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Improvised Generals.

[For a forthcoming number of Dr. Bun's Revise]

By George

Intelligent reader, if you were required to make a pair of negro's brogans, would you not reply that you could not make them, because you never learned the shoemaker's trade? Supposing you to be honest, patriotic, intelligent, over fifty years of age, and wholly unacquainted with the practice or science of military matters, and you were offered an appointment as Captain, or Colonel, or General in the Confederats army, with a salary of one, two, or three thousand dollars per annum, would you not unhesitatingly reply, ‘"I know nothing of the art of war; am too old to learn, and will not, for the sake of fifthy lucre, betray my country !" ’ ‘"Appoint somebody also who has learned military affairs, either at school or in camp."’ Are stump orators Gods; born like Minerva, Bellona, or Mars, full armed, all- wise and invincible chieftains; and you, my intelligent readers, made of different and of baser clay, can you conceive it possible for a mere mortal, past fifty, to become a good soldier or a great General, without previous study, or practice, or experience? Cartainly not. If a single one of our improvised officers makes a good leader from the start, he must be like Joan of Are, inspired from above. But the day of miracles and of impiration has passed, and we are doomed to frequent reverses and defeats, until our young stump-crater officers have learned the art of war, and the old ones are sloughed off.

The war will last so long as mere demagogues occupy high places, either in civil life or in the army. When we get rid of them, we shall see light ahead, and feel hope reviving. We shall, in the meantime, learn a useful lesson, gain valuable experience, yet pay most dearly for it. But peace breeds demagogues, as surely as chesse breeds maggots; and if this war be succeeded by a long interval of peace, a new brood of stump crators will grow up out of the rottenness and corruption of pacific times.

We were much offended at hearing a distinguished officer, when the war had just begun, lamenting the enthusiasm and inconsiderateness with which our people entered into it. We now see, and feel, that he was right. Our furor and enthusiasm clouded our judgments, made us overrate ourselves and underrats our enemies, and begat remireness and rashness. No doubt, at the time of their appointment, our stump crators believed themselves quite a match for Yankees, and probably our intelligent readers then concurred in the opinion. They and the public, since passion has cooled, and judgment and reason resumed their away, have learned better. Our armies will soon be filled with new levies, whilst those opposed to us have been subjected for many months to excellent drill and discipline.--We must not have ignorant and inexperienced officers to command, train and discipline ignorant and inexperienced troops.

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