Personal Recollections of Distinguished GeneralsShanks, William Franklin Gore
History
Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals
Shanks, William Franklin Gore
Generals -- United States; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Biography
There was good reason to be morose over this affair. The failure of
McPherson on the 9th of May made the campaign of Atlanta a necessity.
Had Logan, instead of Dodge, been in advance of McPherson's army on the
9th of May, there would have been no Hope Church affair, no Kenesaw
Mountain sacrifice, no battles on the Chattahoochee, or before Atlanta,
or at Jonesborough, for the campaign would have been ended, and Atlanta
captured at Resaca in the dispersion of Joe Johnston's army.
[Illustration: JOHN W. GEARY.]
Something of this same ability in execution which was developed in
Logan and the others to whom I have alluded characterized General John
W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, and few officers labored more zealously or
more effectively than he did. His adventurous disposition, developed
early in life, and leading him to a remarkably varied career, could
not be other than the result of a bold and daring nature, which led
him early to seek activity when he might have chosen a more passive
but less glorious life. His enthusiastic ardor for military life
rendered him in his youth an adept in all military matters, and led him
naturally into the military service of the country. He was built, too,
for a soldier, possessing a rare _physique_, his tall, burly figure
reminding one of Rousseau or Steedman. His adventurous career began
in Mexico, where, as colonel of the Second Pennsylvania, he served
with distinction under Scott, from Vera Cruz to the capital, suffering
wounds at Chepultepec and at the assault of the city of Mexico. After
the war, sighing, like Hooker, for the excitements of California, he
went to San Francisco, and was soon after appointed postmaster, and
subsequently elected mayor. President Pierce appointed him Governor of
Kansas, but Buchanan decapitated him on account of his adherence to
the person and principles of Douglas. He early entered the war for the
Union as Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, and fought
through each grade to the position of major general, winning a bright
reputation as a bold and unflinching fighter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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