Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-08-29


ington. Mcclellan had been re-
moved for his defeat and Pope fol-
lowed in his train. Disregarding
both of these defeated armies, Lee
moved rapidly into Maryland, cap
tured Harper's Ferry and its large
garrison on the way and fought at
Antietam on September II, 1862,
the bloodiest battle Of the OWL war.
Mcclellan, who after Pope's defeat
had been reinstated in command,
was again removed for failing to in
flict crushing defeat upon Lee, and
Burnside was made commander-in.
chief of the Army of the Potomac.
In December of that year this
same army of Lee signally defeated
the army of Burnside at Fredericks-
burg. Burnside was removed and
Gen. Hooker placed in command. In
May. 1868, Hooker marched on Rich-
mond, havingissued general order
in which he said that the Confederate
army must either "ingloriously fly
or come out from behind it's intrench-
ments, where certain destruction
awaited it." A few days after this
announcement was made Hooker's
army was surprised and attacked by
Lee and Jackson simultaneously in
front and rear at Chancellorsville
and overwhelmed, fleeing in the
greatest disorder from the field. Lee
then invaded Pennsylvania, where,
at Gettysburg. after three days of
bloody conflict, unable to carry the
Federal position, he remained
twenty-four hours in line of battle
with his army in their immediate
front inviting attack and then with
drew without interruption to Vir-
ginia.
1t was in 1864, in the campaign
from the Wilderness to Petersburg,
that the star of Lee reached it's
zenith. Under his leadership the
army of Northern Virginia, up to
this time in offensive warfare, had
held every battlefield upon which it
had fought, with the exception of
Gettysburg and Sharpsburg or An
tietam, and upon these fields, al
though it failed to beat the army
pitted against it, it stood in battle
array on each occasion for twenty
four hours, was not attacked and
marched away unmolested.
He was now to show that in de-
fensive fighting he was greater
master of the art of war than in his
offensive operations. Grant, with
the largest army ever marshalled
upon this continent under a single
commander, with unlimited resources
of men and money, with the world
to draw upon for all that was most
useful in destructive warfare, ad-
vanced upon this army of Lee,
wanting in everything but valor, and
80 decimated that as Grant ex-
pressed it cit had robbed the cradle
and the grave" to fill the gaps be-
tween the veterans that still sur
vived. There followed from May s.,
1864, in the Wilderness, at Spottsyl-
vania Court House, at Cold Harbor
and the North Anna a series of con-
flicts so frightful in their havoc that
the history of this campaign might
we'll be written in blood.
The most recent, and in my opin-
ion the most reliable history of the
Uuited States, written by James
Ford Rhodes, of Boston, conscien-
tious student, capable analyst and
just recorder, says: "Grant's loss
from May A to June IL in the cam
paign from the Rapidan to the James
was 54,929, number nearly equal to
Lees whole army at the commence
ment of the Union advances. The
confidence in Grant of many officers
and men had been shaken"
AT Spootsylvania Nicolay and
Hay, authors of the Life of Lincoln,
say "Grant was completely check
mated"
That this is true is evident from