THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, SOLDIER CITIZEN-STATESMAN. By BEN: PERLEY POORE, WITH AN INTRODUCTION HENRY B. ANTHONY. ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS. PROVIDENCE, R. I.: J. A. & R. A. REID, PUBLISHERS. 1882. THE fame of her sons, who have illustrated her history, is the priceless heritage of a free country. They who have contributed to her honor, and to build up her greatness and her glory, are justly held in fond and imperishable remembrance. Their deeds form a part of their country, and live coeval with her existence. There is no more grateful task, there is no more pleasing duty, than to make the record of them, and to hold them up to the admiration and the emulation of those who survive them, and those who shall come after them. AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE forms one of the conspicuous figures in the history of the war for the maintenance of the Union. His private virtues won the affection of his friends; his public services and achievements made him the pride and admiration of the State. No other man among us held so large a share of the popular esteem. Certain persons, of late, have affected to depreciate the military character of GENERAL BURNSIDE, the evidence against it being largely his gentler qualities, that seem inconsistent with the rough manner of the camp and the field. But "The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring." So it has long been the custom of similar critics, though not on the same grounds, to disparage the military merits of a far more illustrious personage in American history, no less a man than Washington, whom they represent as a frontier colonel, with little knowledge of the art of war, except what he had picked up in encounters with the Indians. Such was the opinion, contemptuously expressed, by Aaron Burr. Not so thought the great Frederick, who sent to Washington his portrait inscribed: "From the oldest general in Europe to the greatest general on earth.” GENERAL BURNSIDE brought to the service of his country a natural aptitude for military operations, informed and instructed by a thorough military education. The Burnside Expedition to North Carolina was planned and executed on the strict rules of military science, and received the hearty approbation of the best military authorities. The defense of Knoxville, against the superior forces of Longstreet, was an admirable exhibition of military skill and science. In fertility of resources, in sagacity, in the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of his plans, and in the vigor of their execution, his merits were remarkable; and not the less in his attention to the details of his |
