The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Three Months in Me Southern States. April— June ,
1863. By Lieut.-Colonel Fremantle, Coldstream
Guards. One Vol., pp. 316. Wm. Blackwood

and Sons.
A cordial welcome is due to this really delightful
record of a quarter's run through the Southern
States of North America. Although some of the most
interesting parts of the work made their appearance
in a fragmentary form but very recently in the
pages of Blacliwood's Magazine, Colonel Fremantle's
narrative of his sojourn among the Confederates, as
published fragmentarily in Maga, has won its way
so instantly to the appreciation of Maga's mul-
titude of readers, that it comes back to us now, i❑ a
completed form, as nothing less than an old friend
—not a mere passing acquaintance, but an old friend
—with a new face and body ! It is something to
have yet another truthful delineation of the Southern
army and of the Southern generals from the hand of
an English gentleman—in this instance of an English
officer and gentleman. Colonel Fremantle tells us
in his preface that he went across the Atlantic with
a view to observe the actual state of things,
there, with his own eyes, incited so to
do not merely by what some might deem
just idle curiosity, but out of his hearty soldierly
sympathy for the gallant stand taken, from the very
outset of this dreadful civil war, against tremendous
odds, by the Confederates. It will be recognised by
the habitual readers of Ebony that it was the latter
portion of the volume only, that, through the medium
of that eminent periodical, has already been pub-
lished. The rest of the book will be found by those
who turn it over, entirely new and original. We
cannot but regret, as we do in fact in the instance of
almost every diary that we remember to have seen
at any time published—we cannot but seriously
regret that much of the gallant author's jottings by
the way in his Diary had not been eliminated from
it as entirely superfluous before the MS. was trans.
formed into letterpress. There is in it so
much that is superfluous, here and there so
much that is really and truly frivolous
What possibly is the use of telling us
at p. 2, under date 23d March, that they " knocked
off steam when outside the harbour." Had the
volume been weeded down from upwards of three
hundred pages to some two hundred at the very
utmost, it would have been much more readable in
the first instance, and in the next place would, in
in all probability, have left behind it, after its
perusal, a much more lasting impression. As it is,
however, we cannot but regard ourselves as most un-
gracious when taking even this exception to a work,
for the animation of which, and for the evidence of
keen observation in which, we are altogether under a
very lively sense of obligation to Colonel Fremantle.
It should be remarked in reference to the author of
the volume that he was during his three months'
stay in the Southern States a constant travelling
companion of that very brilliant writer, Mr. Frank
Lawley, once upon a time Mr. Gladstone's private
secretary, now the limes' Southern Correspondent.
Another particular of no inconsiderable interest in
its way, needs hardly perhaps that we should here
distinctly state it, being in effect one that might be
regarded at once as a mere matter of course in
regard to the gallant Colonel of the Coldstream
Guards, to wit, his immediate access and
personal intercourse with all the leading
public men among the Confederates, especially
with all the distinguished members of his owe pro-
fession there—including Lee himself and the chief
among that great warrior's paladin-lieutenants! As
an additional item of interest in reference to a
volume, which in its letterpress contents alone is so
very acceptable and delightful, it should be said that
scattered through it,among the letterpreee they serve
so charmingly to illustrate are portraits, engraved
from recent photographs, of several among the
most illustrious leaders of the Confederates, As
the frontispiece, we have, of course, the
versimilitude of no other than the renowned
President of the Confederates. And among
the lineaments of Mr. Davis as there pourtrayed
(Irons a photograph, be it remembered l) though the
countenance of the Southern President is almost as
lantern-jawed as the better-known visage of the
Northern President, we can readily understand
the force of Colonel Fremantle's assurance that
Jefferson Davis is every inch— (and there are a good
many of them by the way, for like his Northern rival
he is tall in stature)—a Gentleman. A statement
that, for certain, ❑ever by any possibility could be
uttered in regard to Abraham Lincoln. Thin in
figure, almost gaunt in face, Mr. Davis is comely,
agreeable, amiable in expression, and we can
readily believe, as physiognomists, how inevitably
he succeeds, by his mere courtesy of bearing, in win-
ning the hearts of all those who approach him. It
is above all things, thus, by reason of his being, in
one word—a " gentleman." With still more in-
terest almost we turn to examine the portraiture
(again from a recent photograph) confronting p.
253 upon which we find the pen and ink limning
of the original of that engraved likeness—General
Robert E. Lee, the heroic and gifted Commander-
in-Chief of the Confederate army. " General Lee,"
says Colonel Fremantle, with startling emphasis—
.' GENERAL LEE is almost without exception the
handsomest man of his age I ever saw. He is fifty-
six years old, tall, broad shouldered, very well
made, well set up, a thorough soldier in appear-
ance; and his manners are most courteous and
full of dignity." The Colonel adds, "Heis a
perfect gentleman in every respect." And,
further on, he even writes thus of him—" Through
out the South, all agree In pronouncing him to be as
near perfection as a man can be !" His bitterest
enemies, we are told, have never accused him of
vice of any kind : even of what are called the small
vices, i.e., smoking, drinking, chewing (Colonel
Fremantle counts among them, we observe, " swear-
ing !") General Lee has no knowledge Idolised by
men and officers, all of whom are ready to go any-
where, to do anything, at his behest, General Lee
holds firmly within his grasp those dread thunder-
bolts of war he has so often already hurled
hither and thither with an unerring hand against
that gigantic but lubberly antagonistic of
the Confederates, the Northern or Federal Power.
General Longstreet, the bosom friend, the veritable
brother-in-arms, of the great Southern Com-
mandcr-in-Chief, is described no less vividly, a
little earlier, in his narrative, by Color el Fremantle
—opposite whose description we have a charming
portraiture of that same brave and devoted com-
mander, Lieut.-General James Longstreet. Here,
too, in other portions of the work, are to be found
graphic portraits and equally graphic descriptions
of General Leonidas Polk, of General Joseph John
stop, and of General G. T. Beauregard—portraits
aed descriptions alike wonderfully realistic. The
volume altogether is a most valuable, and doubly
valuable because likewise a most timely and oppor-
tune, little treasury of information—with Colonel
Fremantle's name upon the title page, it needs
hardly be said, of perfectly reliable information.