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FREDERICK W. LANDER.

Ta moment of peculiar peril, the nation was called upon to lament the death of one of her bravest chiefs. In the midst of the smoke and tumult of battle, she paused to twine the cypress-leaf with the laurel she had given him.

Brigadier-General FREDERICK W. LANDER was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1823. Like Putnam, Stark, and Marion, he was born a soldier: the profession of arms was a passion with him from his youth, and, though the graduate of no military academy, he will be remembered among the very ablest of those great-hearted gentlemen who have made themselves the bulwark of the American republic.

General Lander's name was first brought prominently before the American people in connection with the exploration for a wagon-road to the Pacific, several years since. By referring to the state papers, it will be seen how admirably he performed his arduous labors. His official report to the department proves him to have possessed fine literary as well as scientific attainments. He would have been a poet of no ordinary power, if he had not been so thoroughly a soldier.

At the breaking out of the present rebellion, he was assigned by General McClellan, then in Western Virginia, a position on his staff. In Lander's cool daring throughout that successful campaign, particularly at Philippa and Rich Mountain, was the ring of the true metal. The people listened to it with hope. Upon General McClellan's appointment to the command of the army of the Potomac, General Lander accompanied him, and proved an invaluable auxiliary in putting fresh strength into the half-demoralized and dispirited forces. Shortly afterward, the government dispatched him upon secret service; he accomplished the delicate task with credit to his own discernment, and to the entire satisfaction of the President.

On his return from the foreign mission, he was immediately placed in command of a brigade in General Banks's division; and at the affair at Edwards's Ferry, on the 22d of October, 1861, he was for the first time wounded, receiving a musket-ball in the leg while gallantly leading his men. He was no holiday hero. He shared the dangers of the battle with his humblest private.

The wound was of such a serious nature, that he was obliged to relinquish his command for several weeks. How patiently he endured the mere physical

suffering, and how he chafed under the galling necessity that kept him a prisoner in a sick-room, when his country needed him so much, is known to those whose privilege it was to nurse him during that dark period.

In person, General Lander was a type of strength and masculine beauty. Tall of stature, with a countenance that indicated the possession of that impartial integrity and nobleness which we associate with the ancient Greek character, he was warm and loyal in his friendships, but cold and severe to every shape of wrong. His wild frontier experiences had given him something of the imperturbability of an Indian warrior. It has been said that he was insensible to peril. He was more than that. No eye was quicker than his to detect danger, but he had that lofty moral courage which taught him to scorn it judiciously. His men revered and loved him. The corps which was enlisted in his native city formed his body-guard, and followed him to Western Virginia under a pledge to Mrs. Lander that they would never leave him upon the field of battle. In case of defeat, this devoted band had sworn to die with him. Some four years since, General Lander was married to Miss J. M. Davenport, the distinguished tragedienne, and a most accomplished lady.

Before General Lander had fairly recovered from the effects of his wound, he again took the field. He assumed the command of the national forces at Romney, Virginia. A movement on the part of the rebel General Jackson, threatening to outflank his troops, rendered it expedient for him to evacuate the position. It was his fate to give us but one more instance of his indomitable energy and valor. Having discovered that there was a rebel camp at Blooming Gap, he marched his four thousand men a distance of thirty-two miles, and completely surprised the enemy, capturing no less than seventeen commissioned officers and fifty privates. The general, with one of his aides-de-camp, Lieutenant Fitz-James O'Brien, dashed in among them, and demanded their surrender, some two minutes before the Union lines reached the spot. The secretary of war complimented General Lander in the following letter:

"WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 17th, 1862. "The President directs me to say that he has observed with pleasure the activity and enterprise manifested by yourself and the officers and the soldiers of your command. You have shown how much may be done in the worst weather and worst roads, by a spirited officer at the head of a small force of brave men unwilling to waste life in camp when the enemies of their country are within reach.

"Your brilliant success is a happy presage of what may be expected when the army of the Potomac shall be led to the field by their gallant general. "EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

"To Brigadier-General F. W. LANDER."

The knightly exploit, however, was not without its price. The terrible march irritated the wound, which had never ceased to be painful, and brought on a complication of diseases. At Camp Chase, on the 2d of March, 1862, this gallant spirit passed

"To where beyond these voices there is peace."

He was buried with all the honors that a sorrowful and grateful nation could bestow. His name will be woven forever with the annals of the land he loved. "History will preserve the record of his life and character, and romance will delight in portraying a figure so striking, a nature so noble, and a career so gallant."*

Such is the brief story of a man whose love of country was so pure and beautiful, whose heart was so full of all kindly and chivalric qualities, that, at firesides where he had never been, women wept for him as if he were their brother; and old men said of him, as though he were their son, "LANDER IS DEAD!"

* General McClellan, in Order No. 86, announcing Lander's death to the army of the Potomac. 30