Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-01-25
Lee sS6Sulted me 4 whole day, and d.
termined 10 fall back. A M WFtb Mt
THE MAGYANIMTY OF GENERAL LEE


THE MAGHANIMITY OF GENERAL LEE
kept back the true secret of i'll success
at Gettysburg. The attack, was to have
been made at daylight, but Longstreets J
corps was not ready until four o'clock
pm. By that time Meade whole army
was up. In the morning an attack by
our right-on the enenys left-must
have resulted in brilliant success, The
attack on our left was only made to sup
port Longstreet. If what Swinton says
in his book as to whataL Longstreet has
said be true. then one at least of Lee 5
lieutenants did not 60 into the fight with
that confidence and good faith necessary
to success. General Lee in this battle
had less than sixty thousand men Of all
arms The defensive line of the Rapid
an was then chosen as the only enc that
could not be 1anked by monitors and
gunboats. In May 1864, Grant came
with 100000 men. Then came the long
death grapple. AT Spottsylvania our
lines we're for time broken. Grant had
received 40, 600 men more, Lee not one.
Grant finally landed on the south side
of the James river, ,IwhereThe could have
gone at first without the loss of a man,
but to reach which cost him more men
than the entirel numberin Lees army.
All things considered, this campaign of
Lees Is the most remaTkable of ancient
or modern times. i"1i "se' 's''@
THE DIsPARIrY bp SuNBsRs
sounds like fomaneenH z General Lee
wrote to me in 1866 that it would be hard
TO make the world understand and. be-
lieve the fact, but he was always anxious
to take the offensive He said to me, if
Grant goes to James river it would be-
come siege, and then it will only be a
question of, time, For nine long months
constant attention and lingering starya-
tion were cloing their work when Sher-
man reached Goldsboro. The end came
at Appomatox. Eight thousand men,
the equals Of any in ell the tide of time,
laid down their arms before 100000.
General Lee had not been conquered in
battle, but surrendered because he had
no longer an army with which to give
battle.~ This is but an imperfect sketch
of General Lees military career. When
/ returned from Canada, submitted my
estimates of his forces to him. He said
they fully coverel the amount, and some
times exceeded them. They are those
| have given today, of the gen
erals Of antiquity, Han nibal IS near
est to General Lee, but the forces
of Rome and Carthage were equal
and the latter a maritime power. So,
too, with Marlborough, Among moderns
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow and
shameless flight from Waterloo are blots
upon his career. Whoever draws a
parallel ketween Lee and Jackson, to
depreciate either, knows nothing of
either Of these two eongenial Christian
heroes Let US rejoice that we can look
to their graves and look the world
squarely ia the face Lee is like tall
column, towering above all others, need
ing no borrowed lustre,. aud he is oil
alone. There is some tendency to bury
our dead past, which bodies no good.
The man who does not cherish the mem
ory of our dead heroes was born to be a
slave.
General Early appealed to the ladies,
to the young men and his old comrades
TO- cherish such noble memories, and
concluded his discourse of two hours
amid storm of applause.