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Show GENERAL JAMES L. LONGSTREET. The death of the veteran General Longstreet will not attract as much attention as it would have done a quarter of a century ago, because for a long time he has been going deeper and deop-er deop-er into the shadows but he was a commanding figure when the great war was at its height. The Confederacy had not more than two or three generals gen-erals who were his superiors; as a striking, fighting fight-ing force only Stonewall Jackson could be named with him. He was the real commander at the second battle of Bull Run; he displayed more generalship than any other Confederate officer at Antietam; he opposed the charge of General Pickett at Gettysburg and even after he had received re-ceived his orders hesitated long before ordering the columns to advance. In all the battles of the army of Virginia he was a conspicuous figure growing more and more conspicuous to the end. Where a swift onset was required Stonewall Jackson's division was hurled forward; where an all-day relentless battle was necessary there Longstreet's division was found and it always was as when another battle was described: "On, on, their masses crowd And the roar of battle rises up more terrible and loud." We believe that Generals Grant and Long-street Long-street were classmates at West Point. Their friendship was life-long. At Graft's funeral General Gen-eral Longstreet was a sadly conspicuous figure. That General Longstreet when old and poor accepted ac-cepted a Government position from President Grant incensed tho passionate men of that region. That they could turn their backs on one who had fought so many desperate bittles for them, was but a proof of the intensity of the hate they bore toward those who had humbled their pride. But we believe this feeling remains only with a few any longer. Time has leveled the mounds beneath which the heroes sleep and the grass and floweis cover the sacred places. So we believe that most of the bitterness has disappeared and that the old flowers of pride in and affection for native land are lengthening their roots In the soil of the country. The fame of General Longstreet is secure. His epitaph might truthfully read, that he wa of-tener of-tener than any otier on "the battle's bloody vlrgo;" that ho was one of the very foremost of the soldiers of the great war; that he struggled as long and as brilliantly as any other man to support a cause which was a lost cause from the beginning, but when he ceased fighting and accepted the decree of fate, he never by act or word, or thought, broke his parole. May the dreamless sleep of the brave be his. |