facts about which he had testified so that I would be able to defend him if again assailed, as he had been by Senator Culberson about his testimony before the Philippine Committee.

PROMOTION OF COL. KINGSBURY.

Another experience of the kind mentioned was the following. It happened while he was President and had reference to the only request I made of him while he held that office, or ever at any time for that matter, for I had no personal interest in the marking of the Confederate graves.

I can best tell what my request was by quoting the following correspondence:

November 15, 1910.

The President:-During the last year of my service in the Civil War I was attached to the staff of Major General Henry W. Slocum. He commanded the Army of Georgia, the left wing of Sherman's Army, fourteenth and twentieth corps on the march from Atlanta to the sea and through the Carolinas. I became well acquainted with him and devotedly attached to him. He merited the distinction he won. He was, indeed, one of our safest and most efficient Army cominanders.

His daughter, Florence Slocum, is the wife of Col. H. P. Kingsbury, of the Tenth Cavalry. I am not personally acquainted with Col. Kingsbury's record, but I know of it from others upon whose statements I feel I can rely in such a way as to warrant me in saying that you will find it highly creditable.

Some of his friends have requested me to join with them in recommending him to your favorable consideration in connection with the appointments soon to be made to the rank of Brigadier-General. I do not know what your embarrassments may be in connection with this duty, but I sincerely hope you will find it agreeable to give this officer as friendly consideration as your sense of duty will permit. I am told that he will have only three or four years to serve until he reaches the age of retirement. I hope, for the dear old General's sake, his daughter's husband may be found worthy in your sight for this distinguished honor. Respectfully,

HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT,

The White House,

J. B. FORAKER.

Washington, D. C.

THE WHITE HOUSE.
WASHINGTON.

November 17, 1910.

My Dear Senator Foraker:-I have yours of November 15th, in reference to Colonel Kingsbury. I know Colonel Kingsbury and I think highly of him. There are so many candidates for promotion, however, that it is a little difficult to single one out until I have given attention

to the entire list. What you say in respect to Colonel Kingsbury, however, will lead me to give particular attention to his name when the Secretary of War submits the list to me.

With very sincere good wishes for your good health and happiness, believe me, my dear Senator,

HON. J. B. FORAKER,

Traction Building,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sincerely yours,

WM. H. TAFT.

Nothing was done and I wrote again:

March 11, 1912.

Dear Mr. President:—A year or two ago I recommended for appointment to be Brigadier-General, Colonel H. P. Kingsbury, of the Eighth United States Cavalry. You were unable to give him a promotion at that time. I understand there is to be another vacancy soon, and therefore venture to again call your attention to his claims. I understand he will have to retire in two or three years. Unless he gets the promotion soon he may fail altogether to get a General's rank. You will remember that I have a personal interest in his case because Mrs. Kingsbury is the daughter of General Henry W. Slocum, on whose staff I served during the latter part of the Civil War, in the marches through Georgia and the Carolinas. Of course the great services he rendered are not a ground for the promotion of his son-in-law, but if you find that the son-in-law has the good record that I understand he has, and is in every other way worthy and deserving, it would be a graceful recognition of the invaluable services of the old Commander to thus gratify the natural desire and ambition of his daughter. Very truly yours, etc.,

My Dear Senator Foraker:-I have your letter of the 11th instant, recommending Colonel H. P. Kingsbury for appointment as BrigadierGeneral, and note what you say in his behalf. I am glad to have your endorsement of Colonel Kingsbury, and shall give it very careful consideration when the subject of filling the next vacancy is taken up. Sincerely yours,

HON. J. B. FORAKER,

WM. H. TAFT.

Traction Building,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

That was the last I ever heard of it.

When it is recalled by those who have read his letters, as published in these notes, and know from them how frequently

he had occasion to thank me for favors I had shown him— appointing him Judge of the Superior Court, and, I may add, recommending him to President Harrison, at his request, for Judge of the United States Supreme Court, recommending him to President McKinley for appointment to the position of Governor General of the Philippines, and, later, defending him on the floor of the Senate, when he was charged by Senator Culberson with evasion and misleading statements in connection with his testimony before the Philippine Committee, it will be thought, I am sure, that the request as shown by these letters, for the promotion of Colonel Kingsbury, the husband of General Slocum's daughter, the only request I ever made of him in my life, should have been honored, instead of ignored. I am not telling it for that reason, but because, when it is understood that this is only an example of many other similar cases of which I have heard, it will be better understood than it ever has been by the average reader why there were other factors than Colonel Roosevelt that figured in his defeat, and why a distinct feature of his campaign, both for renomination and re-election, was an absolute lack of enthusiasm for him personally.

Possibly President Hayes or President Harrison may have been somewhat like him, but President Grant, President McKinley and President Roosevelt were totally unlike him. They were like other men. They had red blood in their veins and warm and grateful hearts that were full of appreciation for the ordinary amenities and courtesies of life. Either of them would have taken great pleasure in showing his appreciation for so distinguished and heroic a soldier as General Slocum was, by gratifying the wish of his only child, when to do so involved nothing more than a deserved promotion for a gallant officer whose record and rank entitled him to such recognition, and whose promotion and retirement with a General's rank would not have interfered with the promotion of any other

officer.

I do not mention this because it was of the slightest moment to me, excepting in a sentimental way, whether he granted my request or not, but because it illustrates a character of man

seldom met with a man of splendid qualities of mind and splendid qualifications for the great office with which he was honored, but who, nevertheless, had traits that unfitted him for success in public life, even if he did get to be President-once. BROOKLYN SLOCUM MONUMENT.

Speaking of General Slocum reminds me that when only recently I had occasion to be in Brooklyn, New York, I hunted up the equestrian monument erected in his honor in that city, which was his home during the latter years of his life. I was sorely disappointed. The sculptor had a gross misconception of the character of the man. I was on his staff long enough to see him under almost all the different conditions to which a Commander is likely to be subjected-in camp, on the march, in bivouac, in battle. He was always the same quiet, careful, undemonstrative, but alert and active man and soldier, with a temper high enough and quick enough to be positive and aggressive when occasion required, but there was nothing spectacular about him. I do not think, during all the time I was with him, he ever took his sword out of its scabbard except when he rode at the head of his Army in the Grand Review at Washington, at the close of the war. And yet this Brooklyn sculptor puts him astride a galloping charger and has him wildly brandishing a drawn sword, thus giving him a general appearance grotesquely inconsistent with his real character. I could not bear to look at him so presented to his countrymen. I turned away, wondering who could have been responsible for such a work.

Much better is his monument at Gettysburg. That represents the man and is in keeping with the dignity of the battle it commemorates. In addition to his name it bears the inscription of his advice to Meade given at the Council of War held with his Generals on the evening of the first day's battle: "Stay and fight it out." This was exactly like him. Few

words, simple, concise, but full of earnest meaning and precisely right.

TH

CHAPTER XLVIII.

ODDS AND ENDS.

HERE are a few matters that I have passed over chronologically without mention because not directly in the line of the narrative of events that I have been trying to give, of which I should take at least brief notice. One of these was

THE CONFIRMATION OF GENERAL LEONARD WOOD. One of the last matters coming before the Senate (November, 1903) in the disposition of which Senator Hanna took an especial interest was an attempt to defeat the confirmation of General Leonard Wood, who had been nominated by the President for promotion to the rank of Major General.

General Wood had been Military Governor of Cuba at the time when some notorious postal frauds were committed. Among others charged with complicity therein was Major E. G. Rathbone, a citizen of Ohio appointed by President McKinley to a position in the Postal Service in that island. He was one of Senator Hanna's close personal and political friends.

Major Rathbone claimed that he had been persecuted rather than prosecuted by General Wood, whom he charged with arbitrarily controlling the Courts and dictating their proceedings against him.

The charges were referred for investigation to the Committee on Military Affairs, of which I was a member.

Senator Hanna appeared before the committee, announced that he was interested on account of Major Rathbone, and in a statement made by him repeated with approval all the charges Major Rathbone had filed.

General Wood was on duty in the Philippines and no one appeared before the committee to represent him. My personal relations with him were very cordial, and I knew enough of the