[
154]
them at
Bad Axe on the
Upper Mississippi.
Old Zach, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the First Regiment there.
His conduct on that occasion established in my mind an unshaken confidence in his great courage and loyal devotion to his country, as well as a high opinion of his good sense and excellent judgment; but no one imagined that in that honest and faithful brain there were, even latent, those great principles of strategy which the events of last year have so splendidly illustrated.
My memory now recalls the expression of the most vigorous thoughts connected with military operations, and I am convinced that he then possessed all the high powers of mind which he has lately displayed; that his capacity is no sudden endowment; that the great strategetic problems solved by him have often undergone the severest scrutiny of close investigation.
These things are true of all minds which are accounted great on any subject.
The vast conceptions of
Hannibal,
Caesar,
Napoleon,
Newton,
Cicero,
Homer,
Angelo,
Wren,
Davy, etc., following the analogies of Nature, were embodiments which were developed by the active and toilsome labors of the mind.
Hence the confidence, energy, and readiness, when the emergency arises.
They are no sudden inspirations.
We tread with rapidity and confidence the path we have often traveled over, all others with tardy doubtfulness.
We hear nothing of the progress of the war. There is too much to be done with too little means.
An acknowledged principle of war is that, when the line of operations is pierced or even interrupted, the army is in danger.
How far this applies to the condition of things in
Mexico I do not know, or from what jeopardy the heroism of our troops can extricate themselves-we believe a very great one, but who can calculate it?
The glory of the
American arms ought not to depend upon the hazard of the die. The
United States can play a sure game.
It is therefore
foolishness to run the risks they have done from the beginning of the war. The magnitude of the object is now apparent, though it was not in the beginning.
Let the means be adequate to the object, a proposition perfectly simple, and comprehended and acted upon by all who can. Let the
Government in this matter imitate the conduct of men in private life.
No sensible citizen believes that less than 50,000 men ought to invade by way of
Vera Cruz.
With a less number the operations will be
tardy and expensive.
Your friend,
A. Sidney Johnston.
While the writer is aware that on some accounts a summary of incidents and opinions is preferable to the method by which a man's life is exhibited in his letters, yet there are also cogent reasons why in this case as much as possible of the record should be presented in
wished so to live that all his actions might be open to the eyes of all men. The subject of this memoir did so live that all the world might share his thoughts with his bosom friends.
He was eminently sincere, so that the unconscious autobiography set down in his correspondence has a value above “confessions” written for the public eye. Though frank where frankness was proper, he had a certain delicacy of feeling and a proud reserve that prevented him from laying bare his private griefs.
His religion was one of thankfulness,
