The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-27


The death Of Col. F. T. Dent, the
brother-in-law of Gen. Grant, reminds US
afresh of the remarkable difference in
men.
Col. Dent was classmate of Gen.
Grant; he served with equal credit during
the Mexican war and in Oregon; he re-
manned In the regular army all his life
without break, while Grant left it in
1853 and never saw service again until
Belmont, in November, 1851. When the
war broke out Dent was a major in the
regular army in good standing, while
Grant had been eight years out of the
army, was obscure, poor, and had left the
army in such bad repute for intem perance
that the adjutant general of the army
would pay no attention to his offer of
service; and Mcclellan refused to see him.
Had not Gov. Yates, Of Illinois, given
Grant regiment so unruly that its
colonelcy went begging, he would hardly
have got into service with q rank worthy
of his education.
AS things go in peace, Dent, not Grant,
should have made his mark during the
war. But Grant commanded brigade by
August, 1861: was major general of volun-
teers In February, 1862; major general in
the regular army in July 1868; lieu
tenant general March 2, 1854, while
Dent was lieutenant colonel in
the regular army at the end of
the war, and did not become even
brigadier general of volunteers until the
last month of the war. AS a soldier in
time of peace Dent was better than his
Classmate, his brother-in-law, his comrade.
but in time of war the real test of SOL
dier's soul, knowledge and understanding,
Dent was cipher, while Grant at once
rose to be the most significant figure of the
war.
The two men were about the same age:
they were classmates at West Point, had
the same teachers; they had exactly the
same military experience Of the Mexican
war and Oregon service, and yet when a
great war breaks out the discarded, dis
graced Grant, eight years out of the army,
became great soldier, while the war
which found Dent Maj. Dent, lett him Just
q
to inspect garrison or be commissary of
subsistence. Such is the vast difference in
men. Dent had courage; an excellent
military education, as much expert
ence of war as any officer of his
age in the army before the war,
and yet he was military cipher
for the lack Of military brains. In time of
peace he would have done himself credit
by drawing his pay and rations, spending
the former nationally and digesting the
latter rapidly. until the law allowed him
TO go upon the retired list. Bourienne was
Bonapartes classmate and friend at
Brienne and was esteemed rather the more
promising as he certainly was the popular
youth of the two.
There is one thing to be said about real
WAT; it does test mans real merit as a
soldier down to the marrow bones OF his
manhood. What wreck real war on a
large scale made of the military pets and
proteges of Scott. Not man of them
save Lee stood the test. Social influence
could not save q soldier who could not rise
to the level of generalship. So the Nc
Ciellan school of military mud turtles
went finally TO the rear and the Grants,
the Shermans, the Sheridans, the Han
cocks, the fellows of brains, energy and
above aii, pugnaoity, came 10 the front.
The difference in men of the same daily
associations, training schools, whether of
war or peace, is wonderful. West Point
could not make soldier on. of Dent: war
could not make a soldier out of Dent
while without West Point a man like
Grant would have in war time made a SOL
der Of no ordinary quality, just as Logan
without West Point made superior sol
dier. Soldiers are born. not made. al
though of course TO the soul Of a soldier
scientific training is necessary for great
! work. But no blame is attached 10 West
Po;ntfor Dent; West Point does not agree
tofurnish 4 man with q soldiers soul: Dent
did not bring that % West Point. Grant
did bring that, and West Points traininc
was not wasted on Grant although il ajd
not rescue Dent from obscurity. HIS SIS
ter 1lla's marriage did that; nothing else
/ lie was not 1.-The nephew OF my uncle"
he was the brother-in-Iaw Of Grant; that