A BM/OT Gkrural \V. II. <'. H'A//;/ v /. 277
,iiid made it possible for Grant to be afterward President of the United Stairs. Colonel Frank Schallrr, now no more, told me that \vhrn Bragg received the order to retire from the cowering enrmv and harmlrss gunboat fire, his indignation was boundless, and, in a fury, he broke his sword across his knees. It is strange that this saiur ( irnrral should, by any fault of his, have subsequently per- iniitrd the intrepid Whiting to be defeated and virtually slain.
COLONEL SCHALLER.
Right here I desire to pay a tribute to my dear friend, Colonel Frank Schaller. He was, in a large degree, the equal of General Whiting in thr range and profundity of his gifts and acquirements. He was a highly trained soldier, a classic and scientific scholar, a writer of the first order, a man of almost prophetic insight, and an adept in all physical equipment or martial exercises. Long before the event, he wrote an editorial for me in an Augusta paper, pre- dicting the downfall of Louis Napoleon, and reciting analytically the causes of that memorable overthrow. He showed, with mastery and seership, that this monarch was, when advancing to Italian victory, also marching to Sedan, and Parisian revolution, as Mr. Ropes dem- onstrates, long after the event, that the First Napoleon, when pro- gressing towards Austerlitz, was none the less moving fatally to Waterloo and St. Helena. Colonel Schaffer did not, as some of us thought, get the reward in proportion that he deserved, but I cannot recall that he ever murmured. He was by birth a Pole, and by adoption a Georgian. He taught a school at Athens, Georgia, and died in pedagogic harness, in the golden prime of manhood. Peace be with him and with his spirit, for he was a grand character, and never was there "a bolder spirit in a more loyal breast."
In reviewing some of the passages in the life of General Whiting, I have striven to be just to him as well as to Mr. Davis and General Bragg. The one fault of Whiting was so magnificently atoned for, that it will not dim the lustre of his true glory. He merits all of the honor that his admirers claim for him, without seeking to injure his superiors or compeers, and nothing so became him as his heroic end, which was peaceful, resigned, and pathetically courageous. Napo- leon said at St. Helena, that the misfortunes he finally encountered were necessary to give sublimity and roundness to his character. Rela- tively, we may say the same of General Whiting, and trust that the Southern people, and especially North Carolinians, will some day make his memory monumental and sublime.
JAMES R. RANDALL.
