The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-11-05

| Gen. Hazen begins his account of the great
struggle at Murfreesboro by saying: "The
best service rendered by my command
in the war was at the battle of Stone
River" This is undoubtedly true, and this
may be said without depreciating in the
least its uniformly excellent record on many
other fields. He says the steadiness and in
trepidity of his brigade at Stone River
proved, "as 1 had anticipated, in the most
convincing manner, the immense value of
persistent instruction in schools and drills"
Hazens Brigade-to which the 10th ILL.,
had been added, the 9th Ohio being detached
occupied very important point in the
line, and most CALAMITY held it during the
whole of Dec 81, resisting all assaults. His
were almost the only Union troops that held
at the close of the day the same position
they occupied in the morning. The con-
spicuous services of this brigade and its
commander were commended in the highest
terms in all the official reports of the battle
Its casualties were 429.
At Chickmauga and Mission Ridge Ha-
zen's Brigade behaved with great gallantry.
Its losses in the first of these battles were 495
The reorganization of the army during the in
term between these battles left Gen. Hazen's
Brigade constituted as follows: 9th Ind, 9Th,
9th and 23d KY, LIST, 9th, 41st, 93d and 124th
Ohio. In the assault upon Mission Ridge
this brigade charged up near Bragg's head
quarters, capturing, according to Hazen's
report Is cannon and $50 prisoners, besides
many wounded. The loss of the brigade
was 500. Hazen says this of the arrival at
Chattanooga of Gems Grant and Sherman:
Now came in the regime. Gen. Grant ar
rived, and Gen. Sherman was approaching. They
were new and different from the commanders we
had known before. They wore vests and coats
butoned, and. as to military bearing, old Fred
erick would not have had them in his camp. There
was also q sort of outspoken frankness upon mill
tary matters that seemed little strange and in
contrast to the mysterious air that is apt to per-
wade military headquarters. But they had from
the start, and always retained, the most perfect
confidence of the army, and that faith not mis-
placed. More accuracy in little things would not,
however have lessened early faith nor dimin-
ished their success. The Emperor William has
said, One button neglected may lead to the loss
of an army"
Gen. HaZen gives clear and detailed mar
rative of the services of his command in the
long campaign to Atlanta. On the 18th of
August, 1864, he babe farewell to his old
brigade, having been assigned to the COM
mand of division of the Army of the Ten
nessee. At the head of this division he rode
through to the sea, stormed and captured
Fort McAllster, near Savannah, and swept
up through the Carolinas to the end. Of the
campaign from Atlanta he says:
The march was little more than a grand picnic.
The country full of what were luxuries to us.
and no army stronger, in a sanitary sense.
or lived better than we did. There strifes
in this army and all worked in harmony for the
common end.
Of his further promotion while at Savan-
nah, Gen. Hazen modestly says:
Mr.. Stanton met here. 1t my first intro
duction to him. He came down. bringing the con-
CALCULATIONS of the President and to do what
might be in his power to further work. He
had in his portfolio but gift of the magnitude
of Major-Generars commission, and greatly to
my surprise. it fell to me. was told that the gen.
eral officers of the Army of the Tennessee asked it
for me, but this never positively knew.
In his preface Gen. Hazen says:
Every great war engenders an ignoble swarm of
jealousies and caumnies, which buzz and sting for
long years after kindly nature has repaired the
battefields. 1 have had my share of these an
noyances and may feel bound, at future time,
to prepare for the official and professional eye a
formal presentation of my own case. But
from these pages l have excluded controverted
matter except so far the telling of plain tale
for the general reader necessarily involves it.
The two notable exceptions are Gen. Ha-
zen's pardonable defense of himself against
the charges of miscofduct at Shiloh, and his
elaborate showing to prove that his brigade
captured all the cannon claimed for it at
Mission Ridge. The question was between
Hazen and Sheridan. The latter said in his
report:
Gen. Hazen and his brigade employed themselves
driven the enemy. and have claimed it as their
captures.
Gen. Hazens argument on this subject,
fortified by official reports and letters from
participants, becomes to the general reader
rather tedious, occupying more than so pages
of the book-an amount of space wholly
disproportionate to its Importance.
The two concluding chapters of the book
are devoted to Lessons of the War" Gen.
Hazen has been a careful, intelligent observer
and his ideas and suggestions on various
topics connected with,the organization and |
management of an army, in camp and field
are replete with interest. He discusses
briefly defensive Works for Infantry"
" Offering of Troops,"" Equipment of Troops"
Ammunition in Battle" Especial Details"
" Pioneer Corps" Artillery" Hospitals
" The Whisky Ration" Foragers," "Dis-
abling Railroads." Movement by Wings of
Long Range Fire." "War Cor
General Staff and War
School," and Signal Service"