21 FEBRUARY 1891, Page 2

General Sherman, recently the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army,

died on Saturday, the 14th inst. If not absolutely the ablest officer engaged in the Civil War, he was far the most original, surpassing even General Grant in the audacity of his plans, and the success with which, in fulfilling them, he used huge masses of men. His "march into space" -with 100,000 men, the march from the interior to the South. Eastern seaboard which turned the South inside-out and prac- tically ended the war, was so brilliant a conception that Europe at first pronounced it a folly. Shortly after the conclusion of the war, a letter was shown us in which General Sherman remarked that the only journal which had accurately divined the object of that march was the London Spectator, and asked the name of the writer of the articles upon the subject. It was the late Mr. George Hooper, the military historian, who took a profound interest in the "only people's war ever waged in regular fashion," and brought to its study not only his wide knowledge of campaigns, but his singular grasp of military topography on the great scale. So far as we know, there is no civilian writer now left who possesses anything like his insight into the motive of the complex com- binations rendered needful by the huge scale of modern war.