Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-08-29
A GREAT AMERICAN SOLDIER.
GEN. ROBERT E. LEE, THE HERO Of THE C0NFEDERACY.
STRIKING TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER.
COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS BY DR.. JOHN A. WETH BOFOR THE
Mem YORK SOUTHERN SOCIETY -uNDSpuTED FACTS
[From the New York Sunday Sun. I

After the Mexican war he was
appointed, in 1852, superintendent of
che Military Academy at West
Point, and in 1855 Lieutenant Colo
mel of the Second Cavalry, under
Col. Albert Sidney Johnston. In
1859 he was directed by the Presi-
dent of the United States to arrest
John Brown and his followers in
their murderous invasion of Virginia,
and on March 10, 1861, he was ap-
pointed Colonel in the United States
army.
When the Southern States were
seeding and war seemed inevitable,
upon the recommendation of Gen.
Scott, then Commander-ip.C Chief,
President Lincoln offered Lee the
command of the armies of the Union.
Virginia had not yet seeded, but
Lee, looking into the future and feel
ing assured that his native State
would, upon any act of aggression,
make common cause with the other
Southern States, declined the tempt
ing offer.
In letter written April 20, 1861,
he made that never-to- e-forgotten
declaration: "With all my devotion
to the Union and the feeling of
loyalty and duty as an American
citizen, have not been able to make
up my mind to raise my hand against
my relatives, my children, my home.
Save in defense of my native State,
with the sincere hope that my poor
services may never be needed, hope
l may never be called upon to draw
my sword."
When at length hostilities began
and Virginia took her place in the
Confederacy the people of the Old
Dominion with one voice turned to
him as commander of her army.
Then
Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright,
Flashed the sword of Lee!
Far in the fir 1T of the deadly fight,
High DER the brave in the cause of Right,
Its stainless sheen, like beacon light,
Led on to Victory.
Out of it's soabbard! Never hand
Waved sword from stain as free,
Nor purer sword led braver band,
Nor braver bled for brighter land,
Nor brighter land had cause so grand,
Nor cause chief like Lee!
The story of his mill y career is
practically the story of the Army of
Northern Virginia, and it reads more
like romance than history. Through
four years of the bloodiest war
known to history at that time that
army, composed of the flower of
Southern manhood, under its match
less leader, made a record of victo-
ries never surpassed in the annals of
warfare, a record which we of the
South and our children's children to
the remotest ages should claim as our
proudest heritage.
He assumed command of this army
in June, 1862, when Mcclellan was
] Immediately in front of Richmond.
On June 26, with an army inferior in
numbers and equipment, he attacked
the forces of Mcclellan in their in
trenchments and for seven days the
bloody conflict ragged, until McClel-
Ian took refuge under the protection
of his gunboats at Harrson's Land
ing. This army defeated, Lee turned
upon a second larger than his own,
marching upon Richmond from ano-
ther direction.
BY one of the most brilliant and
daring movements in the history of
wars Lee, with his able lieutenant.
Jackson, routed Pope's army at
Groveton and Second Manassas and
| drove him for safety under the pro-
lection of the Notifications at Wash