The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-12-09

are powerful enough to enforce their JUS
claims upon foreign Powers without any
alliance with Mr. O,Mahony.
Great Fighters and writers-C~..r aha
Grant.
General Grants report which we print TO
day, In the most remarkable ever sent In. and
yet it ia less notable as an oficisf document
than as splendid literary performanceH-as
piece Of perfect military history and criticism.
written by the greatest soldier Of the age.
Scarcely has the world conceded TO Grant his
position as an equal of the greatest men In
military history than he dawns upon US as IN
accomplished and natural writer, whose force
and grace Of style are not surpassed by any
other writer that ever treated similar subjects.
And the surprise Is the more great because the
country had accepted the fact that the graces
of narrative and logic were not to. be expected
from that rough, stubborn, almost uncoath
fighter-that reticent man, who could 90 over
the whole land and hardly open hlS mouth for
single sentence in public. Julius Cesar was
the one great man of antiquity who was at
once fighter and writer of acknowledged
genius. Xenophon is usually named in tho
same connection; but be, though an admirabis
and brilliant writer, Is hardly to be mentioned
as soldier, and his connection with the Ten
Thousand, whose retreat he directed and de-
scribed, was only accidental He went to GU
naxa as q camp foliower-an amateur
an Athenian special correspondent Aris-
tobolus and his associate writers two SOL
diers who went with Alexander to tho
conquest Of Persia) only made meagro
notes OF that great event, and from those
Arrian wrote the history. All other ancients
who may be mentioned as possessed Of tho
double character we're like these-stout
soldiers and poor writers-or like Sad
lust, brilliant writer's and soldiers OF SO
small account that the world hardly
hears of them in that relation. But Cesar
filed the two characters amply and grandly.
He had the soul Of hero and the brain
ola deep thinker. He could carry original
thought into the routine warfare of his time,
and he could inspire elegant periods with the
enthusiasm of battle. He could conceive Of all
things that were necessary 10 success in war.
| from tho plan Of campaign to the size of the
| soldiers sword, and could describe his battles
| in style that none of his contemporaries could
| equal.
IL is not without reason that the world has
preserved the memory of Cesar as the one
above all others showing the equal Develop
ment of the two characters Of author and sol
| der. II is the rarest combination known. So
rare indeed is 1t for men to be at once great
with sword and pen that we seek in vain for
such another through all the great men OF the
Old World that have lived since Cesar. II We
go at once to the next grand soldier, Napoleon.
| we find man who with the most wonderful
| genius for war could scarcely write correctly
| the simplest note, and who had on impatient
l antipathy to the mere attempt to put his
thoughts on paper. In Frederick the Great we
find the direct converse, but not great writer
great soldier and an author of fluent
aud voluminous dulness. In Marlborough
and Eugene we find such commonplace writer's
that it is only just possible to get through the
dispatches that detail their connection with
great events. II is the same through the cata-
logue. II is 80 universally the same that the
| world has come to recognize the two natures
as antagonistic-to accept the distinction be-
tween Its heroes as men of action on ono
hand and its writers as men of thought and
men OF words ON the other.
But now we see one more splendid instance
that these characters are not inconsistent, and
that brains of the first class can at once carry
to perfection the most dissmilar efforts Of tho
human intellect. We see our great soldier,
whose military career belittles that Of Cesar,
appear as writer in all respects the equal
Of the great Roman. There is no other COM
parison, except to Caesar, for Grants report.
And thus America furnishes to the world tho
only man who can stand beside the cOnquerer
of Pompey as an equally great fighter and
writer, and as one who is without rival In
either sphere. Grants report will not suffer
the usual fate Of official documents-it will
not be given mp to dust and the pigeon holes
but it will take rank as a classic in the Ian
guage, and will be the constant study Of all
who in the future endeavor to follow tbs
course Of the events OF which il treats.
I ----
City Intelligence.