With criminal negligence we permitted our foes to define the issue upon which we fought. They proclaimed that it was the "Irrepressible Conflict between the ideas representing the freedom and the slavery of the African race-whose progenitors had been imported into the colonies by Yankee skippers. It was nothing of the kind, it was the very antipode of that question. The contest commenced with the organization of the Federal Government, was waged with varying success and vehement energy in the Congressional Halls, when the intellectual giants of the classic era of our national history were the contending gladiators, and the unfortunate result was that the Eastern manufacturers were "protected" into plethoric monopolists and the Southern and Western agriculturists were gradually but surely pauperized. Every issue and the origin of all our troubles are comprehended in the single word "tariff," and surely the soil on which our temple was constructed had not absorbed the golden rod. For near two weeks I was in the Fort with my incongruous regiment, when my command was withdrawn from me by an order as sweeping and unrelenting as the torch of Omar. To show how much tape is necessary to the management of an army, I append my application to be allowed to resume my own legitimate duties, it being remembered that I was there as a volunteer, with not enough men left to form a decent-sized company: MAJOR: FORT GILMER, Oct. 11, 1864. I have been in command of the 4th Regiment of "Barton's City Brigade," since 29th ultimo, lately stationed at Fort Gilmer. By an order directing the discharge of all convalescents (included in said regiment) who belonged to the Army of Northern Virginia, it has been reduced to forty-six men and no officers. For some time I have been stationed in Richmond as Agent for the Missouri troops and particularly charged under Clause 20 of Special Order No. 249, Series. of 1863, from A. J. O. to receive, enroll, equip, pay, furnish with transportation and forward to the First Missouri Brigade, General Cockrell commanding, all exchanged or paroled Missourians. An exchange having been opened in Savannah, it will be necessary for me to be there to carry out my instructions under said order. I have been on service here for ten days and found it peculiarly onerous, from the fact that the men were strangers to each other and the officers, and constant watchfulness was necessary on part of the latter to check the desertions of those who were desirous of returning to their legitimate commands. I would ask for another assignment, but my duties in filling my own decimated Brigade are imperative, and I therefore respectfully request a discharge herefrom and orders to report to my original duties. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. S. B... Col. Commanding 4th Regiment Barton's City Brigade. TO MAJ. CHESNEY, A. A. G., Gen. EWELL'S Headquarters. Respectfully forwarded and recommended since Col. B.'s Regiment has been reduced to a scanty command. M. LEWIS CLARK, Colonel Commanding Brigade. Respectfully forwarded approved-Col. B.'s services have been very great-freely rendered under exceptionally difficult circumstances-most admirable and effective in the defence of Fort Gilmer, and I regret to part with him. But his other duties are more important, and in the reorganization made necessary by recent reductions I can spare him. J. M. BARTON, Brigadier-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF RICHMOND, Respectfully returned approved. } G. CAMPBELL BROWN, A. A. G. HEADQ'RS ARMY N. VIRGINIA, Approved by order of Gen. Lee. W. H. TAYLOR, A. A. G. HEADQ'RS BRIGADE, CHAFFIN'S FARM, October 13th, 1864. Col. B ..... is released, and ordered to report according to his original orders, hereby fully approved, and is warmly commended for his effective volunteer services in this command. M. LEWIS CLARK, Col. Com'ding Brigade Richmond Temporary Troops. IT CHAPTER XLIII. GENERAL LEE. Where may the wearied eye repose Yes one! the first, the last, the best, -[Byron. T was when I was at Fort Gilmer, 'twas an evening in the first infancy of spring. The still, fresh air fanned the cheek with predictions of glowing woods, reviving verdure and verdant lawns, and the sun bathed the rugged landscape around us with its declining glories. We were leaning on the parapet, our chaplain and I—the kindest hearted man in the world was he-intensely engaged in observing through our glasses a singular scene. A heavy skirmish line of "gray coats" were slowly retiring, while apparently stubbornly endeavoring to hold their position, before a large body of Federal troops who were advancing cautiously, their suspicion having been aroused by the silence of our batteries. Behind the brow of a cross-section hill, if I may be allowed the use of such a term, were crouched a large force of our men, ready to swing around in the rear of the Yankees when they had reached a certain point. Have I said that the Parson was the kindest hearted of men? It is true, although he was viewing this scene with undisguised delight. There, they halt!" he exclaimed, "why don't the cowards come on?" "Our guns ought to send a shell or two among them," I replied, "they don't understand such unusual apathy." "Hurrah for that," was his comment, as a bomb curved in the air between us and the red hues of the eastern sky, and exploded in the very centre of the enemy's line. It caused a momentary confusion, but inspired them into action. They made a rush to cut the skirmisher's line of retreat. The couchant force behind the hill became erect, and with a wild yell dashed upon their rear and speedily made the pretty little maneuver a complete success. "Eureka!" shouted the Parson in stentorian tones, as he threw up the reverend hat and caught it with a hop, skip and jump. With much confusion he recognized the presence of an elderly, grave-looking, handsome gentleman, who had joined us unnoticed, and introduced me to General Lee, the generalissimo of our armies. The old hero laughed in a hearty, good-humored way at the preacher's predicament, while he was evidently much pleased at the success of the coup. Spinosa is said to have loved, above all other amusements, to put flies into a spider's web, and the struggles of the imprisoned insect were regarded by the grave Dutch philosopher as so ludicrous and funny that he would stand by the hour and laugh at them, until the tears "coursed one another down his innocent nose.' This looks somewhat like cruelty, did we not know the good old Dutch Jew to have been exceedingly kind, humane and benevolent. Lucan dwells with poetic pleasure on the many ways in which the operation of dying may be varied; while Homer analyzes the sentiments of the departing warrior's soul. To the bard, the butchered soldier was only an epic ornament; to the philosopher, the murdered fly was nothing but a metaphysical illustration, and to the parson the sudden assault, the surprise and the capture were merely another oblation to the cause of his section and the country of his choice. We sat upon a convenient log with the man whose greatness will go sounding down through all the ages, and I answered his quiet questions about the yesterday's fight and the charge of the black brigade, until the men, upon learning that he was the Chieftain, gathered around him in homage and cheered him with lusty shouts. His sword was unbuckled, I carried it for him as he went to rejoin his escort who waited at the entrance. It was the first time I ever saw him. I stretched myself upon a hillock of sand and thought upon that sword with which he had allegorically carved such fame and station for himself and country. A great leveler it is, the speediest and quickest of earth. Like that which flamed in the gates of Paradise, did Cœur de Lion cleave glory from the flash of Saladin's scimeter, and it shaped the soldier's axe of Bonaparte into the sceptre of the monarch Napoleon. The laurel and the fasces, the curule car and the Emperor's purple were its playthings and its reward, It founded all empires and propagated all creeds, led the fierce Gaul and the unpitying Goth to crush, upon their own altars, the gods of Greece and Rome. Beneath it the everlasting fires of the Gheber waxed pale, its point bore the crescent badge of the obscure camel-driver, until it blazed like a sun over the startled world, and upon the sword are now fixed the conflicting hopes of a divided nation, which proudly arrogated to itself the title of the Great Republic, and the position of the freest country and "the best government" on the face of the globe. But now it deplores its religious churches dissevered, its political relations discordant, and its people appealing to the God of Battles and the dreaded arbitrament of arms. Hardly could I then have dreamed that the famous sword of General Lee would in so short a time, be sheathed forever and hung up to rattle idly and rust away in an unused corner of a college conservatory. And yet, that is where his glory lies; misfortune marks him at his greatest and purifies the name that goes down to posterity. I saw him again, after the collapse of the Lost Cause, as he came into Richmond, stately, serene, self-possessed, not bowed down with sorrow, but bending beneath its weight. And once more on the Commencement platform, fronting with mild, paternal glance, the reverence of ambitious youths who came to emulate his virtues, even as did the Athenians, when they sought the shades of the academical groves to listen to the teachings of Socrates and gather wisdom from the lips of Plato. Defeated as he was, among the great men of America he stands pre-eminent, only success, that "magic criterion" of Bolingbroke, was needed to enroll his name high among the most renowned commanders whose deeds are recorded by the pen of History. Hannibal died an exile and a suicide, Coriolanus turned his fratricidal arms against his native land, William "the Silent" Prince of Orange, after refusing sovereign_power, fell by the hand of a hired assassin, but Robert E. Lee, calmly accepting the inevitable situation, partook of his country's calamities, as a model to his disbanded soldiery, |