Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1870-10-29
ome 5000 men; after a retreat of 81 x

some 26, 900 men; after retreat of 81 y
days, in the face of an overwhelming
enemy, with crushing artillery
retreat impeded by constant fighting,
and harrassed by countless hordes ot
cavalry-S,000 were given up by the
capitulation of Appomattox Court
house. Brilliant as were Gen. Lees
earlier triumphs, we believe that he
gave higher proofof genius In his last
campaign, and that hardly any
of his victories were so honorable
to himself and his army as that six
days retreat.
There have, however, been other
generals of genius as brilliant, of cour-
age and endurance hardly less dis
tinguished. How many men have
ever displayed the perfect simplicity
of nature, the utter absence of vanity
and affectation, which belongs to the
truest or purest greatness, in triumph
or In defeat, rs Gen. Lee has done ?
When Commander-in-Chief of the
Southern armies he moved from point
to point, as duty required, with less
parade than an European general of
division, wearing no sword, attended
by no other staff than the immedi-
ate occasion demanded, and chatting
with n comrade or visitor with a
simple courtesy which had In II no
shade OF condescension. Only on one
occasion does he seem to have been
accoutered with the slightest regard
to military display, or personal dig
nifty; and that Enthusiastically was
the last occasion on which he wore
the Confederate uniform-the occa-
sion of his interview with General
Grant on the 9th of April, 1865. At
ter the war, he retired without word,
into privacy and obscurity. Ruined
property, which Mcclellan protected,
and which his SUCCESSORS gave up to
ravage and pillage, the late Com
mander-in-Chief of the Southern
armies accepted the presidency of q
Virginia college, and devoted him
self as simply and earnestly to its
duties as II he had never filled a
higher station or performed more ex-
citing functions. Well aware of the
jealous temper of the party dominant
in the North, and anxious, above all
things, to avoid exasperating that
temper against his conquered coun
trymen, he carefully abstained from
appearing i'm any public ceremony or
taking any overt part in political
questions. His influence has been
exerted quietly but steadily in one
direction, with single view to re-
store harmony and good will between
the two sections, and to reconcile the
oppressed Southerners to the Union
from which he fought so gallantly to
free them. He has discOuntenanced
all regretful longings after the lost
vision of Southern Independence; all
demonstrations in honor of "the con-
quered banner;' and has encouraged
the South to seek the restoration ol
her material prosperity and the sat
isfaction of her national feelings in a
frank acceptance of the result of the
war, and loyal adhesion to the Fed
eral bond. 1t was characteristic and
worthy of the man, that he was
among the first to sue for formal
pardon from President Johnson ; not
for any advantage which he person
ally could obtain thence, but to sci
the example of submission to his
comrades in arms, aud reconcile them
to humiliation without which the
conquerors refused them that restitu-
ton to civil rights necessary to any
effort to retrieve their own or their
country's fortunes. Truer greatness,
a loftier nature, spirit more unself-
ish, character purer, more chival-
rous, the world has rarely, If ever,
known. or stainless life and deep
religious feeling, yet free from all
faint of cant and fanaticism, and rs
dear and cOngenial to the cavalier
Stuart as to the puritan Stonewall
Jackson; unambitious, but ready To
sacrifice all at the call of duty; de-
voted to his cause, yet never moved
by his feelings beyond the line pre-
scribed by his judgment; never pro-
voked by just resentment to punish
wanton cruelty by reprisals which
would have given character of need
less savagery to the war-both North
and South owe deep debt of graft
tude to him, and the time will come
when both will be equally proud of
him. And well they may, for his
character and his lie afford q COM
plete answer to the reproaches com
monty cast on money-grubbing, me-
chanical America. A country which
has given birth to men like him, and
those who followed him, may look
the chivalry of Europe in the face
without shame; for the fatherlands o.
Sidney and of Bayard never produc-
ed a nobler soldier, gentleman and
Christian than General RObt. f. Lee.