Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-11-27
A Touching Tribute to Strlken and
Bereft Soldier.

| A Touching Tribute to Strlken and
Bereft Soldier.
George aired Townsend, whose mil
itary campaigns well fit him for the
task, pays in the Hartford Post, TINS
tribute to the genius and character OF
General Joseph Hooker, the hero OF
Lookout Mountain, who has lately
been retired from the army:
A graver topic comes to me, and to
you also, in the loss of the name OF
Joseph Hooker from the roll of the
army. Few can take his place in taI>
ent, and who in beauty and fame2 He
was the Henry Clay Of soldiers-gen-
erous, instructive, reliable and electri-
call He opened battle at the moment
on order. When Mcclellan said at
Antietam, General Hooker will ad-
vance on the right at 7 o'clock" they
woke at headquarters to hear the first
cannon break the morning, as if the
secondhand of his watch had been the
fuse to fire it. He is the promptest sold
ier known to either army. Some were
| too proud, others too 1rresolute, some
| lymphatic; he was cheerful, yet re-
morseless at times, and as a lover, not
of carnage, but of fair battles, few ages
afford his match.
He was the handsomest man in vital
beauty l ever saw. Decatur must
have looked like him. His nostrils
and his eye were not fire but,
light; never blazing with the intense
| feeling, but shining like the dawn. His
was the perfection of manly American
/ beauty, as we conceive 1t when all our
heterogeneous tribes shall be welded into
one patriotic homOgenitY with the
English dew and the bronze of our au-
! tumn most manifest. His walk, the
/ turn of his knee, the straightness of his
/ thigh and leg, the exquisiteness of his
/ foot, what gentleman can forget? And
I II -
woman's. They grew into pair of
| shoulders that the epaulettes never en-
hanced. The carriage of his head
should have touched nun. Raphael
would have made him q pose for st.
Michael. The last time saw him he
House, and turning to look after him
stranger said to me:
'sWho is that2''
"Joseph HoOker!'
"He's beautiful, sure ?''
When the war begun Hooker was liV-
ing in the State of California. His ap-
pearance had been temptation to him,
and he filed no very high and dutifuI
use among mankind. He embarked at
once, with only his sword, and when I
saw him first he commanded brigade
in the army of the Potomac, and was
encamped behind McClellan's line of
doom bound intrenchments, in the
corps of Keyes, / think, among the very
nearest troops of any to Richmond.
KearneY was his neighbor, and these
two were the first to observe McClellan's
bOyish and irresOlute incompeteney.
Kearney was rich enough to speak his
mind, and Hooker indignant enough.
1t was at their camps that 1 first heard
the distrust of Mcclellan. The latter,
in the meantime, was as thick as per-
simmons with these men-Slocum,
Newton, Baldy Smith, Fitz John Por-
for n6rnVU POvfnY and Hammock Tho
The latter of these was the only one
that came TO fortune, and the former
the only one that came to desert. New
ton has disappeared, Baldy Smith was
an enViOus man; and is said to have
written coarse criticism on Gen. Grant
recently, which should believe. Por-
ter we know who nearly reached the
apotheosis of Admiral Byng. Hancock
is the best rewarded man in the army
according to his "heft." Slocum is a
Seward Democrat, and 1 always be-
leVed him to be both soldier and a
gentleman. At last the romance of
'tLittle Mack" was "Whaled" out of him
by the tremendous attack of StOnewal
Jackson. Then the Gins" went out and
the tOuts'' went in. was abroad when
Hooker commanded the army, but Off
GERS told me of his bearing there-vital-
ly, and in decision equal to the place, |
but in caliber of mind perhaps unequal
to them lightly charge of a great army.
He did not think so, Certainly he
made the best of that place till Grant
came to look after it, for the battle of
Gettysburg was the combined victory
of Lieutenants and Marshalls of the
army of the Potomac, christened by
Reynolds, god-fatbered by Meade, and |
by none better befriended than by John
Sedgwick.
When Hooker was removed by Hal |
leck he rode out o. the camp indignant
ly, and reappeared to the country in
the brilliant tableau of Lookout Noun !
tain.
As it was, Hooker, at the end of The
war, was revived and satisfied man,
perceiving himself that the god genius
of the country Lad ordered we'll.
IN Cincinnati he met in the prime of
life and Intelligence, one of the most |
splendid ladies of the country the sister
of William s. GrOesbeck, (lately the
Presidents cOunsel) lady whose pure
and elevated character had been strong
enough to decline matrimony in the
mere spring of life. He found her in
the midsummer of her days, fair as a
girl, composed as a wife, and the last of
his conquests was the highest testimo-
NAL ever given to his person and his
character.
Now the soldier began to feel what
he had vaguely appreciated before-that
of which Napoleon died unconscious
the dignity and happiness of social, do
mestic life. He took command of the
department of New York; his friends
rejoiced at his good fortune; no such
presence walked Broadway.
In the hight of all the blow came. He
was parRlyzed
His wife carried him to Europe, re-
duced as he was from Adonis to n Grip
pie. In all soft lands he searched for
health; the softest land was in her
presence. She also became sick with
care and diligence. They returned to-
gether to New York not very long ago,
and Hooker, seeing his old quartermas-
ter, LeDue of Iowa, coming to see him,
said
"This is all there is of Joe Hooker Z"
They wept together like women.
At Watertown, the other day the no
BILE wife of the General died. He has
resigned his commission. Gods ways
are past finding out.