The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1897-05-29

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4 LIEUTENANr MILES
Twenty second Massachusetts, volunteersl
TO the front, and doubtless one more shift
lEg OF commanders would have. seurchf
Miles 10 the head of the corps, successor TO
Sumner and Hancock Miles contxsyn
po-aries of equivalent standing and our,or
tunities at the close Of the WAY were vounr
men Custer had begun Ia 1854 at 81, the
same age rs Miles General James n
Wilson, who stood at the end of the war in
raose rivalry with Sheridan as a cavalry
leader and winner, was "a In 1861, or SIX
years younger than Sheridan With the
exception Of Jeb Stuart, Sheridan was the
Youngest of the CREST leaders on either
side Fitzpatrick and Merritt, both x,rcm-
Using leaders, were 25 when the war broke
but In comparison with the more NOTED
leaders of both armies, Miles and Custer.
Fitzpatrick and Merritt, were boys when
they marched AWAY TO war When the
conflict began Grant was SO. Burnside,
81, Mcclellan IS; Sherman, 90; Meade
rs; Hooker, 46; Thomas, IS; Rosecranx.
As Buell., As, Sheridan, 30. OF the fore
1aost soufherners, Lee WAS 81; Albert Sid
ney Johnston 5ss Joseph e. Johnston.
54s StoneTau jackson, 81; Beaurexard,
a; Bragg, 46, Hood, 81; A p. HIN. 50:
J. r B. Stuart, ss; Forrest, 40
~aA~<SD was az q xts3lkA0ta{sG III Q106f re-
spects as well as ia age He was a volun-
teer and novice The army had then
more than q supply Of brilliant youn0 CAP
taans and heutenants trained at West
Point Custer, Merritt, Kilpasrsck and
Wilson were all West Point men, though
they earned their spurs before they put
them o. But the West Pointers, upon re-
ceaving start, arose at a bound Custer
aeaped at once from q staff position-not
eTRifTT hat T. -
br7gnde In the Army Of the Potomac
Merritt and Fitzpatrick received hraEades
about the same time, having previously
served in the cavalry without extaaordi-
mary distinction Miles served with his
regiment more than a year before he got
command q n brigade, which was In the
third year z the war, and waited another
year for a generals star
AT the head Of the Sixty first New
York Colonel Miles showed himself the
worthy Successor of the fighting Barlow
In the charge upon the stone wall AT Fre.d-
er1cksburg he marched his regiment In tho |
third line Ct Hancock's division 10 the at |
fack- The brigade of five regiments lost
more than half ITS numbers killed and |
wounded In the is regiments consfituf- /
Ing Hancock S division &c lost their COM
rnanding officers, some of them two or
three during the charge The rear brigade 4
led by Caldwell, Cross, McKesn and Miles
gained the farThest point reached hy the
assailants. and few pushed their way
throngh the gaps torn by diving hands In 4
The last fence, in desperate struggle to take /
the Stone wall All the way from that last I
lence UP TO within 20 and even IS yards OF
The Stone wall lay dead soldiers of Han
socks four i1riga67es-
Yet even here = wrote General Walker.
n his story Of the Second corps battles
among these fcr3o--Ea conditions. one heart
here Is as fresh, as asaoyant as that Of a
shald at play Is besfs in the youthful 1
or1n Of Miles, a born soldier. rightly
named Mitchell OF Hancock S STAT direct
~ nilia 70 move forward toward the posi-
Ann which +aa sF--ass. E<-xsas-S xrssa so7sse