The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1910-12-16
Hobby That Gave the United
States a Hero.
General Terry, When a Young Court
Clerk, Was an Enthusiastic
Student Of War and Its
Strategy.
BY e. J. EDWARDS.

In the history of the Civil war Gen.
Alfred II. Terry is known as the hero
Of Fort Fisher, since he was the man
who, in January Of 1866. led the sue
cessful assault upon the last remain.
Ing important stronghold of the Con.
f~ederacy upon the Atlantic seaboard.
Eleven years later, as a brigadier gen.
eral In the regular army, he again
came prominently before the country
which drove Sitting Bull and his fol-
lowers into Canada after the Custer
massacre on the Little Big Horn.
One of the leading New Haven,
Conn.,, men of other days who never
tired OF talking of General Terry was
the late Judge E. X. Foster. who was
for many years prosecuting attorney
Of New Haven county, and who pre-
sided over the New Haven mass meet
ing which Lincoln addressed a few
days ,afser he had delivered his Coop
er Union speech.
Il knew AFT Terry as a boy here
in New Haven and as a student at
Yale said the Judge to me when |
called upon him in the summer Of 1872,
and | was one of the men who helped
to get him appointed clerk Ct the SUI
! pellCr court Of the state back in 1854,
Wii.e he was still two or three years
under thirty. You see, he had gradu-
ataa from the Yale law school some
wears before, but, somehow, he didn't
sc.u to be able to make the ,aT s.,
AID so we got him the clerkship.
where we knew mis- legal training
wCu i come in handy.
u al was the year the Crimean
"ar broke ont, and it hadn't been 60
Ing G1 'ong before those of us who
knew him well discovered that Ar
TerrY was taking a sudden and in
tense interest in the progress of the
campaign being conducted against
Russia by the allies. Why. he became
o deeply Immersed in the subject
that he actually neglected his duties
as clerk IF the court a bit, and not
being content to get the latest news
II the war ut the breakfast table. like
he rest Of us. he got into the habit
of going to a newspaper Office and sit
ting there by tie hour in the evenings,
AWAITING such news as might come in
about TIE siege Of Sebastopol and
other events. He became especially
excited about the war On the days
that he knew a European mail was
due-we had no cables then-and not
infrequently on mail days he remained
at he newspaper Office awaiting war
news until the paper went to press.
He carried his wal enthusiasm still
further. He got together as good a col
lection OF maps OF the war zone as he
could possibly lay his hands on. As
news from the front drifted across
the Atlantic he traced upon his maps,
SO far as he was able, the movements
Of the troops. remember seeing him
one evening bending over his maps
and tracing with a pencil certain lines
which indicated to him the movement
Of the troops. That same evening he
detailed to me what he believed would
be the inevitable strategy Of the cam
paign. AS he did SO his face became
flushed with excitement, his eyes
took on the CLEAN of the enthusiast
and | could not help saying to my
self: What is "Alf" Terry doing in
the clerks office of a court?'
1.-THE Crimean war ended, I daresay
that An Terry had a better knowl
edge OF the strategy employed by bott
sides than any other man in the state
or in several states, for that matter
He wrote and talked necessarily about
1t. yet for the diplomacy connected
with the war, or the politics thai
caused 1t. he knew practically nothins
and cared less. And when the brie'
campaign OF the French against tht
Austrians was on in 1859, he spent al
his spare time studying the reports
reaching this country Of the battles o
Solferino and Magenta.
1.-TWO years later, President Lincoln
issued his first call for volunteers, ant
Ar Terry, who IN the meantime ha,
gained the rank OF colonel In the stat,
militia through devotion to his hobby
went to Bull Run at the head of tn,
Seventh Connecticut infantry, and hi
was II OF the few regiments that re
tired from that field In good order an,
helped to check the stampede. %
'The rest Of his career the worl
p knows" concluded Judge Foster. "Bu
p | sometimes think that, II Ar Teri
had not suddenly been seized with tn
idea to study the Crimean wal seve
u year. before our great wal broke, h
probably would have remained III
known to fame and would have ruste
out behind the desk Of the clerk
our superior court"
.r Copyright. 1910. by e. J. Ed vards)