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Show It will be remembered that General Longstreet protested pro-tested again! ordering that Pickett charge, but it wm overruleu by General Lee, and when the charge- failed, and the troops were rolled back. General Lee rode among them and said, "There is no one to blame for this but me," encouraging them and taking all the responsibility himself. And the whole business shows that the civilian who know very little about military affairs except in theory, ought to be wonderfully careful both in his praise and his blame of commanders, because from the very nature of things he is. like the critic who cannot write a play and who would not to save his life take any role in a play and carry it out, telling where this man was a great actor or this an utter failure. The only real critics to be relied on are men or women who could either write a play or perform the leading part in a play, and this is so in criticising generals. Had Grant and Sheridan been with Hancock at Gettysburg no one knows what would have happened. Had Sherman been in Lee's place no one knows what would have happened, but one thing is more than half forgotten forgot-ten and that is that during some days preceding the, battle nf fiettvahiirff. (General flrant helnw Vicksbnrg was performing some military feats that, ao far as they show on the surface, were not equalled anywhere by any commander in the war, and were never excelled by Napoleon, by Julius Caesar, or by old Fritz of Prussia. His final advance) ad-vance) and environment of Vicksburg is as splendid military performance as is recorded in all the books of all the wars. MILITART CRITICS. Captain Beeehsm has "written an elaborate description de-scription of the battle of Gettysburg. The book is i described as most interesting. In a review of the ; book we find that it criticises General Lee and Gen-! Gen-! era Meade, but the reviewer proceeds to say: i " la the battle of CbanccllorsviUe ths transcend-.L.ent transcend-.L.ent KeDi'ili,LJ-ejttidof Jsckonwss at its full ! flood. For at least a part of that campalgnTHooker proved no cnworlhy antsgonist for the other two. Contrasted with tbut marvelous campaign the bat-tic bat-tic of Gettysburg waa a rather blundering, pitiable piti-able sort of contest, full of bloody and most desperate des-perate fighting, but not illuminated by that fine j intellectual play of gigantic war fencing, wbieh makes Cbsneellorsville, though less important, much more memorable. If Lee had had Jackson at Gettysburg, ths Ught would not have been prolonged pro-longed for three days, and Meade would probably have been beaten. Certainly Fickett'a spectscular but utterly. futile aad wasteful ehsrgs would not have been attempted. . On the other hand, tad Hooker been left in eommand instead of Meade, and had Lee hern without Jackson as he was, we believe that Lee would bsvs had great difficulty in getting back to Virginia; for Hooker, ia spite of his tempers mental defects, was a much better of-ffpsive of-ffpsive fighter than Meade, and would almost certainly cer-tainly havs prevented LsVa retiring down ths Haserstown road to Virginia, after the defeat." We fear the reviewer is not a careful reader of history.- General Hooker attacked General Lee in a chosen place, and all of ths accounts agree that hy 3 o'clock in the afternoon of that tremendous day Hooker had the best of ths battle. General riessanton told the writer that there never was a bsttls more splendidly plsnned or more msgmfl-ctntly msgmfl-ctntly carried forward than Hooker V battle on that day np to about 3 o'clock. ' He was standing under an awning on the porch of a bouse when cannon shot struck one of ths posts that upheld the roof, a few feet from where he was leaning against another post. Pleasanton says from that on Hooker seemed stunned. Tha acta are that be defeated Lee in the morning and utterly routed Stonewall Jackson 'a splendid corps. They were driven from Ihs field and "driven in aiich utter confusion that the federsls thought thst they were permanently beaten and paid no mors attention to them. General Gen-eral Fitzhugh Lea in his account'says that a private pri-vate or petty officer came to him in ths afternoon snd told biin thst ths whole left, o.' right wing of the union army, we have forgotten which, was just over a hill, that they had atacked their arms, that they had no pickcta out and were eating and drinking drink-ing and tir.oking as though the battle waa over. Lee ssys he himself rsutiously climbed that hill and looked over and saw that the account was true, that he instantly scut, word to Sonewall Jackson, who hsd rallied his corps and waa distant about three or four miles, telling him briefly of the opportunity ; that they came at double quick, made a furious assault on that wing of the array, rolled it back aad the, day was lost for Hooker. Where any transcendent genius was displsyed by either of those two grest soldiers we cannot see. As to Gettysburg, after the Pickett charge Hanco-k, wounded as he was, sent word to Meade advising him to order a general advance along the whole line. For ressons of bis own Genersl Meade did not do that. The truth is thst the army had been fighting by divisiona for three days, thst thst Isst dsy they hsd received terrible bomhsrdment frrtn Lee's rsnnon all the forenoon and then had turned back the Pickett charge, and we suspect that Meade was sfrsid thst. because of the fatigue of the army, a general advance along the whole line might prove disastrous. It has since transpired trans-pired thst General Lee's army was nearly ut of ammunition; but General Meade waa not supposed to know tbst. and then there is a great deal of difference dif-ference between standing off an assault and making mak-ing one. Pickett's magnificent charge went so far in one piece as to abaolutely pierce the federal line, but the men who did that never got back. The ever taken iu. snd to hsve ordered that tired - army out of its selected position to go in its fatigued atite" after another army so ucsr its match, is something which probably Sheridan would have done, perbsps Grant' would hate done it. hut Thorns would not and Meade thought it not best. TVbst Ifoukcr would have dons we cannot tell, but our 'utea of Genersl Hooker was that as an independent inde-pendent fommander of a great army he was not a success. As a subordinate commander, handling one fighting corps as he did say st Lookout mountain, moun-tain, there was no finer soldier in the army. Wlist would hsve hern done had JackKun been at Gettysburg Gettys-burg we eanct t tell, except thitt if he had ordered sny ebsnre it would have been on the, seeotid dev. |