artisanship never will.

Truth will get written some day. I myself prefer to write as an
American, forgetting North and South, and to pass down to those who
will write better than any of us, as one who tried to speak the truth,
whomsoever it struck. It is not I who criticise, who condemn Joseph
Hooker: it is the maxims of every master, of every authority on the
art of war. Not one of Hooker's apologists can turn to the history of a
master's achievements, or to a volume of any accepted authority, without
finding his pet commander condemned, in every action, and on every page,
for the faults of the fighting days at Chancellorsville.

It was assumed on Fast Day that one should criticise only what he saw.
I have never understood that Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire" is any the less good because he did not live in the first few
centuries of the Christian era, or that Jomini could write any less
well of Frederick than of Napoleon. Service certainly helps a man in his
researches or work, but it only helps. The best critic may be one who
never served. I think I was the first officer to whom the Secretary of
War permitted free use of the rebel archives for study. I have had good
opportunities. How I have used them, I leave to others to say. It is
easy to capture a meeting of honest-hearted veterans by such lamentable
prestidigitation as was exhibited on Fast Day, and to pass any
resolutions desired, by appealing to their enthusiasm. I prefer to be
judged by the sober after-thought of men who are neither partisans,
nor ready to warp facts or make partial statements to sustain their
theories.

THEODORE A. DODGE.
BOSTON, April 10, 1886.

Transcriber's Appendix: Transcription notes:

The first edition of this book was published in 1881. The author's
appendix was added in the second edition, in 1886, which is the source
for this etext.

The following modifications were applied while transcribing the
printed book to e-text:

chapter 4
- table on p 19, fixed typo ("McGown", should be "McGowan")

chapter 12
- p 71, para 1, fixed typo ("inititate")

chapter 18
- p 111, para 1, fixed typo ("Pleasanton")

chapter 27
- p 180, para 1, fixed "the the"

Limitations imposed by converting to plain ASCII:
- The words "manoeuvre", "manoeuvres" and "manoeuvring" are printed in
the book using the "oe" ligature. The te