The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-03-06
GRANT AND LEE.
A New Story of the Surrender of Lee at
AppOmattOx.

A New Story of the Surrender of Lee a
AppOmRttOx.
From a London Review of Lieut.. Col. Chesney'
Essays in NJ lItary Biographies"
-Four or these essays relate to The
great war in America, the events o.
which, perhaps in themselves as inter
eseiRg in a military sense as those il
any waS the world has seen, have not
received the careful attention which they
merit, owing to the distraction of the
more recent continental campaigns. As
Col. Chesney truly remarks :" There is
a disposition TO regard the American
| generals and troops which they led as
altogether inferior to regular sol
diers. This prejudice was born out OF
the blunders and want of Conference
exhibited by undisciplined volunteers
| at the outset-faults amply atoned for
by the stubborn courage displayed on
both sides throughout the rest of the
struggle; while if a mans claims to be
regarded as a veteran are to be meas
ured by the amount of actual fighting
he has gone through, the most seasoned
soldiers of Europe are but as conscripts
compared with the survivors of that
conflict"
The.essays on Generals Grant and Lee
dE6 ulObb Valuable anu u6AlhuSblNoS SGuQleS.
His structures on Grants reckless sacri-
fee of his troops in attempting the i'm
possible by fighting the battle of Cold
Harbor, after he should have learned
by the experience of the long and
butchering battles of the Wilderness
and Spotsylvania, that the continuous
hammering" IN which he had some
what boastfully trusted might break the
~, -,
finished, are b. th severe and we'll
founded. He calls the battle of Cold
Harbor " the darkest spot on the career
of Grant as a commander. X
It requires" he continues, "more ex-
cuse than has anywhere been offered
for the sacrifice 1t may be that Grants
usually yimperturbable etemper wasruffled
by the continued readiness with which
hisadversary met him; or that he believed
the Confederates already so worn down
by their unsupplied losses as to be IN
able to man their works; or that he
judged that his new command had not
been sufficiently put to the proof by the
stern dOings of the month Just past or
that all these causes acted together.
Possibly he was influenced more than
all by the uneasy consciousness that he
upon his strategy by his famous dis
patch, 1 propose to fight it out on this
line if it. takes all summer for had
not this line been already abandoned,
and no result won?" Col. Chesney &C
curately apportions between Grant and
Sheridan the merit of the final effort
which forced Lee to surrender. of which
merit Americans are becoming more
nd 10
share to the subordinate commander.
His sketch of Gen. Lee cannot be |
condensed. "Like Napoleon, bis troops
soon learnt to believe him eQual to
every emergency which war could bring. |
Like Hannibal, he could speak lightly |
and calmly at the gravest moments. be- |
ing then himself least grave. Like Rag |
Ian, he preserved a sweetness of temper |
that no person or circumstance could |
ruffie. Like Caesar, he mixed with the !
crowd of ldiery freely, and never
feared that his position would be for
gotten. Like Blucher, his one recog-
nized fault was that which the soldier
readily forgives, a readiness to expose
his life beyond the proper limits per-
mitted by modern war to the comman-
der in chief. What wonder, then, if he
an army in which each MAJ
would have died for him; an army from
which his parting wrung tears more bit
ter than any the fall of their cause could
extort; an army which followed him,
after three years of glorious vicissitudes,
into private life, without one thought
of further resistance against the fate
to which their adored chief yielded
without a murmur ?' But with all this
warm eulogy he impartially points out
the faults and failings of Lee-how he
made no attempt to check indiscipline
never used his authority to purge his
of inefficient officers failed
to enforce on the government the vital
necessity of bringing the furnishing of
supplies more directly under his own
control, so that his army starved in
Richmond while large supplies were