The herald., 1898-04-22
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AGES or GREAT LEADERS
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Examining the statistics of the civil war
with reference to the ages of the principal
participants in the conflict. and selecting
the year 1865 at the close of the war. when
the mettle of the leaders had been fully
tested, we find on the federal side that
President Abraham Lincoln was 56, Vice
President Andrew Johnson 81, Secretary
of State William II. Seward GA, Secretary
of the Treasury Salmon p. Chase 81. Sec
retary of War Edwin NJ. Stanton 81, and
secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles g.
The thirty-one most prominent union
generals, grading them according to their
ages. were: Miles, 26; Kirkpatrick, 20;
Sheridan, McCook, Schofield and Fair
child "a; Howard, So; Davis, 81; Terry and
Cox, SS; Mcclellan, 80: Sickles, 40; Burnside,
Al; Pleasanton. AZ: Grant and Stoneman,
4s; Candy and Granger, A; Sherman, 4o;
Rosecrans and Doubleday, 46; Buell., Nc
Dowell, Butler and Ord. AZ; Thomas and
Banks, 40; Meade so; Hooker, 81; McCler-
nand, 53 Heintzelman, 60.
The united ages of these generals aggre-
gate 1922 years and their average age is
1926 years, which is nearly that of the
ranking officer-Grant-who entered the
service at the beginning of the war as
cessively promoted until he became the
general -in-chef of the federal armies.
If we add to these those generals who
died in service before the close of the war,
and who, If they had lived till 1865. would
have attained the ages annexed, and also
those who, though active in the beginning,
dropped out of the conflict before the ter
mination of hostilities. namely, Garfield
40 Pono
and Porter 4S. Lyon Al, Halleck and Kear-
ny so, Fremont So. Baker 54 Mitchell 55,
Sumner 6S and Scott 70. we shall find that
the combined ages of the latter are e9i
years and their average 49.6 years.
The youngest general in the list is Mel
son A. Miles, who won his spurs as major
general of volunteers at the extremely
youthful age of 26. In subsequent years he
performed brilliant service as colonel and
brigadier general in the regular army and
has so we'll justified his youthful promise
that he has attained the rank of general
in-chief of the United States army.
Selecting twelve prominent names in the
naval service on the union side we have
Barret 81, Blake 43. Porter 50. winslow 81,
Dahlgren and Smith 55, McDougal Sc,
Foote and Selfridge 50, Goldsborough 60.
Dupont 62 and Farragut Ga, aggregating
CSC years and averaging $40 years. or about
eleven years higher than the military arm
of the service. 1t will be seen that the
ranking admiral was the oldest officer.
Perhaps the most conspicuous confeder-
ate leaders were Stuart 80, Hood "a, Buck
ner AZ. Forrest A. Longstreet and Cheat
ham 49, Beauregard AZ, Early 4S, Toombs
54, Price Sc and Lee and Johnston IS. Their
,v,1 f1,air
46.S years, or four years higher than the
average age of the first group of union
generals. Here we note that the ranking
general is the oldest The principal figure
in their very limited navy was Raphael
Semmes, who was Sc when Lee surren-
dered.
At the close of the revolutionary war in
17S1, the most notable persons present at
the surrender of CORVALLIS at Yorktown
were Hamilton and Lafayette "a, Cornwall
lis and Nelson 43, Lincoln 49, Washington
40, Steuben 81 and Rochambeau Sc. Al
that time Louis XVI of France was q and
George III of England was 43.
Alexander the Great died at the age OF
&c. Hannibal committed suicide at the age
of Ca Julius Caesar was assassinated al
56 Charlemagne lived 70 years: Frederick
the Great attained the age of "a, and Ma
poleon lost the battle of Waterloo at the
age of 46 and died at 80.
VIM. H. KNIGHT.