Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/333

 Memorial of Geti. Jubal A. /v/ ////. 321

COMPARED TO ENGLISH COMMANDERS.

I have counted Early amongst the great soldiers of history, and as our Mother Country ranks amongst the great military nations, I would ask you who are her great soldiers who might be put before him? Who, in her centuries of battles, would you name as great commanders in the sense of those who have led great forces, and found the delight of battle with their peers? Marlborough, yes; Wellington, yes. Who next? Trying to discover the next you begin to realize how scant is British history in the names of great commanders. I believe Virginia alone in the late war pro- duced more men for whom that title could be claimed than Great Britain in all her history. Heroes in abundance and accomplished officers she has produced; but her wars have been for the most part against inferiors against Hindoos, and Persians, Afghans, Zulus, Chinese, Egyptians, Arabs and Matabeles. The greatest army of her own that she ever mustered was the 30,000 of Wellington at Waterloo. Her forces have generally co-operated with allies; or been swelled by hirelings and dependents, under her well-trained officers; her position has not been such as to develop campaigns such as we had in the late war, or to afford opportunities for such leaders as Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Ewell, A. P. Hill, Jackson, Stuart, and Early. The fact is that since the battle of Sedgmoor, fought August 5, 1665, between the Duke of Monmouth, some 6,000 strong, and the forces of King James II., under John Churchill, after- wards the Duke of Marlborough, in which Monmouth lost a thou- sand and Churchill some joo slain, " no conflict deserving the name of battle has been fought on English ground."

SECRET OF ENGLAND'S DEMONSTRATION.

While it is true that during this domestic peace of over 200 years, the British " have carried the English flag victorious from the Seine to the Indus, from Calcutta to Quebec, from Madrid to Cairo," it has been more by the skill of diplomacy and strategy, and especially more by sea power than by the movements of great forces. If we except the American campaigns and Wellington's operations against Napoleon, all the English fighting done in two centuries would scarce amount to that of General Lee in the single county of Spotsylvania, and would not amount to the fighting done by Early. " A sea shell," says Emerson, "should be the crest of England, not