ce,
self-sacrifice, and ambition--qualities which, be it said for the honor
of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of
America. But from his graduation at Williams, onward to the hour of his
tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly
working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when
twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into
conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively
President of a College, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General of the Army
of the United States and Representative-elect to the National Congress.
A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief
and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history
of the country.

"Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than
such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his
march to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regiment,
the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume
command of a brigade, and to operate as an independent force in eastern
Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey
Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of
occupying, in connection with other Confederate forces, the entire
territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into secession.
This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young
college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and discouraging
position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it
himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of
men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country,
among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force under
the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen
active and important service in two preceding wars.

"The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the
endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he
imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted
to increase his force, and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated
estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall,
the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force, and the
emancipation of an important territory from the control of the
rebellion. Coming at