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The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Recollections of Grant. (search)
soldiers on the bridge. Grant noticed it, and quietly said, Lieutenant, send those men to the rear. Every soldier passing turned to gaze on him, but there was no further recognition. There was no McClellan, begging the boys to allow him to light his cigar by theirs, or inquiring to what regiment that exceedingly fine-marching company belonged to. There was no Pope, bullying the men for not marching faster, or officers for some trivial detail remembered only by martinets. There was no Bonaparte, posturing for effect; no pointing to the Pyramids, no calling the centuries to witness. There was no nonsense, no sentiment; only a plain business man of the republic, there for the one single purpose of getting that command across the river in the shortest time possible. On a horse near by, and among the still mounted staff, sat the general's son, a bright-looking lad of about eleven years. Fastened to his little waist, by the broad yellow belt, was his father's sword — that sword on w
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Stonewall Jackson and his men. (search)
ille. In 1857 Major Jackson went to Europe. While in France, he rode on horseback, with some French officers, over the field of Waterloo. It is said he seemed perfectly familiar with the topography of the ground and the maneuvres of the two armies, and sharply criticised one of the Emperor's movements, by saying, There's where Napoleon blundered. Such presumption was unheard of since the time the young Corsican, in Italy, criticised the venerable Wurmser. But what seemed effrontery in Bonaparte was genius in Napoleon, and the name of Stonewall will save his criticism. After his return from Europe, Jackson led a quiet and unobtrusive life at Lexington, less known than any other professor. His delicate health forbid much social enjoyment. I met him there in 1860, and once said to a classmate in the law school, who had been at the Institute: It seems to me, Terrill, I'd like to know Major Jackson better; there is something about him I can't make out. Nobody can; bu
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 1: ancestry. (search)
th the greatest display of genius, of which, forty-four years afterward, his great son was an illustrious example. On June 18, 1817, from Nassau, he writes: This is the day of the month when your dear mother became my wife, and it is not so hot in this tropical region as it was then at Shirley. Since that happy day, marked only by the union of two humble lovers, it has become conspicuous as the day our war with Great Britain was declared in Washington, and the one that sealed the doom of Bonaparte on the field of Waterloo. The British general, rising gradatim from his first blow struck in Portugal, climbed on that day to the summit of fame, and became distinguished by the first of titles, Deliverer of the Civilized World. Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar, among the ancients; Marlborough, Eugene, Turenne, and Frederick, among the moderns, opened their arms to receive him as a brother in glory. Again he tells him that Thales, Pittacus, and others in Greece taught the doctrine of
John James Geer, Beyond the lines: A Yankee prisoner loose in Dixie, Chapter 17: (search)
anting provisions. The colony was flourishing. The whites lived happily and in peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them. General La Croix, in his memoir, speaking of the same period, writes: The colony marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor; cultivation prospered, and every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress. This prosperous state of things lasted about eight years, and would probably have continued to this day, had not Bonaparte, at the instigation of the old aristocratic French planters, sent an army to deprive the blacks of the freedom which they had used so well. It was the attempt to restore slavery that produced all the bloody horrors of St. Domingo. Emancipation produced the most blessed effects. In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French republican general, retook the island of Guadaloupe from the British, and immediately proclaimed freedom to all the slaves. They were thirty-five thousand in number, and
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 18: marriage, 1845. (search)
's name and fame as anathema. They believed all they published, and, as a consequence, the Whigs believed them. In every argument the statements of the National Intelligencer were of frequent reference, and as to facts, accepted by both sides. These papers gave, in stately periods, the six weeks old news from the under world, and, as they were English, London was often the theme. We knew then more about Lord Brougham than about the Czar of Russia, more of the Duke of Wellington than of Bonaparte. General Jackson had removed the Treasury deposits from the national banks, thereby ruining half the people of the South; and this added to the detestation felt by the best people for the Democratic principles and theories. Texas was not yet admitted into the Union, and the poor fellows who were ruined by their speculating proclivities had gone there by the thousand to wipe off the long score against them and begin anew. Albert Sidney Johnston had been, as far back as 1840, Secretary o
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 22 (search)
addened by the death of not a few friends, and sick of the sights and sounds that have so long shocked my eyes and numbed my thoughts; with a vision deceived, perhaps, in many instances, by the mere tumult of the conflict; and with ears filled by divers reports and estimates of officers and surgeons, I cannot, I dare not attempt to give you an account or opinion of our losses. They are great. But compared with those of the enemy they are like as pebbles to grains of sand along the shore. Bonaparte. Report of Dr. Douglas. F. Law Olmstead, General Secretary Sanitary Commission. sir: When the army of the Potomac broke camp at Falmouth, to commence the campaign which terminated in the battle of Gettysburgh, the operations of the Commission in connection with this army again assumed a most active and laborious character. The evacuation of Acquia necessitated the withdrawal of its large stock of stores, accumulated at that place and at Falmouth; and the instantaneous removal o
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 107 (search)
y stands of regimental colors. The enemy's loss in killed, wounded, and. prisoners, by their own account, is not less than thirty thousand. Ours is computed at twelve thousand, our wounded being unusually large compared to the killed. The enemy is known to have had all his available force on the field, including his reserve, with a portion of Burnside's corps, numbering not less than eighty thousand, while our whole force did not exceed fifty thousand. Nothing was more brilliant in all Bonaparte's Italian campaigns; it was equally as desperate as the battle of Arcola, and far more decisive in its results. So far it exceeds all previous battles of our revolution, and nothing could surpass the irresistible courage and heroic intrepidity of our officers and soldiers. It is impossible to crowd into this limited space the numerous personal heroic deeds, or the valorous and chivalrous incidents, recalling the exploits of the knights of romance, which occurred on the ever-memorable f
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., chapter 1.9 (search)
12° east, and to the old beacon-light south 86° east. This place was about 7900 yards from Charleston. In the evening Colonel Serrell reported to General Gillmore that he believed a battery could be constructed at a place which he indicated on the map, and suggested that it be made of sand-bags with a platform of grillage. He thought a gun weighing not over 10,000 pounds could be placed on skids having a bearing of 100 square feet and taken across the marsh, in the same manner in which Bonaparte took his field-pieces over the Alps on the snow. He estimated that 2300 men could carry, in one night, filled sand-bags sufficient in number to make the battery; that 60 soldiers could carry the platform; that 450 men could put the gun into the battery, and 35 men could carry the magazine. For several days after the report was prepared careful examinations were made by Colonel Serrell, and various experiments tried under his direction. to ascertain the bearing qualities of the marsh.
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 3: assembling of Congress.--the President's Message. (search)
the article in De Bow's Review just alluded to, pronounced this statement a gross and silly libel, which could only have proceeded from a nerveless, apprehensive, tremulous old man. Our women, he continued, are far in advance of our men in their zeal for disunion. They fear not war, for every one of them feels confident that when their sons or husbands are called to the field, they will have a faithful body-guard in their domestic servants. Slaves are the only body-guard to be relied on. Bonaparte knew it, and kept his Mohammedan slave sleeping at his door. The same writer added, that it was they [the women] and the clergy who lead and direct the disunion movement. This state of things, he intimated, was a sufficient excuse, if continued, for the lifting of a fratricidal hand. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, he said, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself, until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable.
Baron de Jomini, Summary of the Art of War, or a New Analytical Compend of the Principle Combinations of Strategy, of Grand Tactics and of Military Policy. (ed. Major O. F. Winship , Assistant Adjutant General , U. S. A., Lieut. E. E. McLean , 1st Infantry, U. S. A.), Chapter 2: military policy, or the philosophy of war. (search)
sonal affections? Will he know how to divest himself of prepossessions? Was not Suwaroff repulsed by Potemkin because of his personal appearance, and was not all the skill of Catharine needed to cause a regiment to be given to a man who afterwards shed so much lustre upon her arms? It has been thought that public opinion would be the best guide; nothing is more hazardous. Has not public opinion mode a Caesar of Dumouriez, who understood nothing of great warfare? Would it have placed Bonaparte at the head of the army in Italy, when he was known but by two directors? Meanwhile it must be acknowledged that this opinion, if it be not always infallible, is none the more to be disdained, especially, when it survives great crises and the experience of events. The qualities most essential for a general-in-chief will ever be: A great character, or moral courage which leads to great resolutions; then sang-froid or physical courage which predominates over dangers. Knowledge appears bu
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