eral of his intention, but the hurried night-march and the battle prevented him from fulfilling his promise. The night after the fight he took out the flask, saw that the contents were all right, and that the cork was tight and firm; then placing it under his head, he lay down on the bare ground and slept as the tired soldier only can sleep. The dawn found him on his feet and examining his flask. The cork was in place just as on the night before, but the inside was as dry as the sand in the desert of Sahara. The two officers met some hours after, when the following conversation took place:

GENERAL E.: Well, Burnside is gone, and I am thirsty.

FRIEND: General, I am sorry to tell you that I put your flask under my head last night, and on looking at it this morning the cork was all right, but the whiskey was all gone.

GENERAL E. (in his most sawlike tones): Jerusalem! were you drinking all night?

FRIEND: Ah! General, we are so apt to judge others by ourselves.

On the close of the war Gen. Early's course of individual action was as characteristic as ever. He had always said that he never again should live under the rule of the Yankees. As soon as he was able to ride, the obstinate, bitter old man, who, since his wound at Williamsburg in 1862 had seldom mounted his horse without assistance, bade farewell to Virginia, and went to seek a home in foreign lands. With his pistols in his holsters, and with one or two companions, he journeyed on horseback from Virginia to Texas, running the gauntlet the whole way, but undisturbed, except at the crossing of the Mississippi. The design of this journey Gen. Early declares was "to join the army of Gen. Kirby Smith, should it hold out, with the hope of at least meeting an honourable death, while fighting under the flag of my country." In crossing the river he lost his riding-horse, bridle and saddle. But those who captured them did not know whose they were, and the General had a led-horse with which he managed to continue his retreat. Arriving undiscovered in Texas, he found the Confederate cause lost; remained there three months, and escaped thence by way of Galveston to the Bahama Banks, where he landed in a settlement composed chiefly of negroes, and was compelled to remain for nine

days, "hobnobbing with gentlemen of African descent." He then managed to get to Nassau, whence he went to Havana, and thence to Mexico. He remained at the Mexican capital three months, holding himself entirely aloof from the government of Maximilian, because he had no sympathy with it, and did not believe it had strength enough to sustain itself. He then returned to Havana, and went to Canada.

In his exile Gen. Early has written an interesting memoir of his last campaign, from which we have drawn a number of facts contained in this sketch. There is something peculiarly melancholy in the condition of this unrelenting and unsurrendered "rebel" wandering sulkily and secretly from the ancient Commonwealth of Virginia, which he loved more than his life, and choosing exile in foreign lands, until the few days left him are entirely numbered. But the picture is not without a severe dignity. Gen. Early has made a sacrifice of self, however mistaken the necessity or consideration for the crucifixion of his love. He remains in exile, while some of those who reviled him for his opposition to secession have been duly pardoned, and are restored to home and fortune, and others have quitted the impoverished South to enjoy the ease of Northern cities.

31

MAJ.-GEN. GUSTAVUS W. SMITH.

CHAPTER XLII.

His family in Kentucky.-He serves in the Mexican war.-Complimentary notices from Gen. Scott.-Appointed Street Commissioner of New York.-Resigns, visits Kentucky, and accepts a Major-Generalship in the Confederate service. His slight record in the war.-His resignation.-Injustice of President Davis.-Volunteer services of Gen. Smith in the latter period of the war.

GUSTAVUS W. SMITH was born on the first day of January, 1822, near Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, and is a cousin of John C. Breckinridge. His parents were both natives of the same county. His grand-parents, paternal and maternal, removed from Eastern Virginia to Kentucky in the time of Daniel Boone, when the red men still disputed with the whites for possession of their favourite hunting-ground-the far-famed "Blue Grass District." He was by lineage, education and habits a thorough Kentuckian.

Through the influence of Colonel Richard M. Johnson, then Vice-President of the United States, who was the close neighbour and life-long personal and political friend of Rodes Smith, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Gustavus W. Smith was appointed a cadet, and entered the United States Military Academy in 1838. At the end of six months, he had established a reputation for ability of no ordinary degree, and was placed first in mathematics in a class reported to be equal, if not superiour, to any ever graduated at West Point.

On leaving the Military Academy in 1842, he was appointed a lieutenant in the United States Corps of Engineers. In 1846, although still a second-lieutenant, and low on the list, because of

the slow promotion in that celebrated corps, he was selected by the chief-engineer, and ordered upon duty as senior lieutenant of the company of "sappers and miners," or engineer soldiers, then being recruited and organized.

In the Mexican war Smith served as second-lieutenant, and at the age of twenty-five won for himself the reputation of being one of the best officers in the American army. The records of Congress, in regard to the war with Mexico, abound in notices of the gallantry and skill of the young officer. At the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco and Chapultepec, and at the attack on San Cosmo Garita, and in the bloody street-fighting within the city, the name of G. W. Smith is conspicuously mentioned in the official dispatches of Gen. Scott, and by Gens. Worth, Twiggs, and others.

He was three times brevetted for skill, gallantry, and distinguished conduct upon the field of battle-at Cerro Gordo, at Cherubusco, and at the city of Mexico. Gen. Scott often bore testimony to his high character and professional ability. In an official letter, he said: "In conclusion, I will add, that I have never known a young officer so often or so highly distinguished as Captain Smith was during the war with Mexico."

After the Mexican war Capt. Smith served for several years as principal assistant professor of engineering and the art of war, in the United States Military Academy. He was stationed at West Point on this duty at the time he resigned from the army, in December, 1854. He came to the city of New York in October, 1856, and was engaged soon after as Chief-Engineer of the Trenton Iron Company. He held various other important and responsible positions, and was associated in business relations with men of the highest position and standing in this community. In 1858, under the administration of Mayor Tiemann, he became connected with the city government; and, as Street Commissioner of New York, he showed himself as competent to discharge the duties of a civil, executive, and administrative officer, as he had previously done those of a soldier and engineer.

When, with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, war burst upon the country with all its startling reality, Capt. Smith was still in New York, holding a lucrative position. He was popular; he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of a large circle of

influential and respectable people; and there was no position, either civil or military, to which he might not have honourably aspired. His native State, Kentucky, had not yet seceded; and he might have joined "the Union army," as it was profanely called, and not have been liable to the charge of infidelity to his State, according to the Southern code. But the conscientious choice of the man was different.

In August, 1861 (after the battle of Manassas had been fought), Capt. Smith made his way to Kentucky. When, in the preceding winter, the legislature of that State, by an almost unanimous vote, declared that the seceded States should not be coerced into the Union, Capt. Smith was looked to as the chosen military leader of Kentucky. When he returned to the State he found that a majority of the people had been deceived and betrayed; and he immediately determined not to be enchained with her, even temporarily, under the rule of the Federals. He therefore left Kentucky, and, on reaching Nashville, offered his services to the President of the Confederate States, stating that he had left the North, and come back to the South, with the intention of sharing her destiny. A few days afterwards he proceeded to Richmond, and, without application on his part, upon the recommendation of the two Johnstons and Beauregard, was by the President appointed a Major-General.

The record of Gen. Smith in the war was brief, but it was not without some brilliant passages; and he was giving promises of great distinction when his career was suddenly cut off by the fiat of the powers in Richmond. He was, at first, appointed commander of the second corps of the Army of the Potomac, whilst Beauregard commanded the first, and Joseph E. Johnston the army. This distribution of commands, however, appears to have been ill-defined, and to have been productive of some jealousies. In the celebrated retreat from Centreville, Gen. Smith commanded the left wing of Johnston's army; he was again conspicuous in command of the rear-guard and left wing in the movement from Yorktown back upon Richinond; and on the battle-field of Seven Pines, where Johnston was wounded, he succeeded to the chief command of the army. Within twentyfour hours, however, Gen. Lee was appointed its regular commander. Soon after Gen. Smith was assigned a separate com