as he shouted to his troops, 'Come on!'"

Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear! How little that good, old man knew about
war. If he had known anything about war, he ought to have known what any
soldier in this audience knows is true, that it is next to a crime for
an officer of infantry ever in time of danger to go ahead of his men. I,
with my shining sword flashing in the sunlight, shouting to my troops:
"Come on." I never did it. Do you suppose I would go ahead of my men to
be shot in the front by the enemy and in the back by my own men? That is
no place for an officer. The place for the officer is behind the private
soldier in actual fighting. How often, as a staff officer, I rode down
the line when the Rebel cry and yell was coming out of the woods,
sweeping along over the fields, and shouted, "Officers to the rear!
Officers to the rear!" and then every officer goes behind the line of
battle, and the higher the officer's rank, the farther behind he goes.
Not because he is any the less brave, but because the laws of war
require that to be done. If the general came up on the front line and
were killed you would lose your battle anyhow, because he has the plan
of the battle in his brain, and must be kept in comparative safety. I,
with my "shining sword flashing in the sunlight." Ah! There sat in the
hall that day men who had given that boy their last hard-tack, who had
carried him on their backs through deep rivers. But some were not there;
they had gone down to death for their country. The speaker mentioned
them, but they were but little noticed, and yet they had gone down to
death for their country, gone down for a cause they believed was right
and still believe was right, though I grant to the other side the same
that I ask for myself. Yet these men who had actually died for their
country were little noticed, and the hero of the hour was this boy. Why
was he the hero? Simply because that man fell into that same
foolishness. This boy was an officer, and those were only private
soldiers. I learned a lesson that I will never forget. Greatness
consists not in holding some office; greatness really consists in doing
some great deed with little means, in the accomplishment of vast
purposes from the private ranks of life; that is true greatness. He who
can give to this people better streets, better homes, better schools,
better churches, more religion, more of happiness, more of God, he that
can be a blessing to the community in which