Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-06-17
Fitz Lee and the Duke of Sutherland.

The Duke of Sutherland has just hnlSh-
ed tour of portion of the United States
as far South as Richmond. He was ac-
companied by DR.. Russell who, during the
civil war was the correspondent of the
London "Times,'' and in flying from the
battle of Bull Run was the first to carry
the news of the disaster to Washington.
The London "Post" Of June I'd has let
ter from DR.. Russell in which he says:
Travelling to Richmond on the I'd of
May. the party was joined near Quantico
Creek by General Fitzhugh Lee. nephew
of the great Confederate leader, and the
darling chief of the Confederate cavalry
on the death in battle Of ''Jeb'' ii. E. b.
Stuart-now settled as farmer on the
banks of the Potomac, in region every
foot OF which reeks with the memories Of
the four years. war-a broad-br0wed,
bright and keen-eyed. soldierly looking
man, of immense breadth Of chest, thick
throated, large limbed, with a resemblance
to Pelissier in his best days, to which, NO
doubt, massive mustache and a heavy
barbe d'Atrique somewhat contribute. He
lives on his estate and cultivates it with
profit, and he draws, moreover, a rich har-
vest from the river at the time of the shad
fishing, when his nets sweep in occasional
ly 10000 or even $4,000 of these much
priced fish at haul.
Well, Fitzhugh Lee told the Duke that
he fully and entirely accepted the situa-
ton, that he acknowledged the Union,
and that he would not, if he could, go
back to the old order of things. Nay
more, he declared that the virginians
round about him were of the same way of
thinking. Labor was to be had when
Tbo hn 70
wages and the hirer had no further care
about them when their work was done.
Contrast that with his trouble with his
b1ped proptrty. The ladies of his house
had to look after the women in travail, and
the men, when sick, were thrown on the
hands of the master. When worn out
with work or stricken with illness the
colored people became burdens on their
masters and any one who has a breeding
establishment for cattle Or horses knows
what infnity of demands on the purse and
the patience the accidents and maladies to
which all living things are exposed pro-
duces.
Into Quantico Greek flows the stream of
Bull Run, and away there on our right
was fought the first Of the battles the re-
suits of which one of the party had good
reason to remember. The President, at
his gracious reception of the Duke and his
friends at the White. House the day before
remarked to the gentleman referred to.
you brought us the worst news that day
that could be told, though think it was
not very willingly, but that you could not
help it," General Fitzhugh Lee did not
dwell on the defeat with any relish either,
but he could not forget all that happened
on that memorable Sd of July, 1861, any
more than he could forget the long years
hat of ,v,l,; ah hn
precursor, and when our train approached
Fredericksburg, the scene of Burnside's
disaster, and he was warme up by the in
terest and interrogatories of his compan-
ions to recall the episodes of that three
days. sanguinary fighting, the fire was
kindled within him and the burly Virgin
ian farmer, standing beside the Duke on
the carriage platform, described the posi-
tion aud the movements of the two great
armies as if he were still engaged in it..
He pointed out Marye's Hill and the
slopes on which the Irish Brigade lay in
long rows of dead and dying at the close
of Meagher's desperate assault, the site
where Lee surveyed and directed the ac-
ton the hills on which the Confederates
were entrenched, the plains over which
Burnsde's column advanced and depl0yed
under the Confederate fire, and the cardi-
nal mistake of the Federal leader in at
lacking the left instead of the exposed
right of the Southern army. II have Of
ten spoken about it to Burnside since
He and are very good friends now, and L
have often fought the battle over with
him and told him his best chance would
have been against our right, which he
could have got at by crossing the river
lower down than he did, 1t was the day
before we had been chatting with that Fed
eral general, now Senator of the United
States, at Washington, and as genial and
Iusty as he was when he came to the Ger
man headquarters at Versailles on the
chivalrous if somewhat Quixotic enter
prise of saving Paris from the last neces-
sites of defeat.
Without any Wanting the Southern
leader spoke of his experiences in the war,
and those who heard him must have re-
collected with feelings not easy to analyze,
that they had been listening to General
Sheridan, the antagonist of the gallant
gentleman who was now talking to them.