ecrated by the virtues of the woman who made the White House the
happiest home in the land. Lucy Webb Hayes, who had been like a mother
to the soldiers of her husband's command, gave the social side of his
administration the grace and charm of her surpassingly wise and lovely
character. He never knew in his youth the poverty and hard work which
narrowed the early life of Grant and Garfield. He was born to comfort
and lived in greater and greater affluence; he had only to profit by his
opportunities, while they had to make theirs; but he did profit by them.
From school to college, and from college to the study of law, he passed
easily successful in all that he tried to do, and he always tried to do
his duty. Like Grant, he was of farther Scotch and nearer New England
origin, but the next most distinguished native of Delaware County was of
Dutch stock, as his name witnesses. William Starke Rosecrans was born
in 1819, and entered West Point when only fifteen years old. He was in
civil life when the war broke out in 1861, but of course he at once took
part in it, and fought through a series of most brilliant campaigns,
without one defeat, until the battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Even this
he won, but the trust President Lincoln had felt in him and expressed up
to the last moment was shaken by Rosecrans's enemies, and he was removed
from his command. He left the army with the rank of major general, and
he held afterwards places of high honor, but he felt that the wrong done
him was never atoned for. Twenty-five years after his removal he told
a meeting of his old comrades the touching story of how the stroke fell
and how he bore it. "It was at night that I received the order, and I
sent for General Thomas," who was to replace him, "He came to the tent
and took his seat. I handed him the letter. He read it and as he did so
his breast began to swell and he turned pale. He did not want to accept
the command, but we agreed on consideration that he must do so, and I
told him that I could not bear to meet my troops afterwards. 'I want to
leave,' I said, 'before the announcement is made, and I will start early
in the morning.' I packed up that night, and early in the morning,
about seven o'clock, I rode away through the fog that then hung over the
camp."

[Illustration: William Tecumseh Sherman 255]

William Tecumseh Sherman, who was born at Lancaster, Fairfield County,
in 1820, was like his comrade and beloved friend Grant in the