rs to do so. As well might I
have waited for orders from General Thomas to retire across the
Harpeth after my duty on the south side of that river had been
accomplished. The cases are closely parallel. Any unofficial
discussion of the question of responsibility for the sacrifice of
those two brigades is idle. According to the established rules of
war, those three commanders ought to have been tried by court-
martial, and, if found guilty, shot or cashiered, for sacrificing
their own men and endangering the army. One example of such
punishment would do much to deter ignorant and incompetent men from
seeking high commands in the field. But the discipline of the
volunteer army of a republic must, it appears, inevitably be,
especially in respect to officers of high rank, quite imperfect,
although it may become in respect to the great mass of the troops,
as ours certainly did, exceedingly efficient.

In the Atlanta campaign I sent a division commander to the rear in
permanent disgrace for sacrificing his men in a hopeless assault
upon a fortified line, contrary to the general orders and instructions
which General Sherman had published before the opening of the
campaign. But I never heard of another similar case of even
approximate justice to an officer of high rank. It is a striking
proof of the evil effect of war upon the minds and passions of men,
not only of those who are engaged in it, but even more upon those
who see it from a distance, that commanders are often severely
condemned for prudent care of the lives of men under their command,
who have no choice but to march blindly to death when ordered,
while the idiotic sacrifice of the bravest and noblest of patriotic
soldiers is loudly applauded as a grand exhibition of "gallantry"
in action. If George H. Thomas had had no other title to honor or
fame, he would have deserved the profound gratitude of the American
people, and a very high place among the country's patriots and
heroes, for the reason that while he never yielded ground to an
attacking foe, he never uselessly sacrificed the life of a soldier.

It is a sin for a soldier to throw away his own life. It is not
his, but belongs to his country. How much greater sin and crime
in an officer the throw away the lives of a thousand men! If he
threw away a thousand dollars, he would be court-martialed and
cashiered. Are not the soldiers of a republic worth even a dollar
apiece! Patriotism and courage exi