Ill-Starred General

Yachtsmen, horsemen and unreconstructed Southerners are, in certain matters, hard to please. Last February Southerners howled when Union General William Tecumseh ("War Is Hell") Sherman's face appeared on a new 3-c- stamp (TIME, Feb. 22).

As a sop to injured Southern feelings, the Post Office Department promised to memorialize Confederate Generals Robert Edward Lee and Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall") Jackson on a 4-c- stamp. Last week when the Lee-Jackson stamp, bearing a picture of Stratford Hall,General Lee's Virginia birthplace, for good measure, was placed on sale it looked as if the Post Office Department were in trouble again. General Lee was apparently wearing the uniform of a lieutenant colonel as there were only two stars on his coat collar. "Marse" Robert, Commander of the Confederate States Armies, ranked as a general, rated three.* What was the explanation?

Said the Post Office Department's press representative: "There were three stars plainly visible on the photograph which we sent to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but I understand they rumpled the general's coat . . . and thus hid one of the stars." Said the wearied Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing: "If there ought to be another star it is around on the back of the collar. You might try looking on the back of the stamp."

*In the Confederate Army; whose insignia differed from those of the U. S. Army, there were no grades among general officers.

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