in what were considered as the best schools, under Vere, in the Netherlands, and Gustavous Adolphus, in Germany, displayed far less skill than those commanders who had been born to peaceful employments, and never saw even a skirmish until the civil war broke out. Cromwell never fought a battle without gaining a victory; he never gained a victory without annihilating the force opposed to him." . . . " In what respect does Cromwell, who never drew a sword till upwards of forty, yield to any of these famous commanders? And how immeasurably superior to them all is he as an improver of victory?"
I would not by this disparage military education. I would not, if I could, disturb a single leaf in the laurel crowns which decorate so justly the heads of those whom nature and education have combined to make great generals. I do not concur in the sentiment so often expressed, that "the Confederacy died of West Point"; but I do believe that many a brilliant citizen soldier was neglected, and his usefulness paralyzed, if not destroyed, by the West Point influence which barred the doors to promotion. General Joseph E. Johnston, considered by many the first of Confederate generals, has said, "if Forrest had been an educated soldier no other Confederate general would have been heard of," and yet the treatment of Forrest furnishes a striking example of what I have said.
THE THIRD RAID INTO WEST TENNESSEE.
In the first week of March, 1864, a small brigade of Kentucky infantry, seven hundred effective, under General Buford, was turned over to Forrest to be mounted, and General Buford assigned to command of his Second division. Forrest, ever anxious to be moving, determined at once to move into West Tennessee and Kentucky, to annoy the enemy and recruit his command, especially his new Kentucky brigade. In ten days he mounted his new brigade, and on the 15th of March commenced his movement, which resulted in the capture of Union City, with four hundred and seventy-five prisoners, with their arms, ammunition and three hundred horses; the attack on Paducah, where a large quantity of supplies were obtained, and his Kentucky brigade increased to seventeen hundred fighting men; the route of a Federal regiment at Bolivar, and the capture of Fort Pillow. This last fight, for political purposes, has been, by false testimony, and I believe willful perjury, represented as a bloody massacre. The willful and malicious assaults of a partisan press, who have recently revived these slanders for partisan ends, has called forth from Dr. Fitch, of Iowa, who was the Union surgeon at Fort Pillow, a complete vindication of the Confederates, which has been published in your Monthly Papers, and as I have recently published a statement on this subject, I will not detain you now with its repetition. You will pardon me, however, for saying that I regarded one of my highest duties in life well performed when, as a representative in Congress, I placed on the records of the country a refutation of this infamous slander
