The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-04
SEATTLE. FRIDAY. SEPT. 4.
A NEW LEAF OF HISTORY.

General Benjamin r. Butler has discov'
cred in the Confederate archives at WASH
ington the letter of August 18th, 1853, IN
which Jefferson Davis refused TO accept
the resignation of General Robert Z. Lee
as commander of the army of Northen
Virginia. The publication of this letter
reveals the fact that the president of the
Southern Confederacy and General Lee
were not harmonious during the progress
of the war, and but for the lofty place
which Lee held in the affection and es-
TEEN of Virginia and the whole South,
Davis would have displaced him from his
command as he did Joe Johnston, at later
period of the war, on the eve of giving bat
tie TO Sherman before Atlanta jeff Davis
military idol was Albert Sidney Johnston,
who fell at Shiloh, and in his letter to Lee,
the Confederate president introduced
Johnston's name In terms of comparison
that must have been offensive to Lee. Lee
rendered his resignation August Sth, 1863,
just five weeks after his defeat at Gettys-
burg. Lee, in his letter of resignation, and
Davis, in his reply, make it clear that Lee
desired to abandon the civil war, since the
fall of Vicksburg had made the downfall
of the Southern Confederacy only ques-
ton of time.
Lee as @ soldier knew that the fall OF
Vicksburg not only placed the Mississippi
river under the control of the Union and
thus split the Confederacy in twain, but
that 1t released Grants army of 1900
men for operations against Chattanooga,
which the Confederacy had not the mill
tary strength to resist. The loss of Chatta-
nooga would be fatal, as it would open the
road to Atlanta, to Savannah and the
flank and rear of Lees position In Vir-
ginia. As q sound soldier Lee knew that
while the South might delay this con-
summation by desperate resistance it
could not possibly hope to defeat it with
Chattanooga securely in our possession, as
he knew 1t would be the moment Grant
joined his Vicksburg army to that of Rose
Grams. From humane motives Lee de-
sired to save the South a wanton, useless
waste Of precious blood and treasure, and
he and all his leading lieutenants, by the
testimony of Longstreet, agreed in the
opinion that Lincoln's terms of peace after
Gettysburg. with payment for their slaves,
ought to be accepted. Davis refused peace
on any terms short of independence, 30
Lee was compelled to fight useless battles
for twenty months longer.
Lees judgment that Chattanooga was
the position of vital consequence was
proved by the brilliant audacity, born of
desperation, with which he robbed his own
under Longstreet, TO win battle, whose
prize was Chattanooga, before Grants
army could join Rosecrans. Lee won the
battle by this brilliant movement, but
Bragg and Davis between them threw
away its fruits and the last hope of the
Confederacy was gone with that lost OPP
portunity. The war on the part of Davis
after the loss of Chattanooga was murder,
because 1t was hopeless, as Lee knew and
wrote and as Longstreet bluntly told Davis
to his face in October, 1853, after Chicka-
mauga's fruits had been frittered away by
Bragg. The only pity is that Lee did not
enforce his sound opinion of the situation
by insisting upon his resignation and the
publication of his reasons for his action.
Had he done so he would have forced a
peace. Peace after Gettysburg and Yicks-
burg, which both Lincoln and Lee pleaded
for. would have saved the nation the fear
full carnage of the two great battles for
Chattanooga; saved it the terrible losses
of that awful battle summer of 1864, when
from May to October the thirsty soil of
Virginia and Georgia was daily wet with
the blood of the brave that never ought to
have been shed. The dread responsibility
for that awful summer of sickening slaugh-
ter does not rest upon Lincoln, who offered
peace: nor upon Lee. who wished to ac-
cept it; but upon Davis, who rejected it.