His book, which has attracted such wide-spread admiration, is but the transcript of the brilliant wit and vivid pictures presented by his ordinary conversation, which, had it been directed to the topics of the work, might have been stenographed just as is there written.
It seems probable that had he lived he would have been placed where his wonderful acquirements and endowments might have greatly served his people.
His absolute self-reliance amounted to a total irreverence for any man's opinion, and he was so intractable as never to be regarded as a safe subject to the behests of a political party; but he has, by the very last act of his life, made an enduring record which holds him among the most remarkable men of the times in which he lived.
He was marked in the expression of his friendships and of his antipathies—these regard the conduct of men rather than the men themselves; and an intimate personal acquaintance, which has been enjoyed ever since he reached manhood, enables me to bear testimony to many kindly acts of this gifted man.
His scholastic experience was confined to America. He was never at school in Edinburg, as has been stated. But no college course could measure or restrain or develop his genius—mankind was his study and the world his curriculum.
He was only fifty-three years old when he died—young enough for a great career. He died in the enjoyment of the first flush of the great success of his first and only book.
Telegrams Concerning Operations around Richmond and Petersburg in 1864.
Near Petersburg, Virginia,
General R. E. Lee, Chaffin's Bluff:
All quiet yesterday and last night. Scouts report Second corps marched with five days' rations; expedition must then be only a division to prevent Early being reinforced.
