Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-11-14
A Touching Tribute to a Stricken and
Bereft Soldier. h...ar

Bereft Soldier. l.a..-'
George Alfred Townsend, whose mill
tary campaigns we'll fit him for the task,
pays, III the Hartford Post, this tribute
to the genius and charae,er of General
Josep h Hooker, the hero of Lockout
Mountain, who has lately been retired
from the army:
A graver topic comes to me and to you
also, i'll the loss of the name of Joseph
Hooper from the roll of the army. Few
can take his place in talent, and who in
beauty and fame2 He WAS the Henry
Clay of soldiers-generous, instructive,
reliable and ele ectrical ! He opened bat
tie ut the moment, onorder When Nc
Clellan said, at Ahtietam, "General
Hooker will advance ON the right at I
O'Clock" they woke at headquarters to
hear the first cannonibreak the morning,
rs if the second hand 0f his. watch had
been the f.se to fire it. lie was the
promptest soldier known to either army
Some were too proud, others too irrese
lutte, some lymphatic; he was cheerful,
yet remorselcsS ut times, and as lover
not Of carnage. but Of fair battle-tew
ages afford his match.
He was the handsomest man in vital
beauty ever saw. Decatur must have
looked like him. His nostrils AMI his
eye were not fire, but light never blaz-
ing with intense feeling, but shining
like the dawn. Ills was the perfection OF
manly American beauty, as we conceive
it, whena all our heterogeneous tribes
shall be welded into one patriotic home
gencity with the English dow and the
bronze of your autumn most manifest.
His walk, the turn of his knee, the
straigbtness ofhis thigh and leg, the ex-
quisiteness of his feat, what man can for
get ? And likewise his waist and chest,
almost woman'sl They grow into a
pair of shoulders that the epaulettes new
er enhanced. The carriage of his head
should have touched q nun. Raphael
would have male him a pose for ST. Mi
chaei. The last time | saw him he was
coming down the steps Of the Astor
House, and turning to look after him, a
stranger said to me: .t.e t4o.a.
"Vyho is that - s .-r
"Joseph Hooper" ..,.. ..l d. l....
dies beautiful, surc." .a-. .t
When tho war began Hooper was liY-
ing in the State of California. His ap-
pearance had been temptation to him,
aud he filled no very high and dutiful
uso a,nang mankind. He embarked a,
once, with only his sword, and when
saw him first, he commanded brigade
in the Army of the Potomac, ana was
encamped behind McClelIan's. line OF
doom-bound entrenchments, in the corps
of Koys, think, among the very nearest
troops of any to Richmond. Kearney
was his neighbor, and these two were
the first to observe McClellan's boy
ish and irresolute ineoinpetency.
kearney was rich enOngh to speak his
mind, and Hooker indignant enough. II
was at their camps that first heard the
distrust of Mcclellan. The latter, in the
meantime, was as thick as persimmons
with these men-Slocunl. Newton, Badly
Smith, Fitz John Porter, Andrew Por-
ter and Hancock. The latter of these was
the only one that came to fortune, and
the former the only one that crme to
desert. Newton has disappeared; Badly
Smith was an enyious man and is said t.
have written coarse criticisms on Grant
recently, which should believe. Porter.
we know nearly reached the apotheOsis ol
Admiral Byng. Hancock is the best re-
warded man Of the army according to,
his 'sheft." SIocum is Seward Demo
erat and always believed him to be
both q soldier and a gentleman. AT last
| the romance of ''Littfe Mack was whal-
ed out of him by the tremendous attack
OF Stonewall Jackson. Then the sins"
went out, and the "outs" went in. Twas
abroad when Hooker commanded the
army, but officers told me OF his bearing
sitally, and in decision equal to
the place, but in caliber of mind perhaps
unequal to the mighty charge of d 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
Lieutenahts and Marshals of the army of
the Potomac, christened by Reynolds,
god fathered by Meade, and by none
better befriended than by john Sedg-
wick. eae 9ia 91s.' F'H4 . "
w HCH tlOOhCI Was ICIIONCtl
he rode out of camp Indignantly, and re-
appeared to the country i'll the brilliant
| tableau of Lookout Mountain.
| | doubt not that he would have won
the battle of Gettysburg as well as Meade
did, aud been more than PERSONAL hero OF
it, but possibly his quick temper and fine
selfesteem (which recall Henry Clay al
ways to me) would have made him less
useful to Grant afterward; for Meade
was Grants wiling and dligent clerk;
Sometimes believe that if Hooker had
held the Army Of the Potomae to- Gettys-
burg, he, and not Grant woufd have been
the hero of the war to receive the sword
Of General Lee, and that General Grant
would never have been called East, ex-
cept i'll charge Of General Sherm; ais az.
my. For General Hooker, without
great girth of brain had more life thar
any soldier l ever saw. HE contempl
of geography was. like Sherman's. III
loved fighting and going forward as