The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-01-14
GEN. e. c. LEI
THE GREATEST ENGLISH SPEAK
ING COMMANDER,
What President Roosevelt and the
English General Henderson Says
About the Great Man.

English General Henderson Says
About the Great Man.
DR.. Thos. Nelson Page has written
this fall a book, Life of Gen Robert
e. Lee" This book was recently re
viewed IN the New York Times Bool
Review. The author of the review
stated that Or. Pages work viii
hardly be accepted universally as
presenting a fair and jus estima e
of Lees performance as a command
ing general and intimates that DR.,
Page has written unqualified eulog:
rather than cold and impartial his
tory.
Issue was taken at once by many.
The best answer to the criticism is
made by Mr.. R. H. T. Adams, o!
Lynchburg. Va. His letter was print
ed by The Times last Saturday. c..
it out for your children's sake.
Here is what he says:
Southerners do claim that Lee
was the greatest soldier the war pr
duced on either side, and that he is
the greatest soldier who ever spoke
the English tongue. | am not much
of controversialist, especially whe:''
engaging in a dispute is not likelr
to change opinions already most en-
pbatically announced, but wouli
like to invite attention to ne folio.
ing authorities:
President Theodore Roosevelt. {.
says, (Life of Thomas H. Bentol,
Twenty-three American Statesmen,
page 94):
The world has never seen bet
ter soldiers than those who fol-
lowed Lee, md their leader will
undoubtedly rank as, without any
exception, the very greatest of all
the great captains that The Eng
lish people have brought forth;
and this. although the last and
chief of his antagonists may him
self claim to stand as the full
equal of Marlborough End Wei
lington.
Lieut.. Col. Henderson, OF the Bill
ish Army, states in his Science q;
War" (page 314). in discussing til"
Wilderness campaign, thd.
At the head Of the Confederate
army was Gen. Robert E Lee, un-
doubtedly ole of the greatest, II
not the greatest, soldier Who ever
spoke the English tongue.
It is ..urth,r stated b' your re-
viewer that tn result Of r., war w
inevitable. THIS statement S mer.'l
case OF hindsigh. being etter than
foresight. In A Il ust, before tn:
surrender of Lee army at Apo
mattox, rhe Union army in ti;::
trenches before Petersburg was sick
of the struggle ard ready to give
it up, and but 70 one nan, Abra
ham Lincoln, they would have doae
so. He is the one man who preser:-
ed the Union.
AS obit er dicta. let me say that
Senator Lodge, OF Massachusetts
comedies that the South was right
in the struggle in the civil war, ami
the Hon. James Bryce, in his Amer
lean Commonwealth, has stated
that if the controversy between the
North and South could have been de-
termined iudicially the South would
have been entitled to judgment.
1 suppose the North ahd South
will continue to view this war from
their respective points of view for at
least one generation more, and ii
may be that both sides take too par
tial view of the great struggle.
1 will state in closing a very
amusing thing related to me re-
Gently by gentleman who has lived
in the West since the war closed,
and it is that in the schools of the
West the children are taught that
the only reason the war lasted foru
years was that the Southerners hid
in the woods and were afraid to
show themselves.
Another erroneous view of the
great struggle very generally held in
the North is that the South waged
the war to perpetraie slavery. Moth
ing could be further from the truth.
The war was fought for constitu-
tional rights, and slavery was only
an incident il the great question.