The morning call., 1893-02-22
GENERAL BEAUREGARD.

The news Of the death Of General Besure-
gard would cause more general sorrow if he
had not been advertised so freely OF late
years as a capper for lottery. Even those
who were not partisans of the lost cause OBJ
served with regret that one who had figured
in the most critical period of the history of
the country was earning his living in his old
age in the service Of an enterprise which
was conducted in defiance of law. The
generals connection with the Louisiana
lottery took the gloss off his tame.
That fame, indeed, rested upon glamour
rather than fact. Beauregard was compe-
tent engineer; nothing more. II CHANGED
that it devolvei upon him to order the first
gun to be fired against Fort Sumter, and it
CHANGED that there was on the scene cor
respondent of an English paper, who, partly
from carping envy of everything American
and partly from innate snobbishness, made
a hero of him on. of very slight material.
There were in the Confederate service far
ADLER soldiers than Beauregard, but Bull
Run" Russell wanted Bolivar or Kos
cuSko to sing peans to, and Beauregard
answered the purpose. JEFF Davis, who was
himself soldier Of no mean ability, had
the measure OF the man. He could not re-
ing him the command of the army at Man
assas; but the result Of the battle OF Bull
Run proved how correctly he had reckOned
up the overrated Louisianian. If Albert
Sidney Johnston had commanded the Con-
fedora les that day there would have been
greater danger of the fall of Washington
on the day following.
Beauregard was to the rebels what Nc
Clellan was to the Union people. He was
the type Of genius misunderstood and of
merit trampled by envy. just as a large
section of Northern men believed that Me-
Clellan was the only general who could put
down the rebellion, SO some of the best peo-
pie of the slave States insisted that Beaure-
gard was the only soldier who could win
Southern independence. 1t is impossible to
conceive grosser delusious. The men were
alike in some respects. Both were skillful.
painstaklng, accurate engineers; neither
had high genius to lead men TO victory. or
10 drive in the knife under the fifth rib.
Beauregard's memoirs are a mastery work
of military criticism. McClellan's review
Of the operations of The allies before SebaS-
topol is a textbook. But at tile head of
armies both were discounted by men OF
less capacity, but who thought more of
accomplishing results than of solving neat
ana intricate problems in military science
II has long been an axiom that posSessOrs
OF strategy cannot lead armies. Could
Grant have stood an examination in his
JOmini? The men who won victories and
whom the enemy learned TO fear were the
Cromwellian jackson and the energetic
Sheridan. These were soldiers who like
Napoleon in Italy, scandaliZed veteran gen.
erals by disregard of the rules of war; they
evoked their strategy out of their own gen.
ius and, as the boys say, got there every
time" Beauregard could draw a plan of
battle which would have delighted MORGAN /;
he knew to fraction how many cavalry it
would require 10 break an infantry square
and what artillery he needed to hold a fort.
But when his enemy departed from the
regular rules Of war and tried some new
and unexpected maneuyer be was thrown
into confusion and could not tell what 10 do.
If. instead of Lee, he had defended Rich
mOnd against Grant, the Union armies
would have been in possession two months
before they were. though BeauregaId's
lines. when studied in cold blood after the
event, would have Appeared to be the per-
iecIon OF scientific skill.
There was one respect In which Jefferson
Davis and Beauregard, though differing in
everything else, were united in opinion.
Neither ever accepted the defeat Of the lost
cause as fnality, and both suffered in
public estimation in consequence. Beaure-
gard did not have opportunities Of yentiat-
ing his wrongs in public. He was ready to
the day OF bis death TO dem onstrate that the
South had not been beaten, as people gen.
orally suppose. and that Southern Con-
federacy based upon the cornerstone Of
human slavery would be yet established.