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Robert Edward Lee
(Biography taken from the Confederate Military History,
Volume I)
Robert Edward Lee, general-in-chief of the
Confederate States army, is placed by general fame as well as by
the cordial suffrage of the South, first among all Southern
military chieftains. By official rank he held that position in
the Confederate States army, and his right to the primacy there
is none to dispute. Considered as a true type of the American
developed through the processes by which well-sustained free
government proves and produces a high order of manly character,
he fully and justly gained the distinguished esteem with which
all America claims him as her own. Beyond the borders of this
continent, which men of his caste long ago consecrated to
freedom at altars that smoked with sacrifice, and extending over
oceans east and west into the old world's realms, his name has
gone to be honored, his character to be admired, and his
military history to be studied alongside the work of the great
masters of war. Happy, indeed, are the Southern people in
knowing him to be their own, while they surrender his fame to
become a part of their country's glory.
General Lee's lineage and collateral kindred constitute
an array of illustrious characters, but certainly without
dispraise of any, and without unduly exalting himself, it can be
calmly written down that he was the greatest of all his race.
Unaware he was of his own distinction. Unaware also of a common
sentiment was each of his people who cherished an individual
feeling in the years which followed his public service until the
consensus came into open view, where all men saw that all true
men honored his name and revered his memory.
Contrast of Lee with other men will not be instituted,
because there were indeed others great like himself, and he more
than others would deplore a contest for premiership in fame. The
most that can be said in any mingling of his name with other
illustrious characters has been uttered in the wonderfully
felicitous and graphic sentences of Benjamin H. Hill, which may
be repeated here, because of their brilliant and true
characterization:
"When the future historian shall come to survey the
character of Lee he will find it rising like a huge mountain
above the undulating plane of humanity, and he must lift his
eyes high toward heaven to catch its summit. He possessed every
virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a
foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without
cruelty; a victor without oppression; and a victim without
murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private
citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian
without hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was a Caesar
without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon
without his selfishness; and Washington without his reward. He
was obedient to authority as a servant, and royal in authority
as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and
pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal in duty;
submissive to law as Socrates; and grand in battle as Achilles."
Continued on next page
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