Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1913 — EGGLESTON STORY IS DENIED [ARTICLE]

EGGLESTON STORY IS DENIED

No Such Man on the Merrimac, Says Capt Bob Wright, Who Was v Our Engineer. i . Richmond, Va.—“ There was no such man as J. E. Eggleston, chief engineer, nor as assistant engineer on the Merrimac," said Capt Bob Wright ol this city after reading a press dispatch from Sewanee, Tenn., telling of the death of Eggleston and referring to him as x the last survivor of that f* mous fighting vessel. Captain Wright continued: "I was an assistant engineer on the Jamestown of the Confederate navy, and 1 knew all the officers on the Merrimac and all the other vessels in the fleet I was in the navy during Its entire life. Charles Ramsey of Baltimore was the chief engineer of the Merrimac. He was an assistant engineer in the United States navy, and when war came he resigned and Joined with the Confederacy. His is living in Baltimore at this time and is engaged in the iron business, i I think his name was Charles Ramsey. At any rate, there was a Ramsey, who was the chief engineer, and there was no Eggleston In the service that I ever before heard of, and I have seen nothing of him in the records.” Captain Wright says that the last survivors of the Merrimac are so plentiful that he believes if all who claim to have served on that vessel had done so there would have been men enough to have manned at least ten vessels of the same size.