Lee Jackson Day Speech, January 18, 2002,

Given in the Virginia State Capitol in

the Old Hall of the House of Delegates

as was part of the Friends of the

Lee Jackson Holiday Ceremony.
by
Jack Ackerly 

On this day in 1872, exactly one hundred  and  thirty  years
ago, an audience of Southerners met for the same reason that
we gather here today: That is, to commemorate, and indeed to
celebrate, the birthday of Robert E.  Lee.  The main speaker
on that occasion was a tough, grizzled, tobacco-chewing  old
warrior of the Confederacy named Jubal A. Early.            

"It  is  a  vain  work,"  cried  out  Early, "for us to seek
anywhere for a parallel to the great character which has won
our admiration and love.  Our beloved Chief stands like some
lofty column which rears its  head  among  the  highest,  in
grandeur,  simple,  pure  and  sublime,  needing no borrowed
luster, and he is all our own,"                             

Robert E. Lee inspired that sort of high-flying talk  -  and
historians  ever  since  have  been  striving  to define the
qualities that made him the idol  of  his  people,  men  and
women, civilians and soldiers alike.                        

Surely,   his  looks  played  a  part.   Mary  Chesnut,  the
Richmonder with the famous diary, called him  "the  portrait
of  a  soldier."  A  British  journalist  said  he  was "the
handsomest man I ever saw."                                 

As we all know, Lee  was  beyond  any  shadow  of  doubt  an
aristocrat  in  the  line  of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Francis
Lightfoot Lee and Light-Horse Harry Lee, men who had  helped
give  birth  to  this  Republic.  Yet Lee possessed a common
touch.  A man who had ridden with Lee on a train wrote, "The
General is affable, polite and unassuming, and he shares the
discomforts  of  a  crowded  railroad  coach  with  ordinary
travelers."                                                 

Time  after time, Lee demonstrated his superb qualities as a
leader of fighting men.  And time after  time  his  soldiers
demonstrated their lofty faith in his leadership.           

Some  of  you  may  be  familiar with General Clement Evans.
Although he was one of the heroes of First Manassas, he  was
certainly  never  one  of  Lee's favorites.  Yet Evans was a
keen observer, and he accurately described the bond  between
Lee  and  his  troops.  He wrote: "General Robert E.  Lee is
regarded by his army as nearest approaching the character of
the  great & good George Washington than any man living.  He
is  the  only  man  living  in  whom  the   soldiers   would
unconditionally  trust  all  power  for  the preservation of
their independence." Added  Colonel  Robert  Jordan  of  the
Twenty-second  Georgia  Infantry:  "General  Lee  now stands
above all Generals in Modern History.  Our men  will  follow
him to the end."                                            

Lee's  key lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson, said that he would
follow Lee into battle blindfolded.                         

Most of you are familiar with Lee's background.  He was born
70  miles to the east of here at Stratford, near Montross on
the Northern Neck.  In 1825 he  entered  the  United  States
Military  Academy  at  West  Point.   He graduated with high
honors in 1829.  Amazingly, he did not receive a demerit  in
4  years  at  West  Point.   In  1835  he helped lay out the
boundary line between Ohio and Michigan.  Lee's service  was
distinguished in the Mexican War which erupted in 1846.  The
United States Commander, General Winfield Scott, said  after
the  Mexican  War:  "My success in Mexico was largely due to
the skill,  valor,  and undaunted courage of Robert  E. Lee,
the greatest military genius in America."                   

After the Mexican War,  Lee became the Superintendent of the
Military Academy at West Point.  He improved  the  buildings
and  courses  there  and  he  spent  a  lot of time with the
cadets.  One of his cadets was James Ewell Brown Stuart, the
great  grandfather  of  our moderator today.  JEB Stuart, as
you know, became Lee's best cavalry officer.                

When the clouds of the Civil War formed, Lee had a  terrible
dilemma.   You will recall that Virginia's General Assembly,
meeting right here in this room, had voted 2  to  1  against
secession.   Then on April 12, 1861, South Carolina attacked
the federal garrison at Fort Sumter  and  President  Lincoln
called for 75,000 men to put down the rebellion.  Virginians
had the unfortunate choice of taking up arms  against  their
brothers  and  sisters  to  the  south or likewise declaring
their independence and seceding from the Union.  The General
Assembly  the  following week and again meeting in this very
room voted 88 to 55 to secede.   President  Lincoln  offered
Lee  the  field  command of the Union Army.  What was Lee to
do?  He wrote his sister:                                   

".  .  .  I had to meet  the  question  whether  I
should  take  part  [in the war] against my native
state.  With all my devotion to the Union, and the
feeling   of  loyalty  and  duty  of  an  American
citizen, I have not been able to make up  my  mind
to   raise   my  hand  against  my  relatives,  my
children, my home.  I have therefore  resigned  my
commission  in  the army, and, serve in defence of
my native state - with the sincere  hope  that  my
poor  services  may never be needed - I hope I may
never be called upon to draw my sword."           

You will recall that the federal efforts to capture Richmond
were  first repulsed at the Battle of First Manassas or Bull
Run slightly over  an  hour's  drive  north  of  here.   The
federals  changed  generals.   The  next  effort was a novel
approach.   Instead  of  proceeding  overland  directly   to
Richmond,  General  McClellan  loaded onto 389 ships 121,500
men, 14,592 head of cattle, mules and horses,  44  artillery
batteries (which required 1,000 head of horses), 1224 wagons
and ambulances, and other supplies and equipment  and  moved
down  the Potomac River onto the Chesapeake Bay disembarking
at Fort Monroe and  Hampton.   The  federals  moved  up  the
peninsula  capturing  Yorktown and Williamsburg.  By June 1,
1862, they were at Sandston 5 «  miles  from  where  we  are
today.  The federals could look through their binoculars and
see with ease this capitol building as well  as  the  church
steeples of St.  Pauls, St.  Peters, Centenary Methodist and
Second  Presbyterian,  to  this  day  viable  and  important
churches in this city.                                      

Richmond  was on the verge of being blown off the map by the
federals' heavy  artillery  and  being  invaded  by  110,000
federal   troops.    Lee  had  just  taken  command  of  the
Confederates due  to  the  wounding  of  General  Joseph  E.
Johnson at Seven Pines.  Lee summoned Stonewall Jackson from
Harrisonburg; he initiated a surprise flank  attack  on  the
federals  at  Mechanicsville; and for a full week pushed the
federals for 15 miles in a series  of  battles  familiar  to
you:   Beaverdam   Creek,   Gaines  Mill,   Savage  Station,
Frayser's Farm and Malvern Hill.  These  bloody  engagements
in turn caused the evacuation of the federal troops from the
area of Berkeley Plantation and down  the  James  River  and
back to Washington.                                         

Lee  saved  Richmond  and  the  war ground on for three more
years with battles  at  Antietam,  Chancellorsville,  Second
Manassas,   Gettysburg   and  many  others.   Following  the
surrender at Appomattox, Lee was a leader  in  bringing  the
country  back  together.   Lee urged southerners to keep the
peace and accept the outcome of the war.  His  attitude  was
extremely  important  at  a  time when bitterness and hatred
swept both North and  South.   Instead  of  increasing  this
feeling,  Lee  opposed  it, doing everything in his power to
restore the political, economic,  and  social  life  of  the
South.  "Make your sons Americans," he urged.               

Lee  had  many opportunities to further his career following
the  Civil  War.   Surprisingly  to  many,  he   chose   the
presidency  of  small  Washington  College  at Lexington 125
miles to the west of here.  Lee  was  an  excellent  College
President: he improved the curriculum, increased the student
body, hired competent professors, and built the college into
a  prominent  university.   He  is  credited  with  starting
Washington and Lee's effective student run honor system; the
bedrock of daily student life that endures on through life. 

It   is  significant  today,  that  Lee,  who  is  primarily
remembered as one of the  world's  most  prominent  military
leaders,  was a skillful educator and that he served both as
Superintendent of West Point and the last  5  years  of  his
life  as  President  of  what  is  now  Washington  and  Lee
University.                                                 

And Arlington, the beautiful home in Northern Virginia  that
Lee  so  reluctantly  left  to  defend  Virginia,  is  now a
treasured part of our national heritage.                    

In the late 1920s the Federal Government restored Lee's  old
home  to  its antebellum condition.  It is now maintained by
the National Park Service as a memorial to Robert E.  Lee  -
as  far  as  I know, the only Confederate leader so honored.
Moreover, on what was once  his  property  stands  Arlington
National Cemetery, where lie the bodies of men and women who
have participated in all of America's  wars,  including  the
one  against  terrorism.  The use of Arlington as a national
memorial speaks volumes about both Lee and our government.  

Robert E.  Lee   devoted  a  good  part  of  his  life,  and
particularly   at   West   Point   and  Washington  College,
instilling in the nation's young men, North and  South,  the
principles of duty, bravery, honor and service that were the
essence of his character.  I  like  to  believe  that  those
principles are still honored in Virginia - and in our nation
- now united after September 11 as seldom before.           

END