"'Battles for the Union' is such a history as every soldier and every man who has a pride in his country, should wish to possess. Captain Glazier was no carpet knight. He shared the glories of the Harris Light Cavalry in camp and field, earning his promotion from the non-commissioned ranks to the command for which he was so admirably fitted. There is the scent of powder in what he writes, the vivid reality of sight and understanding. We are particularly charmed with his style, which is plain, blunt, direct, and free from strain or affectation. He describes the fights as they were fought; individual deeds of bravery as they were performed; the march and its trials; the defeat and its causes; the victory and its effects. With the ardor of a young patriot, and the generous admiration of a good soldier, he feels as great a pride in the successes of a rival corps as in his own. Nor is this an unworthy feature of his work, because the army was full of little, and sometimes not particularly friendly, rivalries. Willard Glazier's chapters, in which every battle may be regarded as a separate picture, read like a grand panoramic view of gallant deeds and warlike pageantries. If the author occasionally covers up a clear defeat, excusing it with graceful art; if he feels disposed to over-estimate a slight advantage, and to claim a victory where the battle was evidently drawn, he errs upon the side of love for the Boys in Blue, and pride in the flag under which he fought. The work is divided into forty-four chapters, each containing a different battle. We confidently recommend these graphic and life-like pictures to the notice of our readers. They are thrilling as the sound of the trumpet, and soul-inspiring as the songs of Ossian. We call the reader's attention to the description of the combat between the 'Merrimac' and 'Monitor' in chapter eight. It is something which will fill with pride the sailor's heart."
CHAPTER XXX.
"HEROES OF THREE WARS."
Literary zeal. — "Heroes of Three Wars" — Extract from preface. — Sale of the work. — Extracts: Washington. — Winfield Scott. — Zachary Taylor. — Grant. — Sheridan. — Kilpatrick. — Press reviews, a few out of many: Boston "Transcript." — Chicago "Inter-Ocean." — Baltimore "Sun." — Philadelphia "Times." — Cincinnati "Enquirer." — Worcester "Spy." — Pittsburg "Gazette."
By this time our soldier-author found himself not only famous, but, through the enormous sale of his books, in comparatively affluent circumstances. His literary zeal, however, was not yet spent, and work succeeded work with a rapidity almost without parallel, while the extent of their sale exceeded anything hitherto known in the literary world.
"Heroes of Three Wars," issued by Hubbard Brothers, Philadelphia, the latest production of his pen which he has as yet published, comprises original and life-like sketches of the brave soldiers of the Revolutionary, Mexican and Civil Wars; and the stories are told in a way that is not easily forgotten. In the wide field presented by these three important epochs in the history of our country, Glazier has labored to inculcate in the minds of young Americans the virtues of gallantry, true worth, and patriotism; and his work is valuable as presenting to the student in a small compass, so much of interest in biography and history.
In the preface to the work he observes: "Washington, Scott and Grant are names that will live forever in our history; not because they were the subjects of a blind adulation, but because their worth was properly estimated, and their deeds truthfully recorded. The time for deifying men has long since passed; we prefer to see them as they are—though great, still human, and surrounded with human infirmities; worthy of immortal renown, not because they are unlike us, but because they excel us and have performed a work which entitles them to the lasting gratitude of their countrymen. Another object of this book is to group around these three generals, those officers and men who climbed to immortality by their side, shared their fortunes, helped to win their victories, and remained with them to the end." Again: "Biographies possess but little value unless they give living portraits, so that each man stands out clear and distinct in his true character and proportions."
Several thousand copies of this valuable work have already been called for by the public, and it bids fair to equal its predecessors in amount of circulation. As a specimen of its style, we present to the reader the following extract from the biographical sketch of Washington:—"There is a singular unanimity of opinion in ascribing to George Washington an exceptional character. It was certainly one of peculiar symmetry, in which a happy combination of qualities, moral, social and intellectual, were guided to appropriate action by a remarkable power of clear judgment. It was just the combination calculated to lead a spirited and brave people through such a trying crisis as the American Revolution. His star was not dark and bright by turns—did not reveal itself in uncertain and fitful glimmerings—but shone with a full and steady luminosity across the troubled night of a nation's beginning. Under these broad and beneficent rays the Ship of State was guided, through a sea of chaos, to safe anchorage. The voyage across those seven eventful years was one that tried men's souls. Often, appalling dangers threatened. Wreck on the rocks of Disunion, engulfment in the mountain waves of opposition, starvation and doubt and mutiny on shipboard—these were a few of the perils which beset their course. But a royal-souled Commander stood at the helm, and discerned, afar-off, the green shores of liberty. On this land the sunshine fell with fruitful power. The air was sweet with the songs of birds. Contentment, peace, prosperity, reigned. Great possibilities were shadowed forth within its boundaries, and a young nation, growing rapidly towards a splendid era of enlightenment, was foreseen as a product of the near future. It took a man with deep faith in the ultimate rule of right and in humanity, to occupy that position; a man with large heart, with unselfish aims, with prophetic instincts, with clear and equalized brain. George Washington possessed all these qualities—and more!"
The following is from the admirably graphic sketch of the sturdy soldier, Winfield Scott: "On the twenty-fifth of the same month (July, 1814), a little below that sublime spot where the wide waste of waters which rush over the Falls of Niagara roar and thunder into the gulf below, and where Lundy's Lane meets the rapid river at right angles, was enacted the scene of conflict which took its name from the locality, and is variously called the battle of 'Lundy's Lane,' or 'Niagara.' The action began forty minutes before sunset, and it is recorded that the head of the American column, as it advanced, was encircled by a rainbow—one which is often seen there, formed from the rising spray. The happy omen faithfully prefigured the result; for when, under the cloudy sky of midnight the battle at length terminated, the Americans were in possession of the field, and also the enemy's cannon, which had rained such deadly death into their ranks. In this action General Scott had two horses killed under him, and about eleven o'clock at night he was disabled by a musket-ball wound through the left shoulder. He had previously been wounded, and at this juncture was borne from the fray. He had piloted Miller's regiment through the darkness to the height on Lundy's Lane, where the enemy's batteries were posted, and upon which the grand charge was made that decided the battle. Throughout the action he was the leading spirit of the occasion, giving personal direction to the movements of his men, and lending the inspiration of his presence to all parts of the field."