Page:Confederate Portraits.djvu/251

 supply. Toombs does not believe in this policy and there- fore answers : ** I refuse a single hand. My property, as long as I live, shall never be subject to the orders of those cowardly miscreants, the Committee of Public Safety of Randolph County, Georgia, and Eufaula. You may rob me in my absence, but you cannot intimidate me." ^^

There remained the army. It is true that few civilian generals on either side greatly distinguished themselves. Yet it seems as if Toombs's fighting temper might have come to the front, if any one's could. Did it ? A friend who knew him well said of him : *' He had one ambition, and that to the highest office within the Confederacy. That could not be gratified. He had another, to be Com- mander-in-Chief of the armies. That could not be grati- fied. He had no more." ^^ As to the ambitions, who shall say ? The fact is that the disappointed statesman plunged into a military career with headlong energy and that he came out of it pretty much as he had come out of the political. Why?

Certain excellent military qualities he undoubtedly had. He was brave, rashly, extravagantly brave. He had the gift of inspiring others with his own bravery. History will not forget his magnificent defense of the bridge at Antietam. Lee's praise of any man is the most enduring badge of glory, and Lee said : " General Toombs's small command repulsed five different assaults made by greatly superior forces, and maintained its position with dis-

�� �