Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1878-08-31
gntelll9enfer.
OFFICIAL COUNTY PAPER.
GRANTS ARMY.
Did Northern Skill or Numbers De-
feat the Rebels ,
Semi-OffICIai southern Reply.

From the September ENluhtl u SuhtItIH IL"
torical society raprrs.l
General Grant table talk" has OF
late excited Il good deal of attention
and comment in the publ press. n
number OF northern papers have hhi
severe criticisms OF statements III
reference To different federal generals,
but OF these we have nothing to say
mor 60 w propose amy detailed reply
to hi comments on southern Stirr-
ais. Ills di-plragiuG remarks about
.sStomcwaEi' Jackson, and his opln-
ion that he would have been haiiN
beaten if Sherman or ANY OF our
great generals rad been opposed t"
him, excite Il smile and \ frrvcnt wish
from All old foot ca~Valry-mam t ut
Sheridan, Or even Grant hIIn>clt tad
been i'll ,JaCk>ou'S front uu that mem
orahlc valley campaign. 1t Is u>r-
less 10 speculate on what the result
would have been: hut we feel ever,
confidence that '.Cavairy sheridan
would never attcrward have awaken
ed the poets Tyre, and that the world
WuuIi never have had this "tahle
talk" His remark. Il have had Erar-
Is :llI of the southern generals III
high command in front OF ME, aud
Johnston gave me more anxiety than
snv Of tue others: | was III /
so anxious about Lee has very
naturally raised the question.
when and where was General >. +.
Johnston ever in Grants from =
That great commander. with q very
i~nadrUua,c fore. Was in Grants
rear, while lac was bc>"igIuG NicE~-
A,,,,, ln+ ,.;,I fl, i,.lrN- fort tim
tions which protected him, and in
the light OF his statement IN the nrNt
paragraph. that he did not knew that
".Juhu-ton was coming until he read
his book. it is difficult to see til"
cause nf General Grants ''anAlciy.
But the following i. perhaps, IN"
most remarkable of all OF the W. Il
statements of this effort TO manufnr-
ture hl>turS:-
81 never ranked L"ca- hi4h a. >oWr
others of the army SAID thC gricIa'.
THAT i t. say. | V had a. mnrh
anxiety when he was i'll my front a.
when Joe Johnston was i'll front.
Lee was a good man, u far comman-
der, who had everything i'll his favor.
lie was u man who nccdcd SUNSHINE.
He was supported 10y the unanimous
voice of the south; he WAS supported
by a large party in the north; he had
the support snd sympathy of Il {
outside world. All this is OF All I'M
meuSe advantage to 4 general. Lee
had this in remarkable degree.
Everything he did was right. He
was treated like a demi.g"d. Our
generals had a hostile press, lukewarm
friends and 4 public opinion outside.
The cry was in the air that the north
ouly won by brute torCe: that TIE
generalship and valor were with the
south. This has gone into history,
with so many other illusions that are
historical. Lee vas of a slow con
sentative, cautious nature, with tit
Imagination Ur humur, always the
same, grave dignity. | never cOuii
see in his achievements what justItlrs
his reputation. The Illusion that
nothing but heavy odds bcat him
will not stand the ultimate light "t
history. ! know ii is not true. The
south aud north were more nearly
matched than you wou.d suppose.
The whole population were III the
war. The 1000, 900 of negroes wcr"
the same a. soldiers. because thy
did the work III the fields whIct
white men would have to do. | be-
lieve the south had as many men un-
der arms as the north. What defeat
ed southern arms was the northern
courage and skill, and this too with
detraction all around. You cannot
imagine how dishearteninG Ii wa. n
the time, not only TO officers hui
men.
General Grants opinion of General
Lee i a matter of small n.
General Scott pronounced him ",hc
very best soldier | ever saw in :hr
field General George Meade -niI
that he was by far the able>t COLT
federate general which the VIZ pro-
ducet-ind the overwhelming ties
timOuy OF the northern Ir-S> i Ill
the same direction, while Eururrau
critics concur i'll giving Lee a place
secOn to none of the generals on the
other side, not a few of them ranking
him a. the ahl"-t general of all hI>-
tory. Since such, then, i the opinion
which the world holds of Robert T.
Lee his friends may well afford To
pass 10y III silence the SncerS OF Il III al
whom he Outgcncral!ed at every point
and whipped, until at last ''by mere
attritiOn," his thin lines were wOrH
away and he wa-"rOmpcllcd TO yield
to overwhelming numbers and re
sources
Nor would it seem necessary to
notice the Oit-refutcd statement that
'sthe south had as many mrm uuGcr
arms as the north" General Grants
affirmation is but q bold repetition OF
what his military secretary, General
Babe al, wrote in the London Stan
dard several years ago, and to which
General Early Zee volume H., pa@"
6, Southern Historical ~papers"j
made so crushing a reply hat we can
account for its repetition only from
our knowledge of the persistcncy
OF which northern generals and VIII
tiers have e~ndcavOred to force this
misrepresentation of facts into his
tory. The census of 1860 shows that
the fourteen states from which the
cenfederacy drew any part of Ii
forces hI,t a white population OF only
1916, Ill, of which 2,4gS, S9l belonged
to Maryland, kentucky aud Missouri.
which three states furnished morcm
(because OF force of surrounding cir
cumstanCcs) TO the federal than I,
the confederate armies; so that tlt,.
total population upon which the con
feGrraCy could draw was really ouIy
5,4i7, 220, while the United States had
exclusive of Maryland, Kentucky
and Missouri) a population of l9,Oll,-
$50. Add to this the patent fact,
that we soon lost large portions OF
our territOry-that the United States
recruited very largely from our negro
population, and that by means of
large bOunties and ether induce
meuts the federal armies drew from
the dense populations of Europe II
very large proportion of their Ievics,
and 1t Will be seen that the odd-
against us must have been enormous.
AS for General Grants statement
that our 100000 of negroes Were
the same as soldiers, because they did
the work Ill tho fields which white
men would have TO do" it is sutii-
cient to reply that from the first the
negroes were entiCed into the fedora!
Ilnes-that they were enlisted by
thousands in the federal armies, ar.,i
that 1T was very common for the
young negro men to run off, leaving
only the old men, the women and the
children as q burden on the planta-
lions and a heavy tax on the planters.
Secretary Stanton (page 81 of hi
report for 1861 states that there were
actually mustered into the service ct
the United States from the 18th of
April. 1861, 10 the 18th OF April 1863.