The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-09-04
ROBERT EDWARr LEE.
Mr.. James r. Randall Writes Most
Lovingly of Him.

Lovingly of Him.
The military operations of Lee are
briefly but epigrammatically narrat-
ed by Prof. Shepherd. We think
that the only shadow on the perfec-
ton Of Lee as soldier Of the very
first order was that he resembIed
Hannibal rather than Alexander the
Great, or Ceaser. He knew how to
win victories and was unsurpassed in
defensive warfare, but did not al
ways know how to reap his triumphs.
How much he may have been thwar-
ted by his auxiliary Generals, or by
what Shiller, as translated by Cole
r..lge, calls 'sthe unsplritual god
Circumstance" we may not venture
to oracularly declare; but he seemed
to somewhat lack that quality so con-
spicuous in Jackson and even more
notably in Forrest, Of relentless pur-
suit Of the enemy and his capture or
annihilation. In that respect For
rest was 'sheaven-born General, ="
like Give, and had he been in COM
mand in the West instead Of the
wooden-headed Bragg. and the reck-
less Hook, with men like Cleburne
at his side, the Western Army of the
Confederacy would have matched in
successful glory the triumphs of the
Army of Northern Virginia. But
Forrest was a phenomenal soldier,
and nothing else, while Lee lowered
above all of his Generals and all Of
his civic contemporaries in those
moral qualities which ally US to the
heavenly choir. Why he did not
after Burnside was overwhelmingly
and disastrously defeated at Freder-
icksburg, drive the Federal General
and his discounted army into the
Rappahanock river, or bag the whole
force, have never had satisfactory
explanation. Jackson advised anight
attack, but his plan was not adopt
ed. He was like Forrest; he saw no
use in gaining victories without sub
stantial results, and believed that g
beaten enemy should be kept on the
move and either captured or demor-
allied. Lee preferred to build a
golden bridge for flying enemy" "
This was the classic proverb; Forress
neither knew nor cared for the cpl
grams or proverbs of antiquity, and
so performed, in the mere art Of
war prodigies which seemed to be in
defiance Of scientific strategy, Give
me-" he said to Bragg, after the tre-
mendous Confederate victory at
Chickamauga, zone brigade Of in
fantry and with my cavalry, I will
drive Rosecrans into the Tennessee
river, or capture his whole army" /
believe he would have done it, just
as Burnside would have been COM
PEELED to surrender at Fredericks-
burg had man like Forrest been in
command or Jackson listened to. The
defeat and capture Of Burnside would
have left no organized army Of the
North between Lee and Boston, just
as the capture of Rosecrans would
have opened up the West and pre-
vent the disasters that subsequently
came upon US. ! remember riding
with Dr.. CASTOR, one Of the chief
surgeons in Lees army, after the
battle of Gettysburg. He said:
"There never stepped on this planet
such an army of Lee led into Penn
sylvania. They felt capable Of defeat
ing any Yankee force, composed Of
no matter how many foreign and
bought soldiers, and Lee had the
same opinion Of them. Yet Stuart,
Early. and incidentally, Ewell, ruin
ed the Confederacy, so far as they
could, however, unconsciously, in
that battle, and Lee himself, in try
ing to repair the blunders Of his Gen
ais, counted too much on the mira
cles Of valor they could perform when
he ordered the onset Of Pickett and
Pettigrew upon heights which, but
for Early. would have been occupied
by Ccnfederates after the first days
battle. Meade, in assault, would
have been cut to pieces as Grant was
afterward at Cold Harber, and his
retreat to Washington would have
been disastrous beyond conception.
asked Major Kyd Douglass what
caused the repulse at Gettysburg.
He answered me as he had done the
CO nte de Paris: ''Stonewall Jack
son was dead meaning that had
Jackson been alive in command of
his old corps and along with the van
guard commanded by Early, he
would h I'VE occupied, not Gettys-
burg tow mt the trategic GettyS-
burg, the inviroaing heights of Lit
tie Round Top and Cemetery Hill.
But there was IN Lee something so
mucn greater than military Prov
ess OF the first order tnat ali physi-
cal or material talent sinks into al {
most lnslgnlficance. It was his vir- j
tue, his soul, his supernatural nature {
that, at last. made him worthy of ,
even the extremely eulogy of Prof. {
He might have repeated !
without vanity and with much more ,
ruth what Byron wrote: :
There is that within me which shall :
tire
torture and time and breathe when !
expire;
Something unearthly which they wot
not Of,
ike the remembered tones o.