The people of
Virginia and of the
South have great reason to congratulate themselves upon the possession of such a leader of their armies as
Gen. Robert E. Lee. We have learned, with sincere gratification, that by none even of our own people is this distinguished son of the Old Dominion more highly appreciated than by the eminent statesman and soldier at the head of the Confederate Government.
Gen. Lee, as a scientific military commander, is at least the equal of
Gen. Scott, and, considering the great advantage of being a younger man, having more robust physical health, and being the champion of a better cause, we look upon him as his superior.
Certain it is, in his best days,
Winfield Scott considered
Gen. Lee as his right arm, and we are inclined to think that in the
Mexican war he was his brains also.
When
Gen. Lee assumed the command of affairs here, every one knows that our military preparations were in a condition which it makes us shudder to look back upon.
But he gave himself, head, heart and soul, to the great work, and so wisely, skillfully, and energetically has he used all the resources at his command, that the insolent enemy, notwithstanding his boasted numbers and important possession of the powerful fortress of
Old Point, has been held at bay, and compelled to postpone his march of invasion till now we can set him at defiance.
We do not pretend that everything has been done which could have been done if
Gen. Lee had possessed at the start an army of a hundred thousand, or even fifty thousand men; but, bearing in mind the feebleness of our resources, at the beginning, in men, arms and munitions of war; remembering that the organization of a large military force is a work of such time and labor that, up to this hour, the
Federal Government, with all its immense resources of men, means and machinery, has not been able to put itself in position for attack, we may point with honest pride to the position
Virginia is now in for defence, and claim that even
Gen. Scott, with all his boasted military genius and experience, and all the vast resources of his section, has not proved himself as great and efficient a leader as the son of Light Horse Harry, the sagacious, intrepid and high-souled chieftain of
Virginia.
