other respects, the earthly careers of Hooker and Kearny resembled those of the famous twin heroes of Greece. Both

were not destined always to appear together, and while Castor was subject to death like every other mortal, Polydeuces was to be immortal until his own course was likewise complete.

When a man has outlived ambition and attained all that he can reasonably expect, the utterances of his sincere convictions--founded upon comparison and experience - upon a close acquaintance with a subject and abundant opportunities of forming a judgment—are entitled to respect and confidence. Weighing all things in the balance, scrutinizing every fact which has a right to exercise an influence, I am convinced that the Third Corps, as this UNION understands IT, was THE FIGHTING CORPS of the Army of the Potomac, and consequently of all the armies of the Union. What corps was ever put in as it was? What corps was ever fought to pieces, wrought to pieces, and finally torn to pieces as it was? At last, when assassinated as a corps and dismembered, the fragments continued to shine as brilliantly, and conferred lustre on the stones with which they were newly set, just as a great diamond, like the Koh-i-noor, may be most extraordinary and therefore valuable in its entirety, but still can become even more striking for its brilliancy when divided or reduced in size, facetted or cut more artistically, and changed in setting. Down to the very last the men of the Diamond Badges did honor to the corps, division and brigade com

manders who led them into their first battle, most of whom have passed away; the last to pay the debt of nature being the chief who organized them-the brave and honest Heintzelman! Brigadiers Jameson, Birney and Berry, of Kearny's Division, died haloed with success; the last fell in retrieving what others had lost, at Chancellorsville.

Of the two divisionaries, Kearny died in assisting to achieve a victory-Chantilly, always underestimated through ignorance, although it saved Washington; while Hooker lived long enough to fill the fullest measure of a soldier's thirst for glory. Finally, in the rear, as befits the superior at a military funeral, the corps.commander closed the sion to the grave, full of years and complete in honor.

proces

In addressing civilians who have never looked upon the sublime spectacle of a severely contested battle, it may be necessary to resort to startling and extreme colors, and to subject these to a flood of light, to convey even an inadequate impression of the magnitude of the peril incurred or the magnificent courage requisite to rule and regulate and reign over it. To Soldiers, however, such as you, to Veterans, of whom many were baptised in fire and blood at Williamsburg, all in one or another crimson font of the Great American Conflict-the vastest and costliest in disciplined life which ever raged among civilized peoples; one which has been subjected to such investigation as no other struggle ever experienced, to a crucial test, indeed, which nothing but truth could stand without detection. To you, Members of the Third Army

Corps Union, it is only sufficient to recall the fact, as an appropriate eulogy and epitaph for Hooker, that he won and then held your admiration and possessed your esteem, both in the highest possible degree. This may seem a very cold, concise mode of expression, but is it not almost as strong as words can make it? Look in each others faces; think what you have gone through together! It is impossible among so many brave men to specify, to select examples when all are exemplars. Look in each others faces and put the question, what sort of a man must he have been to have won and kept with ever increasing intensity, your admiration? What kind of a man, indeed, was Hooker? He was a hero! He realized the conception of the English poet and dramatist, Frowde, in his "Philotas."

"When difficulties threat, the hero's mind

Swells in proportion to the menaced danger;
Fears and distrust, like phantoms fly, before him,
And vast ambition takes up all his soul."

Ambitious? Yes, Hooker was so, but what man with the secret fire of self-conscious greatness burning within him but is and ever has been so. Lincoln recognized the fact, but was not afraid, because he felt that our "Cæsar was ambitious," to entrust the Army of the Potomac to the hands of the General in whom he recognized an ambition which under the discipline of patriotism animates men to deeds that have astonished the world, and still resounds wherever the past is searched for examples.

This letter of Lincoln is so remarkable, that it is inserted here, although it should, perhaps, appear in a more proper place, in connection with the supersession of Burnside by Hooker.

MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER,

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 26, 1863.

GENERAL :-I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac.

Of course I have done this upon what appeared to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you.

I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of the Army you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command.

Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which

you have aided to infuse into the Army, of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it.

And now beware of rashness.

Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

Hooker came of the good old Puritan stock, which has furnished so many great soldiers to the Saxon world, and, strange to say, soldiers as brilliant and Paladins as fiery, as any thrown up by the most excitable races, to whom the "splendid" in soldiership has been considered a peculiar attribute. His youth gave no indications of his subsequent career. It is said that he was intended for the church. Many other great generals have been reared in the fond hope that they would shine in the pulpit and not in the saddle. The effect of this early training followed him to West Point, and is said to have influenced a part of his course at the National Academy. When, however, he shook off the effects of home, he became at once what you, comrades, have known him. It is useless to repeat what is set forth in full in his official "Statements of Service," and recount the mere details of his early military life. He belonged to the class which was graduated in 1837-a class which, while it furnished a gene