River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-11-18
CrItlcisIng a CriIic..
[Des Moincs 1owal Leader.

There is stray anecdote Of the Duke
OF Wellington, which we once heard from
the lips of an English gentleman who had
known the conqueror Of Napoleon, but
which we have never seen in print any.
where. After the Duke returned to En-
gland from the Peninsula, a friend Of his
showed him articles and other printed
accounts in criticism upon his strategy up
TO the battle of Vimeira, which had been
published in England while that campaign
was progressing. Wellington glanced
over them and tossed them aside, re.
marking that "all that sort Of thing
would be very well if the enemy in front,
as well as the enemy in the rear, were
never anything but an army of military
critics. lie then added that 'the army
he had to confront in Spain was composed
Of soldiers"
We are reminded Of this anecdotc by
the appearance OF a small volume bound
in cloth and bearing the imprint OF
"Wilstach,. Baldwin & Co., Cincinnati,
1875 Turning to the title page, we find
this volume to be review Of what are
called the Sherman memoirs, written by
the Washington correspondent Of the
Cincinnati Gazette, who is known to a cir
Gle Of acquaintances as "Gen. Boynton. y
At present. and for the purposes We have
in view, it is necessary to pause for in
quiry as to what post guartermaster or
sutler il was upon whose staff our Gener-
al won his stars for at time when it is
unsafe to upturn a casual stone in any
obscure and sequestered sheep pasture,
for fear Of finding General under it,
we may be excused from so bootess a
task as that Of inquiring into the origin
Of Boynton's title. We advert to the
fact of the title at all merely for the pur-
pose of giving our reviewer the prop
needful to sustain the primary assump.
tion that he is a military" man, and
that then his criticisms are those Of a
military" critic. The following extract
from the preface of General Boynton's
book indicates the object of its publica-
ton as contemplated by the author:
1.-The object Of the present compilation
is to show wherein the memoirs of Gen
eral Sherman fall short of presenting the
correct history of many great events of
which they treat
We have read the book through-a
feat seldom accomplished in these times,
except by young ladies when new novel
comes out. But in this case we have de-
parted from our usual custom upon the
receipt of new books by new authors
which is to consign them to the kindly
oblivion of the lumber room-and have
carefully perused the book Of Boynton.
When we had absorbed the concluding
sentence, if we had been called upon to
/ ompnd tho a nva frov,, bn
face. we should have made it read thus
The object OF the present compilation
is to show how difficult it is to reduce to
and retain within the focus or political
capital fora great party the history of a
great war;"
General BoyntOn labors through 276
pages to show:
l. That Grant was actually the man
who held the country up by the tail.
2. That Edwin NJ. Stanton is the man
who firmly guyed Grant by his military
coat tails, while the country was being
held up.
3. That Sherman came near losing the
country at Bentonville, and would have
done so bat for the extreme fixedness Of
the grip by which Grant maintained his
/ TAIL nOiu, anu tflt lilllGAlUiE uTlIIleSS WITH
which Stanton guyed the military coat
tails of the commander-in-chef at that
trying moment.
This seems to US to be fair statement
Of the programme, and, so far as iudicious
selections from the archives and careful
sitting and pruning of official reports,
letters and kilograms can accomplish,
| Boynton has fulfilled his mission. His
compilations and comments show that
Sherman's memory was at fault on some
points, his Judgment inaccurate on 9TH
ers, and his vanity equal to the occasion
on oil points. There is no adms siblc
doubt that Boynton's ingenious compila-
ton, taken as whole, places the General
of the army at a disadvantage. And, If
there were no mitigating circumstances
to be pleaded in favor Of General Sher-
man, the case would be conclusivcly made
out against him. 1t must be taken into
account, however, that the 'oflicial
data OF the war between the United
States and the Confederacy are not in
themselves infalible. And it must fur
Their be considered that in this, almost
alone Of all the wars that ever occurred
upon tho face Of the earth, there were
elements at work in the shape
Of party necessities and political in.
trigues, the effect Of which was to so dis.
tort or pervert the facts as they occurred,
that it will be forever impossible to write
its true story from the files of official pa
pers. Add to this fat the facility with
which such uncomfortable papers as hap.
pen to creep into the files of the War
Department have been from time to time
spirited away, and we reach the concIu.
sion that between the mendacity OF the
Federal commanders during the war and
the kleptomania OF Republican politicians
since its close, the only historian who de-
sires to write the truth, and it only, will
have but comparatively little use for the
''ofiical papers"
The point in General Sherman's favor,
and one which cannot fail to weigh heay-
lily with the diSpassionate researcher Of
the future, is that he was the least given
to lying in his official reports Of all the
Federal commanders. This is n point
which Boynton neglects to take into ac-
/ rOuut and this NEGLECT will mo fatal IN