The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

40 THE MAINE BUGLE.
the great opportunities that come in hfe. This rare combina-
tion of human virtue, cultivated mind, and heroic bravery ied
to the favor of the gods in the distant past, and inspires the
gratitude of the people in these prosaic times of ours. If there
were demigods in days of yore, there were heroes in these later
days of internecine strife. There was as much honor, fidelity,
and fortitude displayed on the battle-fields of the Civil War as
in the conflicts over which history casts the glamour of its
romance and chivalry.
One of the most distinguished and meritorious characters
that this later period produced is Brevet Major-General Adel-
bert Ames, who was scarcely more than a boy at the beginning
of these days of storm and stress. This cultivated gentleman
and distinguished graduate of West Point, entertaining the
highest conception of duty to the cause of national unity, and
possessing a character that combined perfect self-possession,
chivalrous modesty, and courageous manhood, was endowed
with a high ortlcr of personal bravery and steadiness combined
with soundness of judgment that made him naturally and pre-
eminently a capable and aggressive leader. He was the beauideal
of a division commander, and as such there was ho more
efficient and gallant officer in the armies of the Union. Every
one who rode with him in battle soon discovered that Ames
never hesitated to take desperate chances under fire. He
seemed to have a life that was under some mystic protection.
Although he never permitted anything to stand in his way, and
never asked men to go where he would not go himself, still his
manner was always cool, calm, and gentlemanly. Under the
heaviest fire, when men and officers were being stricken down
around him, he would sit on his horse, apparently unmoved by
singing rifle-ball, shrieking shot, or bursting shell, and quietly
give his orders, which were invariably communicated in the
most polite way, and generally in the form of a request. I
often thought when I saw him under fire that if one of his legs
had been carried away by a round shot he would merely turn
to some officer or soldier near by and quietly say, " Will you
kindly assist me from my horse? "