Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-30
THE BERLIH HISTORY OF OUR
CIVIL WAR.
Saturday Review.

1t is strange chance, if indeed it really
be a chance, that We should hardly have
done reading the Count of Paris volumes
on the American war, when we find before
US the rival work from Berlin. 1t has been
known for some time past that the library
Of the General staff Bureau at that capital
was 10 have an independent book of its
own on the great contest which Count
Moltke has been too hastily charged with
sighting; and the title thoroughly explains
the main object of the work confided to
Major Scheibert, which is to offer TO every
German officer clear narrative, handy in
size, and framed so strictly with military
object as to give him all the chief profess
sional lessons to be drawn from it, without
pretending to discuss every detail, or TO en-
ter into the politics on which many of the
events necessarily turned. 1t was fitting,
indeed, in the intetests of impartiality,
that the task should have been intrusted
to German officer who served on the side
Of the South, If it were only that the i'm
portant French work which has lately ap-
peared is from the pen Of one who not only
fought against the South, but coufesses
himself an ardent partisan Of the cause of
the Union. We have lately seen that the
Count of Paris, in his zeal for this cause
and his haired of slavery, has hardly al
lowed himself to do justice to the soldiers
who took up arms in all good faith for those
State rights which they held as having the
first claim on their allegiance. Those who
study Major Scbeiben's volume will find
no dissertations either attacking or defend
ing any political action on either side. The |
very purpose of his work forbids them. A |
few words only of the preface tell us that |
throughout the war he devoted himself ar |
IDENTIFY to The cause Of the Confectionery; but |
he promises his comrades that his study of |
the contest shall be an impartial one, and |
he keeps conscientiously to his pledge.
The gallery of biographical sketches |
which closes the volume includes Stuart /
Con whom Maj. Scheibert dwells but slight |
ly, having said much of him in an earlier |
part), Jackson, Sherman, Grant and Lee;
and il is a striking testimony TO the fair
ness of his judgment that the two distin- |
guished Federal commanders receive full /
justice, their magnanimity in the hour OF |
victory being specially extolled. Lee is
purpOsely reserved for the final paragraphs
of the volume, as inevitably the true hero
of the great epic known as the American
war. For the more, our author tells us,
to his former chapter on Ameri-
can strategy, that he sought to arrive at an
independent Judgment by abstract study of
the war, and by the most objective treat
ment of its events, the more highly shone
out the individual glory of Gen. e,whom
people and army alike honored with their
common phrase, she is great as a General,
but still greater as man. as the work
we are about to part from is essentially a
scientific one, we cannot close our notice Of
it more fifty than by translating the mill
tary Judgment pronounced on this great
and his strokes of war. Proba-
bly, no truer one has been written Of any
General:
'NOt with the sudden yielding to some
passing thought, as the cavalry leader who
must form his plan on the spur of the
but by severe labor, toilsOme COM
and ceaseless comparison, were
his resolves framed. He felttheoVerwhelm-
ing responsibility that lay upon his shout
ders. He saw the flower of the peoples
offspring, the fSte Of his country, placed in
his hand. He was fully sensible of the
absolute confidence which staked its all
upon him. The deep responsibility he felt
10 Heaven and to the people that so trusted
in him caused him to throw his whole pow
er into the purpose Of making his plan as
complete as possible, freeing it from the
doubts of chance, and avoiding the least
mishap which might cross his design, and
damage it in its entirety. Alter one of his
battles he said to me, 4 make my plan
as well as my human powers admit, but On
the day of battle leave the fate of my
army in Gods hands; my Generals have
then to do their part"
But, il is added, his goodness of heart
was free from all NE sentimentality.
Humanity itself in feeling, he was stern
against all conscious dereliction of duty.
And while every glance at wounded man
gave him a sympathetic pang, he never
stayed the energetic pressure necessary to
carry out to its end the plan he had once
put steadfastly before him. Brought up to
richer fare and better expectations than al
most any man of the host he led, he was
the simplest of all in his surroundings; but
when a stranger was entertained, as our
author himself was, the honor was felt TO
be so great that it efectually made amends
for the scautiness of the fare