The Spanish war has shown that it is not always the men who stand at the
heads of their classes who lead in the more practical duties of ship and
camp. Admiral Sampson, one of the greatest thinkers and most profound
students in the navy, as a boy and as a man always led in everything he
undertook; but, on the other hand, Hobson, though one of the leaders of
his class at Annapolis, was demure and retiring, hardly the man one would
select to lead a forlorn hope into the jaws of death.
One may go through the list man for man, and find as many backward in
their studies as those who have carved high niches for themselves in the
Academy records.
No proposition could cover the situation in a general way, for, after
all, the men we have heard from were perhaps only lucky,--lucky in being
chosen as the instruments of the result. There are hundreds--thousands--of
officers in the service, some brilliant, some wise, some brave, some
strong, as good as they, who have lacked only opportunity. The singling
out of any names for special mention seems an injustice to them,--“the
heroes of the heart.”