The great commander leaves nothing to chance, but provides for
every contingency. He condescends to apparently trivial details.
Thus, when Wellington was at the head of his army in Spain, he
directed the precise manner in which the soldiers were to cook
their provisions. When in India, he specified the exact speed at
which the bullocks were to be driven; every detail in equipment
was carefully arranged beforehand. And thus not only was
efficiency secured, but the devotion of his men, and their
boundless confidence in his command. (15)
Like other great captains, Wellington had an almost boundless
capacity for work. He drew up the heads of a Dublin Police Bill
(being still the Secretary for Ireland), when tossing off the
mouth of the Mondego, with Junot and the French army waiting for
him on the shore. So Caesar, another of the greatest commanders,
is said to have written an essay on Latin Rhetoric while crossing
the Alps at the head of his army. And Wallenstein when at the
head of 60,000 men, and in the midst of a campaign with the enemy
before him, dictated from headquarters the medical treatment of
his poultry-yard.
Washington, also, was an indefatigable man of business. From his
boyhood he diligently trained himself in habits of application, of
study, and of methodical work. His manuscript school-books, which
are still preserved, show that, as early as the age of thirteen,
he occupied himself voluntarily in copying out such things as
forms of receipts, notes of hand, bills of exchange, bonds,
indentures, leases, land-warrants, and other dry documents, all
written out with great care.
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