g book on Grant and Lee[2] is cited a remark of Charles
Francis Adams when American Minister to Great Britain in the early years
of our Civil War. Some one sarcastically asked him his opinion of the
Confederate victories of that time. He quietly replied, "I think they
have been won by my countrymen." In all those four strenuous years,
heroic qualities--enterprise, resolution, valour, self-control, exercise
of judgment amid dangers, endurance and fidelity in disaster--were
plentifully developed throughout both parties of the then divided
American people. The lonely picket-duty, the toilsome march, the endless
duties of the soldier, were a constant drain upon enduring faithfulness,
harder to bear, often, than the crashing excitement of the battle, while
the deadly suffering of camp and hospital were at times easily worse
than all.

Most fascinating the story of the leaders of the two armies. The career
of two preeminent military leaders of the South, Lee and Jackson, has
already been reviewed--cursorily, as must be the case in all the
references to example--and we have noted them especially as to
character. But it should be said further that in the opinion of military
critics and soldiers, both American and foreign, Robert E. Lee was one
of the most masterly strategists in warlike annals. In his defense of
Richmond as the vital point of the Confederacy he did have the advantage
of operating on interior lines; but when that is said all is said, for
in numbers of men, equipment and military resources, he was always more
meagrely supplied than his Federal opponents. His available means were
mostly in his fertile brain, his prompt judgment, and his dauntless
heart, together with the spirited support of his officers and the
indomitable marching and fighting energy of his soldiers. The intense
and tireless Jackson was indeed the chief's "right arm," and more than
that, a keen intelligence, instant to see and seize the right way, and
to follow it so swiftly that his rarely defeated infantry earned the
proud nickname of "foot-cavalry."

Out of the many gallant officers of the Southern armies were some others
whose names became familiar throughout the North. Among them were:
Generals Pierre G. T. Beauregard, prominent in service from Bull Run to
the end; the brilliant Albert Sidney Johnston, killed at Pittsburg
Landing in 1862; J. E. B. Stuart, renowned as a fearless cavalry
officer; James Longstreet, a leader of great distinctio