What of the Cadets at the Battle of New Market? Were those young
heroes the sons of "slave breeders" and nurtured in homes darkened by
such a debasing practice? What of the spirit and bearing of the great
body of Virginia soldiers who followed Lee, and what place shall they
and their commander take in the estimation of the world's best thought
and conscience? President Roosevelt says:
"The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed
Lee, and their leader will undoubtedly rank as, without any
exception, the very greatest of all the great captains that the
English-speaking peoples have brought forth."[200]
What of Lee's character as a man, aside from his genius as a soldier?
Lord Wolseley says:
"I have met many of the great men of my time, but Lee alone
impressed me with the feeling that I was in the presence of a man
who was cast in a grander mould, and made of different and of finer
metal than all other men. He is stamped upon my memory as a being
apart and superior to all others in every way; a man with whom none
I ever knew, and very few of whom I have read, are worthy to be
classed. I have met but two men who realized my ideas of what a true
hero should be; my friend, Charles Gordon was one, General Lee was
the other."[201]