Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 32.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[50] they came from the same race of people; but it does prove they were without a cause and without leaders. A great leader will incite men to brave actions even in a bad cause, but a noble cause will incite them to brave action without a leader. The attempt was made to convince the North that they fought for the Union, and some think so even now, but the truth is, if the Northern leaders had loved the Union as devotedly as did Davis, Stephens, Lee and the Johnstons war would have been impossible. What the North did fight for was a fanatical frenzy on the part of its leaders to free the negroes, in which nine-tenths of the men felt no interest, and on the part of the politicians and contractors to feather their nests.

On the other hand, the cause of the South could not be better stated than in General Order No. 16, to the Army of Northern Virginia, which says:

‘Let every soldier remember that on his courage and fidelity depends all that makes life worth living, the freedom of his country, the honor of his people and the security of his home.’

Could they fight for a better cause, and has not such a cause made men superhumanly brave in all ages?

Did the North produce in their respective sphere men of such extraordinary military genius as Lee, Jackson, A. S. Johnston, Stuart, Forest and Mosby? No intelligent, candid, Northern man of to-day claims that it did. When I look at the snap judgments on posterity, statues to Northern generals (though most of them are Southern men) in Washington, I wonder how posterity will treat these outrages on justice. They will not find an impartial, competent military historian that will give to one of them, except, perhaps, McClellan, one particle of military genius. These, I believe, to be the true reasons for the long-delayed success of the Northern armies, notwithstanding their overpowering numbers and resources.