THE H ESPERI Aiv
f
current of his own vitality, determination and enthusiasm, reverse to gain disgrace. His failure at Chicamauga is
than a man of flesh and blood. He rapidly recalled his j attributable not to any fault in his dispositions, Which
left. Riding among the hurtying frightened fugitives he were excellent, but to the failure of Wood to connect , with
i allied them, by almost magical power, on a new line, far Reynolds, thus leaving the fatal gap through which Long--stronger
than the first, against which the hordes of yelling J street pressed. When Rosecranz saw that the day was lot
rebels charged in vain. Search the history of the New j he hastened back alone to Chattanooga, knowing full well
World, aye, I might almost say of the Old World, and show 1 that by this course he exposed himself to the vituperation ni
me, if you can, a parallel. Possessing such an absolute and j posterity. His course was disinterested and right; by all
subtile control over his forces, with his judgement unclouded precedent the day was lost; he had no reason to think thal-
hy disaster, and his executive dispatch in battle stimulated
and not enervated, he stands alone and almost unapproached.
The campaign from Murfreesboro, through Tullahoma to
C hicimauga was a strategic movement of the highest merit;
and yet it is little known. In its scope, magnitude and effect j
it was not unlike Sherman's campaign from Chattanooga to
Atlanta; but in its execution, how different! Rosecranz's
genius prompted him to eschew battle and execute man
euvers, far superior to any of Sherman's. South of Duck
Rner the country stretches in a series of rocky hills, penc
liated by narrow defiles and gorges. The defiles of Duck
liver are difficult and protected by rocky ranges in the rear.
The turnpike from Manchester, by which Rosecranz turned
Thomas would gloriously stem the tide of defeat; and he
hoped thus to do as he did at Stone's river, rally his men,
establish a new line, and turn defeat to victory. His place
was at Chattanooga; and honor ,r.o him, honor to his clear
mind that he did his duty. Trlts course, aided by that of
Thomas, made the Confederate success at Chicamauga value
less, and retained Chattanooga, the goal of his predecessors
the key to the south and west.
This, then, is the check which criticism places on th
verdict of history: success alone docs not warrant the claim
to genius, and the vacillating scale of popular opinion must
not be mistaken for the sensitive and true balance of justice.
Grant was elevated by the force of necessity; Rosecranz
Htagg's right, and the only road by which he could advance, degraded by the force of circumstance. Grant's campaign's
were marked by luck or eccentric failure; Rosecranz's by toil
or methodical success. Grant possessed the sympathy of
j the government; Rosecranz, its antipathy. Grant appears as
the stationary, glaring sun; Rosecranz as the swift, glimmer
ing meteor. When the civil war shall have been relegated -
j to history, and when people shall read that history, not with
their prejudices but with their eyes, then, we may hope, will
the name of William S. Rosecranz be placed where it
j belongs, at the head of Union generals.
Hans C Peterson.
passed through two narrow gorges. Malt's Hollow and
Hoover's Gap, together five miles long, and loo narrow for
wagons to pass. Besides this, the roads were flooded by the
tains and the rivers swollen. This route possesses, at least
equal, if not superior, facilities for defence to Sherman's
route to Atlanta. No crossing of the Etowah or of the
Cliatlahooche presents the natural difficulties that Duck
River presents; and Hoover's Gap with Mali's Hollow were
verse, and could have been made more defensible than any
ositJon occupied by Johnston. It is true that Bragg
was not equal to Johnston; but, as an offset, Rosecranz's
superiority in strengh was far less than Sherman's. Rose
cracx won by skilfully confusing Bragg, and then quickly
itrid secretly luniirg his flank. Sherman won by strategy
'lis true, but not without a Resaca, Kenesaw mountain and
Atlanta. Rosecianz maneuvered first and fought only when
iicctssary. Sbtiman fought first and maneuvered only when
necessary. Rosecranz s failure to cut on Bragg was owing j
tlely to the impassable roads. He crossed the Tennessee
at Stevensport, and his second campaign over the mountains
lo Chicamauga, maneuvering Bragg out of Chattanooga is
equal to his first. In this campaign Rosecianz has often
been harshly censured for allowing his forces lospieadat the
risk of failure to effect concentration. Who shall say that he
did not correctly estimate Bragg's ability, and that this scat
tering sprung from weakness and not from conscious power?
'I he importance of Chattanooga is not less than that of
Atlanta, for Chattanooga is one of the great railroad centres 1
of the south yet what a difference in the cost
The disaster at the Chicamauga has often been used by
historians lo disprove Rosecranz's ability; and becaube of
that disaster he stands ignored and forgotten. Yet, if we
retactaberlbe law elsewhere stated, and proved by the past
ages of history, that success alone does liot evince genius,
ihai, gefaiitaes are never free from failures, and lhal the pro
verbially successful man is seldom a genius, lbebe objections
of -uncritical wrilerb dwindle into insignificance. Hannibal
had his Zama; Napoleon his Waterloo; Lee his Gettysburg,
and no one has as yet dared deny their genius. Rose
cranz his efforts from the first ignored by an unapprecialive
administration, the brilliancy of his plans misunderstood,
U7b VAlttC h 4M 4J4WUJ.WDB SUb-WUlDbP UUUUt.PUMUU.WM A 'fc-w.fcw- d
they 'wcrcTiDt illumined by the glare of bailees, lacked "but a
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