Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-03-27
A Northern Estimate of Confederate
Leaders.

a NOrC0ern ESI1maCe OF C0n1eQeraCo
Leaders.
We extract the following from a long review
of the late war in the New York Citizen, Re
publican paper, edited by Col Halpine, late of
the United States army
Let those loyal gentlemen, disciples of Mr..
Abbott, who worship the character of Bona
porte, make some consistent homage to the bril-
liant directory of Jefferson Davis. Both were
men of destiny, and the personal Of the survi-
vor is by far the nobler OF the fallen angels,
whose dark plumage swept from our Senate
Halls, he made the most courtly adieu. Of all
the traitors he was most entirely in earnest
Of all decision his was the sagest, the prompt
est and the most enduring He, only, of the
conspirators felt that his quarrel with the
Union was irreconciliable, and stood by his cap
ital to the last, and has never yet advised sub
mission. His captivity has been belittled by
none OF Bonaparte' squerulousness Blind, and
to casemate, while the republic he would over
throw reaches to the silent oceans
In Robert Lee the same austere Providence,
to purify our Republicanism, shattered our faith
in traditional responsibility The heir of Wash
ington went with the rest of the new chivalry
mus, crushed the armies of our lesser respecta-
bilities, till he met in Grant man without a
pedigree. He was the equal of Wellington in
maneuvering great bodies of troops on small
interior forces. The Duke at Waterloo fought
his whole army upon a mile and a quarter ;
but Lee, at Cold Harbor for FIVE days presented
a solid line Of battle wherever we sought him,
till his whole force seemed maneuvered by the
wink Of his eye and every salient that we
touched was a corps. While the fortifcations
of Richmond stand, his name will evoke admi-
ration The art of war is unacquainted with
any defense SO admirable. Splendid as were
the triumphs of his engineering, the victories
OF his infantry were his best monuments But
over the glory of his talent fell shadow as
eternal as his memory-the frown of resolute
Democracy, whose sacrifice was longer than his
art.
STEWART.
L stood in the cemetery of Hollywood at the
grave of Stewart space without shaft. He
reyolutloniZed 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 nothingness of
distance, and emboldened Sherman to tear the
continent like pocket map.
|
pie, demonstrated in feats of romance, like
Stewart made them, during the war, the great
suggestive captains They built the first iron
clad, made the first Of the great raids, and un-
der Stonewall jackson executed the earliest of
the great infantry marches. But the colder
adaptability Of the North developed every hint
from the South into perfect system. The ex-
pertinent of the Merrimac has grown to the
Dictator, the Donderberg and the Ironsides,-
The engineering assiduity of Beauregard, imi-
tated by the North, has marked the camps of
our armies, as if the projecting mountains had
| followed our columns. But it may be doubted
| that any division commander has yet arisen to
rival the splendid infantry genius of Jackson,
JACKSON.
As Lee, was a master of vancouver. jackson
was the great captain of aggressive warfare
He combined the cunning and the boldness OF
Napoleon. To cover his great movement by
the flank in 1862, he did not hesitate to fight
Pope's whole army with division, and the ce-
lerity of his march up the Shenandoah, to ap-
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 its
arms had diminished in that flush of victory
when rebellion had assumed, indeed, the pro
portions of nation He was the most Repub-
lican of rebels, stern and simple as any Round
head, and this is why we hold his memory
greener than that Of his companions whose de
fection to the Union was augmented by their
treason to popular Institutions. e la'sn2i
There were other personages identified with
this grand historical defense, but these are the
great statues-Davis, Lee, jackson, Stewart
i Beauregard. Gea1 -.ti iof-lt a8a Hs,