The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-15

commanders who fought brilliant cam
paigns. When the conflict began
Grant was 80, Burnside 81, Mcclellan,
35; Sherman, 40; Meade, 46; Hooker,
46; Thomas, 45; Rosecrans, 42; Buell.,
43; Sheridan, 30. Of the foremost
southerners Lee was 81; 4. Sidney
Johnston, 5s; Joseph =. Johnston;
81: Stonewall Jackson, 81; Longstreet,
40; .Beauregard, A; Bragg, 46; Hood,
81; A. P. Hill, 36; J. E. B. Stuart,
%; Forrest, 40. The crime Of being
young man was not lightly passed
over in Washington, surely, for it was
held that Sheridan was too youthful
to be appointed colonel Of cavalry
regiment when he was 81. Miles re-
ceived the same sort Of rebuff at the
Boston State house when he asked to
be commissioned captain Of hundred
patriots who had elected him their
leader at the age of 81. Young men
were coming to the front in 1865 be-
cause Of the immense armies in the
field and the lack of trained old heads
to take the lead. For that reason the
highest battlefield valor has been as
sociated with names like Sheridan,
Custer, Fitzpatrick, Wilson, the fiery
Cleburne, and John B. Gordon, who
we're all under the average age for
commissioned officers as it stood in
the last year Of the war.
But long before that gray locks Of
fighting warriors had been conspicu-
Gus on scores Of bloody battlefelds,
and the bullets Of Yankees and Con
federates spared them not. Gen.
Leonidas Polk, the ex-bishop, known
as the surpliced warrior Of the south,
was killed in the defense Of Atlanta
atthe age Of IS; Mansfield, in his Goth
year, fell at Antietam while deploy-
ing his army corps, regiment by regi-
ment, for grand charge, and Gen.
Wadsworth was 81 when he leaped his
horse over the Confederate works at
the battle of the Wilderness, and fell
dead within the enemy's lines. But
the oldest hero of them all was Gen.
Sumner, who led the fighting Second
corps Of the Army Of the Potomac
when he was &c years Of age. The
nickname given to Sumner on account
of his fiery ardor in battle. cold Bull
of the Woods, had reference to his
impetuosity when the hour came to
charge
That Dewey had many gray-haired
compeers III the battles against Spain
is shown by the long list Of veterans
who made history for the army at
Santiago. First to fall was Col.
Wikof, soldier who had held COM
mission in the regular establishment
for more than ~ years. By Wikoff' S
side almost, when killed, was the
second in command Of the First bri-
gade, Col. Worth, with nearly 40
years Of service to his credit. Worth
fell within few feet of his dead
chief. Next in rank came Lieut.. Col.
Liscum, who at that moment was
climbing the rough hillside at the
head Of his negro regiment. That
young staff officer, Charles +. Tay-
man, mentioned in the official reports
as the breathless messenger sent by
t1eu. Kent to summon the Seventy
first to the front, awed his breathlcss-
ness to race after Liscum to tell him
that the command Of the brigade de-
viewed upon him. Iiscum was IS and
hadn't much the start Of Tayman at
the bank of the river, but the young
ster nearly gave out before he could
deliver the message. Almost Instant
ly the old man disappeared into the
tall grass, wounded; but gray hairs
were still in evidence on that part OF
the field. Major Ellis and Major
Auman of the Thirteenth charging
abreast of Liscum's colored troops,
! were war veterans hard crowding three
score. They went down before San
Juan block house was reached. Then
Col. Ewers, of the Ninth, gray-beard
who had fought in that regiment un-
der Grant as far back as 1862, took
command Of the victorious line.
Meanwhile, just to the right of
Wikof's brigade, Hawkins, soldier
who began his career in 1852, was
leading on the Sixth and Sixteenth,
under Egbert and Theaker, graybeards,
who were to fall outside the breast
works. Hawkins crossed the trenches
and was shot the next day while re-
pelling the Spanish counter-assault.
Next to Hawkins, Wheeler was the