The war with Spain was too brief to make any reputations, though it was long enough to ruin several.  The man who gained most glory in that conflict was “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, veteran of Shiloh, of Murfreesboro, of Chickamauga, dashing like a gnat against Sherman’s flanks, and annoying him mightily on that march to the sea; a southerner of the southerners, and yet with a great patriotism which sent him to the front in 1898, and a hard experience which enabled him to save the day at Santiago, when the general in command lay in a hammock far to the rear.

Let us pause, too, for mention of Nelson A. Miles, who had volunteered at the opening of the Civil War, fought in every battle of the Army of the Potomac up to the surrender at Appomattox, been thrice wounded and as many times brevetted for gallantry; the conqueror of the Cheyenne, Comanche and Sioux Indians in the years following the war; and finally attaining the rank of commander-in-chief of the army of the United States; to find himself, as Winfield Scott had done, at odds politically with the head of the War Department and with the President, and kept at home when a war was raging.  For the same reason as Scott had been, perhaps, since some of his admirers had talked of him for the presidency.  He was released, at last, to command the expedition against Porto Rico, which resulted in the complete and speedy subjugation of that island.  A careful and intelligent, if not a brilliant soldier, he is, perhaps, the most eminent figure which the years since the great rebellion have developed.

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Looking back over the military history of the country since its beginning, it is evident that America has produced no soldier of commanding genius—­no soldier, for instance, to rank with Napoleon, who, at his prime, seemed able to compel victory; or with Frederick the Great, that past master of the art of war.  Yet it should be remembered that both these men were soldiers all their lives, and that they stand practically unmatched in modern history.  Of the next rank—­the rank of Wellington and Von Moltke—­we have, at least, three, Washington, Lee, and Grant; while to match such impetuous and fiery leaders as Ney, and Lannes, and Soult, we have Harry Lee, Marion, Sheridan, Jackson, and Albert Sidney Johnston.  So America has no reason to blush for her military achievements—­more especially since her history has been one of peace, save for fifteen years out of the one hundred and thirty-three of her existence.

SUMMARY

PUTNAM ISRAEL.  Born at Salem, Massachusetts, January 7, 1718; served in French and Indian war, 1755-62; in Pontiac’s war, 1764; one of the commanding officers at battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775; major-general in Continental army, 1775; took part in siege of Boston, 1775-76; commanded at defeat on Long Island, August 27, 1776; commanded in high-lands of the Hudson, 1777; served in Connecticut, 1778-79; disabled by a stroke of paralysis, 1779; died at Brooklyn, Connecticut, May 19, 1790.