kindling eye and rare genius of a
soldier, but lacked the discipline of a military man. This was the
serious flaw in his character. He had what General Johnston declared was
the great drawback about the Southern soldier, "a large endowment of the
instinct of personal liberty," and it was difficult to subordinate his
will to the needs of military discipline. He had been accustomed to
priority, and in whatever company, under whatever conditions he found
himself, his had been the part to lead and to rule. As Colonel Thomas W.
Thomas had said of him, "Toombs has always been the big frog in the
pond." Men conceded to him this prestige. Under the cast-iron rule of
the army he found himself subordinated to men intellectually beneath
him, but trained and skilled in the art of war. He was swift to detect
error, and impatient in combating blunder. The rule of mediocrity, the
red tape of the service, the restraints of the corps, the tactics of the
field galled his imperious spirit. He commanded his brigade as he had
represented his State in the Senate--as a sovereign and independent
body, and like the heroic Helvetian had blazoned on his crest, "No one
shall cross me with impunity."

Robert Toombs made a mistake in sinking himself in the routine of a
brigade commander. He should have taken the War Department, or, like
Pitt, have pushed the war from the floor of the Senate. Swinton says
that Abraham Lincoln brought the habits of a politician to military
affairs, in which their intrusion can only result in confusion of just
relations. There is ineradicable antagonism between the maxims which
govern politics and those which govern war.

During General Toombs' absence in the field, he opposed the Conscript
Acts of the Confederate administration. He believed them arbitrary and
unjust. He considered that this was a tendency toward centralization
which the Confederate Government was fighting; that it placed too much
power in the hands of one man; that it was deadly to States' Rights and
personal liberty, and that it would impair the efficiency of the army by
lowering its patriotism. The champion of this anti-administration policy
in Georgia was Linton Stephens, the brother of the vice president.
Toombs in the field, the elder Stephens in Congress, and Linton Stephens
in the Georgia Legislature, fought the Conscription and Impressment
Acts. Hon. Joseph E. Brown, the war Governor of Georgia, was also a
vigorous opponent of this policy. Th