The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-08
Our Fitz-Hugh Lee.

There's man down there looking after
| the interests OF this country who can
not be blinded. He has more sand than
anybody 1 know OF, and if there's any
thing treacherous in this explosion well
know Of it without delay. The man !
mean is General Fitzhugh Lee"
This is what L. P. Sigsbee, brother of
the Names disaster, said in commenting
on the disaster in Havana harbor. The
! same thought occurred to every Amer
lean who has watched the career of our
consul general at Havana From first
to last everybody has had confidence in
his Americanism, his bravery and his
cool-headedness
Famous as a cavalry leader during the
war and with laurels won as governor
Of Virginia, yet although untried IN Ill
plomacy when detailed for duty by Presi-
dent Cleveland. il is as consul general
10 Havana that General Lee won his great
est fame. He holds his office through
merit alone. Although ii is one OF the
best paying in the power of the president,
no politician has been able to win it from
him, and he is likely to remain there as
long as Mckinley is president or there
is any danger Of strained relations with
Spain. No diplomat has more enviable
record. He has been an ideal consul gen
eral. Jealous Of American honor and firm
in insisting upon the rights of his country
men, he has always kept cool. Courteous
and polite as we'll as courageous, he has
never clustered, and he has won the re-
spect and admiration of the Spaniard's
as well as their fear.
His Havana record has been no surprise
to those who knew of his exploits during
whaer or of his family. Blood will tell.
and IL has told in the case of General
7 Iic f. oTr
in American history. How could the
grandson Of Lighthouse Harry, the revo-
lutionary hero" or the nephew of Rob-
ert E. Lee be anything else but cour-
ageous and possessed of tact and common
sense.
The son of a naval officer, he preferred
the army as a career. Graduating from
West Point, he fought on the frontier for
six years before the opening of the re-
bellion, and was engaged in several des-
perate encounters with the Comanche IN
dams in Texas. On one of these occasions
he was pierced through the lungs by an
arrow, but he lived to tell the story. On
another occasion he grappled with n big
Indian in a hand-to-hand encounter,
threw his antagonist on the ground and
killed him.
Though only q years of age, Lee was
an instructor in cavalry tactics at West
Point when the war broke out. He fol
lowed his state" into the secession move
ment. His war record is a matter oc
pride to every Virginian. The dashing
young officer was an ideal trooper, fearing
nothing and loved by his men. He was
modest, too. After some brilliant move
ment of personal valor his brigade formed
in body and determined to serenade him
at his headquarters, expecting, of course.
a speech But Lee got an inkling of the
matter, and when he saw them coming
he slipped out of his tent and hid in the
bushes. After the disappointed troopers
had called for him in vain and dispersed
he peeped furtively from his hiding place,
and in Subdued tone asked, Have they
gomez
General Lee possessed remarkable COM
posture in battle. He never got the least
ratified under the most trying conditions,
except at Saylor's Creek on the retreat
from Petersburg: he never betrayed anx-
iety, and, though often under rafting
fire, no one ever saw him dodge. This
can not be said of many of the bravest
men. Sometimes a bullet will unexpect-
eddy whizz close to ones head, and the
impulse to dodge is almost Irresistible,
though it never did anybody any good
One of the officers with him said once
that the only time he had been moved by
the enemy's fire was at the battle or
Winchester. He and General Early met
under an apple tree near the summit OF
a hill and in d very exposed place. There
was no firing a the time, but while the
two generals, still on their horses, were
intently examining a map. one shot was
fired. 1t fell short and they paid no at
tention to ii. But lol another came,
struck the apple tree just above their
heads, and as the apples rained down on
them they concluded the map could be
better examined in a less exposed position
a conclusion in which all others agreed
with remarkable unanimity. And nobody
stopped to get any apples.
General Lee is a superb horseman. He
rode a splendid mare named Nellie. She
had the form, the strength, the alert poise
IF the head, the bright and intelligent
eyes that made her model worthy 10
pear any master. She was all grace and
beauty When the confederate columns
we're broken in the same battle and the
out began, for it was little less, General |
Lee was at a very exposed point. The I
ire of thirty pieces of artillery was direct !
ID against il. The air was full of eX- |
)lodng shells; horses were plunging about !
N three legs, neghing piteously for /
,lace of refuge; others were loose, run |
ling to and fro, bewildered by the terri |
Ne havoc, while the mutilated bodies of 4
nen could be seen on every hand; num- ,
,ers who were crippled were hobblins !
.way, and all seemed doomed TO death. |
t was here that the beautiful Nellie was /
,ored by one fragment of shell and her |
masters leg torn by another.
He was noted for his geniality and jol /
ity. He loved humor and fun and got 1
IL there was to be had in those trying 4.
lines. But his cheerfulness failed at |
Appomattox. There he cried.