The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-31
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE

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 | Every man has at some time or other found himself speculating on what might havebeen," and of course there | Is always room for discussion when people open that subject. Just now some of our Virginia contemporaries are discussing and disagreeing about what might have happened If Genarals Lee and Johnston. instead of fighting | their latest battles and eventually sur | rendering, had made their way to the | mountainous regions of Virginia and the Carolinas and kept up the struggle. The Richmond Times Dispatch says that 'it Is the opinion of one of the | most intelligent followers of General Lee. now living in this city. that if he had disbanded his army and told his ] men to scatter and reunite, as many | ot them as should be able. at some l designated point in the mountains, | thousands of them would have found | their way to the place of rendezvous. and once in the mountains they could | have carried on a guerrilla warfare in- definitely"
 On the other hand The Petersburg | Index-Appeal denies that any such movement or result was possible. The | editor says he was there and that "the possibility of either reaching the noun. tains or prolonging the struggle has no foundation in fact" and thus the is. sue is joined between two well informed papers, on the ground. as we may say. | As before remarked, speculation on what might have been is not always safe. and in this case dogmatic denial of the position assumed by The Times Dispatch is not convincing History records a number of instances where this kind of desultory war has been prolonged almost indefinitely, To go back only to the last century. what is known as the Maroon War in Jamaica was maintained during a period of about thirty years. though the guer- illas in this case were only small bands of ex-slaves who took refuge in the mountains and fastnesses of Jamaica and defied all the efforts of the whites to isubdue them.
 | To come nearer home, we cannot for get that the comparatively insignif- cant tribe of Seminole Indians kept up a bloody war for seven years. The best estimate puts the entire popula- tion at not exceeding five thousand. yet they defled all the powers of the United States for a period as long as the colonies withstood England.
 | If Lee had adopted the plan that the Richmond man thinks he might have done, no one can say what would have been the result. It is idle to say that he would not have been sustained by
 his followers. Thousands of them were ready to follow him anywhere and be guided by his wishes. Their confidence in him was unbounded and they were ready to show that confidence in any way he desired. The mountain regions of the South, as well as the swamps and forests, would have af- forded secure retreats, just as they did for Marion's men in the Revolution, and no one can say how long the strug | gle would have been prolonged. No one should doubt that Lees men would have stood up to him, or that they would have been able to keep up their opposition for years.
 | When 1t comes to the question of what was best. 1t Is a different matter. In the light of history. and viewing all the circumstances as they then ex. isted, we think no one ihould censure Lee for ending the war as and when | he did. Conditions were such that further resistance as an organized army was hopeless and could only TO- suit in the useless sacrifice of his men, while a guerilla war was not only re- pugnant to him, but was of doubtful good. Lee did right. but what might have been the result of different course is all speculation.