Arizona republican., 1898-08-07
AN OLD MEMS WAR.
Few of inc Commanding Officers in
 inc Field are Youthful.

1 This is an old mems war, so far as the army is concerned. When the civil
 war broke out, Lee, the two John stons, Cooper, and perhaps one or two
 other men Of years and rank joined : the confederacy. for most of these off, i cers were from the southern states; few elderly officers went into service in the national armies, but with rare exceptions it was the captains and ! lleutenants Of the regular army who became the generals of the civil war. and the civilians who were appointed to military command were usually young men. Most of the general and field officers of what is known as tne old army were deemed physically un- available, and their names are not known to a generation that remem- bers well the names of scores of mili- tary commanders who in 1861 were company officers, or, if in civil life at the time, were just beginning their business or professional careers.
 In 1861 the patriarchs' of the United States army were Sumner, aged GA, and Mansfield, aged 5S The latter was killed at Antietam; 5he former, soon after Fredericksburg, was re lieved from service in the field at his own request Ormsby Mcknight Mitchell was 52 when the war began, Hooker AT, Meade 46, Thomas 45, Me Dowen, Ord and Buell. 43, Sherman fl, Augur 40, Grant and Pope 39 Hancock and Burnside 37, Logan and Mcclellan B, McPherson 33, Howard 31, Sheri- dan 30, and Merritt 25
 Most of the general officers of the present army were the generals and colonels of the regular army; few of these are under 60 years of age. The four original major-generals Of volun- teers, appointed from civil life, achiev- ed high rank in the civil war X man who V as only 27 when that war closed would now be 60, so that .hese com manders are over that age, for :he youngest of them, General Wheeler was 2s at the end of the war. General s'"wall declined his appointment, pre- ferri1 g to remain in the senate. and the president added to this fist Butler Of south Carolina, and Keifar Of Ohio. both @; these men were not 3b years old when the civil war icsed an! bc..' of them had distinguished thcn,- selves in that struggle.
 Dandolo took Constantinople at so or over, and Von Moltke was over 70 at the time. of the Franco-Cerman war. Several other German officers were well over 50. but these must be regarded as exceptional cases. NaptIe- on and Wellington were about 54 at Waterloo, and most Of Napoleon's generals were young men, Our off, cers in the revolution were generally young, but so were the leaders Of civil | life; the active period of life seemed then to begin and close earlier than now. Scott and Taylor were past middle life in the war with Mexico After 45 a man is liable to develop physical weaknesses that interfere with campaigning, and man of 50 does not generally take the chances that man of 30 does, and in war many chances must be taken. If General Shafter is to be criticized at i all, however. it is for being too az gressfve and not for being too eau tiCus. We do not criticise the general, but if he were to be criticized it would
 be for fault of youth and not for a 1 fault of age. But he is over 60, weighs over 300 pounds, and on account of a
 trouble with his legs is unable for
 days at time to stand General Wheeler is 62, and was carried forward
 to the fighting before Santiago on a
 litter, but, against the protests of the
 surgeons, he insisted on mounting his
 horse when he reached the front Gen
 eral Young, also over 60, has been in- INI l. T
 the climate of Cuba. Men between 30
 and 40, the age of most of the gener-
 als Of the civil war, are at present
 subalterns. Colonel Roosevelt, who is
 one of the boys of this war, must be
 40 CT little over.-New York Com
 mercial Advertiser.