The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-07-12

save slavery, for what will become OF
our country If the niggers are freeo
And O kind Father do Thou 80 order
that at the close of this war may be
the head general of the army, ana
thereby speedily become president OF
these United States"
Mr.. Kelley speaks OF what TO tell
the young folks. 1 wonder II he
thinks it right TO tell the young peo-
pie that it really did take five north
ern soldiers to whip one Southern SOL
dier. He represents Lee with a hand
full of "starved ragged troops" hold
ing Grants tremendous army in check
for a whole year and at last did not
surrender but simply sat down and
said to Grant "Here 1 am, come and
get me.r What could be farther from
the facts?
But 1t il as Gen. Grant said, the
South was always magnifying the
Union troops engaged and belittling
their own. Grants Memoirs Vol. 2,
page 5O0.)
1t is very difficult to find out how
many men Lee did have In the Spring
of '64 when Grant went out against
him, but we know that Lee had three
corps of infantry and one corps OF cav
airy, tauite "a handful of starved rag
ged troops") and Grant had four corps
of infantry and one of cavalry. So ac-
cording to that Grant had only a
fourth more men. Napoleon Bona
parte who was probably the greatest
military genius that eyer lived, said
that the soldiers of two countries be-
ing equal as fighters the invading
army must number two to one to sue
cessfully invade the enemy's country
and capture his army and his strong
holds. Yet Grant with much less than
that number did INVADE Lees country
and capture his army and his strong
hold.
A word about Lee being "the great
est general on this side of the briney
Deep"
Lee was a we'll educated military
man, and to organize and drill an
army and then fight in defense he
was a great general. But when it
came to taking the offensive and in
vading his enemy's country he prov
ed fiat failure. When Lee invaded
Maryland in 1862 If he had been such a
great general he would have done bet
ter than he did for McClellan's army
was considerably demoralized on ac-
count of its defeat on the Peninsula.
Then when Lee invaded Pennsylvan-
la his army was flushed over his vic
tory at Charlottesville and the I'm
ion army again somewhat demoralized
that is, some of the officers were de-
moralized. The private soldiers, God
bless them! were not. When the two
armies met at Gettysburg the Union
army came very near being without a
commander. Yet in that greatest
battle of the war Lee was badly whip
ed. In that battle Lee made the
greatest mistake that any general on
either side made during the war-when
he ordered Pickett's charge on the
Union lines. Pickett's men were
mown down by the thousand and it
turned the battle against Lee and was
also the turning point of the war. Or.
dering that charge simply went to
prove that Lee was not great com.
mander when he took the offensive.
There were two and probably five
other generals In the rebel army and
about dozen in the Union army that
were better generals on the offensive
than Lee, at least their records are bet.
ter than Lees.
1 hope Mr.. Kelly will 60 ahead with
"The Other Side" for his memoirs are
very readable, and I also hope he will
not he offended at this reply to his
comments, which is written with the
best Of feeling and with a view only to
correct some errors into which T am
convinced he has unwittingly fallen.
H. C. WINCHESTER.
Carlyle, Kan, July s, 1888.