TELL

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE

AND

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

"THE Quartermaster's Guide: Being a Summary of those Portions of the Army Regulations of 1863, and General Orders from the War Department, from May 1, 1861, to April 10, 1865, which affect the Quartermaster's Department. By Col. Theo. S. Case, A. Q. M., Quartermaster-General of Missouri, and late Chief Quartermaster District of Central Missouri." St. Louis, 1865. 8vo. 339 pages. P. M. Pinckard, 80 Pine Street. This excellent work will be found valuable, as a book of ready reference, to all quartermasters, and particularly to many of the younger officers in the department. It is written and compiled from a large experience of the author, in remembrance of the many difficulties he encountered in his novitiate, and which he has now removed from the path of those who are inexperienced and unable to procure copies of the General Orders and Special Regulations. This first part treats of the organization of the department, and the duties of quartermasters in detail. The second gives full forms for making returns; and the third collates the General Orders for 1863-64, and down to April 10, 1865. An appendix contains many additional items of value. A portion of the volume is interleaved with writing-paper, for notes and memoranda, and a copious index makes the whole easy of reference. The volume has received the approbation of the Quartermaster-Gencral and many other distinguished officers, and should be in the hands of every quartermaster. Price $5. Received from the author.

"Affixes-in their Origin and Application, exhibiting the Etymologic Structure of English Words. By S. S. Haldeman, A. M." Philadelphia: published by E. H. Butler & Co. 1865. 12mo, 271 pages. We intend hereafter to occupy more leisure than we now have in a review of this learned, accurate, and well-arranged book. We can do no more at present than call attention to its philological merits, in a day when such subjects are particularly affected by sciolists. Professor Haldeman is one of the masters of this science, impatient of quacks, not without some humor at their expense, and so armed in proof himself as to be in no danger of counterattacks. After a few preliminary pages on language and grammar, and some general remarks on Affixes, he divides his subject into Prefixes and Suffixes, and closes with a Vocabulary of Latin and Greek originals. The book is beautifully printed.

"A Summer Story: Sheridan's Ride and other Poems. By T. Buchanan Read.” Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1865. 12mo. 154 pages. The poems in this book are in four divisions: the first containing the "Summer Story," and a few others of a romantic nature; the second, the War Poems; the third, Poems in Italy; and the fourth, a few miscellaneous pieces. They are all good, and all have sprung

from the author's experience. They are healthy expressions of human life in many phases. Of course the War Poems concern us most. They breathe the very dusk and smoke of battle, and have been read to thousands, and by thousands, so that it is unnecessary for us to expatiate upon them. Sheridan's Ride will rank forever among the great war ballads of the world's literature. This book is beautifully printed by Messrs. Lippincott & Co., and dedicated to the excellent Mr. Joseph Harrison, Jr., of Philadelphia.

The Militia of the United States.

What it Has Been and What it Should Be."

This is a pamphlet of a hundred and thirty pages, which consists mainly of a collection of historic facts, statements, and precedents, which bear upon the following questions:

"1. We want a Military Force.

"2. If so, shall it be a Standing Army or Militia, or both?

"3. If we need Militia, is our System at present satisfactory?

"4. If not, what improvement is practicable ?"

Hoping hereafter to give full consideration to this subject in our pages, we cannot now discuss the merits of the author's views; but to all those who are considering this very important subject we commend this pamphlet, as containing valuable information, evidently collected not without care and trouble, and by an earnest investigator. The conclusion at which he arrives is thus stated:

"1. That we do want an Organized Military Force.

"2. That it must consist of a small Standing Army, so composed and so officered as to be capable of expansion when war threatens; and principally of Militia. "3. That our Militia never has been effectively organized or disciplined.

"4. That if there is a will, there is a way to remedy the defects of the present system, and to create an energetic, reliable force of citizen soldiers-a National Militia."

"National Lyrics. By John Greenleaf Whittier. With Illustrations by George C. White, H. Fenn, and Charles A. Barry." Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1865. Another of those beautiful little issues of "Companion Poets for the People," containing the National Lyrics of the Quaker poet. We need not praise them, for they are in everybody's hands; but let us simply remind our readers of old Barbara Freitchie, waving the Stars and Stripes in the eyes of Stonewall Jackson, as his army files through the streets of Frederick, and its effect upon that deluded but gallant soldier :

"The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;
Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on '-he said."

The illustrations are beautiful.

"Volunteer Quartermaster: Containing a Collection and Codification of the Laws, Regulations, Rules, and Practice governing the Quartermaster's Department of the United States Army, and in force May 9, 1865. By Captain Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Assistant Quartermaster U. S. Volunteers and Post Quartermaster at Washington." New York: D. Van Nostrand, 192 Broadway. 1865. 12mo, 289 pages. The title of this work is in itself a clear table of its contents. The plates describing the manner of erecting quarters, barracks, and hospitals, are clear and useful. The chapter on Army Allowances is a valuable one. That on Contracts

explains the manner in which they are made. The blank reports are arranged so as to make that very intricate matter simple and easy, and on the whole this work will do much to lighten the duties of quartermasters, which are characterized by the author as the most onerous, vexatious, and thankless of any in the service.

"The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events. 1860-'64. Parts XLVII, and XLVIII." New York: D. Van Nostrand, publisher, 192 Broadway. The Forty-seventh Part gives all the reports of Farragut's attack on the defences of Mobile, and the celebrated campaign of Chattanooga, the latter being continued in the Forty-eighth Part, which also contains the usual interesting and entertaining collection of poetry, anecdotes, and incidents. The portraits in the two numbers are of Brigadier-General Stark Peather and Major-General McCook (in the Fortyseventh), and of Major-General Sheridan and General Townsend (in the Fortyeighth). This latter officer, although not engaged in the field as he would have liked to be, has been of the greatest service at Washington, in charge, for most of the war, of the Adjutant-General's Department-a crushing work, which no one less skilled, systematic, laborious, and patient, could have performed so well. We have often said before, and we now reiterate, that every library and every family should have this Record, the most complete collectaneum of our war history.

The following article, from the British Army and Navy Gazette, of June 10, will have interest for West Point men:

"The second Report of the Council of Military Education, which has recently been issued, gives a satisfactory account of the state and progress of the general and scientific education of officers of the army. The Staff College at Sandhurst still consists of thirty students. Officers of the Royal Engineers are not now received, it being considered that their previous education and training are a sufficient preparation for the staff. No payment is required from students to the funds of the college. Only one officer at a time may be spared from a battalion for residence at the college. The applicant must have a certificate from his commanding officer of his competency, and must submit to a competitive examination for admission, and another examination at the end of the first year of residence, to ascertain whether he can remain at the college with fair prospect of ultimate success; but no case of rejection at this examination has yet occurred. The final examination is at the end of the second year. Of those who have been thus examined in the six years, seventy-nine have passed, and nine failed. The letters "P. S. C." are annexed in the Army List to the names of those who pass the final examination at the college. The course of instruction is made as practical as possible, and after quitting the college the officers are attached for a short time to other arms of the service, for the purpose of acquiring instruction in duties and field movements which are not common to their own. As a general rule, staff vacancies will be filled by officers who have passed the college; and, except in cases of proved ability in the field, direct staff appointments will cease eventually when the vacancies can be filled by officers who have passed through the Staff College. At present these officers are sufficiently numerous to, or nearly fill, the vacancies in the lower appointments of the general staff; but the college has not yet been established long enough to allow many of the officers who have passed successfully through it to obtain the higher staff appointments, as in general those officers are not yet of sufficient rank to hold them. But there is another very important sphere for the action of the Council of Military Education-namely, the examinations with a view to admission to the

VOL. IV.-17

Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and the examination with a view to commissions on quitting these institutions, besides the examination of candidates for direct commissions. The examiners generally report that since the institution of these examinations there has been a marked progress in education. It is scarcely possible (writes one gentleman who examined in English history and geography) to compare the ignorance shown by candidates in the earlier examinations with the information possessed by those who nowpresent themselves. In fact, some subjects, as English" and the experimental sciences, have risen almost from zero into subjects of education; and this has been accomplished without detriment to the more staple subjects of English education, classics, and mathematics. In classics a decided advance is noted, and, what is of great consequence in respect to the effect of that study as an educational instrument, it is noted more particularly in the grammar and composition. In mathematics a still more marked progress is witnessed. The same appears to be the case in French.' It is not only in respect to the generally less advanced candidates-namely, those for direct commissions and for Sandhurst—that educational improvement is observed, but also, and in a still more marked degree, in respect to the highly educated youths who present themselves for Woolwich. The testimony of the examiners is conclusive on this point; and thus there is good ground for believing that the great educational movement which the last few years have witnessed has already begun to show valuable results in respect to the education of one large branch of the public service, that of the officers of the army. There is reason to hope (say the Council) that with steady perseverance in the same path, with a careful watch kept on the part of the Council over the examinations, and above all by the continued employment, as examiners, of gentlemen of the highest reputation in the respective subjects of study, this progress will be maintained, and an important advance be made in the education of the country. The report shows that at the competitive examinations for admission to Woolwich, in the last six years, out of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two candidates examined, eight hundred and ninety-eight qualified; there has been much difficulty as to the disposal of a large number of cadets for whom, on leaving Woolwich Academy, there have been no immediate vacancies, but the establishment has been reduced from three hundred to two hundred cadets, and under no circumstances will a cadet, after finally passing. be kept longer than six months without a commission. In the six years at the final examinations, only one cadet finally failed; and of the four hundred and eight-six cadets who entered the first class, four hundred and eighty-five were pronounced qualified for commissions in the Royal Engineers or Royal Artillery. At Sandhurst, in the last three years, out of eight hundred and sixty-five examined for admission to the college, six hundred and ninety-six passed but the college not being yet at its full establishment, the failures are absolute, not relative. At the final examinations of 1861 and 1865 one hundred and forty-seven cadets obtained commissions in the army without purchase, exclusive of the commissions without purchase granted to the Queen's and Indian cadets who passed the qualifying ex amination. In the general examinations for direct commissions in the last five years, out of two thousand eight hundred and nine examined, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six qualified."