THE HEROES OF THE CONFEDERACY. BY JOSEPH WHEELER. [Joseph Wheeler, brigadier general U. S. A., retired September 10, 1900; born Augusta, Ga., September 10, 1836; graduated West Point, 1859; second lieutenant U. S. Čavalry, 1859-61; first lieutenant Confederate artillery; colonel infantry; brigadier general cavalry, major general and corps commander, lieutenant general; congressman from 8th Alabama district, 1881-99; appointed major general U. S. A. volunteers, May 4, 1898; brigadier general U. S. A. June 16, 1900; commanded department of Great Lakes, June 18 to Sept. 10, 1900.] History has many heroes whose martial renown has fired the world, whose daring and wonderful exploits have altered the boundaries of nations and changed the very face of the earth. To say nothing of the warriors of biblical history and Homeric verse, as the ages march along every great nation leaves us the glorious memory of some unique character, such as Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar. Even the wild hordes of northern Europe and the barbaric nations of the east had their grand military leaders whose names will ever live on history's pages, to be eclipsed only by that of Napoleon, the man of destiny, who, as a military genius, stands alone and unrivalled: "Grand, gloomy, peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a sceptered hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality." The mediæval ages gave us noble examples of devotedness and chivalry; but it belonged to the American republic, founded and defended by freedom's sons, to give to the world the noblest type of warrior; men in whom martial renown went hand in hand with the noblest of virtues, men who united in their own characters the highest military genius with the loftiest patriotism, the most daring courage with the gentlest courtesy, the most obstinate endurance with the utmost selfsacrifice, the genius of a Cæsar with the courage and purity of a Bayard. Patriotism and love of liberty, the most ennobling motives that can fire the heart of man, expanding and thriving in the martial enthusiasm of free America, added a refining touch to the martial enthusiasm of our forefathers and elevated the character of the American soldier to a standard never attained by fighting men of any other age or nation. To recall their names and recount their deeds would lead me far beyond the time and space allotted. Volumes would never do justice to the valorous achievements of George Washington and his compeers, the boys of '76-of the heroes of 1812 and of 1848; of the men in blue who fought under Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas and Farragut; of the men in gray who followed the lead of Johnston, Jackson, and Lee from 1861 to 1865; of the intrepid band that sailed with Dewey into Manila bay, or of the small but heroic army of 1898 that fought at Las Guasimas, El Caney, and San Juan, and left the stars and stripes floating in triumph over the last stronghold of Spain in the new world. But above the grand heroic names immortalized by historian and poet shines with an undimmed luster, all its own, the immortal name of Robert Edmund Lee. "Ah, Muse! You dare not claim A nobler man than he Nor nobler man hath less of blame, The late Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, in an address delivered at the time of General Lee's death, thus beautifully describes his character: "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 Cæsar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward. He was an obedient authority as a servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life, and 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!" When in 1854, I found myself in the presence of Colonel Lee, who was then superintendent of the military academy at West Point, I have never in all my life seen another form or face which so impressed me, as embodying dignity, modesty, kindness, and all the characteristics which indicate purity and nobility. While he was then only a captain and brevet colonel, he was so highly regarded by the army that it was generally conceded that he was the proper officer to succeed General Scott. His wonderful career as a leader of the army of northern Virginia, as its commander, is so familiar to all that any comment would seem to be unnecessary. But to give some of the younger generation an idea of the magnitude of the struggle in which General Lee was the central and leading figure, 1 will call attention to the fact that in the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania (which really should be called one battle), the killed and wounded in General Grant's army by the army under General Lee, was far greater than the aggregate killed and wounded in all the battles of all the wars fought by the English speaking people on this continent since the discovery of America by Columbus. To be more explicit: take the killed and wounded in all the battles of the French and Indian war, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the Revolutionary war, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the war of 1812, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the Mexican war, take the aggregate killed and wounded in all our wars with the Indians, and they amount to less than the killed and wounded in Grant's army in the struggle from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania. In order to further appreciate the magnitude of the struggle, let us make a comparison between the losses in some of the great battles of our Civil war, and those of some of the most famous battles of modern Europe. The official reports give the following as the losses in killed and wounded of the federal army in seven, out of nearly a thousand severely contested struggles during the four years of war: Seven Days' fight, 9,291; Antietam, 11,426; Murfreesboro, 8,778; Gettysburg, 16,426; Chickamauga, 10,906; Wilderness and Spottsylvania, 24,481. In the battle of Marengo, the French lost in killed and wounded, 4,700, the Austrians, 6,475. In the battle of Hohenlinden, the French loss in killed and wounded was 2,200, the Austrian loss was 5,000; at Austerlitz, the French loss was 9,000; at Waterloo, Wellington lost 9,061 in killed and wounded, Blucher lost 5,613, making the total loss of the allies, 14,674. I mention these facts because such sanguinary conflicts as those of our Civil war could only have occurred when the soldiers of both contending armies were men of superb determination and courage. Such unquestioned prowess as this should be gratifying to all Americans, showing to the world as they did that the intrepid fortitude and courage of Americans have excelled that of any other people upon the earth. And as the world will extol the exhibition of these qualities by the soldiers that fought under Grant, the historian will find words inadequate to express his admiration of the superb heroism of the soldiers led by the intrepid Lee. Meeting a thoroughly organized, and trebly equipped and appointed army, they successfully grappled in deadly conflict with these tremendous odds, while civilization viewed with amazement this climax of unparalleled and unequal chivalry, surpassing in grandeur of action anything heretofore portrayed either in story or in song. Whence came these qualities? They were the product of southern chivalry, which two centuries had finally perfected. A chivalry which esteemed stainless honor as a priceless gem, and a knighthood which sought combat for honor's sake, generously yielding to an antagonist all possible advantage; the chivalry which taught southern youth to esteem life as nothing when honor was at stake, a chivalry which taught that the highest, noblest, and most exalted privilege of man was the defence of woman, family and country. It was this southern chivalry that formed such men as Lee and Stonewall Jackson; they were the central leading figures, but they were only prototypes of the soldiers whom they led. THE ARMY IN THE SPANISH WAR. BY JAMES E. STUART. [James Edward Stuart, colonel 2nd regiment National Guard of Illinois, and postofficen ispector; born Forfar, Scotland, July 8, 1842; enlisted as private in 21st Wisconsin volunteers during the Civil war, and rose to the rank of captain; after muster became postal clerk, and in 1870 chief clerk of railway mail service of Iowa; post-office inspector in 1873, active in 2nd regiment I. N. G., has been successively captain, major and colonel; served in Cuba during the war with Spain, and afterwards organized the postal service of Porto Rico.] Thirty years of peace, of hard work, and of great prosperity had passed since the American soldier, north or south, hung his old musket over the fire place as his most honored heirloom. The world had seen and apparently forgotten the grand spectacle of a million veterans quickly and cheerfully returning to the paths of peace. The scars of the great Civil war were fast being obliterated, the memories had become sweet and pure, the issues had gone into a dead past-the question of the unity of the nation, one and indivisible, had been carried to the court of last appeal, the supreme court of war, and the decision had been rendered. This decision was accepted in good faith by all the land. Never again would the great republic call on its army to protect or to save. Too grand to know envy, too great to know fear, too large to know lust, the United States of America in all human wisdom could feel that its military archives were closed. Worn by a struggle the horror and hardship of which none escaped, the nation asked only for peace. The small force of regulars had again been relegated to the position of care-takers, civil engineers, and Indian police, this last duty much simplified by the westward movement of the frontier, the increase of railroads and the disappearance of wild game upon which the untamed Indians subsisted. There had grown up in America a new generation which knew not war, except as heard in the glamour of song and story. The bitterness and sorrows of the war between the states were all buried in the hallowed graves of the heroes of the |