The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-06-15
alornIng Star and Catholic MESSENGER.
EEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, JUNE IS. 1873.

.---o.>.o1~
extended until Richmond should be won.
But he had stAl $50, 600 men at DIS com
mand. having been largely Reinforced Ny
pect of continual supplies Of men and
means. Lee had less than &c, 900 all told.
The armies of the South elsewhere were
overm atched, ard could promise him no
help. Want of energy and ability IN tne
administration of the Confederacy, hardly
less than it's inferior resources, left him
destitute not only of recruits, but straiten.
ed for the most necessary supplies. And
If his enemy had weakened himself by
nearly 10000 men in his fruitless attempts
to gain Richmond, it had cost Lee more
than one-half that number to defend it.
He we'll knew that this loss could never be
replaced. Firm as his soul was, the sure
effect of that "procees of attrition," OF
which the chroniclers of the triumphant
Union now speak with admiration OF its
success, was then felt chiefly by the general
of the Army of Virginia, which was melt;
ing away under it. The hopes that had
frightened his earlier years OF command
we're plainly disappearing as the increasing
energy of the North brought her superior
strength into full play. From the hour
that Grant sat down before the lines Of.
Richmond, already too weakly guarded,
and it became plain that i'll success had not
shattered the confidence of the Washington
Administration in his sagacity, and that
HIS reserves were increasing from week to
week, the result could never be doubtful.
Lee, above all others, could well forecast
the event, which might be delayed but
could not be averted. Two years before,
when Mcclellan, after his first retreat, had
proposed to cross the James and move on
Petersburg, and the plan which brought
Grant triumph in after days had been sum :.
marily rejected by Halleck as impracti-
cable "a fact his official memorandum of
his visit to the army of the Potomac re-
cords-Lee had in his private converse
ti0ns, Mr.. Cooke assures us, expressed bis
own conviction that Richmond, now freed
from Immediate pressure, could be held
safely 30 long as such a movement on its
communicstion with the Carolinas WAS left
untried. Yet it needed two years of con-
tinued victory on the West to gain for
Grant that prestige which could enable him
to patiently carry ont, after plain proof Of
che .impracticability of the President's
6avorite plan of a direct advance, the stra-
tegy which he, as we'll as his great adver-
cary and his predecessor, all saw clearly to
DO that to which the defence of Richmond
.must succumb.
Not in the fret flush of triumph when his
army cheered bis victory overy Mcclellan (;
not when hurting back Federal masses
three times the weight of his own on the
when advancing, the commander of victo-
rious legions, to carry the war away from
his loved Virginia into the North, had Lee
seemed 20 great, or won the love of his
soldiers so closely, as through the dark
winter that followed. Oyerworked his men
sments for that weakened army to guard.
Their prospects were increasingly gloomy
az month passed by after month, bringing
them no endorsements, whilst their enemy
became visibly stronger. Their rationi
grew scsntier and poorer, whilst the jocund
Of in roll n
abundance often raised to luxury by volun.
tary tribute from the wealth of the North
The indiscipline, teO long allowed, told or
them and, with the psngs of hunger add
ed, led to desertion, formerly almost un
, known in the Army of Virginia. But thu
confidence of the men in their beloved chic
never faltered. Their 81 fferings we're neve
laid on Uncle Robert" The simple piet,
which all knew the rule of his life, acte'
upon thousands of those under him with
power which those can hardly understand
who know not how community of hope
suffering and danger, fairly shared, ami'
the vicissitudes of war, quickens the sym
pathies of the toughest and lowest as vel
as Of those above them. He who was know
to every soldier under him to have forbid
den his staff to disturb the ;mprompt,
prayer meeting which stopped their wa,
when hurryipg to the fierce battle in tn
Wilderness; he whose exposure was see
by all to grow only greater as the hour gre,
darker; he who was as constant in the line
during the monotonous watch against til
foe that never attacked, as he had bee
when Grant hurled fresh legions on him da
after day in the bloodstained thickets
Spottsylvania; he W no, in short, had Ion
lived up to the motto he had commende
to his son on entering life, as the only sal
guide, "Duty is the sublimest word in OF
language" now illustrated in hiso perso
chat other motto which he bequeathed I
the army when it dissolved, "Human virtu
should be equal to human calamity I'll
vision of becoming the new Washington ,
new Republic-hsd he ever enteEtaine
it-had faded away with all it's natural an
bitiOn. The'very hope Of saving from hi
initiation the State for whose safety an
honor he had sacrificed his high prospect
in the army of the Union, must now b
despaired Of. Yet the frmness of his bear
ing, and his unfalteriRg attention to th
hourly business of his Office, never decline
for moment, and impressed alike the fal
ing government of the Confederacy, tt
detected citizens of it's capital, and I'll
humblest soldiers of its army. Once dul
ing the sad spring of 1865 he recommend