The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-03-17
VOLUME 5.---NO. SO.
General Henry Lees Memoirs.


The London Saturday Revie,o, in one
of it's periodical notices Of American lit
erature, has tie following fair and dis
crimnating criticism:
"The most interesting Of the American
works of this month is new edition OF
"General Henry Lees Memoirs of the
War of independence in the States South
of the Potomac" in which be bore an ac-
tive and prominent part. Among the
Generals of the Revolution he was by no
means the least daring, skilful, and sue
cessful and though unfortunate incurring
unpopularity and censure, which CALLED
his sensitive spirit and eventually drove
him to resign his command, he appears to
have been thoroughly true to the republi-
can cause, and to have enjoyed through
out the confidence and esteem of WASH
ington. This edition is revised and pre-
faced with memoir Of the writer by the
present representative OF his family, who,
on the same field and in the same cause
of national independence, has achieved
fame yet more brilliant and enduring, and
who, like his father, has retired into pri-
vate life fallen and defeated man. 1t is
true that calumny itself has. spared the
spotless character of General K. E. Lee,
and that even the bitterest enemies OF his
cause have paid tribute of enforced re-
spect to the honor, the gentleness, the
genius, and the heroism of the great chief
of the Confederate armies. Neverthe-
less, there is in the fate of the son SO
much resemblance to that of the father as
to lend special pathos to the brief biog-
raphy in which the hero of the Confeder-
alto struggle has endeavored to exalt and
to vindicate tie memory of the soldier OF
the Revolution. Any work from the pen
OF General Lee would command atten-
ton, and there are features about the pres
ent volume which are of peculiar interest.
The author. keeps his own personality
carefully in the background; and the Eea-
der, while he admires, cannot but regret
the dignifed reserve which disappoints
his hope of learning from the biography
OF the father any particulars regarding
the son, in whom many who cared COM
paratively little about the merits OF bis
quarrel feel deep personal interest,
which the years spent since the close OF
the war III QOUOTuUl6 duO uoSlui ooSSotASy
have in no way bluuted or diminished.
But the honest family pride displayed in
the account of the ancestry OF the Lees,
with which the memoir commences, ana
which incidentally vindicates against
Northern sneers the claims of the leading
families of Virginia to an ilustrions ori-
gin, is an interesting trait in a native
character 80 perfectly free from personal
vanity or ambition; and the narrative OF
the elder Lee derives present valuefrom
the manner in which i, illustrates and ex-
plains some of the peculiarities in which
the latter and the earlier struggle resem-
BILE each other. Among these are the COM
parative usecssness of cavalry in pitched
fields and in the line Of battle, and it's
brilliant exploits in detached service and
in predatory and exploring expeditions.
Henry Lee commanded force of cavalry,
to which some companies of foot were
added somewhat resembling that organ
lied by Mosby in Northern Virginia du-
ring the later years of the Confederacy,
but of less markedly irregular and guc-
rlla character, and he might be called the
Stuart or Ashby, as Marion and Sumter
were the Morgan and Forrest, of tho
Revolutionary war Such comparisons
will have interest for others besides mill
tary readers, and this volume will furnish
abundant material for them.'