Ix has been said, with some justice, that our ideas
of is grande guerre, based as they are upon recent experiences, are very likely to lead us into error. For views which are exaggeratedly South African a study of the American War of Secession will be found to provide a wholesome corrective. The struggle with the two small South African Republica was vital to the safety of the Empire, and both in this sense, and by reason of the appalling cost incurred, it may rightly be classed among the big wars of history. But it has no claim to be so regarded when contrasted with a series of campaigns which cost over two thousand pitched battles and a casualty Bat in killed and wounded totalling lialf-a.mill' ion for each of the opposing armies. When Coleus° cost us a paltry twelve hundred casualties our military operations in Natal came to a dead halt, and we found ourselves face to face with a national crisis. The Federals at Cold Harbour lost thirteen thousand men in fifteen minutes, and the effect upon the course of the campaign was inappreciable. Again, while in South Africa the war necessitated the employment of some tatto hundred and fifty thousand Regulars, supplemented by nearly half as many Irregular troops, in the American Civil War practically all the men and most of the regimental officers were Volunteers, the large majority of whom bad had no previous war train- ing at all. To those who agree with the Spectator in advo- cating a large Home Army of partially trained troops as the only practicable Reserve for big wars, the record of these cam- paigns provides invaluable evidence as to the merits and de- merits of armies so composed. Regarded from this point of view, the reminiscences of a Georgian gentleman who made his first acquaintance with soldiering when he joined the Confederate Army as a Volunteer in 1861, and after successively com- manding a regiment, a brigade, and a division, ended in 1865, and at the ego of thirty-three, as the youngest corps com- mander in America, cannot fail to be of interest.
John B. Gordon was in 1861 elected Captain of the com- pany of "Racoon Roughs," which he raised among the miners of Alabama. Like some other patriots we have beard of, the Racoon Roughs, who were originally mounted, were met by an official reply, "No cavalry needed,' and so were finally incorporated, with Gordon as Major, in the 6th Alabama Regiment of Infantry. Gordon was present at Bull Run (July 21st, 1861), and was in command of his regiment, and even temporarily of Rodes's brigade, during the battle of Seven Pines. He served under Roder; in Early's division of Ewell's corps in the abortive invasion of Maryland. During the retreat he was specially mentioned in Lee's despatches for distinguished gallantry in the words, "that Christian hero, General Gordon, excelled himself"; and at the battle of Sharps. burg he refused to leave the field, although he had received five wounds. He was in hospital during the battle of Fredericks- burg, but bad a brigade at Chancellorsville (May 2nd-3rd, 1863), where Lee defeated Hooker, but Stonewall Jackson was killed. In the subsequent fighting round Fredericks- burg he wrested Maryea Hill from the enemy, which had been lost by a Confederate general, who waited for the approach of an unauthorised flag of truce (instead of which the Federal troops came up to the charge). This was ap- parently a great exploit. He is also several times mentioned in despatches as a useful man in a tight corner, always ready to sacrifice himself to help others out. He was present at Gettysburg, the turning-point of the war (July Ist3rd, 1863), with that part of Ewell's advance which was halted too soon. In his Beminiscenees he backs the opinion, which is generally established, that Lee would have won Gettysburg if Long. street had obeyed orders. In January, 1864, we find him • Brotinivosoos of au Cara War, By General John B. Gordon. London: A. Constable and Co. Lida W.] We have thought it well to supply tho above outline of a distinguished career as a supplement to a book which is notable for the absence of any real account of the high services which the writer performed. Eminent generals, as a rule, when writing of their campaigns, give the public a very good idea of their own importance. These Reminiscences, on the other hand, say almost nothing about the writer as a general, and would be disappointing to a student who wished to follow his campaigns. Their interest lies rather in their portrayal of the reflections of a thoughtful soldier, in their humour, their pathos, above all, in the light they throw upon what we may call the psychology of war.
General Gordon's narrative is full of allusions to the religious revivals which, as he puts it, form "a most remark- able and impressive chapter of war history" :— "Jackson," he writes, "fought while praying and prayed while planning. Lee's heart was full of supplication in battle, while his lips were silent. In sunshine sad storm, in victory and in defeat, his heart turned to God. The religious revivals in tho Southern camp banished all unworthy passions, .plepared the soldiers for more heroin enduranosi lifted them in • measure In a word, General Gordon claims that the conduct of the Southern troops—and, we would add, his own record— "furnish an eloquent and crushing rebuke to the Duke of Wellington's dictum that 'A man of Christian sensibilities is totally unfit for the position of a soldier.'"
The following anecdote will illustrate the blending of earnestness with humour which is typical of the Southern soldier, and remind us of an old story about Complines
:-
"At a point where the left of A. P. 11111'8 corps touched the right of mine, a threatened attack brought together for counsel a number of officers from each command. After taking counsel as to the proper disposition of troops for resisting attack, we with- drew to a small log hut near by and united in prayer to Almighty God for His guidance. As we assembled, one of our generals was riding by. . . . . . General Beth called to him to come in and unite with us in prayer. The officer did not understand the nature of General Beth's invitation, and replied, 'No, thank you, General ; no more at present, I've just had some !'"
Here, again, is the prayer of a Confederate soldier; "Oh Lord, we are having a mighty big fight down here and a sight of trouble ; and we do hope, Lord, that you will take a proper view of the situation and give us the victory." Charming, too, is the story of the mortally wounded soldier-boy who, when asked by the Southern damsel, "Will you let me pray for you ? I hope Jam one of the Lord's daughters, and I would like to ask Him to help you?" looked intently into her bewitching face, and replied : " Yes ; pray at once, and ask the Lord to let me be His son-in-law."
If the style of this capital book, which is a great deal more than readable, is rather "high-falutin'," we feel that the writer's love for purple passages is so perfectly genuine that it only gives us the juster idea as to the manner of men that he and his gallant Southern comrades were. We cannot conclude this notice without recording our admiration of the conduct of Mrs. Gordon, who was with her husband during practically the whole campaign. Women, in General Early's opinion, "would make a grand brigade if it was not for the snakes and spiders." General Gordon somewhat ungallantly declares that his wife, though quite unmoved by whizzing shot and shell, "will precipitately fly from a bat." At the same time, he gives us Early's verdict that "General Gordon, madam, is a better soldier when you are close by him than when you are away," a verdict with which we heartily concur.
The final picture is dramatic enough. It is that of the General with his wife, and in personal charge of their infant child—" a situation more trying to me in some respects than the one from which I had just been relieved at Appomattox "—finding his slow way homewards over broken railroads and through ruined country ; and before him, as before the heroes of Zola's Debacle, " toute une nouvelle France retake." That task is now complete, and to-day the great Republic knows no more devoted citizen than Senator John B. Gordon.
A BRIEF FOR BRITISH MAMMALS.*
IN the first warm days of spring our British mammals are snore in evidence than at any other time of the year. Some of them, like the badger and hedgehog, awaken and come forth from their winter's sleep at the summons of the sun, and the latter may be seen wandering by daylight, industriously seeking slugs and snails to assuage the hunger begotten of six months' gradual waste, even with the fires of life "banked" at the most economical rate of consumption. The hares leave their forms and canter over the open fellows and seed-fields making love; the bats take themselves down from the hooks by which they have been hanging under church-roof beams, or creep out from the holes in the belfry timber where they have been lying in a cold and death-like sleep, and flit eagerly before dusk in pursuit of the spring broods of gnats and moths; the rats migrate to the hedge-banks to dig holes and rear their young among the primrose-roote and hedge-bottoms ; the squirrels at the very earliest dawn scamper round the garden paths and scratch up the crocue.bulbs; • British Kanonalr. Living and Extinct. By Sir Harry Johnston, K.C.11.0. With IS Coloured Plates. 32 Platen from Photographs and Drawing., and ISCI Illustrations. London: Ilutchinson and CO. [IE& Cd. net.] This spring appearance of the British beasts before settling down to family life for the summer always awakens fresh curiosity as to their history and habits. In Sir Harry John- ston's handsome volume dealing with the subject the reader will find an answer to many of the questions which naturally arise as to their life, history, and origin, and a real enthusiasm for the subject with which he deals. The author very frankly admits that beauty and sentiment are in a large measure what attract him, and is prepared to interest as well as to instruct. If in some parts he is not cptite in accordance with accepted views as to disputed facts of the history or classification of the creatures with which he deals, in others he writes very fully, and with great independence, relying on recent and personal observation rather than on quotation from previous writers, whose notes have been transferred into the books of one compiler after another until they have become commonplaces, and those not always accurate. He has also made a bold attempt to paint and reproduce in colour many of our mammals in natural positions and surroundings, and though the result is not uniformly successful, the plates are always original in spirit and design, and sometimes exceptionally good, as, for instance, those of a wild cat, and of the water-voles on the boughs of a willow-bush rising from the water among water-lilies. Be has also followed the course originally indicated by Sir Richard Owen, and adopted by Sir William Flower when in charge of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, of picking up the lost links in the chain by including in his notice the animals extinct since the Pleistocene age. It cannot be admitted that in dealing with these be is as clear as might be wished. The great difference between the climate and surface of the islands in the early part of the Pleistocene period, when the mammalian fauna of England was like that of Northern Africa, the Mediterranean basin, and Northern India, and the subsequent Glacial sub-periods, and again, between the climate of either of those periods and the conditions of to-day, is not kept before the reader's mind. Consequently it might be inferred that the creatures of the first and second periods were contemporaneous and occupied the same ground, or that the saiga antelope, the suelik (a Siberian prairie dog), or the Northern reindeer might naturally be living here to-day, as the beaver and wolf might be, if the country were =inhabited. All recent efforts to keep reindeer even tame for use as draught animals in this country have failed. Neither does the elk survive for any time.
In the notices of the typical animals dealt with the reader is certain to find matter of interest, though he will often encounter statements with which he will be inclined to dis- agree. Writing of the white whale, a small species, two of which were at different times brought alive to England, but both of which speedily died, Sir Harry Johnston notes that one was captured in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and kept in captivity. It became quite tame, and allowed itself to be harnessed to a floating car in which a female performer was seated
"It recognised its keeper, and allowed itself to be handled, and at the proper time would come and put its head out of the water to be harnessed, or take food. This beluga was of a very playful disposition. It would take into its mouth a sturgeon and a small shark which were confined in the same tank, and after playing with them awhile, allow them to go unharmed. It would also pick up and toss about stones with its mouth."
The one large carnivorous cetacean in our seas, the grampus or killer, is credited with great destruction, both of young seals, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as with attacking the whale. Its teeth are somewhat blunt, and set at some distance apart. Possibly the muscles for " working " the jaw which holds these weapons are exceptionally strong, but it would be interesting to know what is the mechanism which enables
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