*

the same time General MORRIS supported this movement with his Lancers, Dragoons, and Cuirassiers. The Austrian infantry were completely overthrown, as well as the Dragoons of the Austrian Imperial Guard and the Hungarian Hussars, reputed the finest cavalry in Europe, who attempted to save their comrades on foot. When the order was despatched to the Chasseurs d'Afrique to make their brilliant onset above referred to-likewise depicted by the Chevalier GIACCOMELLI in the "Illustration"-KEARNY requested permission from General MORRIS to go forward and witness this charge of his old comrades of Africa. KEARNY had beheld how they charged the Kabyles and Arabs; he wanted to see if they could scatter and slaughter the Austrians in a like peculiar way. "When the charge took place he (KEARNY) participated in it, holding his bridle in his teeth, with his characteristic impetuosity." "Among the officers in this charge I can only remember -continues the letter of a Boston gentleman who accompanied KEARNY to Italy-"JEROME BONAPARTE PATTERSON," a West Point graduate, and American, from Baltimore. "Twenty-seven officers and non-commissioned officers were among the killed and wounded" of the Chasseurs. A relative, formerly an officer United States Dragoons, adds, that "General MORRIS slightly reproved KEARNY" for thus allowing his ardor to carry him away, but, as KEARNY says in his own letter that he "was not only present with the line of our (French) cavalry skirmishers, but as well in every charge that took place," the reproof was doubtless that of a fond father, who, fearing the loss of a daring boy, reproves the act in such an evident tone of admiration as to nerve and stimulate to greater deeds of daring gallantry. This brief reference to KEARNY, filled out by his own sententious avowal, constitutes him a grand figure in the glorious participation of the Cavalry of the French Imperial Guards in the tremendous conflict of Solferino. It shows that an American Volunteer played his part with sufficient distinction and audacity to attract the attention and win the applause of an army of which it was remarked, in one of their previous invasions of Italy, that they marched to death with as gay a disregard of life as if they had the assurance of rising again from the dead to renew the struggle the

The French Cavalry "did little or nothing on that occasion" (the Italian War of 1859). The French Cavalry was positively wasted on the march, rendered unfit for action, and reduced to insignificant dimensions. (STEINMETZ, 21-2, "Miscellanées Militaires, by General Grand, President of the Cavalry Commission at the French War Office, p. 20.")

next day, or like the ancient British who "made their boast that they exposed their bare bosoms and white tunics to the lances and swords of the men at arms with as much confidence as if they had been born invulnerable."

It is very curious that the Austrians contemplated the very movement which MEADE, according to WARREN, had in view on the 2d July at Gettysburg, to turn the rebel flank, and that the rebels actually attempted, 2d July, P. M., when so signally checked by SICKLES. In both cases, Gettysburg and Solferino, the idea of turning was abandoned, and the affair came down to a parallel fight, culminating in an attempt to pierce the center, which in the former case failed, and in the latter case succeeded.

Thus General KEARNY, who had commenced his education for a general's command in Africa, with the study of a war with light troops, and took his next lessons in the Mexican war in grand tactics and strategy—most beautifully carried out in TURENNE style, although on a small scale as regarded numbers-completed his course of instruction in a campaign on the grandest scale, since the Allies and the Austrians brought on the battle-field at Solferino almost, if not altogether, double the numbers engaged on our side or the Rebels in any battle during the "Slaveholders' Rebellion." It is true that the numbers we had on paper at Chancellorsville and at the Wilderness approached somewhat those of the opposing armies at Solferino. A great proportion of these could be as little counted as actually engaged, as the corps of 20,000 men under JEROME NAPOLEON, which was on the march towards the scene of conflict on the Mincio (1859), or the army of the ARCHDUKE JOHN at the epoch of Wagram, 1809.* Had the latter brought his forces into action, as he could have done with ease had he intended so to do, their co-operation would have settled the fate of the First NAPOLEON, and obviated all the horrors of 1812, especially at Borodino and the Beresina; of 1813, particularly at Leipsic; of 1814, and of 1815, at Waterloo.

ROEMER in his charming book "On Cavalry" says, that all the actions of the campaign of 1859 were decided by bayonet charges.† This would have been totally impossible in our war, for the charging

"An Austrian army, to the end of time, will never cease to be procrastinating." (CUSTS' WARS, 2d Series, iv., 83.

+ ROMER'S "Cavalry; its History, Management, and Uses in War." Chap. iii. 113-115, etc.

column, if of any extent of front, would have been annihilated at a distance by the artillery or musketry fire. This is proved by the (our) medical returns. HANCOCK's charge at Williamsburgh, of which so much was said at the time, was a myth.* MCCLELLAN reported it as he reported everything. His system of laudation was nothing more than a part and parcel of his system of self-deception, an exuberance of kind-heartedness. In his injustice (charged in KEARNY's letters in 1861-2, and from the Peninsula), if nothing else, he did resemble NAPOLEON. HANCOCK should not object to having the truth told about Williamsburgh. He is a brilliant soldier, and can afford to discard laurels not actually won, since he is entitled to so many which he did win fairly and magnificently.

KEARNY'S military education was now complete. He had prepared himself thoroughly for a general's command. How he discharged the duties of that position when called upon, the country well knows.

For his brilliant soldiership in the campaign of Solferino, KEARNY received the Cross of the "Legion of Honor"t from the French Emperor. He was very proud of this distinction, because he was the first American who had ever been thus honored for military service.

Little did KEARNY dream when he saw one hundred and forty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand French and Sardinians, marshalled along a front of ten to twelve miles, that he would live to see within three years one million five hundred thousand free

* His first laurels were gained at Williamsburg; but the story of a celebrated charge that gave him the day's applause and McClellan's encomium of the "superb HANCOCK,' was altogether fictitious. The musket, not the bayonet, gave him the victory." "Campaigns of a Non-combatant," by GEO. ALFRED Townsend, 1866, page 73.) Compare DE TROBRIAND, I. 201; Capt, BLAKE, 84, &c.

+ It has been stated, and the statement has been repeated by American writers, and a French military author, also, who ought to have known whether the fact was so or not, that PHILIP KEARNY received the Cross of the Legion Honor from LOUIS PHILIPPE, før his gallantry in Algiers in (1839?) 1840. The writer is of opinion that this is partly a fact and partly an error. KEARNY was at that time an officer in the military service of the United States, and consequently could not accept any foreign decoration. That the story is current, and has been repeated by a gentleman who had ample opportunities of knowing the truth, renders it very probable that LOUIS PHILIPPE, on the recommendation of his sons, the DUKE OF ORLEANS, who commanded a division and corps, with whom KEARNY served in Africa, and the DUKE D'AUMALE, who served with the very regiment to which KEARNY was attached, offered KEARNY the cross, which his military obligations to the United States compelled him to refuse. KEARNY was too modest a man to mention such a fact himself, but doubtless this is a true explanation of the case. Although he was the first American who ever received the Cross of Honor for military service, was he the first who received it for gallantry in action ?

Americans of the North, marshalled along a line of fifteen hundred miles against from five hundred thousand to one million supporters of slavery and their savage allies. Much less did he dream when he saw the confusion which reigned at times in the vast trains accompanying the French army and sometimes precluded the advance of troops, when rapid movements were indispensable to decisive success, that he would see armies, as great as ours, fed with the regularity of a family; and that same RUFUS INGALLS-who fitted out his little expedition against the Rogue River Indians in 1851-in 1861 -'5 feeding the Army of the Potomac, and moving trains more numerous than those of the Allies, over roads so bad that no European quartermaster could conceive their badness, with almost the certainty of a well regulated machine. KEARNY could appreciate and exemplify the nobility and extent of American courage. He was yet to learn the scope and grandeur of American intelligence as applied to logistics or military intendancy, in which the French were hitherto supposed to excel all other nations.

"Denn Blitze Gottes spruhte dein Blick! dein Ruf

War Donner! Siegeszeichen dein Federbusch !

Dein Arm War Sturm! Dein Schwert den Deutschen
Leitender, tilgender Strahl dem Feinde!"

STOLBERG'S "Ode to BLUCHER."

"A Governor not too im-perfect would have recognized this GUSTAVUS, what his purposes and likelihoods were; the feeling would have been, checked by due circumspectness, Up, my men! let us follow this man; let us live and die in the cause this man goes for.

Live otherwise with honor, or die other

wise with honor, we cannot, in the pass things have come to.""

CARYLE'S FREDERIC THE GREAT, I., 249.

"And 'mid this tumult KUBLA heard from far

Ancestral voices prophecying war."

"In native swords and native ranks
The only hope of safety dwells."

"The trade of war demands no saints."

COLERIDGE.

BYRON.

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S "Abbot."

"This WALPOT-a citizen of Bremen, first Grand Master of the Knights Hospitalerswas not by birth a nobleman, but his deeds were noble."

CARLYLE'S "FREDERIC THE GREAT," I., 84.

WAR is a difficult science, which cannot be mastered by experience alone; its principles and rules require careful study and reflection. Lessons picked up at random are generally uncertain or erroneous, often costly to him who receives them, and almost always fatal to the State. "Whatever argument," says WASHINGTON, 66 may be drawn from particular examples, superficially viewed, a thorough examination of the subject will evince that the art of war is both comprehensive and complicated; that it demands much previous study, and that the possession of it in its most improved and perfect state is always of great moment to a nation." NAPOLEON I. admitted, after fourteen campaigns and unparalleled successes, that experience in war, familiarity with the combat, and the best developed war-like virtues, were insufficient to form good officers; and regretted that most of his generals had not had opportunities to acquire the theoretical knowledge they were so much in need of. FREDERIC II. thought in like manner, and in a characteristic letter, which he wrote to General FOUQUET, he remarked: "Of what use is EXPERIENCE if it is not guided by REFLECTION?" ROMER'S "Cavalry; Its Uses," &c.