Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1915-06-28
LEES MILITARY PLANS.
Els Propose d offensiye-Defensive
Strategy Which Might Have
Made South Victor.

Rev. William w. Page, of Cornwall
! N. Y, who was captain in Genera
Robert E. Lees bodyguard of scouts
guides and couriers, Thirty-ninth Vir
ginia Battalion of Cavalry, has ar
interesting historical work iii prepa
! ration, in which hes hows that while
yet only the commander-in-chief OF
! the Virginia forces, by commission
of Governor John Letcher, General
Lee planned the first battle of Bull
Run, with q view to crossing the
| Potomac Immediately to the Sus'
uuehanna River, establishing his line
from the Chesapeake Bay and swing
ing around by Harrisburg, Pa, to
Lake Erie mad Niagara Falls, cutting
the North in two and destroying all
railroad connections between the
West and East This was General
Lees ffensive-defensive plan from
the beginning to the close of the war.
Before this was matured Confede-
rate capital was moved from Mont
gomery, Ala, to Richmond, when
President Davis +, ok command and
conducted a wholly defensive cam
paign. When General Lee took the
field in 1862, after his brilliant defeat
of Mcclellan around Richmond and
of General John Pope at the second
Bull Run, he Immediately crossed the
Potomac, by consent Of Mr.. Davis, to
carry out his original plan to make
the Susquehanna the Confederate
inc. This was defeated by the cele-
brated "lost order," which put Lees
army at the mercy of Mcclellan, tc
eXtricate which necessitated the
bloody battle of Antietam. Again
after the signal defeat of General 10
Hooker at Charlottesville, with the
Susquehanna still in view, he crossed
the Potomac, making straight for
Harrisburg, Pa, when the unfortu-
nate absence of his cavalry under its
peerless leader, General Stuart, so
essential to him for information Of
the movements of the enemy, oc
Cured, under the impression that
General Hooker. whom I'e4had easily
outgeneraled, was still in Virginia.
he avs surprised and entangled with
the army of General Meade at Gettys-
burg, and under the circumstances
was unable to break through the en-
emys lines, notwithst~ nding the
leathless and unsupported charge of
Picket's division.
When General U. S. Grant was
made commander-in-chief with four
armies to take Richmond, and at the
same time with General Sherman's
army, which was under Grants COM
mand in the Southwest, TO advance
against: General Joseph Johnston or
Atlanta, Ga, at the same time Cen
,ral Lee planned, and Mr.. Davis ap-
proved the plan that General Lee
should stop General Grant in the
Wilderness and CORY him on his
General Lees, outside lines to Spot
sylvania ourthouse, the North Anna
River, Cold Harbor, and around Rich
mond TO Petersburg, Va. At the
same time General Lee was to move
in Virginia General Joseph Z. John
ston should make a mastery retreat
before Sherman, not risking a general
engagement until he should reach
Atlanta, Ga, when, abandoning At
lanta for the time to Sherman, by the
two railroad lines available and fully
prepared, to ship and throw his whole
army with Lees upon Grant at Pet
ersburg, Va. On crushing Grants
army at Petersburg, Lee and John
ston would at once cross the Potomac
and make for the Susquehanna, which
would necessarily cause Sherman to
hurry from Atlanta to the defense of
Washington. How we'll both General
Lee and General Johnston concealed
and carried out their parts of this
great tragedy the world knows, and
that at the very crisis when Rich
| mond, Atlanta, Washington, the
Confederacy and all vert rembling in
tie balance, General Joseph Johnston
at Atlanta was relieved of command
and General Hood was ordered to holC
Atlanta.
In his enthusiasm the author hold:
that Genral Lee was so superior a:
a military man that if he had beer
unfettered by his commander-in-chief
if he had been made commander-in
chief at the first he would have beer
successful, even at the first battle o