ortune and in health, and was only president of a
Virginia college, yet he was one of the foremost men of all the world.

"It has been said of General Lee, as it has been said of Washington,
that he was deficient in genius. His character was so complete that
what would have seemed evidences of genius with other men, were lost
in the combination of his character and mind. He was always, and
especially in every great crisis, a leader among men. During the four
years of his education at West Point he did not receive a single
reprimand. As a cavalry-officer, wherever he went he was a marked man;
and when General Scott made his wonderful march to the capital of
Mexico, Captain Lee was his right arm. At the commencement of the late
war, though only a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, he was offered the
command of the armies of the United States. What a prize for ambition!
Fortune, fame, and honors, awaited him. Where would he have been
to-day? Probably in the presidential chair of this great nation. But
he rejected all to take his chance with his own people, and to unite
with them in their resistance to the vast numbers and resources which
he knew the North was able to bring against them. There is nothing
more remarkable in the annals of warfare than the success with which
General Lee defeated for years the armies of the United States.
Consider the six-days' battles around Richmond; the second battle of
Manassas; the battles at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg;
the wonderful contest at Chancellorsville; then again the remarkable
battle of the Wilderness, in which it has been said by Federal
authority that General Lee actually killed as many men as he had under
his command; the defence at Cold Harbor, the prolonged defence of
Richmond and Petersburg, and the admirably-conducted retreat with but
a handful before an immense army. Well has he been spoken of as
'the incomparable strategist.' Did any man ever fight against more
desperate odds or resources?

"But not merely as a great general is General Lee to be admired. He
claims our admiration as a great man--great in adversity. I think
there is nothing more admirable in all his life than his conduct in
assuming the sole responsibility at Gettysburg. In the midst of defeat
Lee was calm, unmoved, showing no fear where despair would have been
in the heart of any other general, and saying to his officers and men,
'The fault is all mine.' Let the monument be raised, not merely