Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-08-27
]. s. Grant and R. {. Leo.

A Comparison, by a Northern Soldier.
Plutarch, after writing the lives
of two persons like Ageslldus auC
Pompey, or Aristldes and the elder
Cato, says the next tbingis to com
pare them and BRING together the
points in which they Chiefly dis
agree.
While Abraham Lincoln and
Jefferson Davis, on account OF
the Official positions they held, as
well as by reason of their great
ability and force of character, will,
doubtless, for all time occupy the
most prominent place in the pO
litical history Of America for the
four years covered by the civil war,
it Is equally certain that U, s.
Grant and Robert E. Lee will al
ways be recognized as the most
distinguished of the great captains
whose achievements and failures
constitute the military history oil
the most formidable unsuccessful
rebellion on record.
Though both OF them were tram
ed In the same military school, be.
lOnged to the same army, aud serv
ed in the only war IN which their
country was engaged during
their lives prior to the war Of
the Rebellion, yet IN respect OF
lineage, family ASSOCIATIONS, and
surroundings they were not all
alike. While it Is true that Grants
name Is one OF the most hon orable
in Scottish history, it is equally
true that his own family had no
public record, his father bang .
tradesmau and his ancestry un-
distinguished, almost unknown.
OF Lee, on the contrary, it eau
be truly said, there Is no \ nerl =
can whose name and family have
Deen more illustrlOns. From the
tue time OF Charles the First, when
his ancestor, Richard Lee, came 70
America and became he secret 'rN
OF the cOmmOnwea tn under Sir
William Berkeley, Governor, there
has been no period in tue two
centuries aud half since in which
the Lees have not been among the
most distinguished cltiztns vt Vfr
ginia. A Lee was the first nativ We
governor of the con monwealth; a
Lee moved the adoption in the
Colonial Convention of the Declara
tiOn of Independence; LIE, LI
the unanimous vote Of Congress,
delivered the funeral eulOgy upon
Washington, and uttered the for
ever memorable words, soOIimely
comprehensive of the highes
human greatness, "FiTst in war
first in peace, first in the hearts Of
his cOnntrvmen.'
The general moral maxim, dt
mOrtuiS nil niSi bOnum of the deaC
speak OnlY praise-has no rightu
place 10 history, and, moreover,
has no need to be observed eYel
by the panegyrist of either Grant
or Lee.
There has been as yet no critical
or even impartial biography writ
ten of either of them. In reallni
some of those extant, we are re
minded of Plutarch's comment ul o
XenOphOn's account of the victOrie
OF Agesilsns: 'Xeuophon has th
privilege allowed him that he ma
write OF speak what he pleases il
favor of his heroes."
1t has often been asserted b
intelligent men, soldiers, aad civi
llans, who knew him we'll, and wei
familiar with his military caree
that Grant was not man OF hig
endOwments, and that his mllitar
renOwn, upon which his subsequeI
political eminence mainly reste'
was largely due to accident; th'
the illness OF General Smith befO
the battle of Shiloh prevented hi
from taking command in the plat
of General Grant, who had bee
relieved by order of General Ha
} lock. But 1t is equally prObabl
that, but for the shell that cripple
IS Johnston at Seven Pines, l.
would not have the place 10 histO
n' be will now always hold.
1t may be true that there WI
nothing In Grants known chara