Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/204

200 honor, shining the more conspicuously because it had no counterpart among the other officers of the United States in all that war. It found a counterpart in the uniform conduct of General Lee, and voiced itself in the general order issued by him to regulate the conduct of his troops as he advanced through Maryland into Pennsylvania to Gettysburg. Hear him! "The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the innocent and defenceless, and the wanton destruction of private property that has marked the course of the enemy in our own country. Such proceedings not only disgrace the perpetrators and all connected with them, but is subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the army and destructive of the ends of our present movement. It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without covering ourselves with shame in the eyes of all whose abhorrence}} has been excited by the atrocities of our enemy, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain."

These two men had written their names high and indelibly as warriors on the roll of fame. The one, McClellan, on his side had no superior, the other, General Lee, had no equal on either side. They now add to their well earned fame, sentiments worthy of the highest humanity and the best civilization of mankind. McClellan was removed. Words such as these awakened no response in the hearts of those who directed the war at Washington. He fell a victim to his noble sentiments, and the petty political jealousies and personal envy of his own administration.

Lee's sentiments were in perfect harmony with his life. He was honored more each day, as each day developed some new feature of greatness and goodness which excited the admiration of mankind, and bound to him in ties, that death could not sever, the personal affection of each and all of his soldiers. After the fights around Richmond, there was not a good man in the army that would not have gladly put in jeopardy his own