The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-03-21
LEADERS,,

Tho following is from long review {
the late var ii the New York Citizen
Republican papsrr-edited by Col. Halpl
late Of the United States Army:
DAVIS
Let those loyal gentlemen, disciples O
Mr.. Abbott, who worship the character 0
Bonaparte, make some consistent homag
to the brilliant directory ofJetferson Davis
Both were men Of destiny, and the person
nelof the survivor is by far the nobler. 0
the fallen angels, whose dark plumag
swept from our Senate halls, he made th
most courtly adieu. OF all the traitors hi
was the most entirely in earnest Of al
decisions his was the sagest, the promptest
and the most enduring. He,l only, Of tn.
conspirators, felt that his quarrel with tn,
Union was irreconcilable, and stood by his
Capital to the last, and has never yet advis
ed submission. His captivity has been be
Titled by none of Bonaparte's querulous
ness. Blind, and gray, aud wasted his do
minions are narrowed to u casemate, while
the Republic he would overthrow reaches
to the silent oceans. s4 ff
81 81 LEE
In Robert Lee the same austere Provi-
dence to purify our repubiicanisnl, shatter.
ed our faith in traditional responsibility.
The heir Of Washington went with the rest
OF the new chivalry, and with ten times the
talent of that great Fabinus, crushed the
armies of our lesser responsibilities, till he
met in Grant man without pedigree.
He was the equal of Wellington in nance
uyering great bodies of troops upon small
inferior forces. The Duke at Waterloo
fought his whole army upon mile and a
quarter acre but Lee, at Gold Harbor for
five days presented q solid line of battle
wherever we sought him, till his whole force
seemed unanswered by the wink ofhis eye,
and every salient that, we touched was a
corps. While the Notifications of Rich
laond stand, his name shall evoke admira-
ton. The art of war is unacquainted with
any defense 80 admirable. Splendid as
were the triumphs of his engineering, the
victories Of his infantry were his best move.
ments. But over the glory ofhis talent fell
shadow as eternal as his memory-the
ffown ofia resolute Democracy, whose sac
rifee was longer than his art.
STUART.
Isto0d in the cemetery of Hollywood, at
the grave OF Stuart-a space without
shaft. He revolutionized the cavalry tao
tics-of our time, and was in dash and disso-
luteness the Prince Rupert of the West.
Forrest and Stoneman, Morgan and Grier-
son. Mosby, and Fitzpatrick, were his imita-
tors. q He inaugurated the grand raid which
taught Sheridan the nothingness ofdistance,
and emboldened Sherman to tear the CONT
nent likes pocket map.
The fergid Imagination of the Southern
people, demonstrated in feats OF romance
like Stuart's, made them, during the war,
the great suggestive captains. They built
the first iron clad, made the first Of the great
rides. and under Stonewall Jackson execu-
ted the earliest of the great infantry march
es. But the colder adaptability Of the
North developed every hint from the South
into perfect system. The experiment of
the Merrimac has grown to the Dictator.
the Dpnberberg and the Ironsides. The
engineering assiduity of Beauregard. imita-
ted by the North, has marked the camps of
our armies, as if the protecting mountains
had followed our columns. But it may be
doubted that any division commander has
yet arisen to rival the splendid infantry ge-
MUS of jackson.
AS Lee was master of maneuver, jackson
was the great captain of aggressive warfare.
He combined the cunning and boldness of
Napoleon. To cover his great movement
by the flank in 1862, he did NOT hesitate to
fight Pope's whole army with a division,
and the CELEBRITY of his march up the Shen-
andoah, to appear again on the field of Bull
Run, was only equalled by the energy of his
attack. He moved infantry with the speed
of horse, and having hurled three great
commanders back from the Old Dominion,
died before the lustre Of It's arms had dimin-
ished in that flush of victory when rebellion
had assumed, indeed the proportions of
nation. He was the most republican of
rebels, stern and simple as any Roundhead,
and this is why we hold his memory green
or than that OF his companions whose de-
lection to The Union was augmented by
their treason to popular institutions.
There were other personages ideatifed
with this grand historical defence, but taese
are the great statures-Davis, Lee, Jack
son, Stuart, Beauregard,