The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-11-15
SOLDIERS, COURAGE.
Lord Wolsely Discusses the Various Kinds
and Thar EffectIVeneas.

and Their Effectiveness.
In his famous FortHightly article on
courage, Lord Wolsely discusses a
subject which he may reasonably be
supposed to understand as well as any
man alive; and he does so in a manner
that is not only interesting, but anus
ing and humorous as well. Courage,
whether active or passive, may be di-
vided into three kinds-that which
arises from pure insensibility to dam
ger; the inability to feel fear, which
is characteristic of men like Nelson;
that which comes Of pure ignorance,
such as may often be seen in young
soldiers, and was observed among the
raw British levics at Quartre Bras;
and lastly, that which springs from
sense of duty or a sense of honor over
coming and suppressing the emotion
which the individual feels at the
proximity of death, and enabling him
to face it with as much GOODNESS as one
who does not feel it at all. The differ
ence between the two is constitutional,
and many would say that the last kind
of courage-the courage of the man
who knows and appreciates the peril
and would shrink from it did not high
err motives urge him forwards in
realty the more worthy of respect
But il we can trust Lord Wolseley, it
is not this which makes soldiers mount
the deadly breach or charge up to a
battery Of guns with light hearts and
desperate determination. 1t is the
fiery and impetuous leader who has
never known fear, or the coolly impas-
siye one who moves about among a
shower Of bullets, regarding them no
more than if they were suow-hakes,
who excites the enthusiasm of his
men, According to Lord Wolseley,
these different kinds of courage man.
ifest themselves in different manners,
and the soldier knows by instinct
which Of the two he is in presence
Of Between the officer who coaquers
fear and the officer who has none to
conquer he never makes a mistake.
He will respect the first; but the sec
ond is the one in whose company he
viii rush on death.
We can easily understand that the
courage of a martyr at the stake, or
the splendid calmness of the soldiers
who went down in their ranks with the
burning vessel, would have less effect
for active purposes than the example
OF one who rushes sword in hand on
nvarvv h al mimi, y,,ro barO or Saa,ns ~
court death by exposing himself reck-
lessly to fire. This was what Nelson
did; and Lord Wolseley gives some in
teresting examples of this kind OF dar-
ing from his own observation. He
mentions Captain Sir William Peek of
the Royal navy, as a singular exam
pie of cool, deliberate intrepidity.
During the bombardment of Sebas-
topol he always walked just |
behind his battery, where he was more |
exposed to fire than the men working |
the guns, and where his presence made |
it impossible for any of the gunners to |
finch. he was always courteous. But |
under o heavy fire he became more |
than usually urbane and gentle. This |
the men always noticed. The hotter |
the fire, they used to say, the more
'polite" he became. AS an instance |
of downright insensibility to danger,
Lord Wolseley mentions Sir Gerald |
Graham, who, when relieved from |
duty in the trenches, used to walk /
straight back to camp, exposed to the
Russian bullets for many hundred
yards, because it was the shortest cut |
and he was too lazy to go round where
he would have been under shelter.
London Standard.