Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/213

 ROBERT EDMUND LEE 363 in-chief of the Army of the United States. He died August 5, 1888. General Sheridan was the most brilliant cavalry officer whom America has produced. In addition to conspicuous personal bravery, he had an eagle eye for piercing through the designs of an enemy and for detecting at a glance all their weak points. He possessed wonderful energy, remained undepressed in the presence of overwhelming odds, and had a superb confidence in moments of the greatest danger. His career was one of the most romantic and adventurous called forth by the great American civil struggle. ROBERT EDMUND LEE By General Viscount Wolseley (1807-1870) I " T is my wish to give a short outline of Gen- eral Lee's life, and to describe him as I saw him in the autumn of 1862, when at the head of proud and victorious troops he smiled at the notion of defeat by any army that could be sent against him. I desire to make known to the reader not only the re- nowned soldier, whom I believe to have been the greatest of his age, but to give some insight into the character of one whom I have always considered the most perfect man I ever met. As a looker-on, I feel that both parties in the war have so much to be proud of that both can afford to hear what impartial Englishmen, or foreigners, have to say about it. Inflated and bubble reputations were ac- quired during its progress, few of which will bear the test of time. The idol mo- mentarily set up, often for political reasons, crumbles in time into the dust from which its limbs were perhaps originally moulded. To me, however, two figures ' stand out in that history, towering above all others, both cast in hard metal that will be forever proof against the belittling efforts of all future detractors : one, General Lee, the great soldier ; the other, Mr. Lincoln, the far-seeing statesman of iron will, of unflinching determination. Each is a good representative of the gen- ius that characterized his country. As I study the history of the secession war, these seem to me the two men who influenced it most, and who will be recog- nized as its greatest heroes when future generations of American historians re- cord its stirring events with impartiality.