Earthy, low-sounding military leader (4)
I believe the answer is:
loam
'earthy low-sounding military leader' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'sounding military leader' is the wordplay.
'sounding' becomes 'loa' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'leader' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'military' is 'm'.
'loa'+'m'='LOAM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for loam that I've seen before include "Rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand, clay and decaying organic materials" , "Rich soil with decayed vegetable matter" , "Rich soil containing decayed matter" , "Type of soil" , "Rich soil, good for growing" .)