the dictatorship
and agree to lay down my life when the country is saved_," etc.(17)

General McClellan was not disloyal, nor did he lack a technical
military education. He was a good husband, an indulgent father,
a kind and devoted friend, of pure life, but unfortunately he was
for a time mistaken for a great soldier, and this mistake _he_
never himself discovered.

He had about him, while holding high command, many real and professed
friends, most of whom partook of his habits of thought and possessed
only his characteristics. President Lincoln did not fail to
understand him, but sustained and long stood by him for want of a
known better leader for the Eastern army, and because he had many
adherents among military officers.

Greeley, in the first volume of his _American Conflict_, written
at the beginning of the war, has a page containing the portraits
of twelve of the then most distinguished "Union Generals." Scott
is the central figure, and around him are McClellan, Butler,
McDowell, Wool, Fremont, Halleck, Burnside, Hunter, Hooker, Buell,
and Anderson. All survived the war, and not one of them was at
its close a distinguished commander in the field. One or two at
most had maintained only creditable standing as officers; the others
(Scott excepted, who retired on account of great age) having proved,
for one cause or another, failures.

In Greeley's second volume, published at the close of the war, is
another group of "Union Generals." Grant is the central figure,
and around him are Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade, Hancock, Blair,
Howard, Terry, Curtis, Banks, and Gilmore--not one of the first
twelve; and he did not even then exhaust the list of great soldiers
who fairly won eternal renown.

The true Chieftains had to be evolved in the flame of battle, amid
the exigencies of the long, bloody war, and they had to win their
promotions on the field.

( 1) For a summary life of the writer before and after the war,
see Appendix A.

( 2) _War Records_, vol. ii., p. 48.

( 3) Colonel Pegram's Rep., _War Records_, vol. ii., p. 267.

( 4) _Citizen Soldier_ (John Beatty), p. 22.

( 5) It seems that this orderly did decline to say which flank
Rosecrans was turning, as he must have had doubts after what had
transpired as to his instructions; nevertheless Pegram decided
Rosecrans was passing around his right, and so notified Garnett.--
_War Records_, vol. ii., pp. 256, 260, 272.

( 6) _Ibid_., vol. ii