Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 12.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[446] was superior in numbers, in discipline, in experience, and expected large reinforcements at any moment. The Prince was for attacking without loss of time, and he did so not withstanding the opposition of the council of war, who thought that it would be too risky. The battle was lost twice by the fault of subalterns and the misconception of orders, and twice re-established by the youthful Commander. But the French again began to waver and to retreat slowly, when Conde by a manoeuvre, which, says the Duke d'aumale, ‘had never been executed before, and never has been executed since’—so perilous it was, we presume—completely annihilated the Spanish army, and gained the first of that series of victories by which he is immortalized.

We do not share the opinion of those who think that General Beauregard may have been too obtrusive in presenting repeatedly so many plans of military operations to the Government, and in insisting on their adoption with too much confidence in himself. It was his duty, if he was convinced that his views were correct. His conduct is not without numerous precedents in history. The men who have accomplished the most on earth, and who have left their names imperishably engraved on its surface, had implicit and absolute faith in themselves, next to God, or to the gods. This was an invariable characteristic in those superior beings. Hence, nothing humbled by disaster and the unjust disregard of men, they still retained on their brows the imprint of dignity from an abiding faith in their own worth and in the correctness of their motives and designs. This is not the ignoble vanity or foolish imprudence of mediocrity. It is the consciousness of the possession of real innate powers, of self-relying genius, whose existence cannot be destroyed by the malignancy of the world, although its light may be kept concealed under a bushel by the mysterious decree of adverse fate.

We are convinced, after reading Colonel Roman's book, that General Beauregard had in himself the faith which we have described in others. It has been said, ‘that true modesty exists only in strong heads and great souls;’ but certainly it cannot exclude from those ‘strong heads and great souls’ the self-perception of what they are. General Beauregard undoubtedly believed, with that faith which removes mountains, that the military line of action which he recommended to the Government, if adopted, would save the Confederacy. What must then have been the agonies of his heart when he saw all his plans rejected, and a system of warfare pursued, which, in his opinion, would lead to infallible destruction! Whether he was right or wrong in his conceptions and recommendations on which we are