History Does Not Usually Make Real Sense

There Is A Rowdy Strain In American Life, Living Close To The Surface But Running Very Deep. Like An Ape Behind A Mask, It Can Display Itself Suddenly With Terrifying Effect.

What A General Could Do, Thomas Did; No More Dependable Soldier For A Moment Of Crisis Existed On The North American Continent, Or Ever Did Exist... Thomas Comes Down In History As The Rock Of Chickamauga, The Great Defensive Fighter, The Man Who Could Never Be Driven Away But Who Was Not Much On The Offensive. That May Be A Correct Appraisal, Yet It May Also Be Worth Making Note That Just Twice In All The War Was A Major Confederate Army Driven Away From A Prepared Position In Complete Rout - At Chattanooga And At Nashville. Each Time The Blow That Routed It Was Launched By Thomas.

Beneath Everything Else, North And West, There Ran A Profound, Unvoiced, Almost Subconscious Conviction That The [american] Nation Was Going To Go On Growing-in Size, In Power, In Everything A Man Could Think Of-and In That Belief There Was A Might And A Fury That Would Take Form Instantly At The Moment Of Shock.

It Began With One Act Of Madness, And It Ended With Another. John Brown Heard History's Clock Strike In The Night And Tried To Hurry Dawn Along With Gunfire; Now John Wilkes Booth Heard The Clock Strike, And He Tried With Gunfire To Restore The Darkness. Each Man Stood Outside The Human Community, Directed By Voices The Sane Do Not Hear, And Each Kept History From Going Logically... The Line From Harper's Ferry To Ford's Theater Is A Red Thread Binding The Immense Disorder Of The Civil War Into An Irrational Sort Of Coherence.

Even The Most Painstaking History Is A Bridge Across An Eternal Mystery.