Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-08-17
EVENING STAR.
THH MILITARY CHARACTER OF AARoN
BURR

-----SA 49, SZ AnoO0
BURR.
The literary taste Of Aaron Burr Is AZ.
knowledged to have been of high order,
The natural aouteness of his mind was
highly favorable to success in all subjects
pertaining to BelleS-lettres. With q
most retentive memory, and an imasina.
ton easily excited, hespent several months
after leaving the College Halls of Prince.
ton in reading the history of the most
renowned military characters; and to his
plastic mind, 1.-THE military hero" became
the "beau ideal' Of his soule-an all.
pervading principle. Under the influence
OF this tufetary genius, the first gun fired
at Lexington, IT'S, electrified his ardent
mind with the eager anticipation of GAIN
ing laurels on the field of Wars. 1t had
been his purpose to enter at once on the
study of the Law, but his youthful soul
was filled with images too highly colored
to allow for moment the thought of ap.
plying to the drudgery of Professional
life. He applied to his guardian for per.
mission to join the Continental Army.
Ills slender frame, delicate to fault. the
indulgence with which he had ever been
treated, and the terminating influence
of students life, all urged upon his
guardian the propriety of denial. In
his own mind he had already passed 1.-THE
Rubicon, and expostulation was useless.
he hastened to Charlestown, a bey of
twenty, and presented himself as a
volunteer-not in the cause of his coun.
try so much as in the field, where elori.
GUS distinction might begained. He soon
found that the American troops, disor-
derly, and undisciplined as they were at
this early period, laid no claim to the
character of such an army as his fancy
had spared out before him.
Finding no place for personal distinc.
tion in the regular army, he was eager
to join the detachment under Arnold. the
object of which was to march across the
unbroken wilderness, to cooperate with
General Montgomery in an attack upon
Quebec. Again, kind friends interposcd,
representing the certain destruction that
awaited mere STRIPPING, in wild march
of more than thirty days, at a period of
the year when the severity of northern
winter might naturally be ANTICIPATED.
But his abstemiousness in the vulgar in.
dulgence Of eating and drinking, prac.
tised in college to enable him to accom-.
plish his ambitious purposes, carried him
triumphantly through an enterprise be.
lore which Napoleon's celebrated passage
of the Alps dwindles into insignifcance.
In this protracted march young Burr ex.
hibited the quality of endurance beyond
what his friends deemed possible.
No less worthy of admiration was the
sagacity which he displayed in pioneer
ing the way from the head.waters of the
Kennebec to the neighborhood of Quebec,
to irform General Montgomery of the ap-
preaching expedition. The possibility of
capturing Quebec, and the consequent re-
nown, excited his youthful energies to
the utmost; and he nightly explored the
surrounding localities, until no point of
approach was to him unknown. As aid
to Montgomery, in the action in which |
this brave General fell, he put forth |
mighty effort; but the plan of attack,
decided on against the wishes of Burr,
was not feasible, and after the retreat
from the city, he was glad to abandon a
corps in whose commander he reposed no
confidence, and he pressed his way SOUTH
ward, unattended, towards the theatre of
war. During this solitary march his sa-
gacity and penetration were more than a
match for the red man himself, and be
passed unharmed through a region that
proved fatal to many.
His manly bearing in the northern
campaign had reached the ears of the
Commander-in-C Chief, who sent message
to Col. Burr, on his way homeward, in
viting him to join his =" household estab-
lishment," in the honorable capacity of
d" one of his Aids" Had Burr's me raj
character been equal to his incipent mill
tary renown, his fortune would now have
been secured but Washington scanned
the principles of his young Aid-de-camp,
and saw that moral virtue was wanting.
Failing to gain the fellowship of the chief,
and disliking the inactivity of the station
allotted him, he sought a more active
position under General Putnam, with the
hope that his restless ambition might find
some field of action commensurate with
lis lofty aspiration. His prowess was
soon put to the test, and his military re.
Sources were displayed to great advan-
tage in the memorable retreat of the
American army from New York to White
plain. 1t is no disparagement to any
other officer to say, that one regiment at
least owes its safety to the skill and en-
ergy of Col. Burr on that occasion.
We now az proach period in Burr's
military career in which his genius shone
most consplcuously. The command of
the outposts in Westchester county was
assigned him, and, as if by magic, the
disorder and confusion which had dis
graced the American troops in border
warfare were dispelled, and the plunder-
ing and maurauding habits of the soldiery
were repressed by will that was indom-
liable, aided by an eye that seemed om-
niscient.
Private property on "the neutral
ground" became as safe as in the best
governed communities. Even the COM
mon soldiers saw the superiority of their
condition to what it had been amid riot
and misrule, and they were abundantly
satisfied with the regular supply meted
out to them, compared with the occa-
sional surfeit which theplundering system
oHarJoJ