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his dead companion in arms, was perhaps the most emphatic that ever came from his moderate and careful He wrote: pen. An official report is not an appropriate place for more than a passing notice of the distinguished dead; but the close relation which Gen. Ashby bore to my command, for most of the previous twelve months, will justify me in saying that, as a partisan officer, I never knew his superiour. His daring was proverbial, his powers of endurance almost incredible, his tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy."

The obsequies of Gen. Ashby were celebrated at Charlottesville, Virginia. The services were performed by the Rev. Mr. Norton and Rev. Mr. Avery-the latter Chaplain in Ashby's cavalry from the opening of the war. Both spoke of the deceased in terms of high praise as a man, a soldier, and a Christian. The brave soldiers wept as they listened to the pious exhortations of the clergymen. They had lost much in Gen. Ashby, but they were exhorted to imitate him in all things, and especially in his - veneration and respect for Christianity. The country looked to them for deeds of greater valour than had ever yet been accomplished by them; and there, on the dead body of their late commander, they were called upon to swear not to sheathe their swords. while a hostile army polluted the soil of Virginia and the South. After the services in the chapel the remains were conveyed to the University cemetery and committed "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,"-the Professors of the University assisting in the ceremony. It was thought appropriate that here the tomb of Ashby should remain, a memorial to the generous youth of Virginia gathered at the State University, to learn not only the lore of the scholar, but the virtues and patriotism which adorn manhood and perfect citizenship.

In this brief memoir of the services of Gen. Ashby, there is no pretence that he was a great military man; and we have already suggested his defects in this regard. He had no idea of the principles of military subordination or order; he never had onehalf of his command well in hand; and his exploits were all performed with a few hundreds, or often scores, of men who followed him from personal devotion rather than the force of discipline. The chief interest of his life attaches to his peculiar representation

of the orave and cultivated manhood of the South. He was the glass of chivalry; the perfection of courage; a noble and pure example of all the virtues of the citizen. The qualities which he displayed in modern war are as admirable now as in the days of Froissart's Chronicles. "No coarse excess soiled for a moment the maidenly delicacy of his morals; no plunder ever stained his hands; nor did woman, nor disarmed enemy, ever meet anything but magnanimous kindness from him." Remembered by his countrymen tenderly; honoured by the enemy whom he fought with untarnished sword, no man in the South has happier memory, or sleeps more sweetly in the soldier's grave.

"He was Freedom's champion; one of those,
The few in numbers, who had not o'er-stept
The charter to chastise which she bestows

On such as wield her weapons. He had kept

The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept."

LIEUT-GEN. LEONIDAS POLK.

CHAPTER LIV.

Exchange of the Bishopric of Louisiana for a military command.-Reasons why Bishop Polk resigned his holy calling for arms.-Reflections on the ethics of war.Bishop Polk a graduate of West Point.-Adventures as a Missionary Bishop in Western wilds.-Flatboat-men and gamblers.-Gen. Polk wins the victory of Belmont.-A serious accident.-Battle of Shiloh.-The battle of Perrysville fought under Gen. Polk's direction.-His adventure with an Indiana Colonel.-Interesting incident in the battle of Murfreesboro.-Gen. Polk's conduct at Chickamauga-Censured by Gen. Bragg.-Transferred to command in the Southwest.-He frustrates Sherman's expedition. - Returned to the Army of Tennessee.-His death at Marietta.-Anecdotes illustrative of his character.

WHEN in the commencement of the war, proclaimed by the South in the interest of liberty and independence, it was announced that Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, had resolved to suspend his holy calling and accept a military command as Major-General in the Confederate service, an event so extraordinary made a great impression on the popular mind, while it was variously commented upon by the clerical public. While some of the latter warmly commended the act, and saw in it nothing inconsistent with the Christian profession, there were others who looked upon it as a lapse from duty, and thought the bishop's robe ill-exchanged for the uniform of the soldier. The venerable Bishop Meade, of Virginia, perhaps the most conspicuous Episcopal divine of the country, suggested the impropriety of the act, and wrote a fraternal letter to Bishop Polk, reminding him that he already had a commission in a very different army, to which he should still hold allegiance; but Polk replied, that while he accepted the major-generalship, he did not intend to resign his right to the bishopric. When,"

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said he, "I accept a commission in the Confederate army, I not only perform the duties of a good citizen, but contend for the principles which lie at the foundation of our social, political, and religious polity." In subsequent letters and conversations he pleaded his justification more strongly; he appeared to regard it as a commanding duty and a special call that he should join in fighting the battles of his country; and yet in the hard and perilous tasks of the field he never ceased to anticipate joyfully the time when, released from this duty, he might resume his religious charge, and go back to the quiet walks of his life. It was the impulse of duty, of necessity, of self-preservation, rather than the transport of enthusiasm that carried him to the field of battle. He remarked to a friend, only a short time before his death: "I feel like a man who has dropped his business when his house is on fire, to put it out; for as soon as the war is over, I shall return again to my sacred calling." The fond anticipation was never realized, and he sleeps in a soldier's grave.

The course of Bishop Polk in giving to his country the benefit of his military skill and learning was commended by a majority of the Southern clergy, and was acclaimed by the people as a sort of sanctification of their struggle with despotism and oppression. There is no doubt that it was peculiarly and abundantly sustained by the justice of the cause and the exigencies of the country. The circumstance of his early education as a soldier gave additional propriety to his assumption of martial duty; and Gen. Polk had, doubtless, reason to thank God that he had been trained to combat in the armies of men, as well as to contend in the cause of his Redeemer. He maintained the Confederate cause as a righteous one; and, at the head of a large and devoted body of men, he prepared to battle with the wicked and malignant spirits who warred upon the peace, happiness, and indisputable rights of the Southern people.

Much has been written on the ethics of war; and if we introduce some reflections on it here, it is not because the subject is new, but because we believe it to be misunderstood from the very excess of cant and sermonizing on the subject. It is to be observed that we have had in the South but little of that sickly whine that war is impious, that it is an exaggeration of murder and other crimes, and that men should pray for the world to be

governed by peace conventions. But war, civilized war, is not this horrible thing-its proper impersonation not the frightful giant,

"His blood-red tresses deepening in the sun,

With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands."

True, war may be degraded to a system of beastly ferocity, ravaging the fair earth, invading the homes of women and children with the firebrand, and carving out with its unsightly arms the rewards of the plunderer and assassin. This may be war as the North made it when it smoked the fat of the land, struck at every blade of grass in the South, destroyed twelve hundred churches, and fired tens of thousands of homes; and this may be what Gen. Sherman meant in the brutal and absurd definition: "war is cruelty."

But no! war, honourable war is beautiful! It is the noble exercise of manhood; it is the expression of human progress; it is the purification and economy of the human race, ordained of God since the world has stood.

Strike from the records of the human race war, and all that relates to war, and what a blank-what a dreary tract of commonplaces-would there be! The most splendid pages would be lost; virtues for which there would have been no occasion would be unknown; a thousand graces would never have bloomed; the most brilliant parts of literature would be extinguished; the most fruitful themes of genius and art would not exist; the Iliad would never have been written; the noblest texts of Shakspeare's dramas would have been wanting; in short, by far the better half of the glory and interest of history would be annihilated. This is a plain test, and any one may use his scissors on history to determine how little would be left of its charms and glories if there were no wars.

Let us imagine in a general way that state of things in which there was no war. Nations would degenerate into herds of cowards, eaten up with selfish lusts, timid, emasculated, without even schools of physical exercise. Honour would have no place in our vocabulary, and Courage would be the idlest of ornaments. Those who would have us immolate our manhood do not reflect that such a condition is shown to be productive only of cunning, vice,