The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-01-20

| Frederick's Leuthen. to which it bears as
| much likeness as campaign of days can bear
| to battle of hours, or with that greater feat,
| the amazing concentration by Washington OF
contiDgents from New York and from North
| Carolina, of new leVes from the Virginia Val
| ley, and ofa French fleet from the West Indies,
| TO besege and capture the army Of Corn
| wallis.
It is argued that Lee was strong
only in defence, and was averse to taking
the offensive. Nothing could be more false,
He was to prove In the last year of the war
bis fertility Of defensive resource and bis
unriyalled tenacity of resistance. But
HIS GENIUS WAS AGGRESSIVE.
Witness his bold transfer of his army from
Richmond to the Rspidap, whilst McClel-
lin's troops still rested on the James river.
Witness the audacity of detaching Jackson
| from the Rspidan line to seize Manassas
Junction and the road to Washington in
Pope's rear. Witness the magnificent swoop
on Harper's Ferry, Of which accident gave
| to Mcclellan the knowledge and by which
timidity forbade him to profit. Witness that
erowniDg glory Of his audacity, the change
| of front TO attack Hooker, and that march
| around what Hooker called "the best posi-.
| tion in America, held by the best army on
| the planet.og Witness his invasion Of Penn.
| sylvania, a campaign whose only fault was
the generous fault of onhdence in an
army whose great deeds might, if anything,
excuse it; an oyer.confdence, as you sir
know, felt by every man he led. and which
made us reckless of all difficulties, ready to
| think that TO us nothing was impossible.
| He was a commander who had met no equal;
| we weresan army who saw in half the guns
| Of o,,r troi,7 ho cnoil If Tho erpTnv Ehn
| bore upon our flags the bl,Zon Of consistent
victory. If be and we confded in our
daring and trusted to downright fighting for
what strategy might have safely wor, who
shall blame us and which shall blame the
other: 1t was fault, if fault there were,
such rs in soldier leans to virtues side;
it was The fault of Marlbrook at Malplaquet,
of Great Frederic at Torgau, of Napoleon at
Borodino. It is the famous fault Of the
column Of Foutenoy, and the generous haste
which led Hampden to bis death. [Applaus".] ]
Lee chosesno defensive of his own will.
None knew better than be that axiom of
THE MILITARY ART
which tells US the logical end Of defence is
surrender. None knew better than he that
Fablus had never earned his fame by the
policy some attribute to him, nor saved his
country by retreats, however regular, nor the
skill, however great, to choose positions only
to abandon them. The defensive was not biz
chosen fed. But he was fated to Conduct q
defensive campaign riyalled by few and sur
passed by none in history. Of that wonder
full work the details are yet to be gathered.
but the outlines are known the world over.
The tremendous onset of Lee in the tangled
Wilderness upon an enemy with three times
"a enLrn tive he
grim wrestle Of Spotsylyania; the terrible
repulse of Cold Harbor, from which the
veteran commanders of Grant shrank back
aghast. These great actions will be known
so long as war shall be studied, and future
generations will read with admiration of
that battle. field of seventy miles where Lee
with 81, 600 men confronted Grant with his
100. 900, attacked him wherever be showed
uncovered front, killed, wounded, and cap.
tured more men than his own army num-
bered, and in campaign of thirty FIVE days
forced the most tenacious soldier of the
Union armies to abandon utterly bis line Of
attack, to take new position always open to
him but never chosen, aud to exchange the
warfare of the open field for the slow and
safe approach Of the earthWork and the
siege. [ApplauSe.] -, ,
They will read, too, that in the midst of
this campaign Lee was bold to spare from
his little army force enough to take once
| more the offensive, to traverse once more the
| familiar Valley, to break once more through
! the gate Of the Potomac and to insult with
| the fires of his bivouacs the capital city OF
| his enemy. Reading these things, they will
refuse to believe, what we know, that men
| were found here and now to call this marvel
| lous campaign retreat.
A. II ENN n
| if at all, only in the
TRENCHES OF PETERSBURG;
| was driven to that defensive not oy one
army, nor by many armies in succession, but
hv the combined force of the armies in bis
front and in his rear. Vicksburg it was, not
| Cemetery Hill, which laf1led the Army oi
| Northern Virginia. At Nashville and at At
| lanta, not from the lines Of Petersburg, came
the deadly blows and the ragged remnant o
i Appomattox surrendered not to the Galor Oh
skill of the men they had so often met an0
Il overcome, but to the men they had never
seen, aud yielded not to tenacious Grant mol
braggart Sheridan, but to the Triumphant
hosts of Rosecrans, of Thomas, and OF Shef
, man.
It is not hard, then, my friends, to see thai
history will hold Lee to be great soldier
wise in counsel, patient in preparation
swift in decision, terrible in onset, tenaciou;
Il of hold, sulen in retreat, a true son of tha
Il Berserker race that rushed from the boso n
of Europe's darkest age, furious in fight, an(
lovers of battle. but destined to sweep away
the old world and to mould the modern.
Il Rightly to estimate bis power as com
Il mander is not and may never be possible
|, There is no second term Of comparison. HI
f was in position as novel as were the condi
{ tions Of o. war " here the railroad existed, bu
the highway was not where teleSraphs CON
yeyed orders, yet primeyal forests stlll stoot
to conceal armies; where concentration wa
possible at a speed unknown 10 war before
, but where concentration might easily starvf
itself before it could strike the enemy.
Strange as the material were the mora
conditions of Lees command. He was.ham
pered by political considerations he va
trammelled by the Supreme importance
one city; and, above all, on him was com
I plete responsibility, but never commensurate
power. To the integrity of his army-to tht
morale Of half bis force-the successful de
fence of the South and Southwest was essen
tial, and Oh operations in which he had NJ
voice
TURNED THE ISSUE
of bis campaigns. Of these things accoun
Will yet be taken, let us be sure Of that; fol
though in barbarous ages conquered peoples
write no histories, yet, as the world grow
older, history grows more and more judge
less and less q witness and advocate; moro
and more to every cause that appeal lies open
| which Francis Bacon, of Veruiam. made " te
future ages and other countries" Zap