to Burnside, and Burnside hurled thousands to death against Lee and Jackson on the heights of Fredericks- burg. Lincoln turned to Hooker, and Hooker entangled "the finest army on this planet " in the thickets of Chan- cellorsville, where Lee and Jackson throttled it in a close- drawn net of woven steel.
And act two closed with Southern triumph, so that Lincoln told his God '* that we could not stand another Chancellorsville or Fredericksburg." And his God heard him, for in Virginia the South never really triumphed any more.
All this Southern victory came under one man, one of the great soldiers of the world, Robert E. Lee. This man typified all that was best in the South. A member of one of the most distinguished Virginia families, he had the fine qualities of his class, with none of its weaknesses. He had courage without bluster, dignity without arro- gance, reserve without haughtiness, tranquillity without sloth. A soldier in all his regal bearing, in every fibre of his body, his character was far larger than is essential to the profession of arms. In the great decisions of life he guided his action by what seemed to him the prin- ciples of duty, and by those only. Political animosity long called him, and sometimes still calls him, traitor ; but if the word means a man who sells his convictions for a price, it was never less deserved. For three years the South gave him absolute trust, and no people ever trusted more wisely.
�� �
