The Qualities for commanders.
That a military education is necessary for military commanders, is a proposition so plain that we cannot imagine how it should ever be disputed except upon the prompting of personal vanity and ambition.
War is as much a science as medicine or law, and we would as soon call in a physician who had never studied or practiced his profession, or a lawyer who had never read a page of
Blackstone, as con de in a General who had never studied or practiced the art of war. There are some exceptions, but so few as only to establish the general rule.
Some of them we noticed a few days age, and others, even more remarkable, might be adduced in naval warfare, to which we will make brief reference.
The most extraordinary of these was the famous
Admiral Blake, of the
Commonwealth navy.
No man is more renowned in the ocean nals of
England than the enterprising, intrepid and successful
Blake.
He is described by one of his biographers as a homely west-country gentleman, middle-sized, of firm and generous, yet not at all romantic, air and expression, most orderly and pious in his household, and with sacred words ever ready for the guidance of life; but for the rest, a kindly laughter, and known to take a quiet cup of sack and a pipe at bedtime.
Such was the man who, at
fifty years of age, went a al for the first time, conquered in naval actions against the greatest seam of the day, and in eight short years (1649-1657) so completely established his naval reputation that the title of General, which he had won with glory in a dozen fields of battle, was completely forgotten in that of
Admiral.
Such was the man who triumphantly disputed with the veteran Van-
Tromp the dominion of the sea, and ‘"kept the ring"’ of the wide ocean in defiance of all comers.
Another extraordinary case was Prince Rupert,
Blake's old foeman on land, who also turned sailor, and for a time swept over the sea with the same impetuosity he had shown upon the shore.
But who would argue, from these exceptional cases, that the nautical profession does not require long practical training ? Who would now propose to place a landsman in command of our smallest vessels of war ? Not even the men who profess to believe that a politician can be taken from the clubs, and a lawyer from the court-rooms, and safely entrusted with the leadership of an army.
We are no advocates of red tape.
We think that regular officers, who are mere regulars, and do not appreciate the peculiar genius and temper of volunteer troops, are as likely to do injury by their want of perception and flexibility, as the uneducated in war by their ignorance and rashness.
Nor would we deny that men are sometimes born
Generals, and that
Napoleon would have been
Napoleon if he had never seen the inside of a military school.
We have doubtless in the
Confederacy some such men, and when they demonstrate their ability by a series of successful actions, which cannot be attributed to accident, every facility should be given to their promotion.
Some
Washington or
Jackson may still be among us, whom the times will call forth, and who will yet help to ‘"raise their bleeding country from the dust,"’ and visit righteous retribution upon her enemies.
