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| Mrs. Mary Sanders shown with "Best Man" Pat McLaughlin, 104. |
Aftermath
1865
The Richmond Republican says that after the surrender of General Lee, his son,
William H.F. Lee, without loss of time, repaired to White House determined,
notwithstanding the lateness of the season, to attempt to make a crop of corn.
Three young men, formerly of his command, attended him. A German, an Irishman
and two freedmen were subsequently added to their force. They began plowing on
the 29th of April and have made a splendid crop of corn estimated at 15,000
bushels.
1873
A Major General In The Gutter
The Kansas City Times vouched for the truth of the following:
Today there is a man going about the streets of this city, ragged, dirty
and penniless, surviving on free lunches and the charities of gamblers, and
has not slept in a bed in months, who, during the war, was one of the most
dashing cavalry officers in the Union army, and was promoted from the rank
of first lieutenant to a full brigadier general and brevet major general
for brilliant exploits on the field of battle, and who for a long time had
a large and important command. He has been here for two or three months under
an assumed name, being ashamed to dim the brilliancy of his record in the
service of his country by an exhibition of his degradation under his former
honored name. He is generally very reticent, having little to do with anyone
or talking little, save when "engineering" for a drink, at which he is remarkably
successful. Night before last, while lying helplessly drunk in the rear part
of a Third street saloon, some men thought to play a joke on him by stealing
his shirt, and proceeded to strip him. Underneath his shirt, and suspended
by a string around his neck, was a small canvass bag, which the men opened
and found it to contain his commission as brevet major general, two
congratulatory letters, one from Grant and one from President Lincoln, a
photograph of a little girl, and a lock of hair - a "chestnut shadow" that
doubtless one day crept over the brow of a wee loved one. When these things
were discovered even the half-drunken men who found them felt a respect for
the man’s former greatness, and pity for his fallen condition, and quietly
returned the bag and its contents to where they found them, and replaced
the sleeper’s clothes upon him. Yesterday a News reporter tried to interview
the man and endeavor to learn something of his life for the past few years,
but he declined to communicate anything. He cried like a child when told
how his right name and former position were ascertained, and with tears trickling
down his cheeks, said: "For God’s sake, sir, don’t publish my
degradation or my name at least, if you are determined to say something about
it. It is enough that I know myself how low I have become. Will you promise
that much? It will do no good, but will do my friends a great deal of harm,
as, fortunately, they think I died in South America, where I went at the
close of the war." Intemperance and the gaming tables, he said, had wrought
his ruin.
1907
Battle Creek, MI - An unusual honor has been bestowed upon Dr. James
H. Reed of Battle Creek who is this year to give the Memorial Day address
at Climax. The doctor, an ex-Confederate, has been made an honorary member
of the regiment he fought against the hardest.
During the Civil War, Dr. Reed served with the Fourteenth Mississippi
participated in the battle of Thompson's Station, Tenn. which the southerners
called Spring Hill. In this engagement Reed's regiment captured the Nineteenth
Michigan which has now adopted him as an honorary member.
1909
Before the war the Government tried the experiment of importing 21 camels for
use of the Army as transports across the deserts of Texas, Arizona and New
Mexico. For some reason the experiment was not a success. Neither the soldiers
nor the Mexicans took kindly to the camel, did not understand his nature, and
did not want to learn. The war came on. The camels were turned loose and
forgotten, but recently two of them were seen near Phoenix, Ariz. That two of
them are alive is proof that camels could be used in this country; but after
all, despite their ability to make long journeys between drinks, there is hardly
a place for them in our economy. A place worth while sending a caravan of camels
to is worth while sending a railroad to, and a railroad is cheaper and better
than a caravan.
1924
The Wife
of the Confederacy
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| Mrs. Mary Sanders shown with "Best Man" Pat McLaughlin, 104. |
The “Wife of the Confederacy” is again a
bride. But not a bride of the type that would be expected of a woman of 74 years
who has been mourning for seven deceased husbands within eight years, but rather
of the 1924 flapper model, is Mrs. A.J. Fuller, inmate of the Jefferson Davis
Soldiers Home at Beauvier, Miss. Who has just bobbed her hair a la Gloria and
made her eighth trip to the alter, becoming the wife of a Confederate veteran 96
years old. The wedding of “Sunshine” and “Rose” as the aged matrimonial
adventurers are known, was “the social event” of the season in this popular
resorts area on the Mississippi gulf coast. The ceremony was performed at the
soldiers home before a throng that included prominent persons from all over the
country. The Rev. Abner Walker, Confederate veteran, performed the ceremony,
while Pat McLaughlin, 104, oldest inmate of the home was best man. A Chicago
jazz orchestra, in Biloxi for the season, furnished music for the occasion, and
W.M. Lampton, millionaire philanthropist, furnished an automobile for the
couple’s honeymoon tour of the Mississippi coast. Mrs. Fuller, who before her
marriage was Mrs. Mary Sanders, came to the soldier’s home with her first
husband about ten years ago and has been a constant resident since. Since her
arrival, seven times she has donned mourning, and seven times she has laid aside
the black to wear the bridal gown. Intervals between the death of one husband
and the marrying of the next have been short, sometimes only a few months. “All
of my husbands have been Confederate veterans and they have all been very good
to me” says Mrs. Fuller, who claims the record of having been the wife of more
war veterans than any other woman. “I am young yet and expect to live many
years” says the blushing bride with a glow in her cheeks that would make most
modern girls envious. “My husband is hale and hearty, but should he answer the
roll call before me, well, who knows, I might take my ninth mate”. “You see I am
in love with all of the ‘boys’, they are such lovable men and so kind and
thoughtful of me.” “I am just in my prime” declares the bridegroom. “I can hold
my own against any of the ‘jelly beans’ that come down here for the summer and
these ‘sheiks’ in the home, well I certainly beat Mary’s other fellers while
they were up in Memphis at the reunion.”
Veteran Maintains Guard Over Grant's First Camp Site
Springfield, Ill. - Eight miles west of Springfield on the highway to
Jacksonville, Israel F. Pearce, patriarch, veteran of Grant's army and
participant in Sherm,an's march to the sea lives in solitude on the land
where General Grant pitched camp on his first day's march into the Civil
War.
Pearce, the only man now living out of the entire regiment which went into
encampment on this spot of ground the night of July 3, 1861, maintains a
guard over the old camp ground and over "General Grant's Tree", a large
peculiarly shaped black walnut tree under which Grant wrote his orders.
Every morning at sunrise the tattered old flag belonging to Pearce is raised
from a 10-foot flagpole near his house and every evening at sundown the flag
is lowered.
Pearce acts as a guardian for the for this historic spot and is glad to relate
its history to passing tourists, although the historical connection is known
to few people and no mark, save the veteran's flag, are to be seen on the
land.
"General Grant's Tree", some three feet in diameter, stands near the house.
Here, Pearce tells tourists, he saw Grant, sitting astride a peculiar limb
growth, near the ground, writing out the first day's orders. Grant's tent
was pitched a few feet from the tree and he once addressed the regiment from
a spot near where the tall flagpole now stands.
"The first day's march of the regiment, the 21st Illinios Infantry, was started
from Camp Yates, in this city, about 11 a.m. and the first camp site was
reached about 5 p.m." Pearce relates.
"The regiment was halted in columns of companies in the woods, arms were
stacked and when wagon trains came into camp each company unloaded its wagon,
arranged the tents by opening and spreading them on the ground, and at one
sound of the drum the tents were raised, at two sounds ropes were stretched,
and at the third sound the stakes were driven and the regiment was under
canvas in its first tented field."
"The first day's march of the regiment attended with hardships and there
were stragglers and absentees. The punishment given was extra guard duty
both for officers and men. The men made camp fires and cooked their first
meal in camp at this time."
"During the first evening officer's call was sounded and Grant, then Colonel
Grant, talked to the men emphasizing the absolute necessity of enforcing
respect for the inhabitants of the country through which the regiment was
passing. The captains of the companies were made personally responsible for
the acts of the men."
Pearce was quartered both at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and on July 3,
1863, marched into Vicksburg with Grant and his army just two years after
the regiment left its first camp near the walnut tree. From Vicksburg, Pearce
went with Sherman on his march to the sea through the Carolinas and on to
Washington. He participated in the Grand Review up Pennsylvania Avenue at
the close of the war.