Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-04-24
SHERMAN AND HANNIeAL.
Likeness Between the Carthaginian and
the American.

Likeness Between the Carthaginian and
the American.
During the last hours OF General
Sherman's life, work on Hannibal"
by Colonel Dodge, was published' in
which the writer brings out in greater
fullness than any single writer has be-
fore attempted tho military qualities,
amounting to genius which character
lied the great Carthaginian general.
He was the first military leader among
the ancicnts who exhibited the quail
ties for which General Sherman was
pre-eminent. He made for himself n
career which was i'm some respects re-
markably like that which was developed
by General Sherman. The two men
had the same sort of temperament
and, if we may trust the ancient de-
scriptions, they resembled each other
in physical stature not less than i'm the
thoroughness Of their military educa-
ton. Hannibal was the first man 10
depart from the battle tactics which
were the methods Of fighting adopted
! by Alexander. He had methods Of his,
own, and his success, until the Romans
had learned from him how TO use his
own weapons, was due to tho same
qualities which distinguished the mill
! tary services of General Sherman. He
gained his first and last victories by
strategy. He did the unexpected thing.
| All his career was the doing of things
that nobody else did and throughout
the late civil war General Sherman
was the man who constantly improved
upon military rules by methods of his
own.
! The passage of the Alps by Hannibal
was not more wonderful in his day than
! the operations which Sherman planned
and executed in his march to Chat
tanOoga, and his gigantic conception OF
an invasion of Italy has its parallel in
General Sherman's plan of the march
to the sea, and the support OF his army
by levying contributions upon the peo-
/ pie through whose homes no was pass
ing. The American general did not
stay for sixteen years IN the country OF
his enemies as Hannibal did, and COM
pei subjugated provinces to support
/ him, but he could have done it rs easily
us the Carthaginian did if the same oc-
casion had existed. There was in our
own Sherman the same insight. into tina
conditions of war. the same comprehen-
sion of the vital point ut ISSUE the
same swift reading Of men, the same
power of control, and the same ability
To keep his own counsel.
The more carefully Hannibars mil
itary career is studied the stronger
will the likeness between these two
leaders stand out TO view. That the
one copied from the recorded military
campaigns of the other is hardly to be-
believed. General Sherman under
stood the art of war too well to initiate
anyone. and his grasp and self-con-
fidence were too strong for the follow
ing of precedents. Hannibal had pro-
foundry studied the art OF war as
understood by the Greeks, but it was
only the stepping-stone to the quick
ening of his own mind and the
disciplining of his capacity to meet
emergencies. He was 50 much the
master of the rural provinces in Italy
that it was only the unwiilingness Of"
the home government to properly sup
port him that prevented the conquest
Of Rome itself.
As it was, nearly the whole of Italy.
outside of the city of Rome, was at
one time or another under his control,
and, until the Romans acquired his
method, there was no Roman generaE
whose army he did not sooner or later
destroy. General Sherman's march 10
the sea was a campaign Of compare
lively short duration, but involved the
same perplexities which Hannibal had
to meet and was carried on under the
same necessity Of relying entirely upon
his own courage and resources for the
support of his army.