Daily American telegraph., 1852-10-08

He must have created from the first q growing
idea Of his military qualities for In spite Of the
displeasure which his falling out with Wilkinson
had produced at Washington, we find him, almost
as soon as his suspension expires, promoted two
grades at once--raised to lieutenant-colonelcy
Of artillery and entrusted with the defence Of the
new navy-yard at Black Rock. The truth, as
have collected 1t from those who, without being
his intimates, served with or saw him In his ear
lier campaigns, is, that everything about him be-
spoke the great commander that was TO be. His
knowledge was at once seen to be far beyond his
years and his grade; and, rapid as was his promo
ton, 1t seemed to be constantly OUTCOME by his
fitness for higher service These solid merits,
coo, were set off and made doubly striking, not
merely by his remarkable stature, (just six feet
five inches in his stocking fee the airiness Of his
movements, and the vigor Of his body, but by q
singular martial enthusiasm Of countenance and
an animation of action, which shone out even In
ordinary discourse, and In battle blazed up into
an irresistible ardor, which attracted every eye,
and made him seem to the soldier the very star OF
victory. IL Is easy to imagine how, seen In q
charge, such figure Of fight, skilful 40 hery,
must have looked, and how soon it drew to him at
once the admiration Of the officers and the hearts
Of the soldiery. a
= General anecdotes.
The first exploit in which our youthful colonel
took any part was the creditable little affair Of
the capture Of two armed British briggs, the CAL
edonia and the Adams, by Captains Elliot and
Towson, under the guns Of the enemy's Fort Erie.
That happy little stroke Of naval gallantry have
related elsewhere, together with the part that
Scott bore in giving It success. The enterprise
having been devised by an inferior officer, he
could not have himself gone upon II without su-
perseding him, and only therefore interposed
when he was needed to complete tho event. This;
his first touch at the foe was while he was yet nm
der the general command of that soldier Of bra
vados, Gen. Alexander Smyth, who at that time
was making the Niagara frontier resound with
his terrible proclamations. The bulletins Of Bo-
naparte were nothing to his, except that the Cor
ties, while Smyth's were not A little earlier, he
would have done well but he came too late. Had
the war been still Jeffersonian one, he would
have made most suitable general: for, though
he never crossed the river, he kept up terrific
threatening from our side; though he complied
and published for our men very bold system Of
tactics, he never took his army where they could
be used; and in short, if the philosophic fghtinE
with embargoes, gun-boat navy, torpodoes, the
terrapin system and non.intercourse laws had not
by this time been abandoned, through ths mere
imperfection Of human reason, for gunpowder,
bullets, and bayonets Gen. Smyth might In Btrfct
conformity with the Monticello methods haveexl
terminated the British empire BY . warfare II
preclamations. All me! it is the age Of paper
constitutions, paper money, and paper principles,
but not yet Of paper generals. For moment,
under President Polk, there was hope: his APP
pointments bade fair to give us an army oficered
only by demagogues. Give us President Pierce,
however, and we may yet hope that statesmen Of
straw will bring with them soldiers Of paper.
To finish, however, the history Of Proclamation
Smyth,n the military title which he earned) i
must not omit to mention that he afterwards ex-
changed it for a. more scriptural one-that Of
aApocalypse Smythn For when, by-and-by,
sated with war, he withdrew from the field, he
piously betook himself like many OF the bloody
champions of the Crusades, to the study of theol-
ogy, and published "upon his honor q key to the
Beast in the Apocalypse. Infdel as well as vaunt-
ing, it was at once fudicrously turned apon him
self by q strong reply, which showed that, by his
own very system of forming the name from the
number of the beast he was none other than Al
exander Smyth himself: and hence his latest des.
ignation. I'LL
fro he CONTINUED