GENERAL LEE.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1925, Page 3

GENERAL LEE.

Kamo (loos not always coriosiximl to desert, and tin* military loader whose arms sustain defeat is apt. especially when his cause is adjudged hy history to have boon a had one, to sutler by (omparison with his successful adverII saries. Thus outside professional circles Grant and Stonewall Jackson are probably bettor known than Robert E. i.oe. Yot Loo was by far the superior. In an appreciation which gives his eminence full recognition, .Major-Gen-eral Sir Krcderick .Maurice declares that he was not only the greatest soldier that America has over produced. but lie is one of the greater soldiers that the world has seen. Sir Frederick ranks him above Wellington, and, without drawing up any order of precedence, assigns him a place in the select hand which includes Alexander. Hannibal. Caesar, Custavus, Turenne. Eugene of Savoy, and Napoleon. In this hook he submits more than once that if the Allies of the Great War had studied more closely l.oo’s methods in ISfi-l, they would have solved more easily many of the problems with which they were confronted. As a matter of fact, l.ee fought on the wrong side. Although lie was a a good Southerner, his sympathies, in the abstract, were with the ideals of the North, lie detested slavery ill itself. and would have liked to abolish it. but considered that the North had no right to impose its views ujsnt the South against the hitter’s will. Personally lie wished the t'uioil to endure, but he thought that it should he a voluntary arrangement, and that the action of the North was arbitrary ami unreasonable. In his conduct of operations, which fell into three phases he displayed a remarkable prescience and grasp of the situation. He knew that providence is one the side ol the big battalions, and that the immense reserves of man power and wealth the North commanded must, when mobilised and organised win the day. Hence the only chance of the South lay in achieving striking initial successes. In the second stage he set himself to husband his resources. In the third his aim was to prolong the figjlit to the utmost. He was aware that he lmd no hope of victory but there was a possibility that if lie could make shift t" drag out the hostilities hy stubborn resistance the North might tire ot the protracted struggle. In the end all his skill was unavailing. The South was literally hied white, and nothing In his line career became him like the manner in which l.ee accepted defeat. When it was clear that regular warfare could no longer he prosecuted, many ot the 'outhernors wished to engage in guerilla lighting. This is a form of war .vhich is liable to continue indefinitely. It engenders intense bitterness, and it •mild not have all’eeted the issue, l.eo ■efused to allow it. He sent his s.olliers home and saved America from many years of fruitless rancour. Sir Frederick Maurice’s hook is a worthy muniment to a notable man