Verily, it is high time for the formation of clubs or societies all over the land for the encouragement of the study of American history. Mrs. Cleveland and other genuine American women have started a movement of that kind among the women of New York, and it is an example that should be followed in every American city and town. Especially should the people of the South welcome and encourage it, for no other section has suffered as much as it has from the misconception and prejudice resulting from ignorance of the history of this country, and no other section has so much of glory to gain from the dissemination of a full and accurate knowledge of that history.

HENRY LEE.

Recurring to the Lees, let me say through the Advertiser, for the information of the Northern editors who are exulting in the belief that they have found something that besmirches the fame of the father of Robert E. Lee, that if they will read page 762 of the eighth volume of The International Cyclopedia they will find there these words:

"Henry Lee, a distinguished American general, was one of the most daring, vigilant and successful cavalry officers on the side of the colonists. Lee's legion was probably the most effective and courageous body of troops raised in America. In the famous retreat of

AXY

Greene before Cornwallis it formed the rear-guard, the post of honor, and covered itself with glory. At the battles of Guilford Court-house and Eutaw, at the sieges of Forts Watson, Motte, and Granby and Augusta, and at the storming of Fort Grierson, Lee particularly signalized himself."

ROBERT E. LEE.

Then if the Northern editors will read further in the same cyclopedia, they will find there these words: "Robert E. Lee, son of the preceding, was commander-in-chief of the army of the Confederate States of America. * * * * * He defended Richmond against the Federal army under McClellan and after six days of sanguinary battles drove him to the shelter of his gunboats. Marching north, he defeated General Pope in the second battle of Manassas. Crossing the Potomac into Maryland, with a force of 40,000, he was met at Antietam by McClellan with 80,000, and after a bloody but indecisive conflict recrossed the Potomac and took a position at Fredericksburg, where he was attacked by General Burnside, whose army he defeated with great slaughter. Gen. Hooker, the successor of Generals McClellan, Pope and Burnside, whom Lee had successively defeated, crossed the Rappahannock May 1st, 1863, and was attacked by Gen. Lee, routed with heavy loss and compelled to escape in the night across the river."

are omitted here for the sake of space.)

(Some dates

On page 767 of the same volume, the Northern

editors, if they will pursue the interesting and truthful line of historical reading on which I have put them, will find these words: "Gen. Joseph Hooker had been appointed to supersede Gen. Burnside, and with a powerful army now declared his intention to make quick work of ousting the Confederate army from Fredericksburg. His army was double in numbers that of Lee. On April 29 he had massed six army corps on the north side of the Rappahannock near Chancellorsville, and should have chosen his own battlefield. The genius of Lee was never more conspicuous than at this time. He took the initiative of attack before Hooker's army was through the 'wilderness,' and detaching Gen. 'Stonewall' Jackson with 21,000 men to make a long circuit to the rear of the right flank of the Union army, he occupied Gen. Hooker with menaces in front until the evening of the 30th, when Jackson's attack fell like a thunderbolt from a clear sky on the rear of the Union army. The next morning the attack was made real in front, and such was the paralysis of the Union commanders, and such was the mastery of the time and place for action on the part of Lee, that the great army of Hooker was already defeated. * On May 4th the whole Union army was in full retreat, completely outgeneraled at all points.

* *

"Lee now organized his army to renew the invasion of Pennsylvania. He maneuvered so as to force Hooker with all his army to follow, but at the same time so attenuated his line as to draw the fol

lowing characteristic letter from President Lincoln to Gen. Hooker: 'If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank-road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere; could you not break him?' But Hooker was evidently afraid of Lee anywhere, and with reason. Then follows on the same page an account of the battle of Gettysburg, closing with these words: "On the afternoon of the 3rd (July, 1863), Lee massed 145 cannon and opened the battle with their thunder, under cover of which his attacking columns were formed. The attack was all that human bravery could make it; but the column melted before the fire that waited for it; and though its head reached and covered the key of the struggle, the main force of the column was annihilated, and the position retaken. Gen. Lee's noble equanimity was conspicuous in this defeat in the manner of his meeting the disorganized remnant of that returning column, infusing them with his own serene confidence. A retreat was now necessary, but it was deliberate and orderly, and Gen. Meade, after his victory, found no place in Lee's army for attack."

THEY SHOULD READ IT ALL.

I am sure the Northern editors must, by this time, be sufficiently interested in the subject to read the conclusion of the International Cyclopedia's article on Gen. Lee. Aside from the historical instruction they will derive from it, they will find the whole

article a model of clear cut English, well worth perusal for the chasteness and vigor of its style. Of course only extracts are given from it here. It conIcludes as follows:

"The 'immense campaign' of 1864 for the possession of Richmond was now to test and crown the military fame of Gen. Lee. Gen. U. S. Grant, victorious thus far on every field, assumed the personal command of the army of the Potomac. For an entire year all the vast resources at his command were used with that rugged grit that regards no loss of life too great which achieves the quick end of war, and with an energy and skill that all the world acknowledges. Yet during that entire year Gen. Lee, with an army small in comparison, by his engineering skill, masterly handling, and invariable readiness, held Grant's army at bay, and yielded at last only as a cube of steel may yield to the last great pressure of a colossal vise. Grant was hammering at the front of flint that Lee invariably presented. But the weakening force could but show their heroic valor and the resources of their commander. The last council of war of the army of Northern Virginia was held on the evening of the 8th of April, 1865, and General Lee surrendered the remnant of his troops on the 9th. His parting address to his men is a model of sad dignity and grateful recognition of an army's constancy."

*

*

"In person General Lee was of the noblest type of manly beauty; tall, broad-shouldered, erect, with a