A venerated American hero whose birth date we celebrate on 19 January,
General Lee’s abilities are legendary and even his adversaries would
praise him. General Granville Dodge of the Northern military said that
Lee’s “unfailing equipoise and sturdy courage prolonged the life of the
Confederacy from month to month [and a] dispassionate judgment places
Robert E. Lee among the greatest generals of modern times.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Robert E. Lee the Matchless American Hero:
“In
discussing Pompey’s greatness on the field of battle, Cicero, a master
of ordered thought, asserts that four qualities are united in supreme
military chieftains. These, as he thinks, are . . . Military knowledge .
. . Valor . . . Authority . . . [and] Good fortune. No soldiers will
long fight whole-heartedly for an unlucky chief.
Did
Lee possess these traits? Knowledge? How otherwise, with an army
necessarily diminishing, did he compel President Lincoln to try
McClellan, Halleck, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, Grant in an effort to
match him in the field, and this, too, when these capable officers
excelled him in every material equipment of war?
Valor?
It is needed only to recall how, with McClellan still lying at the
doors of Richmond, Lee sent off Jackson to jar Pope’s complacency and
then followed himself with the larger part of his army to complete
Jackson’s task, or how, when fighting in the ratio of only two to five,
he divided his army at Chancellorsville and overthrew the
self-sufficient Hooker. The last quality mentioned by Cicero, good
fortune, is a relative term. Although Lee was fought to a standstill at
Sharpsburg, and baffled at Gettysburg, the admiration, even veneration,
of his soldiers was undiminished. They still believed that, while
circumstances might prove too much for him, no skill of an antagonist
would ever surpass his battlefield strategy.
Such
was the chieftain the North Carolina troops, in common with the
soldiers of the South, were henceforth to follow until Appomattox came.
Bomb-proof critics might assail him with shallow criticisms, but the
“hardiest troops that ever laughed at hunger, cold or danger,” never
wavered in their conviction that their leader was matchless.”
(The
History of the War Between the States, Volume II, Bethel to Sharpsburg,
Daniel H. Hill, Edwards & Broughton, 1926, pp. 91-92)
Lost two at Chancellorsville. Two days apart.
ReplyDeleteYes, Paxton and Jackson who were enemies before the War! Later, Jackson promoted him over others with seniority and Paxton became a believer evidently through association with Jackson and was killed at the head of the Stonewall brigade. Fascinating. Someone needs to write a book on him.
DeleteTrue. And I agree! I would love to read that one. But I was referring to two direct relatives! Dooley County GA. One from both sides of family. They obviously knew both men. Personally!
ReplyDeleteOh, I see and who were they?
DeleteVarnadoe and Walton. Dooley County from Georgia.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'd like to check them out more. Do you have their units/rank?
DeleteBrown Rifles. Sgt. & Pvt. 12th ga. Infantry.
ReplyDeleteI found this in the 50th GA.
DeleteVarnadoe, Henry J. - Froze to death near Fredericksburg, Va. [Company H]
**************************
& this seems to work.
CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN.
REPORT OF COLONEL EDWARD WILLIS, TWELFTH GEORGIA INFANTRY.
Private E. Walton, slightly wounded. CO F
What source?
DeleteThats them.
Deletehttp://user.winbeam.com/~jagriffin/12th.htm
DeleteWalton reported but no further record. Never returned home. Presumed dead.
ReplyDeleteJust terrible thinking of his family and wondering everyday if he might come up the path.
DeleteThanks for that site! His name was misspelled. It is actually Varnadoe, and they went back to the Revolution. But that's another story about two brothers caught feeding the rebels and forced to draw for the black bean. Amazingly, both lived! It's a French name, so that explains a lot. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I love history. Reminds me of Jefferson stating, in so many words, I couldn't live without books.
Delete