The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-02
Life Story Of the
General Commanding
From a Letter in the Sun.

From a Letter in the Sun.
n T THE outbreak of tho civil war
IAN Nelson A. Miles was clerk In a
ID\ counting house in Boston. Al MS
LIN own expense nc raised company
of 100 men, which ho rendered 20
the nation, with his services. But he was
only 22 years of age, ard, being deemed
too young to command II, he went to the
front as lieutenant; yet at tho end cf
thirteen months he was IL full commls-
stoned colonel. commanding regiment
In the field, and in about three years
thereafter he commanded the Seconu
Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
This was the largest ana hardest worked
corps In that army, which formed line
around Richmond twenty-six miles long,
was always the nearest to the enemy,
and was the corps to which General Lee
sent his offer to surrender. And, further-
more, General Miles managed his COM
mand so successfully that General Grant
personally recommended the young ma
ior general to President Abraham LIN
coin for his gallantry, as General Meade,
who commanded at Gettysburg, had al
ready DONE IL history records the name
of any other general who successfully
managed $1,000 men on the battlefield at
the early age of 25 years l do not know
that name.
1t is true, as charged, that General
Miles was not educated at West Point. 1t
is equally true that he had the advantage
| of higher military training" than any
military academy in the world could give.
| His school was on the march and in the
| battlefield; in the trench, the camp and
| the fertilization. In his school theory
gave way to practice; the imaginary to
the real, and blackboard exercises to ver-
| table object lessons. The course of study
was longer than the ordinary academic
/ 1t was more thorough, also, and the ~ur-
/ riculum was more extended. Moreover,
the regular course was supplemented by a
postgraduate course. The young hero
| who was thrice wounded and who was
| four times brevetted for gallantry on the
| battlefield. who had combatted the Lees
| and Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson
| who had fought in all the battles which
| erga ged the Army of the Potomac except
| ing one from which he was restrained
| by a wound, who had especially distng-
ushed himself at the Battle of the VII
derness and Spottsylvania Court House
is called to meet the Kiowas. the Co
manches, the Sioux, the Nez Perces, The
| Bannocks, and the Apaches under sucf
| chieftains as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse
| Broad Trail. Spotted Trail, Chief Joseph
and Geronimo. The instructors in tina
| school of General Miles are now historic
| and include such names as Mcclellan
| Meade. Ho ward, Hancock "the Superb,
Fighting" Joe Hooker and the immorta
Grant For diplomas he had his commits
sions, which included every grade from
lieutenant of volunteers to major gen
eral in the regular establishment com
| manding all the armies of the Unite
States. To these were added his post
graduate degrees in the shape of tn
votes of thanks of four legislatures, stat
| and territorial. In addition to a con
! gressional medal of honor, the people O
Arizona gave him jeweled sword; fo
General Miles finally subdued the India
tribes and retired them to their reserve
tions, where they now live in peace an
| quiet, whereas they had been continur
menace to our frontier ever since Capital
John Smith settled at jamestown, Va
in the year 1908.
His strategic ability has been prove
| at Santiago de Cuba and Ponce, wheI
he also confirmed his title of "the winnc
of boodless victories" Those campaign
| were planned in Washington by boa:
of strategy, or which General Miles wa
| a member and one of the leading spirit
| His wisdom in advising an attack upc
| the southeastern shore of Cuba witho,
| needing the popular cry Of ION to Ha'
| anal! is now apparent. 1t was cool'
, | and healthier than the north shore, ar
| at the beginning of the campaign he ha
cautioned his officers to preserve the me
from disease as carefully as they wou
| from bullets. He is not yet SO years
! age. and is the last on the active list
long line of illustrious generals devl