the Alleghanies there constituted the dividing line between the hostile
forces, and in this network of mountains, sterile and rendered
absolutely impracticable by a prolonged season of rain, Nature had
provided an insurmountable barrier to operations in this transmontane
country.... It was doubtless because of similar embarrassments that
the Federal general retired, in the face of inferior numbers, to a
point near his base of supplies."

Professor William P. Trent, in his "Robert E. Lee," after describing
briefly the movements of the contending armies, writes:

"There was, then, nothing to do but to acknowledge the campaign a
failure. The Confederate Government withdrew its troops and sent them
elsewhere. Lee, whom the press abused and even former friends began
to regard as overrated, was assigned to command the Department of South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; and her western counties were lost to
the Old Dominion forever. It must have been a crushing blow to Lee at
the time, but he bore it uncomplainingly.... And when all is said, no
commander, however great, can succeed against bad roads, bad weather,
sickness of troops, lack of judgement and harmony among subordinates,
and a strong, alert enemy. Yet this is what Lee was expected to do."

Mr. Davis, in an address before a memorial meeting at Richmond in 1870,
speaking of General Lee in this campaign, said:

"He came back, carrying the heavy weight of defeat, and unappreciated
by the people whom he served, for they could not know, as I knew, that,
if his plans and orders had been carried out, the result would have
been victory rather than retreat. You did not know it; for I should
not have known it had he not breathed it in my ear only at my earnest