Evening star., 1903-10-16

his ambition-he won out in the great strug
| gle for supremacy.
If l should enter upon the task of review
| ing Sherman'S campaigns and pointing out
| the genius manifested in this and the
cellence comprehended in that and the high
qualities developed in all of them. l should
! be but treadfng upon oft-trodden ground.
description has been beggared, detail has
been exhausted and eulOgy ended
One or two special characteristics may be
mere properly referred to. He the first
man apparently who appreciated the magni-
| tude of the struggle that we entered upon
| IN 1851. He seemed to understand the sit
uation better than any of his contem-
Porarles. He was in position to and
Know and judge. He had been for a con-
SIDERABLE time in the south and understood
the bitter determination of the southern
people to destroy the Union and set up an
other government. He knew exactly how
! completely the great mind of the south was
united on this question. He understood
now Tor more than generation the south
nad been organizing public opinion, pre-
pairing for the dread encounter; and he
knew that the people of the south were a
unit in action. and that they would destroy
this government, and that in doing So If
necessary, they would sacrifice everything
they held dear on earth He knew the
character of that people He knew that
when they made the decara ton which they
did make it meant the expenditure of effort
exactly as 1t did mean, as it deyelOped and
sherman stated his opinion. He spoke then
as he always spoke all his lifetime-openlv
manfully, above board-and he Judged and
so SAID. and so sent it abroad. that there
ought to be 100000 men raised as early as
the summer of 1861 for the campaign in
Kentucky and the southwest alone; and so
startling was his proposition so unthOueht
OF by the great leaders of thought and
opinion In the United States that it was
announced without qualifca ton without
any hesitation, without thought that it
might be erroneous, that Sherman was
crazy L remember the circumstances yery
well when he was stripped of his command
or the then Army of the Ohio with head
quarters at Louisville, and the command
was turned over to that excellent soldier
ana true patriot, in my judgment Don Car
los Buell. L remember when the two gen
erals came to Elizabethtown, where the
troops 10 which L belonged We're stationed
ana remember, as Sherman passed around
ana pointed out to Buell. this regiment and
ehat regiment, this brigade and that bri-
Gade-l remember how the faces of the
men and officers both bore traces of deem
sympathy and commseration that SO prom
lslnS a soldier as Sherman should have so
suddenly lost his mind and become incapa-
oie ana he went back to the rear and
Buell TOOK his place. He never complained.
he never grumbed; he never deprecated the
ORDER He was a soldier. every inch of
nun nm ana Whatever ambition he may have
iad ana 1t was great, and whatever hone
OF preterment he may have had and he
certainly was buoyed up by it when he en-
tered the service, he never yielded to the
'Ai ""ii VI disappointed man; but he
waited and took the position which would
pe oHered to him in the future If at all
ana soon showed to the world not only
that ne was the accomplished soldier that
ne was, Dut the accomplished statesman
that he was, and that in the face of tho
predictions OF Seward and the three months
ehllstments and all the infinite catalogue of
mistakes that his Judgment was without
Idult, tnat 1t was wise and efficient
lie very soon acquired the confidence of
,ad uian. ana Lincoln They very soon dis
covered that the cfrcumstantial evidence
winch pointed in the absurd moment of IN
directed Judgment to insanity was the in
dicia of clear mind and just and wise
appreciation of the whole situation and
sherman began to grow-how well and how
rapidly description and comment have
been exhausted.
The march to the sea and the appear
ance OF Sherman in North Carolina was
modern warfare, and compared with the
strategy of more recent wars there is no
comparison and language fails to draw an
estimate of the difference in comparison
do not know in whose brain the original
conception of the march to the sea and
the swinging up the coast toward Virginia
mad its inception, but it is generally I'M
derStOOd to have been originated by Sher-
man himself; and certainly the plan Of its
execution, the details of its preparation
and the execution Itself with all its mag
nificence of strategy We're the work of
Sherman, and when he led his victorious
army through the streets of Washington
and was reviewed with enthusiasm on
every hand; when he received the thanks
of Congress and the approval of the Presi-
dent there was no man on this continent,
friend foe, who doubted or belittled the
genius of Sherman,
Sherman was not great success in in
activity. He was great when there was
something to be done, and he was efficient
when he was doing it. His genius could
plan campaigns, and his care gallantry
and dash could execute them; but he did
No int tha Of
He restless; he was nervous; he wanted
to be active. He did not believe that
man at SiXty-four years of age was neceS-
sariy untitled for active military duty, and
had a great war come with a significant
nation before Sherman died he would have
clamored at the executive office for a
chance to do something. He spoke out
boldly against the organization of our army
and pointed out the inefficiency of our sys-
tem and he set an example which, while it
may not have been the highest demonstra-
tion of obedience to orders and acquiescence
in system. was a most suggestive move
ment when the general of the army prac-
tically threw up his office and left Wash
ington because of the incongruity of the
system under which he called upon to
serve. No harm could come to the country
by reason of it, because the Office of gem
eral of the army in ume of peace had long
ago been understood by intelligent men
to hold a fgurehead without value.
row began away back in the days of
Wilkinson, in the war of 1912, and
tinued right along down, and If there is
anything that the army of today ought
| to be congratulated upon it is that the
theory of Sherman and the men who
! thought like him, a theory that has been
| in existence in the minds of men for
eighty-five years, has at last been adopted
and the Constitution of the United States
has finally been recognized as the supreme
| law of the land In the matter Of the gov
ernment, control and command of the
| United States army. Hitherto it had been
a sort of neck-and-neck race between the
President, the constitutional commander-in-
chief. and the general of the army com
manding," a most absurd and incongruous
relation. You could not repeal the Consti-
tuition by a military order, and somehow
1t kept standing there, and 1t was an OBJ