The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-06-14
MCGUIRE ON GEN. JACKSON.
Why the North Never Produced Any
Great Generals.

cred an address here tonight in the
opera house on Stonewall Jackson
which made deep impression upon
the large audience. The paper held
and entertained the most attentive,
the most intelligent and the most ap-
preciatiye audience that has honored
lecturer on any previous occasion for
many years. 1t was, as it were, a
voice speaking from sainted past, a
voice which only such characters as
Stonewall Jackson were moulded and
made the idol Of his country.
The opera house was filed from top
| to bottom, while men distinguished in
many walks Of life sat on the platform
around DR.. Mcclure. The hour and
half he spoke was all too short for
the men who wore the gray and the
women who remembered the trying
days Of the Confederacy.
DR.. Mcclure said in part:
"The two sections CT this country
are not altogether dissimilar in blood
and antecedents. It is, therefore,
strange that the northern section has
so far produced no great soldier. 1t
has given birth to many gallant and
meritorious men. but not one who by
the worlds estimate to-day is account
ed a great commander not one whom
the final verdict Of mankind will al
low to rank with Washington, Lee or
Jackson. Not one was forthcoming in
the revolution of rs or the war OF
1872, or in 1848. or in the sectional
war Of '61-65. I need not speak of the
war with Spain, fresh in our memories.
I do not think that even northern his
tory will claim that one great soldier
from that section was then in evi-
dence.
"Press, pulpit and people have COM
bined in efforts to make Grant great
soldier. In truth he was brave, honest
and magnanimous but general who
| in a short campaign-from the Wilder
ness to Cold Harbor-lost more men
than his antagonist had, and who,
with anything like equal resource,
would have been annihilated by Lee,
will never be accepted by history as
"great." Sherman and Sheridan, have
been regarded by some of their adher-
ents as great soldiers. The former
gave up his claim to this title-if, in
deed, he ever possessed it-when he
said that on his march through Georgia
he had so devastated the country with
fire and sword that no army could fol-
low him and live; and the latte. sign
ed his own protest against his right
to the title when he left the Valley OF
Virginia and its helpless people so
poor that a crow would have to carry
his rations if he dew across the land.
Both of these men were incendiaries,
and such characters never had been
and never will be accepted as great
in the estimation Of the world.
present company excepted, as al
ways; and at the same time admitting
and claiming the greater fighting eff
cheney of the individuals Of the Con-
federate army, I do not know that any
more gallant private soldiers ever lived
| than the men furnished by the States
of the north in the first years Of the
war. Repeatedly defeated and driven
from the field by the Confederates (;
losing in their fight flags and guns
and nearly all they possessed, they
never entirely lost their courage. In
few weeks, when the next battle was
Joined, they would come forward with
renewed courage, with as much assur-
ance of victory as if they had never
been beaten. Directed by Incompetent
generals, I saw them at Fredericks-
burg lose hundreds and thousands OF
their men in as brave and gallant and
hopeless an assault against our works
as we're ever witnessed. Yet these
same men in few minutes met US at
| Charlottesville with a courage un-
subdued, with an assurance of success
that seemed almost impudent.
"They knew, too, that their leaders
were incompetent men. Riding one
day with Jackson to visit the plckets
on the Rappahannock at a time when
there was an agreement between them
and the Federals not to fire upon one
another (they were friendly enough
for daily exchanges of newspapers,
coffee, tobacco, etc., the Confederate
pickets cheered Jackson when he left
them. aud after we had ridden short
distance one Of the federals came to
the bank of the river and said. What
,o1l;nr ohort Tnhnnias ?