of the ciergy, of the bar. reputable inhabitants of the The whole city was hostile to an anti: elavery church. “There was anot way. They were d selves. Needing 1 church ever needed it, (hey were con- stantly quarreling. All abolitionists possessed an intense courage of their convictions and were determined to impress them on every one else. Gar- rison’s Memoirs illustratd that. Our ‘Washington friends of that date were no exception. They quarreled at every meeting. Beeing no escape from diffi- culties withou 1d within, they called a council to see if hould be organized as a church. After hear- ing the evidence the incil decided that it would decline to recognize ss Mr. Bigelow, warring fac- tions, should withdraw. But as he preferred to remain in his leadership of halt of the Ilittle gathering, the council departed hout constituting them a church. 7They held a few more meetings and then quictly and gradually dissolved.” * k % ® THE Congregationalists of Wash ington—they were not numerous and the record says thet they were poor—did not give up hope of being formed as a church. The sentiment was growing among Congregational- ists in the North that the denomina- tlon ought to be repre church at Washingtor cussion was interesting each vear and abolition s the free States was becoming popular. In 1852 the Vashington Congregationalists believed that they might form a church. They wanted the Congregational church of Wash. ington to be as the Congregational ¢al anti-slavery church. Trinity Episcopal Ci difficuity in the mong them- s no other occupied re the Co- nds and was new church and Indiana building on Fifth street was for The Con- gregational group invited® Rev. C. B. Boynton, then preach cinnatl, to minister 1o it, not accept. Mr. is Teppan of New York, widely I tlonist, sent to the T gregationalists a ug minister, J. B. Grinpnell, just graduated from an orthodox theological school. He was nted by Mr. Tappan as “sound” on the slavery question, which meant that he was a bold and trumpet- tongued abolitionist. Mr. Grmnell, fine and enthusiastic young man, did not stay long with the ‘Washington Congregationalists. Some of them were not as stalwart aboli- tionists as he, and I believe there was ‘some trouble in giving the young min- ister an adequate salar: ‘Grinnell, seeing the old Trinity Church butlding on Fifth street for sale, planned to buy it. IHe went among the Congregationalists of New Eng- land and New York and put this pro- posal before them: “The First Congre- fonal Church of Washington wishes o purchase a church building and asks your aid. It does not ask you to give any money; it does not ask Yyou to lend any money: it only wants u to make an investment by the of a pew in the building. It 't cost you anything; you will the pew and its pew rentals will to you, and in this way ¥ help us to purchase the building. Mr. Clift makes the following com- fuent on that proposal “And as most ple are willing to&lo a good act en it costs them nothing, our prac- theological studént induced so smany people at the North to Smaginary pews in [ church that he ~a- ingto: e Wi of all | H. N. COPP. represented. A countll of 300 pastors {and delegates came to visit a little church of not one-tenth ‘their number. Prof. Calvin E. Stowe of Andover was made moderator, and Dr. J. W. Chick- ering, who came to live among us in his old age, was one of the scribes, the the council belng so large that two scribes were needed. : ‘Mr. Duncanson stood up before every one else ‘out of the meeting house) those old theological war horses were, of the opinion that & man who held such a heretical doctrine as that, that a man might fall from grace, was not fit to be intrusted with a pulpit in the Cap- g‘u of the Nation, and they rejected m. ‘Then came up the question of the support of the little pastorless church, and a western pastor, Rev. Mr. Smith, was laying down the law quite strong- ly in favor of its support when he was interfapted by Henry Ward Beecher, who remarked: ‘Your talk is very good, Brother Smith, but money is ‘wants how much money will you &gl ‘Just twice as much as you will, Brother Beecher, in proportion to our salaries,’ and as Brother Beecher then had, perhaps, the largest that large council to state his theo- logical views. It must have been.an extremely embarrassing situation for that young man. He was a foreigner, standing up before 150 of the leading clergymen of our denomination and 150 leading laymen. But he went along very nicely till he came to the doctrine of the perseverance of saints. Here, unfortunately, he believed what his eyes saw and his ears heard, that Christians do fall away, and so he stated to the council. “When the council retired by itself A. W. BARBER. salary of any Congregational clergy- man in the United States, he felt answered and sat down.” * ok ok % IDURING the time the council was in _Washington, Rev. . Henry Ward Beecher, rising in fame, preached in the Fifth Street Church, Other eminent clergymen preached there and crowds came. - Copsrega- | tionalism in Wasbington ax gro ing. This called more attentioh to the anti-slavery opinions of ' the church, and the word seems to have got around that anybody employed in Washington by the Government and hav! membership in that church would have to give up his v Notable _____REV. H. N. COUDEN. Government job. Attendance at the church slumped. When Mr. Duncanson was rejected for heretical views on the persever- ance of the saints, the church “called” or invited to its pulpit Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Charles B. Boyn- tion and Rev. Horace James of Worcester. They declined. Between 1852 and 1838, in addition to Messrs. Grinnell and Duncanson, the congrega- tion was served for short terms by Rev. J. T. Avery, J. D. Potter, J. Miter and Rev. Dr. Nevins. The record shows that in six years the church called 10 clergymen and that nine declined or did not suit, and the tenth was not “sound” on persever- ance of the saints. The Washington church came upon hard times—hardest times—and was forced to give up. Title to the church building on Fifth street went back to the owners, to whom the Congrega- tionallsts had made part payment, was sold and converted into a stable. During the Civil War Washington Congregationalists and members of the denomination passing through ‘Washington held services in Temper- ance Hall, on Ninth street; the rooms of the Christian Commission, in Iron Hall over Droop's Music Store, and other places, and the First Congrega- tional Church of Washington was or- ganized in 1865. This is as much as the Rambler will tell you today of early Congrega- tionalism in Washington and he will close this story with a paragraph containing matter which is probably news to you. On October 2, 186: consisting_of B. F. Morris, Willlam Russell, E. W. Robinson, Willlam Wheeler, W. S. Bailey, S. P. Giddings, C. H. Buxton, E. L. Stevens, G. H. Williamson, W. R. Hooper, C. S. Mat- toon, Dr. H. Barber, 1i. A. Brewster, C. H. Bl A. H. Raymond, L. Deane, A. T. Longley and J. B. Johnson called on President Andrew Johnson, told him they were a delegation from the Congregational Church of the United States, and asked him to ap- point a day of national thanksgiving and prayer. Mr. Lincoln had pointed days of. thanksgiving special occaslons.” But this delega tion asked President Johnson to be- the appointment of a vearly iving. The church history je granted us our request and appointed the first thanksgiving day, a national celebration, started by the Congregationalists of Washing- ton.” a committee |Perils in Grand Gorges of the Yangtse (Continued from Second Page.) rivér indicated that she was very near, and & moment later she ap- peared, to the consternation of the | assembled prospectlve passengers. They had figured that when the gunboat salled up river it would not return for some time. Nevertheless, several sampans filled with soldiers came out and attempted to unload their unwelcome cargo of humanity, and it was finally necessary to send an armed guard from the gunboat to prevent this. There was much scurrying about, with many hurried conferences in the small town, but the searchlights of the gunboat played on the beach all night and, as usual when a definite stand is taken by any one having dealings with the Chinese, they saved their “face” by accepting the situation without protest. * ¥ % % LTHOUGH each port has its gen- eral, there is one name that is known up and down the river—Yang Sen. He is a friend to Wu Pel-Fu and is one of the most progressive of Chinese. He was the tupan and most powerful general of Szechuan until five other generals united to drive him out. He fled to Hankow for a while, but is now reported as ready to stage a comeback In Szechuan. He will probably be .received with open arms by each of the generals buy who helped to drive him out; then they will vie with each other.to win his favor, and he will select one or two to be his friends and drive out the others. That is China. However, though wild rumors were afloat, Yang Sen had not returned to Szechuan while we were there. We reached Ichang safely, but learned there that a ship we had passed on the way down was fired upon heavily and had been hit 17 times. Its smokestack was said to resemble an elongated sieve. It was a British ship, and was sending a radio to ask the adviceand help of the' British gunboat. The position of the up-river gun- boat captains is difficult beyond the comprehension of all who sit safely at home. They are placed here pre- sumably to insure the protection of the lives and property of their na- tionals, but they are bound hand and | foot when it comes to a point of action. They are hampered and choked by the bonds of civilized thought, in an uncivilized country where truth and honor are exploded theories of an anclent philosophy. ‘When it comes to parleying and ap- pealing to the much advertised “rea- sonableness” of the Chinese, they are at an appalling disadvantage. For a Chinese general's stock of explana- tions is only exceeded by his unlimited supply of promises. While he is in power he has no idea of keeping them, and when he goes out of power he is absolved of all responsibility, and the From Gunshots, Rapids and Rocks foreign devils will have to requisition a new set of promises from the new general. Some of their excuses and subter- fuges are quaint and naive in the ex- treme—others are diabolic clever- ness. For instance, ‘when some sol- diers in a sampan were attempting to board our ship, they were told that we would not carry any men in uniform. They solemnly rose in the little boat, stripped off their uniforms, revealing a plain black suit underneath, packed away their caps and donned little black satin skull caps—all this right under our noses—then announced they were no longer soldiers in uni- f;)‘l"m. and were eligible to ride on our, ship. . ‘When the captain of one of the gun- boats went to call on a general at ‘Wanhslen, after a most friendly and gratifying visit, he discovered to his chagrin upon his return to the ship that while he had been chatting with the general the chairmen who had borne his interpreter up the hillside had been “laffooed,” or practically kidnaped for military service by the hospitable general. Whenever a ship is fired on by men from shore, the general explains they are “bandits.” ‘When it is asked how they happen to be in uniform, there has been “a re- cent bandit raid on a carload of uni- forms. * %k k BUT the quintessence of wiliness was exhibited by a certain up-river general who demanded a large sum of money from tie head of a shipping company operating under the Ameri- can flag, claiming that one of his sampans, chock-full of soldiers and money, had been swamped by the American ship. Knowing that the ac- cident was in no way the fault of the ship, and that the loss, if any, was greatly exaggerated, the company re- fused to submit to the blackmail. Thereupon the company was bo; cotted—with a tremendous loss. It seemed easler and cheaper to pay something to the general, so after some negotlations, the head of the company gave the general a series of notes dated far ahead, with the under- standing that if the boycott were not removed and full protection afforded his ships he would not be.in a position to meet the notes when they fell due. This seemed a_satisfactory solution to the problem, but the general, 'in- stead of carrying out his part of the agreement, sent the notes to Shang- hai, where the banks cashed them immediately at a discount—and the general proceeded to continue his boy- cott of the company. 4 Now: the general in the next town, hearing of his good luck, is demand- ing a similar sum for the same or a similar accident. . To close, with a return to the scenic beauty and natural dangers of this wondertul trip into the heart of China, let me quote from a poem of the Chi- nese Po Chu-i, who wrote in 818, “Alarm at First Entering the Yang- tse Gorges."” “Above a moun! e » ey s ot 3 A atrip of green. wall cliffs of A R Tor™ the. russage” of & single *y *ha walls are black with high, leep. d, L2 4o bl Dat i e ‘7THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. 0, MAY 30, 1926—PART 5. " |Soldiers Who Fought in Civil War, Few in Number, Spin Battle Yarns Confederate Veteran Meets Union Soldier -Who Spared His Life Because of Verses He BY ALICE ROGERS HAGER. T is very easy to forget that his- tory is the most human thing we have on our bookshelves. While we are making it we are 100 busy living to meditate abstractions, and when it has been made by gen- erations that preceded us it is all too apt to come to us as dull names and duller dates. But if we are so fortu- nate as to catch it on the wing, from the Mps of those whg have lived through its stormy crises and are grown old and mellow and contempla- tive, then indeed do we feel the rush of events and the names become men, and the dates are pictures that move before our eyes. Then we hear with open ears the tramp of marching feet, and the hot breath of battle fans our cheeks. We stir to old causes in the midst of our own demanding times, but there is a gentleness and a tol- erance in the mouths of the old men that leaves us with the sense of human courage and its triumph over suffering rather than with the paln, of reawakened antagonisms. Memorial day this year finds, as it does each year so sadly now, the roster of the Civil War veterans still more diminished. ing to the muster roll are fewer and farther between, but the voices are still bgave and cheerful, and their abil- ity to spin a yarn is unquestioned. And how they love a new listener! Out at the Soldiers’ Home the other day they clustered around in a com- fortable little group and spurred each other on with much chuckling and many sly digs. “I remember very well the week 1 entered the service,” said W. H. fingwell, who boasts 92 young year “It was in Rendezvous week, in 1853, at the Jefferson Barracks, in St. Louis. We recruited 23 men for the regiment that week, and when, at the end of it, I was read off as lance corporal ta handle them, I am quite certain I felt more important than the commander- | in-chief. “A short time later they sent us out 1 | 1 { | I} 1 i : g fter Indians, in the Sioux campaign, | and kept us prety busy all through | the time that included the Cusier| massacre, With all the fighting 1've seen, not forgetting the battles in the { il War, the bravest thing of all was the act of a young buck who was | our gulde. He and his half-breed sis- | ter had been captured from his tribe by the Sloux. Hé escaped and joined us: One day we picked up a skirmish | with the Sfoux, and before any one | knew what was happening, in the| face of the Indian guns, the guide ! drove the mule he was riding right up | to the top of the embankment behind | which the enemy Jay. He gave a ter-| rible warwheop and a girl sprang out | from behind the embankment. At the | same moment one of the Sioux sharp- shooters fired. I never expected to see a man dodge a bullet successfully, but | that young guide surely did it! Then he caught the girl, pulied her astride the mule with him and dived for our lines. Belleve me, wo cheered him!! The girl, ‘of course, was the sister he | had had to leave behind. “The most interesting thing my Army experience brought me was the ro-slavery and anti-slavery fights in | bleeding Kansas” of 1856 and 1856. The Army was there, not as a fight- | ing machine, but as a peacemaker. Whenever we heard that a mob was assembling we would go off to it post- ' JAMES G. OLIVER. haste, line up and read the order from President Buchanan to disperse it. It ‘worked very well usually, but one time at Topeka. 80 of us had to it 600 scrappers and take them into jail. They had already started firing when we got to them and they wouldn’t stop, but when we began rounding them up they came with us without much trouble and nobody was hurt. “When John Brown raided Harper's Ferry we were ordered there to guard the Government property, and our colonel was Robert E. Lee! He was as fine an officer as any I have ever had and I'm proud to have served under him. * ok kK N the-Civii War I was with the Army of the Potomac in many battles, the worst being the seven days around Richmond, where for the entire week we fought by day and maneuvered by night. Gettysburg was terrific, but the weariness of the other was even worse.” “It couldn't have been any worse than our troubles in the siege of Vicksburg,” chimed in’ James G. Oli- wver, who enlisted for the war in 1862. “They ran out of regular cannon balls, so they fired railroad ties at us, and those ties coming over made the most awful noise I've ever heard. The only water we had to drink there was from the Razoo River, and it was The names answer- | Sang as He Was Lef- | | on Picket Duty. MAJ. GEN. A. W. GREELY, RETIRED. I T alway {1 made ifrom. Then he said: !rious life experiences have been so so0 dirty I was sick. One day I saw a patch of blackberries on a hill near- by, and somehow I got over to thos blackberries with the shells just whooping around me, and there I stayed until I'd eaten enough to get | well again.” “I went in 1861, after Fort Sumter was fired on,” said John C. Hogue of Indiana. “We trained for a while, and when my tine was up I re-enlisted. On the 4th of July we d and on the %th w front. On the 9th we swung into the fighting at Rich Mountain, Va.. and from then forward it was preity steady work, until I was wounded at Gettyshurg, the second day. The rest of the war I spent in a hospital over T went back to the farming, and 1 when the plagiie of | grasshoppers red the sun. 1 can| remember” (w agic words) “‘how | the herds of buffalo sometimes filled the roads so that we couldn’t get| across for hot They even stopped the trains and they were such a pest | that many hunters killed them just for their tongues. I never did th: used the whole animal when | a kill, and years afterward when the herds.wers gone, T used to 0 back and gather up thelr hones el But the best thing that bappened | to me during the war was the time we camped here in Washington where the Union Station now stands. We ad come in for horses and equip- ment, and one day we all went to the | White House to see Unclé Ahe and HARRIS AERE iy GEN. THEODORE SCHWAN. Who Died Thursd: Mrs. Lincoln. He was mighty nice to us and asked us where we all came My soldiers are the Government now. If you win, we have a United States; if you lose, we only have a confederacy. P * K kX T is a far cry from the bare and comfortable halls of the home to the Cosmos Club,. but when I saw Gen. Adolphus Wgshington Greely there it did not seem such a great dis- tance after all. Gen. Greely is many stories in one person, because his va- widely diversified that many men might have lived them. Tn spite of that, the one fact of which he is proudest is that he was the first man to volunteer as a private soldier in the Civil War who reached the rank of a general officer. He was made major general on February 10, 1906. In the time between the period of the Confederacy and this final pro- motion, he had supervised the con- struction of close to 25,000 miles of military and civilian telepgraph lines in the United States. Porto Rico, Cuba, China, the - Philippine Islands and Alaska, including submarine c: bles, and had equipped wireless, The wireless stretch of+ 107 miles from Nome to St. Michael was 'the first successful long-distance wireless ope: ated regularly as part of a commercial system. lHe was delegate to many wireless conventions, both here and abroad, and was made a gold medalist by the Royal British and the French Geographical ‘Socleties. And he was the representative of this country at the coronation of George V in 1911. The most interesting thing about Gen. Greely. however, in the light of puesent news, 1s that he was placed in HARRAS &¢ Ew (N _D. 5. GORDON command, in 1881, of a United States expedition, complying with the Ham burg International Geographical Con- gress of 1879, to establish one of a chain of 13 circumpolar stations. His part; reached farther north (83 degrees 24 seconds) than any other explorers up to that time. gedy stalked in their wake. After | they had discovered new land north | of Greenland, and crossed Grinnell | Land to the polar sea, the ice closed in and the grim death of the Arctic stared them in the face. They man- aged to retreat as far south as Cape Sabine, and here all but seven in the party-died of starvation. Two reliefs were sent ut to find them, but with- out success. Finally, the third re- lief, under Capt. Winfleld S. Schley. got through and brought them ouf “That is one of the reasons,” Gen. Greely says, “why 1 am more inte ested in the tremendous achievements of the present and what the future has in store for us all, than I am in reminiscences. When I was put in charge of the building of the first plane to be made on Government money—the one designed by Langley, which went to its grave off Hains Point—I predicted then that the Pole would some day be crossed by air. The magnificent exploits of the past JOHN C. HOGUE. few weeks have made that dream come true!” Gen. Greely is to spend Memorial day this year in Newburyport, Mass. his edrly home, where out of the 2,800 men who belonged to the 19th Massa- chusetts Volunteer Infantry in the |a, 60s he will be one of 12 remaining. . * ok ok ok ‘WO other retired major generals of the Regular Army are here in ‘Washington: John Lincoln Clem and Charles F. Humphrey. Gen Theodore Schwan, who dled Thursday, was proof of the loyalty of our adopted sons. He | &i was born in Hanover, Germany; came to the United States in 1857 and enlist- ed in the Army the same year. His distinguished record during the- Civil ‘War brought him brevet promotions and a congressional medal of honor. He served in the Porto Rican cam: paign: was chief of staff in the Philip- pines and commander of the Southern Luzon expedition in 1899-1900, and at tached to the American embassy in 15:{6"'. at one time. He was retired in Gen. Charles Frederick Humphrey, now 88 years old, retired in 1907 after 44 years’ service. He, too, wears a medal of honor bestowed by a grate- ful country “for most distinguished gallantry in an action against the In- A But then | |dians at Clearwater, 1daho. July 11, 1877, when he voluntarily and success- fully conducted, in the face of & ‘withering fire, a party that recovered possession of an abandoned Lowitzer and two Gatling guns lying between the lines and within a few vards of the Indians. He was at the time first lieutenant in the 4th United States y.”" He was jater chief quarter- | master of th antiago de Cg&l ex pedition in 1898 and with the inese relief expedition in 1900. . A few weeks ago Gen. Humphrey 1 wa ppointed to the head of the com- mission that is to study and mark the movements of the various regiments on the battlefleld at Appomattox Court House. “The Drummer Boy of Chick- amauga” is the name they gave to John Clem in 1862. He had tried to enlist in '61, but they refused him, surprisingly enough to him, who thought they wanted all “able-bodied " because he was only nine years old. Somehow the yvouthful warrior slipped by in the next year, with the 22d Michigan Infantry, and believe it or not, “Who's Who" says he was promoted to be a sergeant after the battle that Jave him his sobriquet! He participated in more than eight battles *altogether. After his retire- lment in 1916, he was for two years commander of the District of Colum- {bia Loyal Legion. Recently he has: been put on the committee that is to do to Spottsylvania and Fredericks- | burg the same thing Gen. Humphre; icommission is to do to Appomattox. Nine retired brigadier generals live in the Capital, all of them with dis- |tinguished service records. Of them. David 8. Gordon 1s probably typical, and he also holds the head of the list as the oldest living officer in our He was 94 years old He was breveted a major his gallantry at Gettysburg, {and a lieutenant colonel in 1890 for his fearlessness in Indian fighting in the 70s. During the Civil War, he was in battles too numerous to I he s taken prisoner and held { t, and in Libby rison, Richmond. Castle Pinckney Charleston, Jails. * ¥ X % ‘No story of the Civil War, how- 1+ N ever fragmentary, would be com- iplete witlfout a recounting of the {valorous deeds of the Confederate ‘nited Confederate hington organiza- d its thinning members. At Columbia and Salisbury ranks still have some { their head this year is Capt. James T. Petty, and he fold of the remarkable record of one of their other comrades, Col. B. Crandall, 94 years old this month, who has been in the service of the Internal Revenue Bureau for 28 years, with not a day's sick leave or absence in all that time. As for himself, Capt. Petty recounts with pride the fact that he gave his iyears in the war as a private soldfer, {and that his captaincy was gained in the Virginia Militia since that time Capt. Perry comes from Falmouth, Va., but, except for the years of con flict, he has lived in Washington since November, 1831. After his re turn in 1867, he was first bookkeeper in the District offices, then auditor for 15 years, and finally assistant asses |x.or n charge of the residential ac counts. For 54 years, short one | month, he was in the employ of the { District of Columbia, and his retire CAPT. JAMES T. PETTY. ment with honor did not comse until i August 20, 1924. i “I began my war service in the {fighting department,” said Capt. Petty. “Then on the sixth day of the battle of Richmond, I was taken prisoner and eent to Governor’'s Island, and later to Boston Harbor, to Fort War- ren. August 8, 1862, I was exchanged, and for awhile I was in the ‘bomh- proof’ or ‘safety’ department, which is what we called the commissary. Finally, I was returned to the firing line, and I knew the hunger and m ery of the last days of the war that came to our Army. I have gone near- ly three ‘days -without food of any kind, and I know .what it means to be ravenously glad of a handful of raw corn. Frequently a plece of corn bread was a full d: rations, But I was lucky. I wasn't wounded until the last week of the war and that happened at Dinwiddie Court House near Petersburg. And then he told me the best story of all. “I can't understand the people who think we aren't loval to the United States. When we surrendered Appo- mattex, we took back the Stars and | Stripes as our own flag, and we would give our lives for it today as quickly as we would have given them for the Stars and Bars before. My son is a | lieutenant colonel in the Army now, and served through both the Spanish- American and the World Wars. We ho fought in the ranks of the Blue and the Gray are friends now. It makes me think of something that happened on a Potomac River boat to one of our camp members not long "?Thll man, the Confederate veteran, was singing in the darkness, for the party he was with—he had a flne voice. When he finished, a man who had been standing nearby came up to him and said, with emotion: ‘T know that voice. Weren't you in the South- ern- Army, in such and étch & Vir- nia battle? The Confedwyrate veteran said, ‘ves,’ that he had been, wonder- ing what it was all about. « 1 knew I should never forget your the stran, ight my company, your picket line, and I heard you song *“Jesu. Lover of My Soul,” and you had § gotten to the verse that s “Other refuge have I none; Hangs my help- o8 od my Angsk on the.tHEEer, Dut up, my r on the r, but ‘when you sang those words, I dropped it, and told my men that they could shoot it they wanted to, but that I 't. They didn’t—and that' why you are here tonight. I'm glad to meet you, sirl'”