To say that he was brave, is perhaps to add nothing to a soldier's reputation; but Wayne's cour age was not merely an indifference to personal safety, or a disregard of personal comfort, but it was a bravery, or rather a moral magnanimity, which circumstances could not appal or daunt; and which, happily, in his case, was conjoined with an intelligence and ingenuity, that enabled him to surmount what, to a less hardy spirit, would have appeared impracticable. But the ordinary and usual merits of a commander were possessed by General Wayne in company with other and rarer attachments. His early education had fortunately made him a practical man. He was a mathemati cian, and knew how to apply that useful science to the necessary business of lire. What his science suggested as advantageous, and what his head had planned, he could, with his own hand, practi cally perform; and there were many occasions in the course of his command when he was called upon to put these acquirements in use. The tactics of war were perfectly familiar to him. He was a thorough disciplinarian and tactician; and he could personally attend to the drilling of his troops as well as to their disposition on the eve of battle. The duties of the corporal and the sergeant, in the vicissitudes of war, were as often performed by him as those of the commanding general.
" But softer honours, and less noisy fame, Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham." It was not merely for the more commanding traits of character, or for those qualities which bring their possessor prominently before the public eye, that Wayne is entitled to be remembered and eulogised. For the characteristics which lend a charm to social intercourse, and without which the grandest qualifications appear rough and repulsive, Wayne was eminently conspicuous. His polished manners and his courteous conduct qualified him to shine in society, and procured him everywhere friends; while his affectionate disposition and warm feelings made him fondly attached to and beloved by his friends. The imperious calls of duty fre quently separated him from those in whose so ciety he took the highest and the purest pleasure; and to show that absence had no effect in weaken ing the strength of his domestic attachments, we shall extract a part of a letter to his daughter Mrs. Atlec.
"You were both (meaning his only son and daughter) infants, when I was first called upon by my country to defend her rights and liberties; in which hazardous task I spent my prime of life, nor was I sparing of my blood. At the close of the late war, from the vicissitudes of fortune we were again separated, and at a period when fortune, tired of her persecution, began to smile upon me, and promised ease and retirement, I was again called forth to form and lead her legion, which had yet to learn the dreadful trade of death, against a victorious and insulting savage foe.
"From these causes have we been separated from each other, and from these causes has an affection ate and an indulgent parent been lost, and almost a stranger, to his children and family." General Eaton, who was a captain under the orders of Wayne, in the campaign against the In dians, and who so distinguished himself in Africa, has recorded the following character of his general.
" He is firm in constitution as in resolution; indus trious, indefatigable, determined and persevering; fixed in opinion and unbiassed in judgment; not over accessible, but studious to reward merit. He is a rock against which the waves of calumny and malice, moved by the gusts of passion natural to envy, have dashed; have washed its sides; he is still immovable on his base. Ile is, in some degree, susceptible of adulation, as is every man who has an honest thirst for military fame. He endures fa tigue and hardship with a fortitude uncommon for a man of his years. I have seen him, in the most severe night of the winter of 1794, sleep on the ground like his fellow soldiers, and walk around the camp at four in the morning, with the vigilance of a sentinel." The pen of an acquaintance thus describes his personal appearance. " Ile was above what is commonly termed " the middle stature, and well proportioned. His hair was dark; his forehead was high and handsomely formed; his eyes were dark teazle, intelligent, quick and penetrating; his nose inclined to the aquiline: the remainder of his face was well proportioned, and his whole counte and animated." The same writer remarks, " The natural dispo sition of Mr. Wayne was very amiable; he was ardent and sincere in his attachments, his morals were chaste, and his manners refined."