The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-30
ANOTHER LEADER GONE.

ANOTHER LEADER GONE.
News comes from Savannah that Cen
eral e. p. Alexander is dead Rich in
years and honors, and beloved of all
in the State for which he did SO much.
he ended his brilliant career in peace.
and will be buried to-day with all the
reverence of a great people.
General Alexander was an able SOL
dier. A graduate of West Point and a
lieutenant in the old army" he went
with a hundred gallant officers to the
aid of his State when the War Against
the South began. BY sheer force OF
ability and by conspicuous bearing on
a hundred famous fields, he rose to be
commander of the artillery in Long
streets Corps a position of great hon
or and of still greater responsibility.
Distinguished at Manassas by his
splendid operation in the signal ser
vice, he was distinguished at Apo
mattox, and went home bearing none
but honorable wounds.
Alexander the citizen was greater
perhaps than Alexander the soldier.
exemplifying as he did those sterling
qualities of mind and of course which
redeemed the South after the war. His
military training fitted him for enGi-
neering. and he soon embarked in the
railroad business Here he was emf
! nently successful, accumulating. a
competence and doing valuable service
in tho upbuilding of Georgia. With
men of similar stamp, his dream was
the industrial reorganization and re-
construction of the South, and to this
, forced by declining years to give place
? to younger men.
In his later years when he enjoyed
merited leisure, General Alexander de-
voted himself to the preparation of his
military autobiography, and Issued
three years ago, his admirable Mil
! itary Memoirs of Confederate" This
was critical work. strong in its ar
> gument and frank in its review of the
causes which led to the ultimate over
it he spoke without reserve of the err
rors which he thought the various
commanders had committed, and he
did not hesitate to state that in this
I leader to grasp the strategic signif!-
canoe of the situation cost the South
a defeat.
Had this book been written twenty
years ago, or even when General Long,
4 streets From Manassas to Appomat-
toX" made its appearance, its candid
criticisms would perhaps have raised
a storm. despite the universal respect
4 for the author. AS it was the book was
accepted in the spirit in which it was
i written-not as Il partisan attack, Tut
as scientific criticism The reception
of this work showed how far the South
had progressed in its study of the war
7 and how willing the earnest students
We're to cast aside tradition and to
view facts from a new point of view
General Alexander was not always
correct in his criticisms. but he was
. sincere, and his sincerity won him the
d respect even of those who differed
h from it,
d 1t is always painful task to write
c OF the passing of such man as this
n The death of each of the few surviv.
S ing Confederate generals always bring:
: home tho thought that the gallan
S company of great commanders is fas
t moving on. a few years moro an,
: there will not be left leader VIII,
v wore the wreath around the stars OF
) his collar; the last will have gone: tn,
t South will be without those who were
s its leaders in war and its champion;
: in peace. May their fame increase
$ with the years and the memory o.
d their valor never fade with time.