The Project Gutenberg eBook, Heroes of the Great Conflict; Life and
Services of William Farrar Smith, Major General, United States Volunteer
in the Civil War, by James Harrison Wilson

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Title: Heroes of the Great Conflict; Life and Services of William Farrar
Smith, Major General, United States Volunteer in the Civil War

Author: James Harrison Wilson

Release Date: December 23, 2004 [eBook #14429]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROES OF THE GREAT CONFLICT; LIFE
AND SERVICES OF WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH, MAJOR GENERAL, UNITED STATES
VOLUNTEER IN THE CIVIL WAR***

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HEROES OF THE GREAT CONFLICT; LIFE AND SERVICES OF WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH,
MAJOR GENERAL, UNITED STATES VOLUNTEER IN THE CIVIL WAR

A Sketch by

JAMES HARRISON WILSON, MAJOR GENERAL, U.S.V.

The John M. Rogers Press
Wilmington, Del.

1904

[Illustration]

William Farrar Smith, the subject of this sketch, graduated at West
Point in 1845, fourth in a class of forty-one members. He died at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of February, 1903 in his
seventy-ninth year.

The publication of the Rebellion Records puts within the reach of every
student the official reports of the various campaigns and battles of
the Great Conflict, but something more is needed. They deal but
slightly with men's motives, and still less with their personal
peculiarities. They give only here and there any idea whatever of the
origin of the plans of campaigns or battles and rarely any adequate
description of the topography of the theatre of war, or of the
difficulties to be overcome. They describe but superficially the
organization, equipment, armament and supply of the troops, and leave
their trials, hardships and extraordinary virtues largely to the
imagination. They are entirely silent as to the qualities and
idiosyncrasies of the leaders. Neither romance nor personal adventure
finds any place within their pages, and fine writing is entirely
foreign to their purpose. They are for the most