[343]
one who is born to command, and to whom all men turn when their hearts are ‘failing them for fear’ as a leader.
He was great not only in action but in repose—great in his very calm—in the fortitude with which he bore himself through all changes of fortune, through dangers and disasters, neither elated by victory nor depressed by defeat—mental habitudes which many will recognize as reappearing in one who seems to have formed himself upon that great model.
Washington was distinguished for his magnanimity—was not Lee also?
Men in public station are apt to be sensitive to whatever concerns their standing before the world, and so, while taking to themselves the credit of success, they are strongly tempted to throw upon others the blame of failure.
Soldiers especially are jealous of their reputation, and if a commander loses a battle his first impulse is to cast the odium of defeat upon some unfortunate officer.
Somebody blundered—this or that subordinate did not do his duty.
Military annals are filled with these recriminations.
If Napoleon met with a check in his mighty plans, he had no scruple in laying it to the misconduct of some lieutenant, unless, as in Russia, he could throw it upon the elements, the wintry snows and the frozen rivers—anything to relieve himself from the imputation of the want of foresight or provision for unexpected dangers.
At Waterloo it was not he that failed in his strategy, but Marshal Ney that failed in the execution.
In this respect General Lee was exactly his opposite.
If he suffered a disaster he never sought to evade responsibility by placing it upon others.
Even in the greatest reverse of his life, the defeat at Gettysburg, when he saw the famous charge of Pickett melt away under the terrible fire that swept the field, till the ranks were literally torn to pieces by shot and shell, he did not vent his despair in rage and reproaches, but rushing to the front took the blame upon himself, saying: ‘It is all my fault.’
Perhaps no incident of his life showed more the nobility of his nature.
When the war was over General Lee had left to him at Lexington about the same number of years that Napoleon had at St. Helena, and if he had had the same desire to pose for posterity in the part of the illustrious exile his mountain home would have furnished as picturesque a background as the rocky island in the south Alantic, from which he could have dictated ‘Conversations’ that should furnish the materials of history.
He need not have written or published a single line if he had only been willing to let others do it for him. By their pens he had opportunity to tell of the great part he had
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chapter:
chapter 1.1
Confederate surgeons.
The race problem in the
South
—Was the
Fifteenth
Amendment a mistake?
A word with the critics.
A list of Confederate officers, prisoners, who were held by Federal authority on
Morris Island, S. C.
, under Confederate fire from
September
7th
to
October
21st
,
1864
.
Memoir of
Gen.
C.
R.
Wheat
, commander of the
Louisiana
Tiger Battalion
The last words of
Major
Wheat
.
The siege and evacuation of
Savannah, Georgia
, in
December
,
1864
.
Annual Reunion of the
Association
of the
Army of Northern Virginia
.
Life, services and character of
Jefferson
Davis
.
The
Twelfth Georgia Infantry
.
The Monument to
General
Robert
E.
Lee
.
Incidents of the parade.
chapter 1.14
Testimonials from visiting soldiers.
Robert
Edward
Lee
.
Letters of
R.
E.
Lee
.
At Lee
's tomb.
Lee
's Birthday: eminent men of the
United States
send sentiments for the day—ministers, soldiers, statesmen and scholars each bring an offering.
Lee
as an educator.
chapter 1.21
Robert
E.
Lee
.
Itinerary of the
Fourth Virginia cavalry
.
March
27th
-
April
9th
,
1865
.
Prisoners of the civil war.
Andersonville prison
.
chapter 1.26
The unveiling. [
Richmond Dispatch
,
June
10
,
1890
.]
Valuable war relic.
Casualties in the old
First
at
Gettysburg
:
two
out of every
three
men who were carried into the charge shot down.
Williamsburg
.
Lee
's Lieutenants.
Development of the free soil idea in the
United States
.
Index.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
A list of Confederate officers, prisoners, who were held by Federal authority on
Morris Island, S. C.
, under Confederate fire from
September
7th
to
October
21st
,
1864
.
Life, services and character of
Jefferson
Davis
.
Secession preached and threatened in all sections—the
Northern
record for it and against extension of the
Union
.
The
Twelfth Georgia Infantry
.
chapter 1.14
Lee
's Birthday: eminent men of the
United States
send sentiments for the day—ministers, soldiers, statesmen and scholars each bring an offering.
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