Lord-against the mighty. For such a life there is indeed
no death.

_Engineer and Artillery Operations against the Defences of
Charleston Harbor in 1863._ Comprising the Descent upon Morris
Island, the Demolition of Fort Sumter, the Reduction of Forts
Wagner and Gregg. With Observations on Heavy Ordnance,
Fortifications, etc. By L. A. GILLMORE, Major of Engineers,
Major-General of Volunteers, and Commanding General of the Land
Forces engaged. Published by Authority. New York: D. Van
Nostrand.

Just after Major-General Hunter was removed--or, as the delicate
military phrase went, "temporarily relieved"--from the command of the
Department of the South, there was a report current in those parts of a
conversation, perhaps imaginary, between President Lincoln and the
relieved General, on his arrival at Washington. The gossip ran, that on
General Hunter's inquiring the cause of his removal, the good-natured
President could only say that "Horace Greeley said he had found a man
who could _do the job_." The job was the taking of Charleston, and the
"coming man" was Brigadier-General (now Major-General) Gillmore. The
so-called "siege of Charleston," after being the nine-days'-wonder of
two continents, dwindled to a mere daily item in the dingy newspapers of
that defiant city,--an item contemptuously sandwiched between the
meteorological record and the deaths and marriages. The "coming man"
came and went, being in his turn "temporarily relieved," and consigned
to that obscurity which is the Nemesis of major-generals. He is more
fortunate, however, than some of his compeers, in experiencing almost at
once the double resurrection of autobiography and reappointment. Whether
his new career be more or less successful than the old one, the
autobiography is at least worth printing, so far as it goes. Had an
instalment of it appeared when the siege of Charleston was at its
height, it would have been translated into a dozen European languages,
and would have been read more eagerly in London and Paris than even in
Washington. Even now it will be read with interest, and with respect to
rifled ordnance will be a permanent authority.

The total impression left behind by General Gillmore, in his former
career in the Department of the South, was that of an unwearied worker
and an admirable engineer officer. Military gifts are apt to be
specific, and a specialist seldom gains reputation in the end by b