Brevet Major-Gen. Charles Griffin,
U.S.A.
The telegraph informs us of the death by
yellow fever, in Galveston, Texas, yesterday, of
Brevet Major-Gen. CHARLES GRIFFIN, who, since
the removal of Gen. SHERIDAN, has been temporarily
in command of the Fifth Military District. By his
honorable services throughout the war he won a high
and enduring reputation, and was brevetted Briga-
dier-General and subsequently Major-General.
At the close of the rebellion he was ap-
pointed to the command of the District
of Texas, and when, in March last, Gen.
SHERIDAN was assigned the command of
the Fifth Military District, under the terms of the
Reconstruction Bills, he continued Gen. GRIFFIN in
his command. Since then Gen. GRIFFIN has labored
earnestly and assiduously to carry out the terms of
those bills in good faith, and with a rigid determina-
tion to do justly and impartially by all who were in-
terested in the reconstruction of the State. Early in
April, in a letter to Gov. THROCKMORTON, accept-
ing his offer of assistance in the work of
registration, he said : "I am exceedingly
anxious not to go out of the State for
Registrars, and am desirous of obtaining the
names of all persons, irrespective of color, that
are qualified to act in this capacity. I am very
anxious to see the laws carried out, and
no effort shall be spared on my part to bring out the
full number of legal voters in the State. If the citi-
zens accept the situation, come forward and yield
a cheerful obedience, there can be no trouble."
The spirit manifested in this letter has marked
his course throughout. Occupying a position sub-
ordinate to Gen. SHERIDAN, and serving in so remote
a quarter, he has not been so prominently before the
public as otherwise would have been the case, but
Gen. SHERIDAN has ever found in him a faithful and
reliable co-worker in the labor of reconstructing the
State under the terms prescribed by Congress. One
of his last orders directed that no distinctions
should hereafter be made in Texas on account of
color, race or previous condition, by railroads or
other chartered companies which were common car-
riers. When Gen. SHERIDAN left New-Orleans he
turned over command of the Fifth District to
Gen. GRIFFIN as the next in rank. He was a native
of Ohio, graduated at West Point in 1847, and was
about 40 years of age.
