Yet he could keep the field without being forced into action; and by a course of judicious movement, and of hardy enterprise, in which invincible constancy was displayed, and in which courage was happily tempered with prudence, he recovered the southern states.

It is a singular fact, well worthy of notice, which marks impressively the soundness of his judgment, that although he never gained a decisive victory, he obtained, to a considerable extent, even when defeated, the object for which he fought.
A just portion of the praise deserved by these achievements, is unquestionably due to the troops he commanded.

These real patriots bore every hardship and privation[9] with a degree of patience and constancy which can not be sufficiently admired.

And never was a general better supported by his inferior officers.

Not shackled by men who, without merit, held stations of high rank obtained by political influence, he commanded young men of equal spirit and intelligence, formed under the eye of Washington, and trained in the school furnished in the severe service of the north, to all the hardships and dangers of war.
[Footnote 9: The distresses of the southern army were such that, if plainly described, truth would wear the appearance of fiction.