OCR Text |
Show Qnique Africans vV KmI fevrlf if , c v . , . tgfefe K '- . " "'. ' V ; 'MMmi, , ' i cr-rUvA ; 7 v - -v "V - vm r y By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1 T) JONSULT Mr. Webster's VI fev. ' J ft large book of words and M j I 0 1 their dedultlons and there 1 1 if'F' K 1 1 X:Si; A . you will find one char- I f&---f MVl 1 ' p! acterlzed thus: "Unique, - fe- 'frrf?rffffT T a. Being without a like Bfr . Will or equal; single In kind 3 .fsL I iTxW MJJj or excellence; sole." De- II t J V- M , "" i--t spite this explicit defl- II 1... " 1 j "'ss"y W nition, "unique" Is a , v; I 4 " 7 much-misused word. j - AjWaA I s v 4 Consider now the careers of three If Xf. II ft C" " f Americans an see whether or not the If iiff'? l jL' 1 - x f&T'a characterization of "unique" is aptly II x , I i v 31 applied to them. One of them was the p i'''t' " T I C'"VSsnf.,,R' ' only man who ever held the rank of I jALfAJ I R? rear admiral in the United States navy I r- "QfrSda rV v 15, and the rank of brigadier general in Is' ZmJ&S "i ' k s the United States army. Another was (Jas , j0ZrJ f 1 r'v si a man who, although not a native of """"-rrrriig rsi? IV' America, held a position in the high- Ju.dah P BerilirvfrL ' ' fs v est legislative body of one American . f v government and then held successively Photographs of Carter and Shields, courtesy "Ipi-" 1 3 three important Offices In the execu- Army Information Service. Um , v 4 tlve department of another American if J ,v k government. Even more remarkable he enterel ale- After thr" years r , gjOSAs is the record of the third-not a na- he left that Institution without getting niUnMMtliKVVBBiMlltMIAIIttS tlve of America, he heSl several Im- a deee and went t0 ew rleanf- Dnq. G e.ruJameS E . Shields . . . whprp hp stiiflipft lfiw In a -notjirvs I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON J IV ONSULT Mr. Webster's df large book of words and 1 their dedultlons and there W , you will find one char-( char-( klS acterlzed thus: "Unique, "frTnTTjT' a. Being without a like or equal; single in kind Ml(Jf or excellence; sole." De-spite De-spite this explicit defl- nition, "unique" Is a " 7 much-misused word. Consider now the careers of three Americans an see whether or not the characterization of "unique" is aptly applied to them. One of them was the only man who ever held the rank of rear admiral in the United States navy and the rank of brigadier general in the United States army. Another was a man who, although not a native of America, held a position in the highest high-est legislative body of one American government and then held successively three important offices In the executive execu-tive department of another American government. Even more remarkable Is the record of the third not a native na-tive of America, he heSl several Im portant state omces in two states, was elected United States senator from three different states, commanded American troops In two wars and was governor of an American territory. Tennessee gave to the nation Its only admiral-general. Samuel Powhatan Pow-hatan Carter was his name and he was born In Elizabethtown, Carter county, August 6, 1S19. He became a midshipman In the navy in 1S40. Six years later he was promoted to the grade of passed midshipman and assigned as-signed to the U. S. S. Ohio. From 1S51 to 1853 he was assistant Instructor of infantry tactics at the naval academy and was made a lieutenant lieu-tenant In 1S55. The next year he served In one of Uncle Sam's forgotten wars, the expedition to China. On July ",- - 11, 1801, Carter was temporarily trans ferred to the War department for the special duty of organizing troops in his native land, eastern Tennessee. Carter soon proved to be as able a military as he had been a naval officer. He was appointed first colonel of the Second Tennessee volunteers, then acting act-ing brigadier general of volunteers, and on May 1, 1S62, he received his full commission as commander of a brigade. As a cavalry leader Carter distinguished distin-guished himself particularly. On August Au-gust 2S, 1S63, he defeated that matchless match-less Confederate horseman, Gen. John H. Morgan, and the next day repeated his success against General Smith. He was present at the siege of Knox-vllle Knox-vllle In December of that year and later la-ter commanded a division under Gen. John Schofield In the North Carolina campaign of 1S65. On March 13, 1865; Carter was brevetted major general, and was mustered out of the army in January, 1S66. He immediately returned to the navy, having by this time been promoted pro-moted to the rank of commander. He served as commandant at the naval academy from 1SC9 to 1S72, having been promoted to the rank of captain In 1S70. He was a member of the lighthouse board from 1ST6 to 1SS0, and was promoted to commodore in J78. In 1SS1 he was honored by promotion pro-motion to the rank of rear admiral on the retired list, this reward coming com-ing as a fitting climax to his extraordinary extraor-dinary career In both branches of the United States service. In 1891 "Admiral-General" Carter, truly a unique American, died In the Capital of the country he had served so well during his lifetime of seventy-one years. In the year 1S11 a ship attempted to ascend the Mississippi river to New Orleans, but finding that port blockaded block-aded by a British fleet It sailed away to the West Indies. Among Its passengers, pas-sengers, who landed on the Island of St. Croix, was an English Jew, named Benjamin, and his wife. On August 11 a son was born to Mrs. Benjamin and given the name of Judah. Although Al-though Judah P. Benjamin was denied de-nied the right of being born on American Amer-ican soil, he was desiined to become an important figure in America-n history. his-tory. Benjamin's boyhood was spent In .Wilmington, N. C, until 1S25, when Photographs of Carter and Shields, courtesy Army Information Service. he entered Yale. After three years he left that Institution without getting a degVee and went to New Orleans, where hp fitnriipd lnw in n-notnrv's office. He was admitted to the bar In 1832 and spent the next few years practicing that profession with a short Interim of school teaching. Politics was next to engage' his attention at-tention and he allied himself to the Whig party. In 1845 he was a member mem-ber of the convention which met to revise the constitution of Louisiana, and it Is noteworthy that this foreign-born foreign-born citizen of Louisiana was responsible respon-sible for placing in the new code a provision that the governor of that state must be a citizen born in the United States. In 1848 Louisiana elected Benja-' min as presidential elector at large, and four years later sent him to the United States senate, returning him there in 1S57. He took a prominent part in the slavery dispute of those times, and during one of the exciting debates in the senate a dispute with Jefferson Davis, the senator from Mississippi, Mis-sissippi, brought the two men to the verge of a duel which was averted only when Davis apologized. Although Davis had disagreed violently vio-lently with Benjamin ?u the senate he recognized the worth of the man, and when the former was chosen as President Pres-ident of the Confederate States of America he selected Benjamin as attorney at-torney general in his cabinet. In August, Au-gust, 18G1, Benjamin was transferred to the War department, where his conduct con-duct of the war aroused such bitter hostility, even Including charges of Incompetency In-competency and neglect of his duty, that he resigned. But Davis, to whose stubborn refusal to accept advice some historians ascribe a large share of the responsibility for the downfall of the Confederacy, again flew in the face of public opinion, and Immediately Immediate-ly offered Benjamin his third cabinet position, that of secretary of state. When Richmond fell in 1S65, Benjamin Ben-jamin fled with the rest of the Confederate Con-federate government. Making his way to the coast of Florida he escaped In an open boat to the Bahamas, and In September, 1SG5, reached Liverpool. After living quietly in retirement for a year in England he took up the study of English law, and in 1SGC he was admitted to the bar. In 1SS3, after his health had failed, Benjamin retired from active practice, and on June 30 of that year he was guest of honor at a farewell banquet given to him In the Inner temple In London by the highest legal luminaries in England. He then went to Paris to make his home and there he died on May 8, 18S4. If Benjamin's career in America was a remarkable one, even more unusual was that of another Immigrant boy, James E. Shields. Born In Dungan-non, Dungan-non, County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810, Shields came to this country at the age of sixteen and went to the frontier country of Illinois, where he studied law and began practice at Kaskaskia in 1S32. Honors came rapidly to him In his adopted home. He was elected to the legislature in 1S30, made state auditor In 1S39 and appointed a judge on the State Supreme court bench In 18-13. Two years later he was appoint ed commissioner of the general land office, but gave up civil life at the outbreak of the Mexican war to accept ac-cept a commission as brigadier general gen-eral of the Illinois volunteers In 1846. During that conflict Shields served under General Taylor on the IUo Grande, under General Wood In Chihuahua Chi-huahua and during General Scott's campaign. He was shot through the lung at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and brevetted major general. After his recovery re-covery he served In the Valley of Mexico Mex-ico as commander of a brigade of marines, ma-rines, New York and South Carolina volunteers, only to be wounded severely severe-ly again at the storming of Chapul-tepec. Chapul-tepec. Mustered out of the service on July 20, 1848, he was immediately appointed ap-pointed territorial governor of Oregon, but resigned this office when he was elected senator from Illinois as a Democrat. Dem-ocrat. He. served in the senate from December 3, 1849, to March 3, 1855, and then moved to Minnesota. When the state government was organized or-ganized there he was again sent to the United States senate where he remained re-mained from May 12, 1858, to March 3..1859. He next moved to California, and at the outbreak of the Civil war was acting as superintendent of a mine In Mexico. Hastening to Washington, Wash-ington, the Mexican war veteran wan commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers in August, 1861, and after the death of Gen. Fred W. Lander, Shields was placed at the head of his brigade. In 1862 he was head of a division of Gen. N. P. Banks' army, then operating in the Shenandoah val-' val-' ley of Virginia and opened the campaign cam-paign by Inflicting a stinging defeat at Winchester upon "Stonewall" Jackson, Jack-son, who was Just then beginning to make his bid for fame as the remarkable remark-able leader of "foot cavalry." Shields was wounded in this battle, receiving a broken arm from a fragment of shell. On March 28, 1S63, weakened by the wounds which he had suffered in two wars, Shields resigned from the army. Going to California he found that the lands granted to him for his military services had been lost by his trusted agent and he bought a farm near Car-rollton, Car-rollton, Mo., upon which to spend his declining years. Although he had decided de-cided to retire from public life, he was soon back into politics. In 1SG8 he was Democratic candidate for congress, con-gress, and although his friends declared de-clared that he had been elected, he was not seated. Six years later they elected him to the legislature, and upon up-on the expiration of his term, the general, gen-eral, aged, weakened and impoverished, sought the humble position of doorkeeper door-keeper of the United States senate In which he had represented two states. But this was denied him and he returned re-turned to Missouri. That state promptly prompt-ly honored him by electing him to the senate and he returned again as a member of the body which had denied de-nied him employment He held this position until bis death, which took place on June 1, 1S79, at Ottuniwa. Iowa, where he had gone to deliver a lecture on the Mexican war for the benefrt of a church. i by Western Newspaper Union.) |