*****
(St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press.)
“Ostracised by men who did no fighting.”
The pestiferous pertinacity with which certain women of the South seize every opportunity to fan the embers of a dying sectional animosity, and to blazon their adherence to the principles of the “Lost Cause,” is again illustrated in the refusal of the Savannah Daughters of the Confederacy to send a wreath to be laid on General Longstreet’s grave. Next to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet had the reputation of being the ablest of the officers who fought on the Southern side in the Great Rebellion. But at the close of the war, satisfied that the Lost Cause was lost forever, and that it was useless to attempt to keep alive a spirit of revenge,—heart-won, too, by the splendid generosity of Grant in his dealings with the defeated army of Lee,—he “accepted the situation;” accepted, too, from the Republican soldier-president the office of surveyor of the port of New Orleans, and addressed all his powers to the work of healing the wounds of war and of reuniting the sections. For this he was ostracised by the ultra element of Southern irreconcilables—an element made up principally of women and of men who did no fighting, and which nurses its bitterness with the unsatisfied spirit of the child who, not having finished his cry yesterday, inquires to-day, “What was I crying about?” in order that he may indulge in the luxury of tears once more. The men who fought under and with Longstreet honor his later loyalty to the Union as much as they do his steadfast courage and ability under the “Stars and Bars” in the bloody sixties. The women who refuse his bier a tribute dishonor only themselves.
*****
(Atlanta, Georgia, Journal.)
“One of the most gallant spirits of the century.”
With the death of General James Longstreet, who was the first ranking general of the Confederate army, passes one of the most gallant spirits of the nineteenth century.
Of all the men who fought with conspicuous valor and prowess for the Confederate cause, there was none who possessed more leonine courage or inspired in his men a greater degree of enthusiastic affection than this chieftain whom Lee dubbed with the title of “My Old War-Horse” on the battle-field. That remark of Lee’s was like the touch of an accolade upon his shoulders, and no subsequent misunderstandings or criticisms have ever been able to rob him of the place among the chivalrous souls of the South to which he was elevated by their irreproachable King Arthur, General Lee.
And, in view of the fact that the most choice and master military spirits of his age esteemed him to possess tactical ability and military judgment equal in degree to his undisputed qualities of persistent bravery, such criticisms as there were are scarcely worthy of mention and demand no refutation now in any backward glance at his brilliant career. The South can point to his record with pride, as his military associates have ever pointed to the man himself with a quick and affectionate appreciation. No note of apology should mingle with the praise and grief of those who look to-day with tear-blurred eyes upon the soldier’s bier.