The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1905-04-12
rhe Nobl. sileno. Of Lew wallace.


The Noble Silence Of Lew wallace.
The name of General Lew Wallace
always.rested under cloud on account
Of the affair Of his division in the battle
at Shiloh. April, 1862. The question
was never settled to his satisfaction
or to that Of his friends, yet he did
not pose as wronged soldier or har-
Dor Ill will over what was plainly q
misunderstanding, at the outset at
least
Yet the Shiloh episode was not the
only case where Wallace showed no
BILE silence. He made grand fight at
Monocacy, Nd, In July, 1864, holding
up for day the Confederate raiders,
led by General Jubal Early, General
John B. Gordon and other noted leaders
Of the south. Perhaps he did not save
Washington from capture by Early's
command. Early defeated Wallace
after terrible struggle, during which
the Monocacy waters We're red with
blood, and marched on to the gates Of
Washington. When the Confederates
attempted to push their attack on the
Notifications of the capital they found
them strongly manned by fresh troops,
who had been on the way up the Poto-
mac to the rescue the day Wallace
fought at Monocacy and were barely
In position and ready for battle when
the enemy marched into view.
OF course it Is easy to speculate how
Washington might have been saved
anyway had Wallace not fought hero
ically at Monocacy river. Perhaps the
government clerks and convalescents
in the city could have held It against
Early. But the situation was SO urgent,
even after the delay to the Confeder.
ates caused by Wallace's battle, that
President Lincoln, some officers of his
cabinet apd many other high civil off,
confidence in the seasoned troops who
had manned the works in nick Of time.
1t was an anxious hour in Washing
ton and all over the country when the
capital was actually threatened by an
enemy at the gates. He would have
been there one day earlier but for Wall
lace. and no seasoned troops would
have been there to meet him. 1t is diff
ficult to see why, if there was grave
danger when Early's line Of battle
stood confronted by veterans the day
he arrived, the danger would not have
been vastly greater had the enemy
marched up the previous day, when the
only troops in the defense were clerks
and convalescents. Nothing kept Early
from getting to the scene day sooner
but Wallace and his men at Monocacy.
As war honors are awarded, the com.
mander whose troops make good
fight and win results Is rewarded. Cen
eral Wallace was urged by his sub.
ordinate officers after the war, when
he had acquired prominence and in
fluence in civil life, to have the records
Of the Monocacy campaign reviewed
and justice done to his name and to his
command. The records will show that
Early marched large force Of men
to the gates Of Washington; that the
only loss of any account he suffered in
battle was incurred at Monocacy; that
the only Federals Of any number who
fell In the defense Of Washington prop
or at that time or any time fell under
Wallace at Monocacy; that hundreds Of
them fell there; that General Early
when confronted by the Federal vet
Grams who had just marched into the
works at Washington called the attack
OF because he had arrived too late He
was late because Wallace tripped him
badly at Monocacy the day when the
military situation, under his plan, de
manded that he be in Washington, at
least laundering at its sparsely manned
dofenSes