held a
commission or carried a musket in the Army of the Revolution. They
were, moreover, the strong pioneers who settled the first tier of
States to the westward, and laid the solid foundation which assured
progress and prosperity to their descendants. Their success as civil
magistrates, as legislators, as executives was not less marked and
meritorious than their illustrious service in war. The same cause
brought the same result a century later in men of the same blood
fighting with equal valor the same battle of Constitutional liberty.
The inspiration of a great cause does not fail to ennoble the humblest
of those who do battle in its defense. Those who stood in the ranks of
the Union Army have established this truth by the twenty years of
honorable life through which they have passed since their patriotic
service was crowned with victory.

The officers who led the Union Army throughout all the stages of the
civil conflict were in the main young men. This feature has been a
distinguishing mark in nearly all the wars in which the American
people have taken part, and with a few notable exceptions has been
the rule in the leading military struggles of the world. Alexander
the Great died in his thirty-second year. Caesar entered upon the
conquest of Gaul at forty. Frederick the Great was the leading
commander of Europe at thirty-three. Napoleon and Wellington, born in
the same year, fought their last battle at forty-six years of age. On
the exceptional side Marlborough's greatest victories were won when
he was nearly sixty (though he had been brilliantly distinguished at
twenty-two), and in our own day the most skillful campaign in Europe
was under the direction of Von Moltke when he was in the seventieth
year of his age.

Washington took command of the Continental Army at forty-three.
Lafayette was a major-general at twenty. Nathaniel Greene was a
general officer in the military establishment of the Revolution at
thirty-three, and entered upon his memorable campaign in the South at
thirty-eight. Winfield Scott was but twenty-eight when he commanded
at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. Macomb was thirty-two when he gained the
famous victory over Sir George Prevost at Plattsburg. Jackson was
forty-seven when he won the decisive battle over Pakenham at New
Orleans. On the other hand, Taylor was sixty-three when he conquered
at Buena Vista, and Scott was sixty-one when he made his celebrated
march from Vera Cruz t