The times., 1899-03-19
GRAYBEARDS ON
THE BATTLEFIELD
Survivors of the Civil Strife
In the Recent War.
Leaders Verging Near to Three
score Years of Life.
Old Men Fired With the Ardor of
Youth When the Odor of Powder
Greets Their NostriIs.
CFrom the New York SUM-


Gen. George Sears Greene, who died at
Morristown, n. j., recently, in his ninety
eighth year, belonged distinctly to a by
gone era. While many of his contempora-
ries on the Virginia and Tennessee battle
fields have been actively campaigning from
1866 up to the present day, this representa-
tive of the old army and of the armies of
1861 was compelled by age to put away the
sword more than generation ago. When
he waved it in front of his thin, but in
trepid line on Culp's Hill, Gettysburg, in
1863, he was sixty-two years old, or within
two years of the retiring age for army
officers.
Strange as ii may seem to readers unfa-
miliar with the subject, the case of General
Greene, is but one of many in the annals
of the American soldier. The present COM
manding General of the United States
Army, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, fought his
first battle almost thirty eight years ago,
but he is today the youngest of the more
distinguished survivors of the civil war
now in harness. Brooke, Merritt Shafter
Merriam, Otis, and Henry will reach the
are his seniors, and so is Wheeler, who is
marvel of activity at sixty-two. When
the army was marshaled for the war
against Spain, all the major generals of
the line, except Wade, and not fewer than
hundred subordinate officers were older
than Miles.
Threescore years or an age approaching
In iS
When Winfield Scott stood upon the dome
OF the castle of Chapultepec directing his
battalions in the attack on the City of
Mexico, he could look back thirty four
years to the day of his first battle wound.
And Gen. Zachery Taylor, who initiated
the Mexican war with all the fiery ardor
of youth, was sixty-two when he crossed
the Rio Grande at the head of the American
army marching to Buena Vista and Mon
terey. And it was only last year that all
the world applauded the spectacle of
Dewey, in his sixty-first year, smashing
Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines,
but he was simply bringing to fruit, late In
life, lessons that he had himself learned
back in the sixties, sailing under Farragut,
then veteran OF more than threescore,
having record of almost fifty years of ac-
tive warfare behind him.
Readers of history know that these mar
tial veterans have not played the role of
conservative counselors merely while
younger men bore the brunt of battle.
Farragut was sixty-three when he was
lashed 10 the shrouds at the battle of Mo-
bile Bay. Juniors about him shouted warn
ings that the flagship was leading the line
of vessels into net OF submarine torpe-
does, but with an excusable oath consid-
ering what il has done for the American
navy, the gray-headed Admiral called out:
Damn the torpedoesi Go ahead" And
the old hero didn't stop with mere words,
but Immediately drove his wooden flagship
upon the low forward deck OF the ram
Tennessee in an effort TO sink her with
superior weight although he knew that
his own vessel must go down in the gen.
eral wreck.
In the same spirit General Zachary Tay-
lor acted when his juniors appealed to him
to fall back at Buena Vista. for the safety
of his army. No." said he firmly, IN
never pass my wounded alive" He stay
ed on the hard fought field and was re-
warded the next morning by seeing that
the MeXicans had retreated in a rout, a.
though they outnumbered his troops four
to one.
Scott displayed equally aggressive vigor
when the American army lay in front of
the forbidding heights of Chapultepec. At
ter meeting with a bloody reception of
Molnos del Rey he asked the younger
generals about him to suggest plan for
the capture OF the City of Mexico, which
lay beyond the heights. All Of them said
that the army should go around Chapute-
pec-"avoid'' 1t, was the military term
and approach the city from the west side.
After each had spoken and given his rea-
sons Scott ended the council by saying:
Gentlemen, we Will first storm Chapute-
pee. then look to the city gates on the
west side" Chapultepec was stormed and
won and the city fell without any defence
OF its gates worthy the name.
Confederate veterans are familiar with
the episode in the Wilderness when Rob-
ert e. Lee, then approaching threescore,
wished TO lead charge of the Texan bri-
gade. Albert Sidney Johnson. the bril-
liant soldier upon whom the South rested
her high hopes at the beginning, was fifty
nine when killed at Shiloh in the heat OF
a charge. This Johnston, had he lived,
might have become the General IN Chief
of the Confederate Army, and at the close
of the war would have been sixty-two
years old. Joseph E. Johnston was fifty
eight when he fought the last battle In
the Carolinas. and Lee was the same age
at Appomattox.
1t is interesting to contrast the ages