The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-09-07
An English Tribute to Gen. Robert E. Lee

| in The Saturday ReuieU, we ma the IolloWlng
notice of MI. j. E. Cookies Life of Gen. Lee
in which the critic takes occasion to pay no.
Bile tribute to the character of our immortal
countryman, Gen. Robert f. Lee:
The most interesting work on our list fol
this month, beyond all comparison, is the life
of Gen. Lee, by Mr.. j. e. Cooke, who, though
he assumes no military title, appears, by inter
nal evidence, and by one or two direct referen-
ces to his personal presence on certain occa'
sions, to have been an officer in the Confede-
rate army of Northern Virginia, and, eshould
fancy, temporarily at least, member OF the
staff of its revered chief. The work Is in many
respects defective, especially from the fact that
the writer appears to have been unauthorized
and unassisted by the Generals family, and is
consequently almost without information rs to
the early life of his hero. Indeed, probably
from the want of material, he has confined his
narrative almost exclusively to the Contede-
rate War of independence, passing over with
a slight and cursory mention the previous SER
vices which had led Gen. Scott to recognize
Lee as incomparably the ablcst officer in the
Federal army, and his own fitting successor.
This is a remarkable and unquestioned fact,
and it leads directly to an inference which
ought to silence the offensive and very ungen-
erous language in which certain Northern and
English politicians have been wont to speak of
the wicked rebellion" of the South. The
leading officers of the Confederacy were the
men who, if they had chosen to remain in the
| Federal service, would have commanded the
army of the Union. Albert Sidney Johnston
was Lees immediate senior, and Lee himself
and his comrades of the Second Cavalry were
marked as the picked men of the army. Two
of Lees subordinatcs in that regiment were
among the ablest and most distinguished of
Grants Lieutenants, and no one can doubt that
their seniors in rank and equals or superiors in
ability might have at once commanded the
forces of the UnioE if they had chosen to do
so The temptation to adhere to their colors
must have been very strong, yet almost every
Southern officer threw in his lot with his State.
Only the fanaticism of faction would dare to
ascribe unworthy motives to any OF them-to
Lee himself the most violent of English Radi-
Gals never yentured to impute anything of the
sort; all sordid considerations tended the other
way; all of them were men cf high honor and
virtue; many, like Lee and Jackson, OF pure
and deep religion; many of them did not ap-
prove of secession vet one and all threw up their
commissions and fought and suffered for the
Southern cause We needed no biography of
Gen. Lee to assure us that he was one of the
best men and truest Christians, as we'll as one
of the noblest soldiers and greatest Generals,
of whom history bears witness but it is i'm
possible to read this story of his life without
finding our admiration of his character deep
ened and strengthened.
His fellow-citizens evidently had from he
first, profound and entire confidence in him; a
confidence which must have been due as much
to the force Of personal character as to his long
past services in the Mexican war, when hc-a
Captain of Engineers-was one of the interior
military council of the Commandcr-in-C Chief,
and one of those to whom the latter chiefly
ascribed the completeness of the victory. He
was not successful in his first operations fact
which his bographer explains or explains
away-yet he was as thoroughly trusted as ever
by Virginia, and was selected by the Confeder-
ate Government to replace Gen. j. E. Johnston
in the command of the principal army in the
South.
From that time his history is the history of
the Virginia army; and his personality i'm
presses itself on the character OF that army.
No atrocities on the part of the enemy, bitterly
as he felt them, could movo him to anger or
provoke him to revenge. After his native
State had been ravaged and his own home de-.
stroyed in wanton spite, by the direct orders Of
the Federal Government and its favorite gen.
S-SA
else the common rights of an invader, in Penn
sylvania; and in its selfrestraint, as i'll its he
roic courage, the army initiated the example of
its chief. His relations with a man like Jack
son, Thom no ordinary chief could have kept
in steady cooperation and due subOrdination,
and of whom any ordinary chief would have
been Jealous, but who regarded Lee with abso-
lutte Yeneration, and was treated by him "as
his own right hand" testified in no common
manner to the real greatness of the man.
We find, from MI. Cookies narrative, that
Lee was equally successful with the utterly diff
ferent character of Stuart, the representative
Cavalier as Jackson was the typical Puritan.
Even when Stuart's misconception OF orders
took the cavalry out of reach of the main army
and contributed in no small degree to the loss
of Gettysburg, Lee appears to have spoken no
word of complaint. To all under him he was
ever ready to give credit; on himself he was
ever ready to take responsibility and blame !;
and those under him requited him in KIND.
Mr.. Cookies account of the temper OF the army
as it fell back from the fatal heights OF Gettys
burg, thinned, batied, exhausted, but still
shontinr aloud its unshakcd confidence in "Un-
Gle Robert" has its fitting pendant in Lees own
words-"It is l who lost the battle; YOU must
helm me out" 1t was perhaps rs much this
wonderful power over his men as his admirable
genius for war that enabled him to face three
fold numbers, and never, save at Gettysburg,
to be beaten in the field.
Mr.. Cooke shows that, except on the Chicka-
hominy and at Gettysburg, where he took the
offensive, Lee was always outnumbcrcd by near
ly two to one; and at Charlottesville, where
he divided his army and attacked the enemy
at once in front and flank he had not more
than one to three. OF course this infcriOrity
of force exposed him to be worn out by sheer
loss of men and this Grant saw. He could
afford to lose ten men for one''-and he actual
ly does seem to have lost three or four for one
even in the campaign which ended in the sur
render at Appomattox Court House. After
that event Lees life was one of silence and re-
tircment-it could not be life of obscurity-.
and finally, while still far from old age, and of
robust frame, he died, really, if not literally,
from broken heart. But painful as his latter
years were, they were full of such honor as is
-, m