The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-05-12
A Northern Estimate OF Confederate
Leaders

I..g Leaders.
We extract the following from long re-
view of the late war in the New York Citizen,
Republican paper, edited by Col. Halpin,
late of the United States army
l. DAvIs.--Let those loyal gentlemen, disci-
Piles of Mr., Abbott, who worship the charac-
ter of Bohaparte, make some consistent homage
to- the brilliant directory OF Jefferson Davis.
Both were men of destiny, and the personnel
of the survivor is by far the nobler. Of the
fallen angels, whose dark plumage swept
from our Senate Halls, he made the most
4 courtly adieu. OF all the traitors, he was
most entirely in earnest: OF all decision, his
was the sagest, the promptest and the most
enduring He only, of the conspirators, felt
that his quarrel with the Union was irrecon-
stable, and stood by his capital to the last,
and has never yet advised submission. His
captivity is embittered by none of Bonaparte's
querulousness. Blind, and grey, and wasted,
! his dominions are narrowed to casemate,
| while herepublic he would overthrow reaches
to the silent ocean.
LEE. In Robert Lee the same austere Pro-
| violence to purify our republicanism, shatter-
| ed our faith 10 traditional responsibility The
heir of Washington went with the rest Of the
new cbiyalry, and with ten times the talent
of that great Fabius, crushed the armies of
our lesser responsibilities, till he met in Grant
a man without pedigree He was the equal
of Wellington in maneuyring great bodies Of
troops upon small interior forces The Duke
ateWaterloo fought his whole army upon
mile and a quarter acre; but Lee, at Cold
Harbor, for five days presented solid line of
battle wherever he sought him, till his whole
force seemed maneuvred by the wink of his
eye and every salient that we touched was
corps. While the Notifications of Richmond
stand, his name shall evoke admiration The
art of war is unacquainted with any defence
SO admirable, Splendid as were the triumphs
of his engineering, the victories of his infan-
try were his best movements But over the
glory Of his talent fell shadow as eternal as
his memory--the frown of resolute Democ-
racy, whose sacrifice was longer than his art.
STUART.-I stood in the cemetery Of Holly
wood at the grave OF Stuart---a space without
shaft. He revolutionized the cavalry tactics
of our time, and was in dash and dissoluteness
the Prince Rupert of the West Forrest and
Stoneman, Morgan and Grierson, Mosby and
Fitzpatrick were his imitators He inaugurated
the grand raid which taught Sheridan the
notbingness of distance, and embroidered Sher-
man to tear the continent like pocket map.
ri The fervid imaginatons of Southern people
demonstrated in feats of romance like Stuart's,
made them, during the war, the great sugges-
tive captains. They built the first iron-clad,
made the first of the great raids, and under
Stonewail jackson executed the earliest OF the
great infantry marches. But the cold adapta-
| bility Of the North developed every hint from
the South into perfect system. The expert
ment Of the Merrimac has grown to the Dicta-
| tor, the Dunderberg and the Ironsides. The
engineering assiduity of Beauregard, initiated
BY the North, has marked the camps of our
armies, as if the protecting mountains had fol-
lowed our columns. But it may be doubted
| that any division commander has yet arisen
to rival the splendid infantry genius of Jack
son, .s t4s e1lW 3as ftF
JACKsoN-As Lee was master of maneuvre
jackson was the great captain of aggressive
ness of Napoleon To cover his great move
ment by the flank In 1862, he did not
hesitate to fight Popes whole army with di-
vision, and the celebrity of his march up the
Shenandoah, 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 ustre of its arms had dimin-
ished in that flush of victory when re-
belion had assumed, indeed, the proportions
of a nation. He was the most republican Of
rebels, stern and simple as any Roundhead,
and this is why we hold his memory greener
than that Of his companions whose detection
to the Union was augmented by their treason
to popular institutions.
There were other personages identified with
this grand historical defence, but these are the
great statues Lee, jackson, Stuart and
Beauregard. ..t ...-