The sun., 1916-01-09
ny GRosvENoR CaARksON.


ord of a full life and great
deeds sat in a deep armchair high
up in a New York apartment house
while a warm winter sun poured in
upon him and there thought aloud
on epic days in q nations life in
which he had borne q part.
Even then the finger of death
touched him. But recently had this
man of 81 years twice without a
whimper prostrated himself to the
surgeons knife without anesthesia--
much in the same spirit. no doubt,
as in one Of the mighty concluding
acts Of the drama Of the civil war
he with eleven regiments had met,
fought to a finish. and repulsed an
entire seasoned army corps, or later
with a depleted corps of his own
pushed back a complete army.
But there he sat musing in the sun
shine, tolerant, grimly kind. with
tremulous attenuated hands, throwing
the past, tooling out this or that de-
tail with infinite color and precision
and spirit: speaking now Of the glory
and horror--but mostly Of the horror
of war, then returning to the prob
lens of to-day. tho danger to his
country of letting the rust grow on
the sword, the working out OF the
chaos into which mankind has fallen
oversea- A tired old man. but an
impressive figure, D'Artagnan
sobered and gray and not - sure, a
Ulysses with the great adventure be-
hind him. touched everywhere with
the sublime dignity of the growing
shadows. wanting only to go to his
home in the West to die.
Last Monday the telegraph wires
carried the story of the death that
day OF Major General Grenville Mel
len Dodge, the last great commander
OF the civil WARMTH the exception
OF Gen. Peter j. Osterhaus the sole
surviving corps commander on the
Union side. So passed away the old
man who had sat and dreamed in the
bright bedroom I'm New York, with the
faint noise OF the Park avenue traffic
coming up from below; tho soldier
of whom his friend and chief. Sher-
man. spoke as the general officer who
always got what he went after and
who indeed probably saved Sherman's
army at the battle of Atlanta; the
engineer whom Grant trusted and
leaned upon and tried to make Secre-
tary of War during his Presidency.
II was the same old man who when
.y-ytn I'm -
his youth and against tremendous
obstacles built the Union Pacific Rail-
road across the continent. receiving
the acclaim Of the path hewers Of the
globe.
At the interview ip New York short
ly before his end Gen. Dodge spoke
of many things that | may not touch
on here. But some things | may
quote.
The talk ran mostly to war, With
a strange glance from under his brows
the General said:
81 abhor war. Sherman didn't half
state the truth. can forgive Mr.
Wilson almost anything for having
kept us out OF war-.f 1t proves that
he has. The country should give him
every backing, with all party lines"
Gen. Dodge was a life long Republic
can of the strongly partisan typeD
"obliterated. But We should prepare;
there is no question about that; We
should prepare"
Speaking of the movement OF troops
in the present European conflict as
compared with the speed of their dis
tribution in the civil war he said I:
Il question IL the Europeans are
moving troops any faster than We
did. l don't believe the American
soldier has his equal on his feet. or in
any other way. for that matter. No
body ever moved troops faster than
sherman and | did on one occasion
when We piled 10000 men into At
ianta."
Asked for his opinion as 20 the out
come of the war abroad Gen. Dodge
responded quickly though with an
obvious lack OF partisan feeling:
1T can end only in victory for the
Allies. They are just developing their
strength. think their situation IS
much the same as with the Union
side in our fight: they are Just begin
ming Ia develop their leaders. In the
civ.l war in the beginning we had
in the west fewer troops than the
enemy, but We had the Generals, and
We kept on winning.
In the east our armies outnum-
bercd the Confederates. but we had
not developed the officers, and in the
first three years we got licked. But
the troops In the east were superb.
The army OF the Potomac would go
out ono day. take beating. and he
ready for another one the next day.
II takes magnificent soldiers to do
that. But when Grant came from the
west it was all over"
Gen. Dodge. it may be said psren-
thetically, made a peculiarly pointed
remark in connection with our MeXi-
can policy. lie stated his belief that
IIuerta should have been recognized.
and went on:
"Iic was the strong man In Mexico
| and he was in the saddle. Tho moral
ity of il? Well, that has its side. hut
just the same we have no business
going down into IA Latin country and
trying To regulate people on their
morals
Gen. Dodge fought almost un-
Ceaslngly from one end of the war II
the other, In his modestly writ ten
report to the Secretary of War of his
assignments 20 duty there appears
after three closely printed book pages.
| IN themselves n saga, cnumerating the
/ cngagemcntS in which he part icipated
! his paragraph;
! Il have been on active duty ever