Evening star., 1934-12-23

his honesty and sincerity there can
be no doubt"
To the military career of Mcclellan
Dr. Myers does full justice He quotes
Robert E. Lee, admittedly great strate-
gist, as saying that Mcclellan was
the ablest soldier they (the Union
Army had" But the failure to pre-
vent the Confederate forces from
establishing batteries on the lower
Potomac. thus practically closing all
navigation and cutting off the city
OF Washington, is pointed out as an
almost fatal mistake. Had Mcclellan
been selfish instead of devoted to duty
he would have resigned when he was
relieved from the supreme command,
as it would have been to his advantage
to do. DR.. Myers speaks of McClel-
lan's candidacy for the presidency in
1854 as disastrous political expert
ment." DR.. Myers, who has already
edited McClellans Mexican War diary,
here presents piece of valuable his
torical Interpretation.
GLORY HUNTER. A Life of Gen.
Custer. BY Frederic F. Van De
Water. indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Co.
THE pursuit of glory is taken by Mr.
Van De Water as the handspring
of Clusters life. He followed Glory all
his days. He was her lifelong devotee.
She gave him favor withheld from
most men and denied herself when his
need of her was sorest." After his
death on the heights above the Valley
of the Little Bighorn, where the coun-
try was stiff with Sioux Glory re-
Tented and placed him in her hall of
fame. 1t seems at first that this Glory
theme is to be overworked in Mr.. Van
De Waters biography, but he has
| avoided too great insiStence and re-
iteration. Custer has always appealed
to the imagination of old and young
by his eager entry into the Civil War,
golden-haired youngster, afraid the
war would be over before he could get
to the front, his brilliant Indian fight
ing and his martyrs death. His per-
sonality was that of dashing adven-
turer and action always suited him
better than thought.
In narrating the events of Clusters
career, from his insurgent West Point
| days, through his Civil War record,
with his burning of Shenandoah farms
and lynching of Confederate troopers,
insubordination and court-martial, his
Indian campaigns and life on the
plains, Mr.. Van De Water shows that
Custer was paradox. He was We
hemently positive character. A popu-
lar hero, he was distrusted and scorned
by many of his colleagues. A devoted
son and husband, he was brutal
commander, careless of the suffering
he inflicted. He forever identified
tolerance with weakness and in its
presence comported himself like CAL
culating pupil who tested how far he
dared plague the professor" As a
cadet and a subaltern he was unruly
and as an officer insubordinate. but
he implacably enforced discipline
among his own troops. Some praised
him as a generous and gallant foe;
others stigmatized him as lyncher
and butcher. His valor in battle was
without any faltering and he was the
foremost Indian fighter of his time,
but his only positive victory in battle
against the red men was massacre
rather than conflict, and his chief sur
viving fame as soldier is based upon
defeat as complete as ever United
State Regulars sustained" Mr.. Van
De Water. by accepting all these in
consistencies in the character of Gus
ter, by not striving TO find unity or
to explain away contradictions, has
created a very living picture and one
in which even-handed justice is ad-
ministered.
EARTH CONQUERoRS. The Lives
and Achievements of the Great
Explorers. BY j. Leslie Mitchell.
New York: Simon & Schuster.
THOUGH the book is large, it could
l. not possibly pay tribute to all
the great explorers. Selection has
been necessary, and that selection
has favored those not too often Gel
ebrated. Columbus is present, OF
course, under the chapter heading OF
Don Cristobal Colon and the Earthly
Paradise" and his geographical be-
liefs and the consequences of his dis
coveries are stressed. Like many
other adventurers, he did not shine
in domestic life, and Mr. Mitchell
comments that, after the seduction,
courtship and marriage-in that or
der-of the pious, complacent and
poverty stricken Beatriz Enriquez de
Arana," he alternately "maltreated
and mislaid'' her. Nine great explor-
ing figures are chosen from the rec
ords of history; they are, in addition
to Columbus, Left Ericsson, Marco
Polo, Cabeza de Vaca, Fernao de
Magalhaes (Magellan), Vitus Bering.
Mungo Park, Richard Burton and
Fridtjof Nansen. Presiding over the
pages of each story is a striking
drawing of its subject on pastel blue
paper.
Mr.. Mitchell finds that each OF his
explorers was impelled by great
and romantic idea, which he calls the