The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-01-27

Roderigo-all resources were avail
able to him-whilst Lee stood with a
ragged army, half fed, half clothed
and often barefooted. with few re-
sources, in his rear. and with a country
blockaded as to every port; without
manufactures of arms or munitions,
and having only such supplies as he
wrested from his enemy-yet, hurl-
ing back armies larger than his own
until exhausted by the attrition Of
armed men Can there be any com
parison between these two: Ulysses
s. Grant coming from the West with
the reputation cf never having been
defeated, (although or one or two oc-
casions he had approached singularly
near to that unfortunate condition,
with entire command of all the
United States; With his lieutenant,
Sherman. in the West cutting off sup.
plies of men and materials or even
provisions from Gen Lee; with an
army outnumbering his opponents
on every field; with a disposition
prodigally to expended the life blood
of his soldiers, knowing that while
he could reinforce his depleted ranks,
his adversary-to to use his own words
chad robbed the cradle and the
grave to organize the force he then
held in the field" Yet. notwith-
standing all this, it is matter of his
tory, admitted to be true on all sides,
that from the day when, in the spring
of 1864, Gen Grant appeared in
front of Lee in the Wilderness. until
the close of the campaign in 1864 at
Cold Harbor, Gen Grant lost more
men in killed wounded and missing
than Lee had in his army, and it is
absolutely true that, although Gen
Grant had announced his determine
ton to reach Richmond on the line
be had taken up, "if:it took MIN all
summer" yet he utterly failed to
keep this promise, and the summer of
1864 closed with Grant beseigihg the
cities of Petersburg and Richmond
and constantly extending his left
flank as fast as reinforcements came
to him, whilst his opponent held a
weak line of thirty miles in length,
with force utterly inadequate. Gen
Grant called to his aid the soldiers
of fortune from all over the world,
and his country rewarded them with
bounties which the South co, Id not
pay. lie summoned the engineering
skill of the miner and through the
bowels Of the earth he tunneiled a
path terminating between the bat
teries of his foe. At daylight he ex-
ploded one hundred tons of gun
powder beneath the lines of his ad-
versary and moved 5000 men to
enter like wedge into the crevasse
thus made But when the morning
sun rose On that beautiful June day
it reflected back the serene brow of
Robert Lee as he. with his full and
entire staff, rallied his soldiers, and,
after desperate conflict, reinstated
his lines with immense slaughter of
Gen. Grants troops-a slaughter so
great that Gen Burnside was Court
martialled for the ruin brought to his
division on that bloody day.
That Lee was finally compelled to
surrender the remnast of bis army is
90 proof that Grant was the greater
general. and such has not been the yer
dict Of mankind Hannibal stands
to day immensely higher 10 the worlds
estimation than Scipio, who conquered
him at Zama The three huodred
Spartans who fell at the Pass Of Their
mopplae. upon whose monument is in.
scribed these words }: "Oh, stranger,
tell it to the Lacedemonians that We lie
here 10 obedience to her precepts; have
done more to make the name of Greece
famous than all the glories shed
around the plain of Marathon and the
Cape of Salamis.' It is 10 the fires Of
adversely that the nature of nae is
purified and re6oed. The stubborn
metal of the mioe must burn before its
surface shine " It was Indeed 10
defeat and with heart broken by the
misfortuues Of his countrymen tba.
Gen. Lee reached tie highest pinnacle
Of his true greatness. When the war
vas over be was offered positions Of
great emolument. if be would suffer his
name to be useC any commercial en-
terprise, but firm as granite rock he
stood against all temptation, and de-
voted the balance of his life. SO short,
to the education Of the youth of his coun-
try. As the moon often dispeis the clouds
of dark uig5t aud shines 10 placid
beauty, SO did the ample of Robert E.
Lee calm the storms in the popular
heart, and made of Southern men
hitherto SO rash and deperate, the ex-
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