Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[620] reading the popular accounts to find the killed and wounded among the Japanese in the siege of Port Arthur largely exceeded by those of Grant in his last compaign. Bravery in battle is the religion of Japan, and the whole nation is a religious unit. It is encouraging to realize that the loyalty to his flag and country of the Anglo-Saxon has shown itself capable of enduring equal tests of devotion.

It would be strange indeed if in critically reviewing the details of Lee's rapidly conducted campaigns we found no instances of grave errors of judgment when brought to the test of being viewed in retrospect. We do find them, and have not hesitated to note and to criticise them as frankly and freely as he himself would have done had he lived to write his own memoirs. No more intimate idea can be gained of his personal character than can be had from the study of his attitude upon such occasions.

Knowing how quickly and clearly he must have recognized mistakes after making them, and how keenly he must have felt them, one can appreciate the greatness of mind with which he always assumed the entire responsibility; either frankly saying to his men, as at Gettysburg, ‘It is all my fault,’ or, as at the ‘Crossing of the James,’ passing over whatever had happened in silence, without any attempt to impute blame elsewhere, or any apology, excuse, or even a spoken regret.

This was equally the case when the fault was altogether that of others, as his official reports amply testify. The same mental poise which inspired the unparalleled audacity of his campaigns gave him the strength to bear, and to bear alone and unflinching, even through the closing scenes of the surrender, the burden of his great responsibility. Surely there never lived a man who could more truly say:—

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.