Editorial Paragraphs.
The delay in the issue of this number has been made much greater than we had anticipated, although we announced in our last that there would be delay.
We will simply say, by way of apology, that any irregularity of issue is far more distasteful to us than it can possibly be to our readers, that it has never occurred when we could prevent it, and that we think we see our way clear to more regular issues in the future than for the past year. But we beg to remind our subscribers that we have fully redeemed our promise that they should have their “full quota of numbers and of pages.”
Renewals for 1882 are now due, and we beg our friends to send on the $3 at once. Please do not conclude that you will wait 'till the close of the year, and then buy the whole set; for even if you should be able to do that, which is by no means certain, we are, in the meantime, compelled to raise the cash to pay for the printing, and you ought to help us to the extent of at least your subscription. Send on, then, your renewal, and see if you cannot secure us at least one new subscriber.
The annual meeting of the Confederate army and Navy Society of Maryland was held at Raine's Hall, Baltimore, on the evening of the 19th of January, 1882, McHenry, Howard, President, W. L. Ritter, Secretary. The regular routine business was transacted, and the following officers were elected:--President, Lieutenant McHenry Howard; Vice-Presidents, Major-General Isaac R. Trimble, Major W. Stuart Symington, Lieutenant D. G. Wright, Captain W. L. Ritter, Sergeant Frederick Ruff, Lieutenant-Colonel James R. Herbert, Major Harry Gilmer, Private D. Ridgely Howard, Private John F. Hayden, Lieutenant Chapman Maupin, Captain J. Blythe Allston, Lieutenant Winfield Peters; Recording Secretaries, Corporal Robert M. Blundon, Private George T. Hollyday; Corresponding Secretary, A. J. Smith; Treasurer, Captain F. M. Colston Executive Committee, Brigadier-General Bradley T. Johnson, Lieutenant W. P. Zollinger, Major-General George H. Steuart, Major F. H. Wigfall, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Lyle Clarke, Sergeant W. H. Pope, Private H. H. Garrigues; Chaplains, Revs. W. U. Murkland, John Landstreet, B. F. Ball, W. M. Dame, Frederick S. Hipkins, and Father H. S. McGivney.
The Secretary of the Southern Historical Society being present by special invitation, was cordially received and given the most favorable time and a most patient hearing as he presented the claims of the Society, and urged that all Confederates should give it not only warm sympathy, but, as far as they were able, hearty support.
At the conclusion of the address the Maryland Society unanimously voted the Southern Historical Society one hundred dollars ($100) out of its treasury, and appointed a committee (consisting of Generals B. T. Johnson and I. R. Trimble, Captain W. P. Zollinger, and Lieutenants Gwathmey and Winfield Peters) to devise [575] ways and means of affording further pecuniary help to our Society. This. action of the Maryland soldiers was generous and timely, and will be of the highest importance to our great work, not only in the substantial aid afforded, but in stimulating our friends elsewhere to help until the Society shall be placed on a firm; financial basis, and prepared to do in a more satisfactory manner the grand work before us.
We need scarcely add, that the warm grasp and cordial greetings of our old comrades were none the less pleasant because of this generous, practical sympathy.
The Association of the Maryland line was organized last summer in Baltimore, and “all persons who were citizens of Maryland, on April 19th, 1861, and who subsequently were duly commissioned, or mustered into the military or naval service of the Confederate States, and served honorably therein,” are eligible to membership.
The following officers were elected July 22nd: President, Brigadier-General Bradley T. Johnson. Board of Governors: Major-General I. R. Trimble; Brigadier-General George H. Steuart; Lieutenant-Colonel Jas. R. Herbert; Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Carter Smith; Captain Jno. W. Torsch; Captain McHenry Howard: Lieutenant W. P. Zollinger; Sergeant Wm. H. Pope; Private Ridgley Howard; Private George C. Jenkins; Private Frederick Marston. Corresponding Secretary, Surgeon Jno. N. Monmonier. Recording Secretary, Captain Geo. W. Booth. Treasurer, Private Lamar Hollyday.
The Association is proceeding vigorously to carry out its objects, the chief of which (besides its social and benevolent features) are “to collect, preserve and perpetuate all such evidence as can be found, of the services of the Maryland Line in the Army of Northern Virginia, and of all other Marylanders in the military and naval service of the Confederate States, and to make a complete record of their names and achievements, so as to present to posterity the evidence of the honorable service of every Maryland man who fought under the Confederate flag, on land or sea.”
We desire to commend most heartily these objects to the imitation of similar organizations elsewhere. Many of our Confederate Associations have “a good time generally” at their “reunions and banquets,” but they fail to make any practical provision for writing and preserving their history.
The death of Colonel George Wythe Munford, which occured suddenly at his residence in Richmond, on the night of January 9th, 1882, has caused universal sorrow, and leaves many a vacant place which had been so well filled by this accomplished Virginia gentleman. Others have fitly spoken his eulogy as the able, incorruptible, efficient, State officer, the good citizen, and the man above reproach in all of the relations of life.
We shall miss him, especially, as one of the most punctual, genial and efficient members of our Executive Committee, one of the most devoted Confederates, and one whose facile pen had made valuable contributions to our history. At the reorganization of the Society in 1873 he was elected Secretary and Treasurer, and, [576] filled the office with marked ability until the winter of 1874, when other pressing duties impelled him to resign.
Full of years, full of labors, full of honors, this Virginia gentleman of the old school leaves behind him a stainless record and a hallowed memory.
