The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-02-27
GENERALSHIP.
MILITARY REPUTATioNS SoMeT TIMES
DEPEND ON 1.-THE CHANCES"
The Leading Commanders of the Late
Civil War-Whsn 1t Was Safe to
Reckon on Errors and whea
1t Was Not.
[San Francisco Chronicle.l

tSan Francisco Chronicle
History only records the fame Of two gen.
erals who made their reputation after they
were 50: one was John Churchill duke Of
Marlborough, who made his fame ut Ramil-
lies when he was SO, and crowned it at
Bouchain when he was 81; the other ia Won
Moltke, who was 90 at Sadowa and 20 at
Sedan. His merit Was So little suspected
that when he sought permission to leave the
Danish service to join the German army his
application was sarcastically indorsed:
"Capt. Won Moltke will not be much missed"
Somewhere in his conversations Gen. Grant
gives it as his opinion that general should
not be over 40 or 45. He ought, in order to
do his duty, to be able to sleep under a tree,
to dispense with more than one meal day,
to do his own reconnoitering, and for all this
a man of 50 Is unfit. Grant said that In the
campaign before Vicksburg hs slept
wherever he happened to be when he could
catch spare hour, and he was satisfied with
one meal a day. Sherman did the same.
Neither Of them took off his boots for weeks.
Napoleon wrote to Joseph from Eylau: ave
have not had our clothes off for two months,
and have been living in snow and mud,
without bread, wine, or brandy, subsisting
Ou pOJdIOeS anu ne eHl-
peror always maintained that the battle Of
Busaco was lost because Massena had neg
lected to make personal reconnaissance of the
ground. Won Moltke made no personal re-
connoisances, but he had to studied the
country in which he had to meet the French
in 1870 that he knew every stream and hill
and road, and almost every tree
Military regulations are curious things.
...ty 1l, nN1l
was the greatest general Of our war, ten to
one he will answer Gen. Lee. Yet soldiers
know that Lee was q mere desk general,
without plan or dash. Before the war old
Gen. Scott, who loved him, used to say that,
with the exception Of himself, Bob Lee was
the only man in this country who could
handle $1,000 men. He took this reputation
into the southern army, and he was idolized.
He was q courteous, dignified man, who
made himself up after Washington. His
soldiers trusted him implicitly, and he had
the inner lines, SO that it was reckoned he
had won a victory every time he escaped
annihilation.
President Davis was deferential to him, and
the corps commanders regarded him as om-
niscient and invincible But, in point Of
fact, there is not one of his battles which
military students will hereafter be required
to study. So with Stonewall jackson. He
was known at West Point As a religious
fanatiI. In the southern army he was enter
prising, audacious, swift in action, but a
man might easily make q reputation when
he has only commanders like Banks and
Fremont and Mcclellan to encounter. II
Stonewall jackson had lived long enough to
meet such men as Sherman and Sheridan
his fame might not have stood as high as 1t
does.
When our war broke out, the eyes Of SOL
diers were fixed upon Mcclellan, Rosecrans,
Stone, Mcdowell and Buell. These were to
be the coming men. They all proved failures
Grant cut no figure in Mexico. Sherman
was said to be O crank. Sheridan was un-
known. It required circumstances to de-
velop them. Grant showed from the first
the intuitive capacity of the born soldier.
After the fall Of Fort Donelson, q brother-in-
arms took the liberty Of drawing his atten-
ton to the awful risk he had run by deviat-
ing from the rules Of war. The general re-
piled; "Yes, know all that, but I knew the
men on the other side and took the chances
You do not suppose would have acted SO II
Lee had been In command of tho fortfn So
when he resolved on his march round Vicks-
burg by way Of the river, he knew that he
was acting contrary to the rules Of war, but
he took the risks, and for fear Of interference
from Washington, he would not let Gen.
Halleck know what he was doing till he was
past recall Sure enough, as soon as tels-
grams could reach him, Halleck counter.
manded the movement; but it was too late,
and In due course Vicksburg fell.
Toward the close Of the war the generals
on both sides began to understand their
business, and 1t was not safe to reckon on
errors escaping notice. The north, it must
be admitted, had good deal Of good luck.
II Lee had had the enterprise to break
through Meade's line and join Johnston in
North Carolina after the surrender of Rich.
mond, the war might have been indefinitely
prolonged. II Hood had had common sense
enough to give Nashville the go-by and
march through Kentucky into Ohio, there
Is no saying what the results might not have
been. He could probably have cut the
north in two, as Sherman cut the south.
But he was not enough Of general to see
the opportunity which Thomas inertia
offered him.
A truly great general must know when to
obey the laws Of war and when to violate
them This Is just what Grant and Sher-
man knew. Napoleon, in his compendium
Of military instructions to his brother
Joseph when he went to Spain. enjoined
upon him. "The art Of war Is an art which
is founded on principles that must not be
violated. To lose ones line Of operation is
q performance 30 dangerous that to be
guilty Of 1t Is q crime" Yet this Ia Just
what Sherman did in Georgia, with the
happiest results. So with the French them
selves In Algeria The first rule Of war 10
that an army must consist Of due proper
tions Of cavalry, infantry, and artillery,
yet the first order Of the day issued by
Bugeaud whom he toOk command Of the
French army directed nine-tenths Of the
artillery to be shipped back to France. He
wanted to. train his troops to fighting at
short range, and to lure the enemy into
close quarters. The result was the battle Of
Isly. When history comes TO be deliber,
ately written and men are measured not by
what people said Of them at the time, but
by what they actually did, the southern
generals who will stand highest in the ranks
Of fams--side by side with Grant and Blc.
Pherson, and Sherman and Sheridan--w
he Gena Joe Johnston and Albert Sidney
Johnston