The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-13
LEE AND HIS ARMY.
THE HIGHEST PRAISE FROM UNION
SOLDIERS.

Pine Crest Villa, Maitland, Fla, May IL.
The late Maj. Gen. e. D. Keyes. U. s.
A, for many years confidential aide to
Gen. Winfield Scott, in his book. Fifty
Years Observation of Men and Events"
| puts on record his exalted estimate Of
the high character of Gen Robert E. Lee
as man and a soldier, and his con-
domination of The unjust censure visited
upon Lee because he Joined the Confed-
crate forces. 1t was a brave act for a
soldier of the Union army to declare, as
Gen. Keyes. does. that in virtues, graces.
unsoiled life, etc, Gen. Lee excelled every
individual with whom he had had the
good fortune to be acquainted.
81 can discover" writes Gen. Keyes,
mo sufficient reason to impugn the mo-
lives of Gen. Lee in joining the Con-
federate ranks. His state believed in the
right of secession, which was repugnant
to my understanding, and with it he
un2eito took a revolution, which, although
it was unsuccessful was concurred in by
a larger proportion of the virtue, intell-
gence and patriotism of the whole South
e community, than was any other revo-
| tut on OF ancient or nOOGIn tlLlSS Inc
| right 10 hold slaves was recognized and
reserved VIXEN the Unicn was formed and
when the slave holders imagined that
| right was invaded by the. Ncrth thSy re-
| bclled and made war, which, fortunately
for them as well as for us, ended in de-
feat. War was the only means to get rid
of the curse CT slavery, and ID is idle to
cl1mor about the motives of either party.
| 1t is proper, therefore, that the world
| should credit Gen. Robert E. Lee with
genius and purity Of intention, justice and
an ursoiled life. Such were his cardinal
: virtues, and in the variety of his manly
| acc mPlishmenIs, and the graces of his
| n anners and person, he excelled every
individual with whom I have had the
good fostune to be acquainted. No
man could stand in his presence and not
| recognize his capacity and acknowledge
| his mo al force. l was a Northern
nan and vet 1 Will not deny that the
presence of Lee, and he multiform graces
| that clustered around him, oftentimes OPP
pressed me, though l never envied him,
and l doubt If he ever excited envy in
any man. Lees greatness as
| chief was not alone en- the field of battle.
The Inherent nobleness of his char
a ter was made manifest after he had
| been vanquished in war and retired to
| tie walks of civil life"
| This is the frank and generous testi-
mony of a distinguished army officer
whose long service on Gen. Scott's staff
gave him an extensive acquain' ance with
military men and civilians of great emf
pence; and yet he says LIE was superior
% the beet of them.
The Society of the Army of the Potomac
has never fatered in its high appreciation
of Gen. Lee as a soldier and as a civilian,
nor has it ever withheld unstinted praise
! from the gallant army he so long COM
manded. When our society was organized
/ IT, Vr~Nr t. ~ e a l.
casion was Maj. Gen. Joshua L. Chamber
| lain, Ex-Governor of Maine and ex-presi-
| dent of Bowdoin College. 1t was at that
| early period in the societys history that
l heard these words fall from his lips and
win the heartiest applause from all the
old Union soldiers present:
I'VE had an army opposed to us, such
as the Confederacy had no where else; an
army reared in the same field, growing
up with us, taught by the same expert
ence, trained by The same discipline,
matched and balanced against us in weight
| and measure and movement. The army Of
| Northern Virginia-who can help looking
back upon them now with feelings half
| fraternal? Ragged and reckless, yet care
full to keep their bayonets bright and lines
| of battle we'll dressed, reduced to dire ex-
| tremities sometimes, yet always ready for
| a fight; rough and rude, yet knowing well
| how to make a field illustrious. Who can
! looked at us four years across the fam
| ing pit-men with whom, in a hundred
| fierce grapples, we fought with remorse-
less desperation and all the terrible energy
| OF death, till Oh the one side and The other
a quarter of a million fell and yet We
never hated them, except that they struck
| at the old flag. Main force against main
| force-there was good reason why, when
valor like that was exhausted, the sun
should go down on thousands dead, but
not one vanqulshed."
&c. Thirty. years later, at the annual re-
union of the Society of the Army of the
Potomac, held at Pittsburg. Pa, last
summer, my Old comrade, Col Augustus
G. Hamlin of Bangor, Me-. who was a
medical director in the army, in respond
| Ing to the toast: THE Army of the Po-
tcmac," included THE Army of Northern
Virginia" in his remarks, which were, in
part, as follows, and may be accepted
as the judgment of as brave a soldier and
| accomplished gentleman as ever served In
any army:
Gen. Hooker in 1863. spoke the truth
when ne declared that he commanded the
| finest army on the planet. There was but
/ one army worthy of its steel, and that was
| the determined and resolute body of SOL
| diers commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee
who held the Federal forces at bay for
| four long years, and struck down on the
| field of battle one hundred and eighty
| TWO thousand OF us men, k1lle0 ana
wounded-almost as many as Won Moltke
captured at Sedan, when Emperor Napo-
leon and his army surrendered to the Ger
| mans. Just and worthy praise of either
army reflects its beams upon the other.
No army of modern times can compare
with this body of the best of our Northern
youth who sprang to arms to defend their
country.
1.-THE splendid body of patriotic French
men whom Carnot organized into victory
may have been their equal in courage and
| in patriotism, but 1t was far inferior in
| intelligence to the Army of the Potomac.
None of the trained armies of Europe could
| have stood for a day in the thickest of the
| Wilderness before the Army of the Poto-
mac or the Army of Northern Virginia,
and they would have disappeared as quickly
as Braddock and his British Regula $
vanished before the French and the
Indians on this very spot (Pittsburg) 142
years ago."
Without any disaparagement Of the ar
mics of Sherman and Johnston and the
| less conspicuous commanders of the great
| CIVIL War. it is safe to believe that history