The Daily Dispatch: December 3, 1864., [Electronic resource]

A silent General.

‘ "Here comes a man bred in the army. He had been reared a gentleman. He despised humbug. He loved order, and everything and everybody in his place. He told the ladies at Culpeper Courthouse, in 1861, who came out to greet him to go home. In Richmond, they said he had no manners — he attended to his business and spoke little. They sent him to Western Virginia--a small theatre — when Beauregard was at Manassas and Johnston at Winchester; he went, and made no comment. The campaign failed; they called him Turveydrop; he did not attempt to excuse himself. Soon we find him in a blaze of glory, the hero of the battles around Richmond. He is still silent. He marches to Manassas, and achieves another great victory; not a word escapes him. He takes Winchester; is foiled at Sharpsburg for the want of men; defeats Burnside at Fredericksburg; Hooker at Chancellorsville; but he breaks not his silence. He has the terrible trial of Gettysburg. He only remarked. It was my fault; and then, in the present year, he has conducted this greatest of all his campaigns — undoubtedly one of the finest in war. Silent still. When will he speak? Has he nothing to say? What does he think of our affairs? Should he speak, how the country would hang upon every word that fell from him!"

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