The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-02
News and Observer.


hear the address, delivered by Col.
Julian s. Carr, before the Confeder
ate Veterans Association. The Col
onel was at his best, and made
most effective address, reaching at
times flights of eloquence which went
home to the hearts of his hearers. He
was constantly interrupted by applause,
his sentiments seeming to be the product
of one who had felt and seen the pic
ture he drew with such master strokes.
The occasion will be long remembered.
Mr.. Carr's address was handsome
tribute to the Confederate soldier, and
was full of historical incident and illus
tration, accompanied with political sug
gestion. Among other things he said:
Gettysburg and Waterloo.
We cannot undertake to describe the
battle of Gettysburg in detail. To do
so would require a volume. 1t was,
perhaps, a greater battle than that of
Waterloo. In many particulars they
were strikingly alike, review of which
may prove interesting, but in two re-
spects, which desire to emphasize, they
were remarkably dissimilar.
At Waterloo the English were fortified
on st. Jean, the French were in the
plain below, At Gettysburg the Fed
erals were entrenched on Cemetery
Heights, the Confederates on low
range of hills called Seminary Ridge.
There were a hundred and ffty-tWo
thousand troops engaged at Waterloo,
one hundred and fifty five thousand at
Gettysburg. The loss in killed and
wounded at Waterloo was forty-nine
thousand, at Gettysburg forty-six thou
sand.
Had Napoleon opened the battle four
hours sooner, he could have crushed
Wellington before the arrival of Butcher
Had Longstreet moved his corps when
ordered by Lee, four hours sooner than
he did, Sickles's and Hancock's corps
would have been defeated before the
Fifth and Sixth corps reached the field.
Grouchy was separated from Napoleon
at Waterloo, Stuart was separated from
Lee at Gettysburg. Had his cavalry
been with General Lee, or had he had a
Typographical staff to advise him of the
nature of the country, the Federals
would never have obtained possession of
Cemetery Heights, thus doubling the
strength of the Union Army. Had Ma
poleon been advised of the condition of
the country, and not dependent tor in
formation upon the word of hostile
guide, two thousand of Milhaud's four
thousand giant horsemen, with breast
plates of steel, led by Ney, would not
have been crushed to death in the sunk
en- road of Chain; and the impact of that
mighty mas would have broken the Eng
lish centre. Napoleon staked all upon
the charge of the Old Guard; Lee staked
all upon the Greatest Charge of modern
times.
Here, the wonderful similarity between
these battles ceases. o
When defeat came TO the French army,
it became demoralized mob and rushed
pell-mell from the field. When defeat
came to the Confederates, the Army of
Northern Virginia was no panic stricken
mob. General Meade afterwards de-
clared he saw Sin it no symptoms of de-
moralization. General Lee and his army
expected and anxiously awaited an at
tack, but it never came. Both armies
remained in position until the night of
the 4th of July, and then moved, one
down the eastern the other down the
western side of South Mountain, with
their banners turned toward Hagerstown.
The French army at Waterloo, com
posed of veterans whose tramp had
shaken every throne in Europe, and
given to France such victories as Fried
land and Marengo and Austerlitz, and
Jena, and Borodino, and Bautzan, and
Leipsic, and Ligny, became flying,
hopeless, helpless rout, while Lees vet
Grams at Gettysburg, under similar or
worse conditions, stood a bank of steel,
defying attack.
The other difference which / desire to
emphasize is this: Wandering in the
darkness upon the fatal and fateful field
of Waterloo, Napoleon sought death by
English bullets, while General Lee at
Gettysburg, incomparably grander, as
his shattered divisions marched by, ex-
claimed, Human virtue should by equal
to human calamity"
So against the Lilies of France, we
place the Stars and Bars, and against
the genius of Napoleon, that of Robert
Z. Lee.
A Great Confederate Museum and
Royal Gallery of Leaders.
France has her Muse d'Artillerie and
Sale des Armes in which are collected
the wonders and mementoes of her vic
tories and campaigns. 1t may be that in
the future we may see mighty Confed-
crate Museum in Richmond, the gateway
of the Southern Confederacy. Its courts
containing the curios, battle flags and
relics of our terrific contest, and its walls
mosaiced with tablets and enriched with
portraits of the great leaders of the Con.
federacy Jefferson Davis, who upheld
the fortunes of the South, as Hector did
those of Troy; Robert E. Lee, who Stone
wall Jackson said he ''would follow
blindfoId," and who the military critics
of Europe rank with Caesar and Napo-
leon; Albert Sidney Johnson, who for the
South sacrificed his life at Shiloh, and
who, swinton says, was "the brightest
star In the armament of the Southern Con-
federacy;" Joseph E. Johnson, who Grant
said he feared more than any com
II ~