The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-11-21


The New CoMMANDER OF THE ARMY OF
THE CUMBERLAND.-Gen. George 81. Tho
will tax his powers to the utmost, and
render necessary prolonged and unin-
terrupted struggle, to maintain his we'll
earned reputation and the hold he already
has upon the confidence of the troops.
say their confidence, not their affection: for |
this Gen. Thomas has not yet, and proba-
bly, will not obtain. He is too much like
Gen. Scott for that; too cold, too undemon-
strative, too unsocial. With all the ele-
ments Of character necessary to command
respect and esteem, he seems to possess
none Of the requisites for winning love-
The army is penetrated with the convic- |
ton that to his admirable management and
his stern unfiinching firmness, it owes
its safety from utter route and dispersion
upon the field of Chickamauga; and the
soldiers will henceforth consider them
selves, under his command, as integral
portions of mighty rock against which the
waves Of rebel wrath and hatred will push
in vain. But that warm. glowing gener-
Gus love for the person of the commander
by which troops are often animated and
urged on to the performance of heroic
deeds, will in this case be wanting. They
will feel themselves invincibles under his
leadership; but it will be invidcibility
which comes from reliance and not from
enthusiasm. They win gain battles as the
French soldiery did when led by Turenne
and the great Condo; and not as, afterward,
when under the Republican generals they
rolled back the torrent of European inva-
sion, or rushed joyfully through death to
victory beneath the eagle eve of Napoleon.
All the strength there is in the army of the
Cumberland; all the calm courage which
looks danger in the face and never blanch-
oil hot III ipr, Sy-hfo ~, in.
spires the soul of man to meet and battle,
by his own unaided efforts. a dozen adver
saries-these will be drawn forth under the
leadership of Thomas, as perhaps they
have never been before, but that fiery
valor which impels to the resistless onset
or the headlong charge; that burning ardor
mics and hurl himself upon them like
thunderbolt; that grand enthusiasm before
which all obstacles, including death and
danger, disappear-these will not awaken
to the touch of Gen. Thomas.
With him everything will be done by
matchmaking by impulse. War WILDE
struggle for a sentiment. The army will
find the devotion which it has been wont to
cherish for its leaders, giving way to ad
miration in the case of Thomas. Whatev
er his close thought and judgment inclines
him to do, that he will undertake; but he
will be deaf as statue to the voice of intui
ton. His stern independence while repel-
ling affection, will enforce respect. While
not giving sufficient prominence, perhaps,
to moral force, he will make the best posi-
BILE use of the physical means at his COM
mand, and the enemy whom he cannot in
duce his troops to annihilate by a charge,
he will wither by the sustained fire of his
musketry and artillery, or crush by the
slow and stately march of his battalions.
Some have professed to see resemblance
between the character of Thomas and that
of Washington-between their looks also.
And these, too, are men who do not mean
to indulge in fulsome flattery. But I en-
tirely fail to perceive either the mental or
physical resemblance. Whatever of the
soldier there was in Washington, Thomas
doubtless possesses-but there the resem-
blance ends. In every other element OF
greatness, the difference between the two is
wide, palpable; the wisdom Of Washing
ton was even more conspicuous in the Cab
met than in the field, and the benevolence,
kindness, gentleness and love, which shone
from his countenance, appear nowhere Ell
Their in the features or the character OF
Thomas. The latter will display these
qualities also; but from the dictates of the
Judgment, and not the promptings Of the
heart.
To sum up: whatever can be accom-
plished by the GOODNESS of the correct tacti-
clan by thorough mastery of the ground
to be gone over with all the various details:
by sage counsel. and far reaching mind
which deliberately weighs all chances and
all probabilities by a steady intellectual
force and Roman frmness, commanding
the profoundest confidence Of every soldier
in the arMy-this Gen. Thomas will accom-
plish.-Cfn. Gazette.
Gov. KIRK wooD.-There is no question
that the four years administration of this
State, by Gov. Kirkwood, has been an en-
1nent success. They have been four years
OF labor, of responsibility, Of great trial
four years to test, most severely, the metal
Of the man and OF the Executive-to trv
bis patience, his patriotism, his judgment,
his temper. And yet. now that Gov. Kirk
wood is going out of office, and people begin
toreview the acts Of his administration. there
has come the general conviction that while
few could have Gene so well, no man could
have used the Executive power of this
State more to the satisfaction of the people.
more to the welfare Of the Nation, than
has SAMUEL j. kIRKwooD. No one ever
had more delicate and perpleXing duty
than had Governor kirkwood, in the or
ganization of the troops of the State and in
the selection Of their officers. And though
doubles he made mistakes, in these selec-
tons, how could fallible man do otherwise?
And yet if we look at the record which
Governor Kirkwood's appointees have
made we find that Iowa troops have been as
brayely and as well Offered as have the
troops Of other States, and it is probably
safe to say, better differed than those of
almost any other of our sister States.-l
Many of these. Officers have made most bril-
liant regulations, and in the light of the
fact that the States reputation has never
been furnished nv coWardica in har col