The Daily Dispatch: November 12, 1864., [Electronic resource]

Confederate leaders.

To those who are reading the present page of American history, these pictures — authentic and reliable portraits of the Spartan leaders of the South--,will be invaluable as illustrations. A curious interest attaches to them, moreover, from the fact that they have "run the blockade." They were passengers on some low, black snake of a steamer that crept through the beleaguering squadron and sped away to sea, laughing all pursuit to scorn. We almost picture to ourselves the canvases hanging in the little cabin, gazing, with strange speculation in their painted eyes, out toward the federal cruiser in chase. They have passed the period, and are here among us to bring before us vividly some of the chief actors in the great tragedy of endurance that is being enacted South. Many an exiled Confederate will doubtless visit this collecting: at No. 314 Oxford street, and find food for comfort in the pale, stern faces of the men who guard the freedom of his country.

By some strange freak of nature, Jefferson Davis, the President, whose portrait is the first to which our attention is drawn, has much in it that is usually held as indicative of the "Yankee" type.--This may, perhaps, be owing in some degree to the peculiar beard — of the same cut as that so familiar in the portraits of his rival, Abraham Lincoln.--There is more refinement, though, about Davis; and the intellect — cool, calculating and indomitable,--which looks out of his clear grey eye, exerts a "higher pressure" on the physique than is usual to the common run of Americans. One impression which the portrait leaves on the mind is that the sword is fretting too thin a sheath.

General Lee's honest, fine face, with its silver locks and beard, and bright brown eye, might wall look out of a middle age casque, so marked is it by a chivalrous nobility. As he stands, in an easy but commanding posture, clad in the plain grey uniform, with the simple three stars on the collar, he looks the very impersonation of firmness, boldness and vigor; for the snows on his head are those of experience, not decay. In the original sketch, the eye has a jovial, rollicking expression, and the face a merry, kindly smile, which, in the absence of the uniform, makes us fancy that we are regarding the likeness of some veteran litterateur running over with bon more, epigrams and anecdotes.

Beauregard's face is probably the one which would be selected as the handsomes by a lady visitor. It bears unmistakable signs of his French origin. Indeed, with shaven cheek and small iron-grey moustache, he might pass for a hero of the Crimes. A fine, thoughtful head is his, and there is no lack of firmness and decision in the thin, compressed lips, half hidden by the small iron-grey moustache aforesaid.

General Stuart is another whose nationality is to be read in his features. Unmistakably Scotch, with a bold, laughing blue eye, a tawny board, and the length of feature peculiar to the North, he looks like some gallant cavalier who followed the young Pretender. The illusion is assisted by his slouch hat and black plume. This picture is one of the most telling of the group, marked by considerable vigor and character. But, undoubtedly, the best is that of Stonewall Jackson. If we see the cavalier in Stuart, in Jackson we almost expect to find the brown beard time had dealt more gently with the great captain than we were led to suppose) earring crisply over the steel gorget and buff coat of the Puritan. He seems like a modern Hampden (in fact, there is some resemblance to one picture of the patriot that we have seen), and is painted, as his men "loved to see him," in the set of reading prayers. His arms are flung out right and left along the horizontal limb of a tree, and his head is thrown back. There is a tender expression in the sweet, almost feminine, upper part of the face, as if he were just praying for the women and children; but in the firm mouth we can see the spirit which will anon call on the God of Battles to fight for the oppressed. The head is a very noble one, most expressive of the lofty and unsullied character of one to whom may be applied with far more truth than to the knight of the Round Table the elegy uttered over Sir Lancelot of the Lake:"There thou host; thou wart never matched of none earthly knight's band, and thou wert the courtliest knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestirred horse; and thou wert the truest lover, of a sinful man, that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever streaks with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest that ever cat in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in rest."

We observed in the gallery unfinished likenesses of Generals Fitzhugh Lee, Ewell, Price and Hill, as well as a portrait of Mr. Volck, the sculptor, to whom is entrusted the noble task of raising the monument of the great Jackson. Photographs from the pictures are obtainable, and will no doubt be welcome to the admirers of the indomitable fire and energy of the South.

We should recommend all who take an interest in the great struggle now waging in America to make a point of visiting Mr. Robertson's pictures. We know of no better commentary than they afford, by the light of which to read and understand the heroic endurance and long-suffering of the handful of Confederate States.