NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOL. VIII 



given to the wound was followed by an operation which left 

 him with a mere stump below the elbow, from which he suf- 

 fered pain for many years. He was incapacitated at the time 

 for several months; but he later had nearly three more years 

 c\f active service, during which he was frequently in close re- 

 lations with General Grant and was commissioned as major of 

 artillery. When finally detailed to act as chief of artillery he 

 had sixteen batteries under his command. Among the busiest 

 days of his life were the thirty or more prior to the fall of 

 Vicksburg, in March, 1864, in part because in addition to his 

 military duties he collected fossils from the trenches. He was 

 honorably discharged January 14, 1865, and, refusing higher 

 rank then offered, was known as "the Major" thereafter. The 

 wound in his arm gave him much pain at various later periods 

 'and weakened an exceptionally strong constitution ; not until a 

 few years before his death was he fully relieved by a success- 

 ful operation on the terminating nerves. Some years after the 

 war he met a Confederate officer, Col. C. E. Hooker, who had 

 lost his left arm at Shiloh ; the two officers became friends, 

 and when either one in later years bought a pair of gloves he 

 sent the unused glove to his former enemy. 



There can be little question that a school teacher of scientific 

 bent, a lone rambler over prairies, a solitary voyager on long 

 rivers, doing his own work as boatman and collector of nat- 

 ural-history specimens, learned much from the responsibilities 

 placed upon him during four years of soldier's life in the way 

 of reaching prompt decision, giving authoritative command, 

 delegating work to others, and securing loyal obedience from 

 his subordinates. It does not follow that the decisions reached 

 were always the wisest possible, still they were the best avail-- 

 able, and action had to be taken on them without hesitating 

 deliberation. But Powell hated war, in spite of his willing 

 service while war lasted; fighting was to him an uncivilized 

 method of dealing with the problems of civilization. He must 

 as an officer have developed many qualities that stood him in 

 good stead as an organizer and administrator in later years; 

 yet it may be well asked whether his faithful perseverance 

 under adverse conditions during nine previous years of study 

 and teaching in a time of peace were not equally decisive in 



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