Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/676

634 Contrast of Lee with other men will not be instituted, because there were indeed others great like himself, and he more than others would deplore a contest for premier ship in fame. The most that can be said in any mingling of his name with other illustrious characters has been uttered in the wonderfully felicitous and graphic sentences of Benjamin H. Hill, which may be repeated here, because of their brilliant and true characterization:

When the future historian shall come to survey the character of Lee he will find it rising like a huge mountain above the undulating plane of humanity, and he must lift his eyes high toward heaven to catch its summit. He possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor with out oppression; and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen with out wrong; a neighbor without reproach ; a Christian with out hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was a Caesar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness; and Washington with out his reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life ; 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.&quot;

It will be understood by all who read any biographical sketch of one so eminent as the Southern military leader thus portrayed in Mr. Hill s splendid words, that the facts of his life must sustain the eulogy. Fortunately this support appears even in the cold recital which is here attempted. General Lee was born at Stratford, Virginia, January 19, 1807, and was eleven years old on the death of his chivalric father, General Henry Lee, the u Light Horse Harry &quot; of the American revolution. In boyhood he was taught in the schools of Alexandria, chiefly by