Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[423] a Christian. “There was not a heart in England,” it was said, when Havelock died, thirteen years before Lee, at about the same age, “that did not feel it to be a subject for private as well as public mourning” ; and so the South felt toward Lee. It is stated that it was impossible to gauge the full measure of Moltke's potentialities as a strategist and organizer, but perhaps Lee with the same opportunities would have been equally as skillful and far-seeing. The success of the former and failure of the latter does not prevent comparison. Kossuth failed in Hungary, but the close of his long life has been strewn with flowers. Scotland may never become an independent country, but Scotchmen everywhere cherish with pride the fame of Wallace and Bruce. If given an opportunity, said General Scott, who commanded the army of the United States in 1861, Lee “will prove himself the greatest captain of history.” He had the swift intuition to discern the purpose of his opponent, and the power of rapid combination to oppose to it prompt resistance. The very essence of modern war was comprised in the four years campaign, demanding a greater tax upon the mental and physical qualifications of a leader than the fifteen years of Hannibal in the remote past. Military misconceptions have been charged to him; but Marshal Turenne has said, “Show me the man who never made mistakes, and I will show you one who has never made war.”

The impartial historian, in reviewing Lee's campaigns and the difficult conditions with which he was always confronted, must at least declare that no commander could have accomplished more. In his favor was, however, that ponderous force known as the spirit of the army, which counterbalanced his enemy's excess of men and guns. Important battles are sometimes lost in spite of the best-conceived plans of the general commanding. The battle of Ligny, with the fate of a great campaign trembling on the result, was not made a decisive victory because Ney, at Quatre-Bras, showed a distrust of his emperor's judgment, was unwilling to take the most obvious step, and finally disobeyed orders; and like behavior of a corps commander at Gettysburg defeated the well-devised designs of Lee.