The Shasta courier., 1868-11-21
SHASTA COURIER.
THE Loss OF HOOKER.

George A. Townsend, whose military cam
paigns well fit him for the task, pays, In the
Hartford Post, this 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 Hook
er from the roll of the armv. Few can take
his place in talent, and who in beauty and
fame? He was the Henry Clay of soldiers
generous, instructive, reliable, electrical
He opened battle at the moment on order
When Mcclellan said at Antietam: Seen
eral Hooker will advance on the right at
seven O'clock" they woke at headquarters
to hear his first cannon break the morning,
as if the second hand of his watch had been
the fuse to fire it, He was the promptest
soldier known to either army. Some were
too proud, others to irresolute, some lymphat-
ic; he was cheerful. yet remorseless at times,
and, as a lover not of carnage. but of fair
battle, few ages afford his match.
He was the handsomest man in vital beauty
| ever saw. Decatur must have looked like
him. His nostrls and his eyes were not fire.
but light, never blazing with intense feeling,
but shining like the dawn He.was the per-
fection. of manly, American beauty, as we
conceive it, when all our heterogeneous tribes
shall be welded into one patriotic homogeneity
with the English dew and the bronze of our
Autumn most manifest. His walk, the turn
of his knee, the straightness of his thigh and
leg the exquisiteness of his foot, what gentle
man can forget? And likewise his waist
and chest-almost a woman'sl They grew
into pair of shoulders that the epaulette
never enhanced. The carriage of his head
should have touched a nun. Raphael would
have made him pose for St. Michael. The
last time | saw him was coming down the
steps of the Astor House, and turning to
look after him, stranger said to me:
Who is tbat?"
Joseph Hooker -
:. He's beautiful, sure!''
When the war began Hooker was living in
straits in California. His appearance had
been temptation to him. and he filled no
very high and dutiful use among mankind. =
He embarked at once, with only his sword
and when | saw him first he commanded
brigade in the army of the Potomac, and was
encamped behind McClellan's line of doom
bound entrenchments, in the corps of Keyes
think, perhaps Heintzeman, among the
very nearest troops of any to Richmond
Kearney was his neigbbor, and the two were
the first to observe McCleilan's boyish and
irresonte incompetency. kearney was rich
enough to speak his mind, and Hooker was
indignant enough 1t was at their camps |
first heard the distrust of Mcclellan. The
latter, meantime, was thick perslmmons
with these men: S.ocum, Newton, Baldy
Smith, Fitz John Porter, Andrew Porter and
no Lori pf ha mil
one that came to fortune, and the former the
only one that came to desert. Newton has
disappeared. Badly Smith was always an
envious man, and lie is said to have written
coarse criticisms on Grant recently, which
should believe. Porter we knew, who nearly
reached the apotheosis of Admiral Bying.-
Hancock is the best rewarded man of the
army, according to his = beft." SIocum is a
Seward Democrat, and always believed him
to be both a soldier and gentleman. At
last the romance of Little Mac" was
''whaed' out of him by the tremendous at
tack of Stonewall jackson. Then the " ins''
went out and the outs" went in. ! was
abroad when Hooker commanded the army,
but officers have told me of his bearing there
vitality and in decision equal to the place,
but in caliber of mind perhaps unequal to
the mighty charge of great army. lie 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 the Lieutenants and Marshals of
the Army of the Potomac. christened by
Reynolds, godfathered by Meade. and none
better befriended than by John Sedgwick.
When Hooker was removed by Halleck he
rode out of the camp Indignantly, and reap
peared to the country in the brilliant tableau
of Lookout Mountain.
/ doubt not that be would have won the
battle of Gettysburg as well as Meade did,
and been more the personal hero of it, but
possibly his quick temper and fine self.es
(which recall Henry Clay always to me),
would have made him less useful cerically to
Grant afterward for Meade was Grants
willing and diligent clerk. Sometimes be-
lieve that if Hooker bad held the Army of
the Potomac to Gettysburg, he, and not
Grant, would have been the hero of the war
to receive the sword of Lee, and that Grant
would never have been called East except in
In charge Of Sherman's army. For Hooker,
without great girth of brain, had more life
than any soldier | ever saw. His contempt
OF geography wa like Sherman's. He loved
hghting and going forward as much as Sher-
ldan. And his enterprise was like.Pizarro's.
As an orator he was one of the finest among
soldiers. As a..candidate tor: President, Zach
cry Taylor, would have been Sancho Panza
compared to him: for with victory and his
magnetism, he would have beaten Thomas
Jefferson before the people. This is talking
of the irrevocablc, but many soldiers will
agree with me in it, while all of them will
admit that it was better for the republic that
the common-sense mead of Grant should car
ry these intoxicating laurels, rather than this
fair Alcibiades, with his brilliance. his am.
bition, and his adventurous spirit.
As it was, Hooker, at the end of the war
was a revived and satisfied man, perceivine
himself that the good genius of the country
had ordered well.
In Cincinnati he met in the prime of life
and intelligence, one of the most spIended
ladies of the country, the sister of William
S. Groesbeck lately the Presidents counsell.
lady whose pure and elevated character
had been strong enongh to decline matrimony