Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-07
GENERAL LEE,
As he Is Pictured by n Distinguished
German Officer before n Glass In the
Royal Academy OF ArtilIerists
and Engineers, Berlin.

independent: During the American war the
sympathies of the German people were
strongly on the side of the north. They
showed their good feeling toward the Union,
and their confidence in its success, by SUBJ
'scribing largely for United States bonds, at a
most critical period for both our arms and our
inauces-a confidence which congress has
abused in most humiliating way by provid-
ing for cheating the bondholders out of eight
cents on the dollar. Thus do we ourselves
efface the glories of the war and of emanci-
patton. But while on the question of slavery
and the Union the German people were with
us, yet, from a professional point of view,
military men in Germany rated the south
ern generals, and especially Lee, above tine
generals of the Union. They do not seem to
have mastered the grand strategy of Grant
and Sherman, by which Richmond was at
last shut up in wise; the energy with which
Grant drove Lee back to Richmond; the pa
tience with which, having shut Lee up in his
capital, he held him there, until Sherman s
arrival at Charleston gave the signal for tax
ing Richmond, without giving Lee single
chance of escape. The other day, seeing it
announced that Captain Mangold, instructor
in the royal academy of artillerists and en-
glneers, in Berlin, would give lecture on
General Lee, | was curious to hear how a
German officer would picture the military
leader of the Confederacy. Captain Mangold
has been conscientious student of the Amer
lean war in its military bearings, and so we'll
did he perform this task, with so much dis
elimination, candor and fairness, that | felt
constrained to say to the lecturer: "Were l a
southerner, l could not ask for more; and as
Unionist, should not have been satisfied with
less" Surely, all Americans are now ready to
accord to Lee his Just need of praise for brave,
honorable and skillful soldiershipin mistaken
cause. The lecture was chapter from book
which Captain Mangold is writing upon the
civil war in the United States, and was limit
ed to sketch of the personal character and
the military career of General Lee. In the
limits of an hour he could not give details of
battles, and, indeed, he only sketched the
peninsular campaign. Briefly describing
Lees birth, family, education and early
career in the United States army, and the re-
lations of Virginia to the Union. the lecturer
entered directly upon the act of secession, by
which Lee felt himself drawn with his State
though with reluctance and even protest
into the vortex of civil war. His skill as an
engineer in planning the Notifications of
Richmond; his manly modesty when called
to the supreme command; his tact in turn
ing the military vanity of Jefferson Davis to
the advantage of the army; the energy and
secrecy with which he combined his forces
SO as to outgeneral Mcclellan, and the
vigorous strategy with which he drove him
from the peninsula; and, when times of
disaster came, his fertility In gathering re-
sources, his wisdom in harmonizng the civil
with the military authorities, his power of
self-command, his influence over officers and
men, his his patient endurance of i'll fortune,
his desperate struggle against hope, and, at
last, his dignifed resignation to defeat-these
all were pictured and illustrated as exhibiting
military genius of high order and emitting
Lee to place IN history among the first gen.
erals of the world. Lees failure in the Of
fensive was imputed to the intermeddling of
ht ba h,rtfu of
eral were ascribed to him personally-an in
difference to discipline, and too kindly con-
sideration for incompetent officers, both re-
sulting from excess Of. good nature. Captain
Mangold was persuaded also that, from first
to last, Lees heart was not in the cause of
secession. This was shown by the letter In
which he threw up his commission In the
United States army, and by his refusal to
make himself military dictator when it be-
came evident that Davis was ruin
ing the Confederacy and the
whole south was ready to transfer
its allegiance to Lee. One point in Lees
conduct Captain Mangold could not reconcile
with the apparent sincerity of his character.
nor with the code Of military ethics-the vio-
lation of his oath as United States officer.
To a Prussian officer the violation of an oath
Is crime so damnable as to be inconceIvable.
Captain Mangold stated fairly the reasons by
which Lee justified his action in the trying
oHetnma IN winch ne was placed; but ne
could lind no ground upon which Prussian
officer could justify or even extenuate such
breach of honor. This must, indeed, remain
a melancholy stain upon name otherwise
attested as noble and good. But the north
should remember that Lee acted only for him
self when secession forced the issue, and did
not seek to organize conspiracy against the
government he had sworn to defend. One of
the saddest comments on secession is the per-
version it gave to such character. Let the
warning live with the memory of Lee!
BERLIN GERMANY.