Stratford House, General Lee's Birthplace. 
 
12 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 GEN. ROBERT E. LEE, 
 
 FOR CHILDREN 
 
 IN BASY WORDS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH COLORED PLATES. 
 
 MRS. MARY L \A/^lLLlAMSON. 
 
 THE BAUGHMAN STATIONERY CO. 
 Richmond, Va. 
 

 Copyright 1895, 
 By Mrs. MARY L. WILLIAMSON. 
 
TO 
 
 THE CHILDREN 
 
 WHOSE FATHERS WORE THE GREY 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This is undoubtedly the "Children's Age." Everything 
 possible is being done by parents and educators to interest 
 and instruct the little ones. 
 
 We can find no better way to advance primary education 
 and to impress upon children principles of morality than to 
 place before them, in interesting story, the careers of our 
 great men. 
 
 To this end I have written these simple annals of our 
 greatest hero. Our school histories make only brief mention 
 of him; and histories of his life written for grown folks are 
 too difficult for the average child to comprehend. So I 
 trust that this little book will meet the imperative need of 
 the times, and imprint indelibly upon the minds of the rising 
 generation the noble character and wonderful deeds of Robert 
 E. Lee. 
 
 In compiling this work, I hav^e consulted General Fitzhugh 
 
 Lee's "Life of Lee" and Rev. J. William Jones's "Personal 
 
 Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee." 
 
 M. L. W. 
 June 26, 1895. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND YOUTH. 
 
 RoB-ERT Ed-ward 
 Lee was born at Strat- 
 ford, West- more- land 
 coun-ty, Vir-gin-i-a, on the 
 19th of Jan-u-a-ry, 1807. 
 
 His fa-ther, Gen-er-al 
 Hen-ry Lee, had been a 
 great chief in Wash-ing- 
 ton's ar-my. They 
 s o m e - 1 i m e s call him 
 *'Light-Horse Har-ry 
 Lee." While with 
 Wash-ing-ton, he was 
 ev-er in front of the foe, 
 and his troop-ers were 
 
 what they al-ways should 
 be — the eyes and ears of 
 the ar-my. 
 
 Af-ter the war he was 
 Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a, 
 and then a mem-ber of 
 Con-gress. It was he 
 who said in a speech 
 made be-fore Con-eress 
 af-ter the death of Wash- 
 ing-ton, that he was 
 ''First in war, first in 
 peace, and first in the 
 hearts of his coun-try- 
 men." He al-so said, 
 
8 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 "Vir-gin-I-a is my coun- 
 try ; her will I o-bey, how- 
 ev-er sad the fate to which 
 it may sub-ject me." 
 
 His moth-er was Anne 
 Hill Car-ter, who came 
 from one of the best 
 fam-i-lies of Vir-gin-i-a. 
 The long line of Lees 
 may be traced back to 
 Laun-ce-lot Lee, of Lou- 
 don, in France, who went 
 with Wil-liam the Con- 
 quer-or up -on his ex- 
 pe-di-tion to Eng-land ; 
 and when Har-old had 
 been slain up-on the 
 blood-y field of Hast- 
 ings, Laun-ce-lot was 
 given by Wil-liam the 
 Con-quer-or an es-tate in 
 Es-sex. From that time 
 the name of Lee is ev-er 
 
 an hon-or-a-ble one in the 
 his-to-ry of Eng-land. 
 
 In the time of the first 
 Charles, Rich-ard Lee 
 came to the New World 
 and found a home in 
 Vir-gin-i-a. He was a 
 man of good stat-ure, 
 sound sense, and kind 
 heart. From him the 
 noble stock of Vir-gin-i-a 
 Lees be-gan. He was 
 the great -great -grand- 
 fa -ther of Rob-ert, who 
 was much like him m 
 man-y ways. 
 
 Strat-ford, the house 
 in which Rob-ert was 
 born, is a fine old man- 
 sion, built in the shape 
 of the let-ter H, and 
 stands not far from the 
 banks of the Po-to-mac 
 
Robert and His Mother. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBER T E. LEE. 
 
 Riv-er and near the 
 birth-place of Wash-ing- 
 ton. Up-on the roof 
 were sum-mer houses, 
 where the band phiyed, 
 while the young folks 
 walked m the grounds 
 be-low and en-joyed the 
 cool air from the riv-er 
 and the sweet inu-sic of 
 the band. 
 
 He had two broth-ers 
 and two sis-ters. His 
 broth-ers were named 
 Charles Car-ter and Sid- 
 ney Smith, and his sis- 
 ters Anne and Mil-dred. 
 
 When Rob-ert was 
 but four years of age his 
 fa-ther moved to Al-ex- 
 an-dri-a, a city not ver-y 
 far from the Strat-ford 
 House, where he could 
 
 send his boys to bet-ter 
 schools. But he was not 
 a-ble to stay with them 
 and bring them up to 
 man -hood. Short -ly 
 af-ter he had moved to 
 Al-ex-an-dri-a, he was 
 hurt in Bal-ti-more by a 
 mob of bad men, and he 
 was nev-er well a-gain. 
 
 When Rob-ert was six 
 years old, his fa-ther 
 went to the West In-dies 
 for his health. While 
 there he wrote kind let- 
 ters to his son, Charles 
 Car-ter Lee, and spoke 
 with much love of all. 
 Once he said, "Tell 
 me of Anne. Has she 
 grown tall? Rob-ert 
 was al-ways good." He 
 wished to know, al-so, if 
 
10 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 his sons rode and shot 
 well, say-ing that a Vir- 
 gln-i-an's sons should be 
 taught to ride, shoot, and 
 tell the truth. 
 
 When he had been 
 there five years, and on-ly 
 grew worse, he made up 
 his mind to re-turn home. 
 But he crrtw so ill that 
 he was put a-shore on 
 Cum-ber-land Is-land at 
 the home of a friend. 
 He soon gave up all hope 
 of life. At times his 
 pain was so great that he 
 would drive his ser-vants 
 and ev-er-y one else out 
 of the room. At length 
 an old wo-man, who had 
 been Mrs. Green's best 
 maid, was sent to nurse 
 him. The first thing 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee did when 
 she came in-to the room 
 was to hurl his boot at 
 her head. With-out a 
 word, she picked up the 
 boot and threw it back at 
 him. A smile passed o- 
 ver the old chief's face as 
 he saw how brave she 
 was, and from that time 
 to the day of his death 
 none but Mom Sa-rah 
 could wait on him. Two 
 months af-ter the sick sol- 
 dier land-ed he was dead. 
 His bod-y was laid to 
 rest a-mid the ce-dars 
 and flow-ers of the South, 
 and it has nev-er been 
 moved to Vir-gin-i-a. 
 
 At this time Rob-ert 
 was on-ly e-lev-en years 
 old. If he was a good 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE, 
 
 11 
 
 boy, it was his moth-er 
 who kept him so, for he 
 nev-er knew a fa-ther's 
 care. His moth-er once 
 said to a friend, " How 
 can I spare Rob-ert! He 
 is both a son and a dauoh- 
 ter to me." 
 
 A-bout that time the 
 girls and oth-er boys were 
 a-way from home, and she 
 had no one but Rob-ert 
 to care for her. He took 
 the keys and "kept house " 
 for her when she was sick, 
 and al-so saw to all of 
 her out-door work. He 
 would run home from 
 school to ride out with 
 her, so that she might en- 
 joy the fresh air and sun- 
 shine. When she would 
 com-plain of the cold or 
 
 draughts, he would pull 
 out a great jack-knife and 
 stuff the cracks with pa- 
 per, for the coach was an 
 old one. 
 
 So he grew up by her 
 side, a good and no-ble 
 boy. At first he went to 
 school to a Mr. Lear-y, 
 who was ev-er his firm 
 friend. Then he went to 
 the school of Mr. Ben-ja- 
 min H. Hal-lo-well, who 
 al-vvays spoke of him as 
 a fine young man. 
 
 Rob-ert was fond o\ 
 hunt-ing, and would some- 
 times fol-low the hounds 
 all day. In this way he 
 rained that g^reat strenorth 
 which was nev-er known 
 to fail him in af-ter life. 
 
 The old home, in Al- 
 
12 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ex-an-dri-a, where his 
 moth-er had hved, was 
 al-ways a sa-cred place to 
 him. Years af-ter, one 
 of his friends saw him 
 look-inor sad-lv o-ver the 
 fence of the gar-den where 
 he used to play. " I am 
 look-ing," he said, " to 
 see if the old snow-ball 
 trees are still here. I 
 should be sor-ry to miss 
 them." 
 
 When he was eigh-teen 
 years old, he went to West 
 Point to learn to be a sol- 
 dier. He was there four 
 years, and m that tmie 
 nev-er oot a bad mark or 
 de-mer-it. H i s clothes 
 al-ways looked neat and 
 clean, and his gun bright. 
 In short, he kept the rules 
 
 of the school and stud- 
 ied so well that he came 
 out sec-ond in his class. 
 When he came home 
 from West Point, he found 
 his moth-er's old coach- 
 man, Nat, ver-y ill. He 
 took him at once to the 
 South and nursed him 
 with great care. But the 
 spring-time saw the good 
 old slave laid in the o-rave 
 by the hand of his kind 
 young mas-ter. Not ver-y 
 long af-ter, his dear moth- 
 er grew quite ill. He sat 
 by her bed-side day and 
 night, and gave her all 
 her food and med-i-cine 
 with his own hand. But 
 his great care and love 
 could not save her. He 
 was soon be-reft of her 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 13 
 
 to whom he used to say 
 
 to ' Ma-ry, the moth-er 
 
 he ''owed ev-er-y-thing." 
 
 of Wash-ing-ton ' ; but it 
 
 Some one has said, 
 
 owes scarce-ly less to 
 
 " Much has been writ-ten 
 
 'Anne, the moth-er of 
 
 of what the world owes 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Ex'-pe-di'-tion, a voy-age; a trip, with an aim in view. 
 
 Stat'-ure, height. 
 
 Draughts (drafts), cur-rents of air. 
 
14 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A YOUNG ENGINEER. 
 
 In 1829, when twen-ty- 
 two years old, Rob-ert 
 en-tered the En-gin-eer 
 Corps of the U-ni-ted 
 States, and thus be-came 
 Lieu-ten-ant Lee. 
 
 It is the du-ty of these 
 en-gin-eers in time of 
 peace, to plan forts, to 
 change the course of riv- 
 ers which make sand- 
 banks at wrong places, 
 and to do oth-er work of 
 the same kind. Lieu- 
 ten-ant Lee was sent at 
 once to Hamp-ton Roads, 
 in Vir-gin-i-a, to build 
 strong works, not dream- 
 
 ing that in af-ter years it 
 would be his fate to try to 
 pull them down. 
 
 Lieu-ten-ant Lee was 
 mar-ried on the 30th of 
 June, 1831, to Ma-ry Cus- 
 tis, who was the great- 
 grand-daugh-ter of Mrs. 
 Wash-ing-ton, and the 
 on-ly child of George 
 Parke Cus-tis, the a-dopt- 
 ed son of Wash-ing-ton. 
 She lived at a fine old 
 place on the Vir-gin-i-a 
 bank of the Po-to-mac 
 Riv-er, called Ar-ling- 
 ton. At this time Lieu- 
 ten-ant Lee was ver-y 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 15 
 
 hand-some i n face and 
 tall and e-rect in fig- 
 ure. 
 
 Two years af-ter his 
 mar-riage he was sent to 
 the cit-y of Wash-ing- 
 ton. This change was 
 pleas-ant to him, for he 
 was then near the home 
 of his wife. 
 
 In 1835, he was sent to 
 St. Louis to find means 
 to keep the great Mis-sis- 
 sip-pi River in its own 
 bed. It was a hard task, 
 but he at last forced the 
 migh-ty riv-er in-to the 
 the chan-nel he wished. 
 While at work, some 
 men, who did not know 
 what great thmgs he could 
 do, tried to drive his work- 
 men a-way, and e-ven 
 
 brought up can-non. 
 Lee did not mind them, 
 but went on with his 
 work, and soon had the 
 great riv-er to flow in the 
 right place. 
 
 From St. Louis he was 
 sent to New York, to 
 plan and build new forts 
 to pro-tect that great cit-y. 
 He was now a cap-tain 
 of en-gin-eers and was 
 soon to try the hor-rors 
 of war. 
 
 In 1846, a war broke 
 out be-tween the U-ni-ted 
 States and Mex-i-co. 
 " En-gin-eers are of as 
 much use to an ar-my as 
 sails to ships." They 
 have to make roads and 
 bridges, to plant big guns 
 and draw maps, and guide 
 
Captain Lee Rescues the Drummer Boy. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Soon af-ter this brave 
 deed, Cap-tain Lee was 
 sent to join Gen-er-al 
 Scott in the south of 
 Mex-i-co. He was put 
 to work at Ver-a Cruz 
 (Va-ra-kroos,) a large 
 town on the coast. There 
 was a high wall, with 
 strong forts a-round Ver- 
 a Cruz. Gen-er-al Scott 
 wished to take this cit-y 
 from the Mex-i-cans. So 
 Cap-tain Lee had to plant 
 big guns, and build forts; 
 and to do this he worked 
 night and day. As they 
 were short of men, he 
 was told to take some 
 sail-ors from a man-of- 
 war to help with the 
 work. These men be- 
 gan to com-plain loud-ly. 
 
 "They did not en-list to 
 dig dirt, and they did not 
 want to work un-der a 
 land-Iul)-ber any-how." 
 Their cap-tain said to Lee, 
 "The boys don't want 
 any dirt to hide be-hind; 
 they want to get on the 
 ^oJ>, where they can have 
 a fair fight." Lee quiet- 
 ly showed his or-ders, and 
 told the old "salt" he 
 meant to car-ry them out, 
 and pushed on the work 
 'mid curses both loud and 
 deep. Just as the work 
 was done, the Mex-i-cans 
 be-gan to fire their guns 
 at that point, and these 
 brave sons of the sea 
 were glad e-nough to hide 
 be-hind the "bank of 
 dirt." Not lono- af-ter 
 
18 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 their cap-tain met Cap- 
 tain Lee and said, '' I sup- 
 pose the dirt did save 
 some of my boys. But 
 I knew that we would 
 have no use for dirt-banks 
 on ship-board, that there 
 what we want is a clear 
 deck and an o-pen sea. 
 And the fact is, Cap-tain, 
 I don't like this land fight- 
 ing any-way; tl ' aint 
 clean!' 
 
 Ver-a Cruz was taken 
 by Gen-er-al Scott in two 
 weeks' time. Then the 
 men went on over hills 
 and vales, till they came 
 to the strong fort on Cer- 
 ro Gor-do. Cap -tain 
 Lee then found a way to 
 lead the A-mer-i-cans to 
 the rear of the Mex-i- 
 
 cans, who soon broke 
 and fled. 
 
 While this bat-tie was 
 rag-ing. Cap-tain Lee 
 heard the cries of a lit-tle 
 girl, and found by the 
 side of a hut a Mex-i-can 
 drum-mer boy. His arm 
 had been bad-ly hurt and 
 a large Mex-i-can, who 
 had been shot, had fal- 
 len on him. Cap-tain 
 Lee stopped, had the big 
 Mex-i-can thrown off of 
 the boy, and the lit-tle 
 fel-low moved to a place 
 of safe-ty. His lit-tle 
 sis-ter stood by. Her 
 large black eyes were 
 stream-ing with tears, her 
 hands were crossed upon 
 her breast, and her hair 
 in one long plait reached 
 
THE LIFE OF GEM. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 19 
 
 her waist. Her feet and 
 arms were bare. She 
 was very thank-ful to 
 Cap-tain Lee for sav-uig 
 her broth-er. 
 
 In a let-ter to his son 
 from this place, he says : 
 " I thought of } oil, my 
 dear Cus-tis, on the 18th 
 in the bat-tie, and won- 
 dered, when the mus-ket 
 balls and grape were 
 vvhist-ling over my head, 
 where I could put }'ou, if 
 with me, to be safe. I 
 was tru-ly thank-ful you 
 were at school, I hope, 
 learn-ino- to be orood and 
 wise. You have no i-de- 
 a what a hor-ri-ble sioht 
 a bat-tle-field is." 
 
 From Cef-ro Gof-do, 
 they went on fight-ing 
 
 bat-ties un-til they came 
 to the large and rich cit-y 
 of Mex-i-co. 
 
 On this march, Cap- 
 tain Lee was al-ways at 
 the front to guide the men. 
 Once, when one part of 
 Gen-er-al Scott's ar-my 
 had lost its way, Gen-er- 
 al Scott sent sev-en en- 
 gin-eers to guide it in-to 
 the right road. They 
 had to cross a huge, 
 rouoh bed of la-va and 
 rock. Six of them went 
 back to camp, say-ing 
 that they could not get a- 
 cross ; but Cap-tain Lee 
 pressed on, a-lone and on 
 foot, and brought the men 
 out in safe-ty. Gen-er-al 
 Scott once said that it was 
 the great-est feat done by 
 
20 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 any one 7nan dur-ing the 
 war. 
 
 There were man-y bat- 
 tles fought, but at last the 
 cit-y of Mex-i-co was ta- 
 ken by Gen-er-al Scott. 
 In af-ter years, this great 
 man was heard to say 
 that his great suc-cess in 
 Mex-i-co was large-ly due 
 to the skill and val-or of 
 Rob-ert E. Lee, and that 
 he was the best sol-dier 
 that he ev-er saw in the 
 field. 
 
 In the midst of all this 
 fight-ing, his boys were 
 ev-er in his thoughts. 
 This is a part of what he 
 wrote to his son Cus-tis 
 on Christ-mas-Eve, 1846: 
 
 'T hope good San-ta 
 Claus will fill my Rob's 
 
 stock-ing to-night; that 
 Mil-dred's, Ag-nes's and 
 An-na's may break down 
 with good things. I do 
 not know what he may 
 have for you and Mary, 
 but if he leaves you one- 
 half of what I wish, you 
 will want for noth-ing. 
 I think if I had one of 
 you on each side of me, 
 rid-ing on po-nies, I 
 would be quite hap-py." 
 
 Not long af-ter, he 
 wrote to his boys thus: 
 
 " The po-nies here cost 
 from ten to fif-ty dol-lars. 
 I have three hor-ses, but 
 Cre-ole is my pet. She 
 is a gold-en dun col-or, 
 and takes me o-ver all the 
 ditches I have yet met 
 with." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 21 
 
 When the war was at 
 last end-ed, in 1848, Cap- 
 tain Lee went home for a 
 short rest, af-ter which he 
 was sent to West Point, 
 as the Su-per-H'i-ten-dent 
 of the A-cad-e-my from 
 
 whose walls he had gone 
 forth twen-ty years be- 
 fore. His du-ty was to 
 watch o-ver the stud-ies 
 and train-ing of the boys 
 who would one day be 
 of-fi-cers m the Ar-my. 
 
 Corps (kore), a bod-y of troops. 
 
 Of'-fi-cer, one who has charge of sol-diers. 
 
 La'-va, melt-ed mat-ter flow-ing from a vol-ca-no. 
 
 Feat, a great deed. 
 
 Lieu-ten'-ant (lu-ten'-ant), an of-fi-cer next be-low a cap-tain. 
 
22 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A CAVALRY OFFICER. 
 
 Af-ter be- in or three 
 years at West Point, 
 Cap-tain Lee was sent to 
 Tex-as as Lieu-ten-ant- 
 Col-o-nel (kur'-nel) of the 
 Sec-oncl Reg-i-nient of 
 Cav-al-ry. Cav-al-ry- 
 men are sol-diers who 
 fight on horse -back and 
 who car-ry sa-bers, and 
 pis-tols, and short guns, 
 called car-bines. 
 
 Col-o-nel Lee did not 
 wish to leave the t^n-gin- 
 eer Corps, as he had be- 
 come ver-y fond of the 
 work, and had won a high 
 rank in it; but, as he had 
 
 been pro- mot -ed to a 
 high-er place, he thought 
 it best to take it. When 
 at West Point, he had 
 been a fine horse-man. 
 He was still fond of hor- 
 ses and liked to see them 
 fed and well ta-ken care 
 of. Though now forty- 
 six years of age, he still 
 had a firm seat in the sad- 
 dle and rode well. His 
 reir-i-nient was sent to the 
 new State of Tex-as, 
 where his du-ty was to 
 watch the In-di-ans and 
 keep them from kill-ing 
 the whites. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 23 
 
 I have no doubt that 
 Col-o-nel Lee en-joyed 
 rid-ing o-ver the vast 
 plains of Tex-as, but Hfe 
 in the forts was not ver-y 
 pleas-ant to such a man 
 as Lee. The forts were 
 in the midst of drear-y 
 plains, and there were on- 
 ly a few men at each post. 
 The scout-ing par-ties 
 were led by lieu-ten-ants, 
 and the high-er of-fi-cers 
 would re-main at the forts 
 to see that all went right. 
 Such a lone-ly life did 
 not suit our he-ro, but 
 he made the best of it. 
 Near his first post. Camp 
 Coop-er, was an In-di-an 
 Re-serve, where the In- 
 di-ans would come to be 
 fed by the Gov-ern-ment. 
 
 When it was cold and 
 food was scarce, they 
 would come in; but when 
 the grass grew in the 
 spring and the game was 
 fat, they would go off and 
 be-come wild and sav-age 
 e-nough to kill those who 
 had been kind to them. 
 
 Ca-tum-seh, a Co- 
 man-che chief, was at the 
 Re-serve when Lee was 
 at Camp Coop-er. Lee 
 thought it would be bet- 
 ter to vis-it him and tell 
 him that he would trust 
 him as a friend so long as 
 he be-haved ; but if he 
 did not be-have he would 
 take him for a foe. Ca- 
 tum-seh was not much 
 pleased with Lee's speech, 
 but gave an ug-ly grunt 
 
24 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 and said that, as he had 
 nx wives, he was a '' big 
 In-di-an." Lee had bet- 
 ter '' get more wives be- 
 fore he talked." This 
 vis-it did not do much 
 eood. Ca-tum-seh was 
 no doubt tak-ing the 
 meas-ure of Lee's scalp, 
 while Lee was dis-pleased 
 with the sly and filth-y 
 sav-age. 
 
 The Co-man-che \r\- 
 di-ans were then the fierc- 
 est tribe in that re-gion. 
 They ate raw meat, slept 
 on the ground, and were 
 ereat thieves and mur- 
 der-ers. They were fine 
 horse-men, and moved 
 swift-ly from place to place 
 on their po-nies. 
 
 In June, 1856, Lee was 
 
 sent with four com-pa- 
 nies of his reg-i-ment on 
 an ex-pe-di-tion against 
 the Co-man-ches, but 
 they could not be found. 
 The wi-ly sav-a-ges had 
 fled to their des-ert re- 
 treats, where foot of pale 
 face had nev-er trod. 
 
 From Camp Coop-er 
 he writes to Mrs. Lee : 
 
 ^' My Fourth -of- July 
 was spent af-ter a march 
 of thir-ty miles in one ol 
 the branch-es of the Bra'- 
 zos, under my blank-et, 
 which rest-ed on four 
 sticks driv-en in the 
 ground, as a sun-shade. 
 The sun was fi-er-y hot, 
 the air like a fur-nace, 
 and the wa-ter salt ; still 
 my love for my coun-try 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 25 
 
 was as great, my faith in 
 her fu-ture as true, as they 
 would have been un-der 
 bet-ter cir-cum-stan-ces." 
 
 The change of weath- 
 er in Texas is some-times 
 very great. 
 
 In an-oth-er let-ter, he 
 tells his wife a-bout a cold 
 wind or north-er. ''I 
 came here in a cold north- 
 er, and though I pitched 
 my tent in the most shel- 
 tered place I could find, 
 I found this morn-ing, 
 when get -ting up, my 
 buck-et of wa-ter, which 
 was close by my bed, so 
 hard fro-zen that I had to 
 break the ice be-fore I 
 could pour the wa-ter in- 
 to the ba-sin." 
 
 While Col-o-nel Lee 
 
 rode with his troop-ers 
 from fort to fort, a dread- 
 ful dis-ease broke out a- 
 mongthem. Man-y died, 
 but Col-o-nel Lee did not 
 catch the dis-ease, though 
 he lived a-mong his men 
 and ran great risks. In 
 these sad times, his 
 thoughts were ev-er with 
 his dear ones at home. 
 
 In a let-ter dat-ed 
 Camp Coop-er, June 9, 
 1857, he tells a-bout the 
 sick-ness of the troop-ers : 
 
 '' The great heat has 
 made much sick-ness a- 
 mong the men. The 
 chil-dren, too, have suf- 
 fered. A bright lit-tle 
 boy died from it a few 
 days since. He was the 
 on-ly child, and his pa- 
 
26 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 rents were much grieved 
 at his loss * * *. For 
 the first time in my hfe, 
 I read the ser-vice of our 
 Church o-ver the grave 
 to a laree num-ber of sol- 
 cliers." A few days af- 
 ter, he a-gain read the 
 ser-vice o-ver a lit-tle boy 
 who had died with the 
 dis-ease. 
 
 In a long let-ter from 
 Fort Brown, Tex-as, De- 
 cem-ber, 1856, he says : 
 
 '* I thought of you 
 and wished to be with 
 you." He wrote a-gain : 
 "Though absent, my 
 heart will be in the midst 
 of you ; I can do noth-ing 
 but love and pray for you 
 all. My dai-ly walks are 
 a-lone, up and down the 
 
 banks of the river, and 
 my chief pleas-ure comes 
 from my own thoughts, 
 and from the sioht of the 
 flow-ers and an-i-mals I 
 meet with here." 
 
 In the midst of this 
 wild, lone-ly life he was 
 ev-er true to his faith m 
 Christ, which he had pro- 
 fessed af-ter the Mex-i- 
 can war. 
 
 There was at Ar-ling- 
 ton a large yel-low cat, 
 called Tom Ti-ta. All 
 the fam-i-ly were fond of 
 him, and Col-o-nel Lee 
 amono- the rest. This 
 led him to write home a- 
 bout the cats he saw in 
 his trav-els. He told 
 once of a cat called by 
 his mis-tress Jim Nooks. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 27 
 
 He was a great pet, but 
 at last cliecl from eat-ing 
 too much. He had cof- 
 fee and cream for break- 
 fast, pound cake for lunch, 
 tur-tle and oys-ters for 
 clm-ner, but-tered toast 
 and Mex-i-can rats, taken 
 raw, for supper. He was 
 ver-y hand-some, but his 
 " beau-ty could not save 
 hnn." The kmd-ness of 
 his mis-tress was his ru-in. 
 
 A-gain he told his lit- 
 tle girl a-bout a cat which 
 was dressed up. He had 
 two holes bored in each 
 ear, and in each wore 
 bows of pink and blue 
 rib-bon. He was snow- 
 white and wore a gold 
 chain on his neck. His 
 tail and feet were tipped 
 
 with black, and his eyes, 
 of green, were tru-ly cat- 
 like^. 
 
 In the sum-mer of 1857, 
 he was made Col-o-nel 
 (kur'-nel) of his reg-i- 
 ment. The next fall his 
 fa-ther-in-law, Mr. Cus- 
 tis, died, and Col-o-nel 
 Lee went home for a short 
 time. Mr. Cus-tis left 
 Ar-ling-ton and the rest 
 of his land to Mrs. Lee, 
 and he also willed that at 
 the end of five vears all 
 of his slaves should be 
 set free. He had cho-sen 
 Col-o-nel Lee to see that 
 his will was car-ried out. 
 
 Col-o-nel Lee stayed 
 as long as he could with 
 his lone-ly wife, and then 
 went back to his post in 
 
28 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Tex-as. It must have 
 been far from ea-sy for 
 him to go back to the wild, 
 hard hfe on the plams. 
 There were then no rail- 
 roads. The U-ni-ted 
 States mail was car-ried 
 on mules, by armed sol- 
 diers who rode in a gal- 
 lop from place to place. 
 Of-ten they were slain by 
 the In-di-ans, who would 
 scalp them and leave their 
 bod-ies to be found by 
 the troop-ers as they 
 chased the sav-ages back 
 to their re-treats. Two 
 years more were spent in 
 Tex-as, when, in Oc-to- 
 ber, 1859, we find hmi 
 a-gain at home, and tak- 
 ing part in a great trag- 
 e-dy. 
 
 A man, named John 
 Brown, made a plan to 
 set free the ne-o^ro slaves 
 who were then in the 
 South, and to kill all the 
 whites. This plot did 
 not suc-ceed, and John 
 Brown and his men took 
 ref-uge in the Round 
 House at Har-per's Fer- 
 ry. Col-o-nel Lee, who 
 was then at home on a 
 fur-lough, was or-dered 
 to take a band of sol- 
 diers and cap-ture these 
 bold men. He went at 
 once to Har-per's Fer-ry 
 and quick-ly took them 
 pris-on-ers. They were 
 then tried and hung for 
 trea-son. 
 
 Just here, I must tell 
 you that the slaves were 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 29 
 
 blacks, or ne-groes, who 
 had been first brought 
 to this coun-try fi'om Af- 
 ri-ca, in 1619, by the 
 Dutch, and sold to the 
 Vir-gin-i-a plant-ers. 
 At first, the plant-ers 
 bought them out of pit-y, 
 as they were treat-ed 
 bad-ly by the Dutch. 
 But af-ter a tniie they 
 found that they worked 
 well in the corn and to- 
 bac-co fields, and that 
 they made mon-ey for 
 then' mas-ters. 
 
 M a n - y men at the 
 North were sea-go-ing 
 men, and they soon found 
 out that, by sail-ing o-ver 
 the o-cean to Af-ri-ca and 
 catch-ing the blacks, they 
 could sell them at a great 
 
 prof-it to th em-selves. 
 i his tlicy did, and men 
 both at the North and 
 South bought them, 
 though, even then, there 
 were some peo-ple at the 
 South who thouoht it 
 wrong to buy and sell 
 hu- 
 
 man be-inos. 
 
 c!5 
 
 In the State of Geor- 
 gi-a it was for a time a- 
 gainst the law to hold ne- 
 gro slaves. 
 
 Af-ter a time, it was 
 found that the cli-mate at 
 the North was too cold 
 for the ne-gro to thrive. 
 It did not pay the men at 
 the North to keep them, 
 and so they were sold to 
 the south-ern plant-ers. 
 
 In the South, the cli- 
 mate was hot, like that of 
 
30 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 their na-tive Af-ri-ca, so 
 they did well in that sun- 
 ny land. 
 
 In 1808, it was made 
 un-law-ful to brmg an-y 
 more slaves from Af-ri-ca 
 to the U-ni-ted States. 
 The peo-ple at the South 
 were Q^lad that the trade 
 in slaves was stopped, 
 but the North-ern tra- 
 ders were of course sor- 
 ry that they could make 
 no more mon-ey in that 
 way. 
 
 When the ne-groes 
 were first brought from 
 Af-ri-ca, they were hea- 
 then sav-a-ges ; but, af-ter 
 a few years, they learned 
 the speech and cus-toms 
 of the whites; and, more 
 than all, the wor-ship of 
 
 the true God. In think- 
 ing of this, we have to 
 ad-mit that sla-ver-y must 
 have been per-mit-ted by 
 the Lord in or-der to 
 bring a hea-then peo-ple 
 out of dark-ness in-to the 
 light of the G OS -pel. 
 There were now four mil- 
 lions of ne-groes in the 
 South. There was great 
 love be-tween the blacks 
 and their mas-ters, as we 
 have seen when John 
 Brown tried to get the 
 for-mer to rise up and 
 slay the whites. For 
 years, there had been a 
 feel-ino^ in the North that 
 it was wrong to own 
 slaves, and some of the 
 peo-ple be-gan to hate the 
 South and to try to crush 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 it. The South felt that 
 they owned the slaves un- 
 der the law, or Con-sti- 
 tu-tion of the U-ni-ted 
 States, and that they ought 
 to be let a-lone They 
 al-so claimed that the 
 slaves, as a class, were 
 bet-ter treat-ed than any 
 oth-er work-mg peo-ple 
 in the world. They 
 more-o-ver said that the 
 South-ern States had a 
 per-fect right to go out 
 of the Un-ion if they 
 wished, and set up a gov- 
 ern-ment for them-selves. 
 This the North de-niecl ; 
 and thus they quar-relled 
 a-bout the rights of States, 
 and sla-ver-y, and oth-er 
 things, un-til they be-gan 
 to think of war. 
 
 In a short time af-ter 
 the John Brown Raid, 
 Col-o-nel Lee was back 
 at his post in Tex-as, but 
 he was much troub-led at 
 the state of his dear coun- 
 try. He loved the Un- 
 ion and had lived near-ly 
 all his life in its ser-vice ; 
 but he knew that Vir-ein- 
 i-a was in the right, and 
 that he could not fi^ht a- 
 gainst his na-tive State. 
 
 So, when the war came, 
 he left the U-ni-ted States 
 Ar-my to fight for Vir- 
 gin-i-a and the South. 
 
 He was of-fered the 
 chief com-mand of the 
 U-ni-ted States Ar-my if 
 he would re-main true to 
 the Un-ion. He knew 
 that if he went south he 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 33 
 
 States of A-mer-i-ca," 
 and Mr. Jef-fer-son Da- 
 vis was made Pres-i-dent 
 
 of them, and Rich-mond, 
 in Vir-gin-i-a, was the 
 cap-i-tal cit-y. 
 
 Sa'-bers, swords with broad blades. 
 
 Fur-lough (fur'-lo), a leave of ab-sence. 
 
 Trea'-son (tre'zon), the act of be-ing false to one's coun-try. 
 
 Pro-mo'-ted, raised to a high-er rank. 
 
 Reg'-i-ment, a bod-y of troops un-der a col-o-nel. 
 
 Trag'-e-dy, an ac-tion in which the life of a per-son is tak-en. 
 
34 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A CONFEDERATE GENERAL. 
 
 In this lit-tle book I 
 can-not tell all that hap- 
 pened dur-ing the Civ-il 
 War, but on-ly as much 
 as will re-late to our he- 
 ro, Gen-er-al Lee. 
 
 There were now two 
 o^ov-ern-ments— one at the 
 North ; the other at the 
 South. Mr. A-bra-ham 
 Lin-coln was Pres-i-dent 
 of the North, or Fed-er- 
 als, while Mr. Jef-fer-son 
 Da-vis was the Pres-i- 
 dent of the South, or 
 Con-fed-er-ates. The 
 first thought of the North 
 was to de-fend Wash-ing- 
 
 ton, their cap-i-tal cit-y ; 
 while the South was just 
 as bus-y tak-ing care of 
 Rich-mond, and get-ting 
 arms and troops read-y 
 for war. 
 
 In this war, broth-er 
 fought a-gainst broth-er, 
 and friend a-o;ainst friend. 
 It was a time of great 
 troub-le all o-ver the land. 
 At the North, one hun- 
 dred thou-sand men were 
 en-list-ed in three days. 
 At the South, the mad- 
 ness was just as great. 
 Men rushed to arms from 
 all parts of the coun-try. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 35 
 
 In these storm -y times, 
 the drums beat all clay 
 long in the streets and 
 flags waved in ev-er-y di- 
 rec-tion, and trains were 
 load-ed with armed men 
 go-ing to bat-tie and to 
 death. Men and wom-en 
 wept in the streets as they 
 cheered the boys who 
 were off to the war. For 
 a time, peo-ple hard-ly 
 took time to sleep and 
 eat. 
 
 The Fed-er-als wore a 
 u-ni-form of blue, while 
 the Con-fed-er-ates were 
 clad in grey; hence they 
 were some-times called 
 *'the blue" and "the 
 grey." 
 
 The first blood which 
 flow-ed in this war was 
 
 shed in Bal-ti-more. The 
 Sixth Mas-sa-chu-setts 
 Reg-i-ment, as it was 
 pass-ing through the cit-y 
 on its way south, was at- 
 tacked by a band of men 
 who loved the South and 
 could not bear to see them 
 march-inor on to fig^ht 
 their breth-ren. The sol- 
 diers fired at the men 
 who had no guns, and 
 killed sev-er-al of them. 
 This hap-pened on A-pril 
 the 19th, 1861. 
 
 The first gun of the 
 war was fired at half-past 
 four o'clock, A-pril 12, 
 1861, at Fort Sum-ter, in 
 South Car-o-li-na. This 
 fort was tak-en by the 
 Con-fed-er-ates af-ter a 
 fight of thir-ty-four hours, 
 
36 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 in which no one was hurt 
 on ei-ther side. 
 
 Dur-ing the first 
 months of the war, Gen- 
 er-al Lee was kept in 
 Rich-mond to send Vir- 
 gin-i-a men, who came to 
 fight for the South, to the 
 pla-ces where they were 
 most need-ed. All a- 
 round Rich-mond were 
 camps, where men were 
 trained for war. The 
 larg-est of these camps 
 was called "Camp Lee," 
 af-ter our he-ro. But in 
 Ju-ly, 1861, Lee was sent 
 to West-ern Vir-gin-i-a, 
 and was, for the first time, 
 com-mand-er of troops in 
 the field. 
 
 Just then, there were 
 heav-y rains and a great 
 
 deal of sick-ness a-mong 
 the men of his small ar- 
 my, so that he was not a- 
 ble to at-tack the en-e-my, 
 as he had planned. 
 
 Af-ter some time, it 
 was thougrht best to orive 
 up West-ern Vir-gin-i-a, 
 and Gen-er-al Lee went 
 back to Rich-mond, where 
 he stayed on-ly a short 
 time. In No-vem-ber, 
 1861, he was sent south to 
 build a line of forts a-long 
 the coasts of South Car- 
 o-li-na and Geor-gi-a. 
 In four months' time he 
 did much to show his 
 skill as an en-gin-eer. 
 
 But a large North-ern 
 ar-my, un-der Gen-er-al 
 Mc-Clel-lan, was at the 
 gates of Rich-mond, and 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 
 
 37 
 
 Lee was sent for to take 
 charo-e of all the ar-mies 
 of the South. Very 
 soon, a bat-tie was fought 
 at Sev-en Pines, May 31st, 
 which stopped Gen-er-al 
 Mc-Clel-lan's -On to 
 Rich-mond." In that 
 bat-tie Gen-er-al John- 
 ston, the com-mand-ing 
 gen-er-al, was bad-ly 
 wounded, and Gen-er-al 
 Lee was put in his place. 
 Lee was swift to plan and 
 as swift to act. His task 
 was hard. The hosts of 
 the North were at the 
 gates of Rich-mond. 
 The folks on the house- 
 tops could see their camp- 
 fires and hear the roar 
 of their can-non. Lee at 
 once be-gan to make 
 
 earth-works, and to place 
 his men for bat-tie. Ev- 
 er-y day now a fine-look- 
 ing man, clad in a neat 
 grey un-i-form, might be 
 seen rid-inora-lono- the line. 
 
 He wished to know 
 what was oro-incr on in the 
 camp of the foe, and now 
 the right man came for- 
 ward. His name was J. 
 E. B. Stu-art, best known 
 as Jeb Stu-art. He led 
 his brave troop-ers quite 
 a-round the ar-my of the 
 North and found out all 
 that Lee wished to know. 
 He was ev-er af-ter this, 
 un-til his death, the "eyes 
 and ears " of Lee. 
 
 "Stone-wall" Jack- 
 son now came from the 
 Val-ley with his brave 
 
38 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 men, and Lee at once be- 
 gan the '' Sev-en Days 
 Bat-tie." If Stu-art was 
 " the eyes and ears " of 
 Lee, Jack-son was his 
 " right arm," as you will 
 learn be-fore you get 
 through with this lit-tle 
 book. 
 
 For sev-en days the 
 bat-tie went on, and at 
 last the ar-my of the Po- 
 to-mac, un-der Gen-er-al 
 Mc-Clel-lan, was forced 
 back to the James ri-ver, 
 and Rich-mond was saved 
 from the foe by the skill 
 of Lee and the val-or of 
 his men. 
 
 Lee now marched north 
 to -wards Wash -ing- ton 
 Cit-y, and in Au-gust, 
 1862, met the ar-my of 
 
 Gen-er-al Pope and 
 fouoht the Sec-ond Bat- 
 tie of Man-as-sas. Lee 
 had made a bold plan to 
 put the ar-my of Pope to 
 flight. He sent Stone- 
 wall Jack-son fif-ty-six 
 miles a-round to the rear 
 of Pope, while he (Lee) 
 kept him in check m 
 front. 
 
 Jack-son's men march- 
 ed so fast that they were 
 called "foot cav-al-ry." 
 They ate ap-ples and 
 green corn as they 
 marched a-long, for they 
 had no time to stop. 
 
 On-ly one man a-mong 
 them knew where they 
 were go-ing. Lit-tle 
 cared they, for Stone-wall 
 Jack-son knew. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 39 
 
 On the e-ven-ing of the 
 sec-ond day, Jack -son, 
 with twen-ty thou -sand 
 men, was be-tween Pope 
 and Wash-ing-ton Cit-y. 
 Lee was in front of Pope 
 with the rest of the 
 ar-my. 
 
 Gen-er-al Jack-son fell 
 up-on Man-as-sas Junc- 
 tion and took three hun- 
 dred pris-on-ers and 
 man-y car-loads of food 
 and clothes. Af-ter the 
 men had eat-en what food 
 they want-ed, they burned 
 the rest and moved a-way. 
 
 Jack-son found a good 
 po-si-tion from which to 
 fight, and when Pope's 
 men came up was read-y 
 for them. They fought 
 all day, and when the 
 
 pow-der and shot gave 
 out the South-ern men 
 fought with stones. 
 
 All this time Lee, with 
 most of the men, was 
 com-ing round to help 
 Jack-son. How ea-ger- 
 ly Jack-son looked for 
 help ! He had on-ly 
 twen-ty thou -sand men 
 a-gainst three times that 
 man-y. At last Lee 
 came up, and the bat-tie 
 was won (Au-gust 30th). 
 Man-y brave men were 
 killed on both sides, but 
 Lee was the vic-tor. In 
 three months' time he 
 had driv-en the foe from 
 Rich-moncl, and was now 
 in front of Wash-ine-ton 
 with his ar-my. 
 
 He now sent Gen-er-al 
 
40 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 Jack-son to Har-per's 
 Fer-ry, where he took as 
 prls-on-ers twelve thou- 
 sand men of the North. 
 Jack-son then hur-ried 
 back to Lee, who now 
 crossed the Po-to-mac 
 and went o-ver In-to Ma- 
 ry-land, on Sep-tem-ber 
 S, 1862. 
 
 At Sharps-burg some- 
 times called An-tie-tam 
 (An-te'-tam), he a-gain 
 met the fresh ar-my of 
 Mc-Clel-lan and fought 
 one of the most blood-y 
 bat-ties of the war. Lee 
 had on-ly half as man-y 
 men as Mc-Clel-lan, but 
 when, af-ter the bat-de, 
 Lee thought it best to re- 
 turn to Vir-gin-i-a, Mc- 
 Clel-lan did not fol-low 
 
 him. Lee led his ar-my 
 back to Vir-gin-i-a with- 
 out the loss of a gun or 
 a wag-on, and they rested 
 near Win-ches-ter, Vir- 
 gin-i-a. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee, in his 
 tent near Win-ches-ter, 
 heard of the death of his 
 dauorh-ter An-nie. She 
 
 o 
 
 had been his dear-est 
 child, and his grief at her 
 death was great; but 
 he wrote thus to Mrs. 
 Lee : 
 
 ''But God in this, as in 
 all things, has min-gled 
 mer-cy with the blow by 
 se-lect-ing the one best 
 pre-pared to go. May 
 you join me in say-ing 
 'His will be done' !" 
 
 It was now Mc-Clel- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 
 
 41 
 
 lan's turn to at-tack Lee, 
 but he was slow to move — 
 so slow that Mr. Lin-coln 
 sent him word "to cross 
 the Po-to-mac and give 
 bat-tie to the foe, and 
 drive him south." But 
 still he did not move, and 
 Lee, who was al-so want- 
 mg to move, sent Jeb 
 Stu-art o-ver m-to Ma-ry- 
 land to find out what Mc- 
 Clel-lan was do-inof. 
 That gal-lant man a-gain 
 went a-round the whole 
 North-ern ar-my, and 
 came back safe to Lee, 
 hav-mg found out what 
 Lee wished to know. 
 
 The North-ern ar-my 
 now came back to Vir- 
 gin-i-a and Lee moved to 
 Fred-er-icks-burs", a town 
 
 on the Rap-pa-han-nock 
 riv-er. 
 
 Burn-side was now at 
 the head of the North- 
 ern ar-my, as Gen-er-al 
 Mc-Clel-lan was too 
 slow to suit Mr. Lin- 
 coln, and had been put 
 a-side. 
 
 Lee placed his men on 
 the heights a-bove the 
 riv-er, on the south side, 
 while Burn-side's hosts 
 were on Staf-ford Heights 
 and the plains be-low. 
 
 At day-light on De- 
 cem-ber 13, 1862, the bat- 
 tle be-gan, and was fought 
 brave-ly by both sides. 
 But Burn-side's men had 
 but lit-tle chance, since 
 Lee's men from a-bove 
 poured the shot and shell 
 
42 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 SO fast that they could not 
 move for-ward. 
 
 The noise of this bat- 
 tle was ter-ri-ble, as there 
 were three hun-dred can- 
 non roar-ing at once. 
 
 As Burn-side's guns 
 were fired di-rect-ly at the 
 town, the hous-es were 
 soon on fire and a dense 
 cloud of smoke hung o- 
 ver its roofs and stee-ples. 
 Soon the red flames 
 leaped up high a-bove the 
 smoke and the peo-ple 
 were driv-en from their 
 homes. Hun-dreds of 
 wom-en and chil-dren 
 were seen wan-der-ino^ a- 
 long the fro-zen roads, not 
 know-ing where to find a 
 place of safe-ty. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee stood 
 
 up-on a ridge which is 
 now called "Lee's Hill," 
 and watched this pain-ful 
 scene. For a long time 
 he stood si-lent, and then, 
 in his deep, grave voice, 
 said these words, which 
 were the most bit-ter that 
 he was ev-er known to 
 ut-ter: ** These peo-ple 
 de-light to de-stroy the 
 weak, and those who can 
 make no de-fence; it just 
 suits them." 
 
 When the day was 
 done, Lee was a-gain vic- 
 tor. 
 
 In less than six months 
 Lee had fought foitr 
 great bat-ties — all vic-to- 
 ri-ous to his arms, ex-cept 
 that of Sharps-burg, which 
 was nei-ther a vic-to-ry 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 43 
 
 nor de-feat. The South- 
 ern ar-my was now full 
 of hope and cour-age. 
 At the bat-tie of Fred- 
 er-icks-burg, Lee had on- 
 ly six-ty thou-sand men, 
 while Burn-side's ar-my 
 num-bered o-ver one hun- 
 dred thou-sand. In this 
 bat-tie Lee lost five thou- 
 sand men, while twelve 
 thou-sand of Burn-side's 
 men lay stark and cold 
 up-on the blood-y field. 
 
 Lee grieved o-ver the 
 loss of his brave men, 
 and for the good peo-ple 
 of Fred-er-icks-burg who 
 had lost their homes by 
 fire dur-inor the fio^ht. 
 He now wait-ed day af-ter 
 day for Burn-side to at- 
 tack, but in vain. At 
 
 length Lee went in-to 
 win-ter quar-ters in a tent 
 at the edge of an old pine 
 field near Fred-er-icks- 
 burg, and be-gan to get 
 read-y for fight when the 
 spring came. It was at 
 this time that a-monof a 
 num-ber of fowls eiv-en 
 to Lee, was a fine hen 
 which be-ran the eofe 
 bus-i-ness be-fore her 
 head came off, and Bry- 
 an, Lee's ser-vant, saved 
 her for the CQ^cr which he 
 found each day in the 
 Gen-er-al's tent. Lee 
 would leave the door of 
 the tent o-pen for the hen 
 to go in and out. She 
 roost-ed and rode in the 
 wag-on, and was an eye- 
 wit-ness of the bat-tie of 
 
44 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Chan-cel-lors-ville. She 
 was al-so at the bat-tie of 
 Get-tys-burg; but when 
 or-ders were giv-en to fall 
 back, the hen could not 
 be found. At last, they 
 saw her perched on top 
 of the wag-on, read-y to 
 go back to her na-tive 
 State. 
 
 In 1864, when food be- 
 gan to get scarce and Bry- 
 an was in sore need for 
 some-thing nice for guests, 
 he killed the good old hen 
 un-known to her mas-ter. 
 At din-ner, Gen-er-al Lee 
 thought it a ver-y fine 
 fowl, not dream-ing that 
 Bry-an had killed his pet. 
 
 It was now time for 
 Lee to car-ry out the will 
 of old Mr. Cus-tis and 
 
 set free his slaves. Man-y 
 of them had been car-ried 
 off by the North-ern men, 
 but now he wrote out the 
 deed and set them free by 
 law. He wrote thus of 
 them to Mrs. Lee : 
 
 "They are all en-ti-tled 
 to their free-dom, and I 
 wish them to have it. 
 Those that have been car- 
 ried a-way I hope are free 
 and hap-py." 
 
 He had set free his 
 own slaves years be-fore. 
 
 Lee had proved so 
 great a lead-er that the 
 peo-ple of the South be- 
 gan to look to him with 
 great love and hope. 
 
 Dur-ing these bat-ties, 
 of which I have told you, 
 one-half the South-ern 
 
THE LIFE OF G^N. ROBERT E. EEE 
 
 45 
 
 men were in rags, and 
 man-y were with -out 
 shoes. Yet shoe-less, 
 hat-less, rag-ged and 
 starv-ing, they fol-lowed 
 Lee and fought his bat- 
 tles. Their pet name for 
 him was '' Marse Rob- 
 ert." They knew that 
 their ereat chief cared for 
 
 them, and would not send 
 them in-to dan-ger if he 
 could help it; and it was 
 no fault of his if their 
 food was scant and poor. 
 They learned to love and 
 trust him. *' Marse Rob- 
 ert says so " was their 
 bat-tle-cry. 
 
 Pres'-i-dent the head of a free peo-ple. 
 
 Mer'-cy, kind-ness. 
 
 Gal'-lant, brave; dar-ing in fight. 
 
 Vic'-tor, one who wins. 
 
 Po-si'-tion, place. 
 
46 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A CONFEDERATE GENERAL. 
 
 ( Contimted, ) 
 
 When the spring of 
 1863 came, the two ar- 
 mies were still in sight of 
 each oth-er near Fred-er- 
 icks-burg. A new man, 
 Gen-er-al Hook-er, some- 
 tunes called '' Fight-ing 
 Joe," had been put at 
 the head of the ar-my of 
 the North. Take note 
 that he was the fourth 
 gen-er-al that Pres-i-dent 
 Lin-coln had sent forth 
 with-in a year to con- 
 quer Lee. 
 
 Lee watched his new 
 
 foe, and when he had 
 found out his plans was 
 read-y for him. He fell 
 back to a place called 
 Chan-cel-lors-ville, and 
 there, in the midst of a 
 dense for-est, the fight 
 took place (May 2, 3). 
 
 While the bat-tie was 
 go-ing on, Lee sent Jack- 
 son to the rear to cut 
 Hook-er off from a ford 
 m the riv-er. Jack-son's 
 men moved through the 
 for-est so swift-ly and 
 with so lit-tle noise that 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 47 
 
 they fell up-on Hook-er's 
 men with a loud yell be- 
 fore he knew they were 
 near. They rushed out 
 like a thun-der-bolt and 
 swept down up-on the 
 line like a flash of lioht- 
 ning. The foe did not 
 wait, but turned and fled. 
 It was now near-ly 
 dark, and, as Jack-son 
 rode for-ward to view the 
 way, he was shot by his 
 own men, who, in the dmi 
 light, thought that he and 
 his aids were a squad of 
 North-ern cav-al-ry. He 
 was shot in three places — 
 m his right hand, his right 
 arm, and a-gam un-der 
 his left shoul-der. He 
 was placed in a lit-ter and 
 tak-en from the field. 
 
 All care was tak-en of 
 this great and good man, 
 but he died the next Sun- 
 day. His last words 
 were : 
 
 "Or-der A. P. Hill to 
 pre-pare for ac-tion. 
 Pass the in-fan-try to the 
 front. Tell Ma-jor 
 Hawkes" — he stopped 
 and then said, as if the 
 fight was o-ver, "Let us 
 pass o-ver the riv-er and 
 rest un-der the trees." 
 
 Thus passed a-way the 
 great Stone -wall Jack- 
 son, the "right arm of 
 Lee." 
 
 For two days af-ter 
 Jack-son was wouncl-ed, 
 the fight went on and 
 raged with great fu-ry. 
 Gen-er-al Hook-er was 
 
48 
 
 THE LIFB of gen. ROBERT B. LEE. 
 
 struck by a piece of wood 
 split off by a can-non 
 l^all, and for a time was 
 thought dead. 
 
 Lee made bold plans 
 and his brave men car- 
 ried them out. Stu-art, 
 who had tak-en Stone- 
 wall Jack-son's com- 
 mand, led his men to bat- 
 tle, sing-ing ''Old Joe 
 Hook-er, won't you come 
 out of the wil-der-ness." 
 
 At last the bat-tie of 
 Chan -eel -lors-ville was 
 won and Hook-er was 
 forced back to his old 
 camp at Fred-er-icks- 
 burg. 
 
 Chan-cel-lors-ville was 
 Lee's great -est bat-tie, 
 but its glo-ry was cloud- 
 ed by Jack-son's death. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee wrote to 
 his wife, May 11, 1863: 
 
 **You will see we 
 have to mourn the loss of 
 the good and great Jack- 
 son. * * J l<:now not 
 how to re-place him, but 
 God's will be done." 
 
 In this bat-tie Lee had 
 on-ly fif-ty-three thou- 
 sand men, one-third as 
 man-y men as Hook-er. 
 
 In June, 1863, Lee a- 
 gain crossed the Po-to- 
 mac and met an ar-my 
 un-der Gen-er-al Meade 
 at Get-tys-burg, in Penn- 
 syl-va-ni-a. 
 
 Lee had two rea-sons 
 for this move. One was 
 to ofet food for his men 
 and hors-es; and the oth- 
 er to draw the North-ern 
 
THE LIFE OF GEM. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 49 
 
 ar-my a-way from its 
 s t r o n o- forts a - r o ii n d 
 Wash-ing-ton CIt-y. He 
 o^ave strict or-ders to his 
 men not to steal and rob. 
 This is a part of his or- 
 der: 
 
 "The com-mand-inof 
 gen-er-al thmks that no 
 great-er dis-grace could 
 be-fall the ar-my, and 
 through it our whole peo- 
 ple, than to com-mit out- 
 ra-ges on the m-no-cent 
 and de-fence-less. * * * 
 It must be re-mem-bered 
 that we make war on-ly 
 up-on armed me7i.'' 
 
 This or-der, with its 
 no-ble Chris-tian spir-it, 
 will re-main the un-dy- 
 ing glo-ry of Lee ; for all 
 that he had had been tak- 
 
 en by the Fed-er-als. 
 His wife and daugh-ters 
 were home-less, yet he 
 did not fail to re-turn 
 good for e-vil. 
 
 When Lee start-ed in- 
 to Ma-ry-land, he sent 
 Jeb Stu-art on a-head to 
 guard the right flank of 
 his ar-my. By some mis- 
 hap, he crossed the Po- 
 to-mac too far to the east, 
 and soon found that the 
 whole Fed-er-al ar-my 
 was be-tween him and 
 Gen-er-al Lee. By hard 
 fight-ing and rid-ing he 
 at last joined Lee at Get- 
 tys-burg, but not un-til 
 af-ter the fight had be- 
 gun. Lee was thus with- 
 out his "eyes and ears," 
 as we have called Gen- 
 
50 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 er-al Stu-art, and could 
 not tell just where the foe 
 was. Nei-ther Lee nor 
 Meade had planned to 
 fight at Get-tys-burg, but 
 they fell up-on each oth- 
 er pret-ty much like two 
 men grop-ing in the dark. 
 For the first two days 
 (July 1, 2) Lee's men 
 drove back the en-e-my. 
 On the third day, at one 
 o'clock P. M., Lee be- 
 gan to fight with one hun- 
 dred and fif-ty big guns. 
 For two hours the air 
 was a-live with shells. 
 Then, out of the woods 
 swept the Con-fed-er-ate 
 bat-tie line, o-ver a mile 
 long, un-der Gen-er-al 
 Pick-ett. A thrill of won- 
 der ran a-long the Fed- 
 
 er-al lines as that grand 
 col-umn of fif-teen thou- 
 sand men marched, with 
 rag-ged clothes, but bright 
 guns and red bat-tie-flags 
 fly-ing, up the slope of 
 Cem-e-ter-y Ridge. 
 Down up-on them came 
 shot and shell from guns 
 on the heights a-bove and 
 round them. The line 
 was bro-ken, but on they 
 went. They planted 
 their Con-fed-er-ate flao^s 
 on the breast-works ; they 
 fought hand to hand and 
 killed men at the can- 
 nons with the bay-o-net; 
 but down from the hill 
 rushed tens of thou-sands 
 of Fed-er-als, and man-y 
 who were not killed were 
 tak-en pris-on-ers. Few 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 51 
 
 got back to tell the sto-ry. 
 That night the stars 
 looked down up-on a field 
 of dead and dy-ing men 
 and al-so up-on a sad 
 gen-er-al. Lee's or-ders 
 had not been o-beyed, 
 and, for the first tmie, he 
 had been foiled. 
 
 Lee af-ter-wards said 
 to a friend, '' Had I 
 Stone -wall Jack -son at 
 Get- tys- burg, I would 
 have won a o-reat vic-to- 
 ry. 
 
 He had made a bold 
 plan to at-tack ear-ly in 
 the day ; but it was not 
 done, and thus Meade 
 got time to bring up his 
 troops. Meade did not 
 at-tack Lee, who rested 
 that night up-on the same 
 
 ground as the night be- 
 fore. 
 
 Lee now had but lit-tle 
 pow-der and shot. On 
 the next day, the 4th of 
 Ju-ly, he start-ed his long 
 trains of wound-ed and 
 pris-on-ers to-wards Vir- 
 gin-i-a ; and, at the same 
 time, bur-iecl his dead. 
 That night, in a storm, 
 the ar-my be-gan its 
 home-ward march, and 
 reached the Po-to-mac 
 riv-er to find it too high to 
 cross. Calm and brave, 
 Lee sent his wound-ed 
 o-ver in boats and got 
 read-y for Meade. But 
 Meade was in no mood 
 to at-tack Lee and came 
 up slow-ly. 
 
 While wait-inpf for the 
 
52 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 riv-er to fall, Lee heard 
 of the cap-ture of his son 
 Gen. W. H. F. Lee. 
 
 On the 13th, Lee's men 
 be-gan to cross the riv-er, 
 and by the next night 
 they were a-gain safe in 
 Vir-gni-i-a. 
 
 The men lost at Get- 
 tys-burg were nev-er re- 
 placed, for the South had 
 sent forth all her fio^ht- 
 inor men and had no more 
 to give. 
 
 The rest of the year 
 passed with-out any great 
 bat-tie. Lee's chief con- 
 cern was to watch Meade, 
 who would not give bat- 
 tle, and to get food and 
 clothes for his men. 
 
 A-bout this time the 
 cit-y of Rich-mond pre- 
 
 sent-ed a house to Lee. 
 This he kind-ly but firm- 
 ly re-fused to take, and 
 begged that what means 
 the cit-y had to spare 
 might be giv-en to the 
 fam-i-lies of his poor sol- 
 diers. 
 
 Late in No-vem-ber, 
 Gen-er-al Meade moved 
 to-wards Lee, who had 
 built strong forts at Mine 
 Run. But he found the 
 forts too strong for at-tack 
 and with -drew dur-ing 
 the night. 
 
 The next year a new 
 man was sent a-gainst 
 Lee — U-lys-ses S. Grant. 
 Lee had now on-ly six- 
 ty-two thou-sand men to 
 meet Grant, who had one 
 him-dred and twen-ty- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 53 
 
 five thoti-sa7id men, and a 
 wag-on train that reached 
 six-ty-five miles. With 
 this large ar-my, Grant 
 crossed the Rap- i -dan 
 riv-er, and marched on to 
 give Lee bat-tie. Lee 
 did not wait for Grant, 
 but went for-ward and 
 met his hosts in a place 
 called the Wil-der-ness, 
 which was a vast for-est 
 full of un-der-brush, and 
 with on-ly nar-row roads 
 here and there. It was 
 a bad place in which to 
 fight a bat-tie, for no man 
 could see but a few yards 
 a-round him. Can-non 
 and horse-men were of no 
 use, be-cause they could 
 not move through the tan- 
 gled bush-es. Grant did 
 
 not know that Lee's men 
 were so near. But when 
 they rushed in-to these 
 wilds and bold-ly be-gan 
 the fioht he had to mve 
 bat-tie. For two days. 
 May 5th and 6th, 1864, 
 two hun-dred thou-sand 
 men m blue and grey 
 fought breast to breast in 
 the thick-ets. Men fell 
 and died un-seen, their 
 bod-ies lost in the bush-es 
 and their death -groans 
 drowned in the roar of 
 bat-tie. 
 
 In the midst of these 
 hor-rors, the woods caught 
 on fire and man-y of the 
 wound-ed were burnt a- 
 live. Lee, how-ev-er, 
 pressed for-ward, and 
 when night closed had 
 
54 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 tak-en a por-tion of the 
 Fed-er-al breast -works. 
 On the morn-ing of the 
 7th, Grant made no mo- 
 tion to at-tack Lee, but 
 that nisfht marched to- 
 wards Spot-syl-va-ni-a 
 Court- House. Lee at 
 once found out his plans 
 and be-gan a race to reach 
 there first. When the 
 front of Grant's ar-my 
 reached the Court- House 
 the next morn-ing, they 
 found Lee's men be-hind 
 breast-works and read-y 
 for the fight. Lee had 
 got-ten be-tween Grant 
 and Rich-mond. That 
 e-ven-ing the two great 
 ar-mies were a-gam fac- 
 inof each oth-er on the 
 banks of the Po riv-er. 
 
 Here they threw up 
 breast-works, which may 
 yet be seen. 
 
 For twelve days, Grant 
 made man-y at-tacks up- 
 on Lee's lines. Ear-ly 
 on the morn-incr of the 
 12th his men made an o- 
 pen-ing in Lee's Imes and 
 poured in by thou-sands. 
 Lee's men ran up quick- 
 ly and soon a most ter- 
 ri-ble fight took place. 
 The trench-es ran with 
 blood and the space was 
 piled with dead bod-ies, 
 whose lips were black 
 with pow-der from bit-ing 
 car-trido-es. 
 
 Though Grant held 
 that po-si-tion, he could 
 not break through the sec- 
 ond line. The lit-tle ar- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 55 
 
 my in grey stood as firm 
 as the moun-tains. 
 
 In the fight of which 
 I have just told you, Gen- 
 er-al Lee rode in fi:*ont, 
 with hat off, to lead the 
 charge; but Gen-er-al 
 Gor-don dashed up and 
 said : 
 
 '' These are Vir-gin-i- 
 ans and Geor-o^i-ans who 
 have nev-er failed. Go 
 to the rear, Gen-er-al 
 Lee." 
 
 Then he said to the 
 men : 
 
 '' Must Gen-er-al Lee 
 lead this charge ? " 
 
 "No! No!" they cried; 
 *'we will drive them back 
 if Gen-er-al Lee will go 
 to the rear." 
 
 They rushed off and 
 
 once more hurled back 
 the Fed-er-al troops. 
 
 Grant now sent his 
 cav-al-ry gen-er-al, Sher- 
 i-dan, on a raid near 
 Rich-mond. A fierce 
 bat-tie was fouorfit at Yel- 
 low Tav-ern, in which the 
 fa-mous Jeb Stu-art was 
 wound-ed so that he died 
 the next day. A-las ! for 
 Lee ; Jack-son and Stu- 
 art were both grone. 
 
 Grant a-gain moved to 
 the rear, and Lee next 
 moved to the North An- 
 na riv-er. While Grant 
 was a-gain try-ing to flank, 
 Lee got to the old works 
 at Cold Har-bor. Grant 
 made an at-tack at day- 
 light. His troops, sink- 
 ing in-to a swamp, were 
 
56 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 killed by thou- sands, 
 while Lee lost but few 
 men. 
 
 A sec-ond as-sault was 
 or-dered, but the men 
 would not move for-ward. 
 A-bout thir-teen thou- 
 sand of their com-rades 
 had been killed in less 
 than half an hour, and 
 they could no long-er 
 stand the aw-ful fire. 
 
 We are told by Gen- 
 er-al Fitz-hugh Lee that 
 Lee's men were hun-gry 
 and mad. One crack-er 
 to a man, with no meat, 
 was a lux-u-ry. One 
 poor fel-low, who had his 
 crack-er shot out of his 
 hand be-fore he could eat 
 it, said : '' The next time 
 I'll put my crack-er in a 
 
 safe place down by the 
 breast-works where it 
 won't get wound-ed, poor 
 thing ! " 
 
 Lee a-gain stood in 
 Grant's way to Rich- 
 mond. Li the bat-ties 
 fi*om the Wil-der-ness to 
 Cold Har-bor, Grant had 
 lost six-ty thou-sand men, 
 while Lee's loss was eigh- 
 teen thou-sand. 
 
 Just be-fore the bat- 
 tle of Cold Har-bor, 
 Grant had looked for Si- 
 gel to move up the Val- 
 ley and fall up-on Lee's 
 rear. But Si -gel was 
 met at New Mar-ket on 
 Alay 15th by Breck-en- 
 ridge with five thou-sand 
 troops, among which was 
 a band of ca-dets from 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 57 
 
 the Vir-gin-i-a Mil-I-ta-ry 
 In-sti-tute at Lex-inor-ton. 
 These boys fought Hke 
 he-roes, fif-ty of them be- 
 ing killed and wound-ed. 
 Si-o-el was sent run-ning 
 back down the Val-ley, 
 and Breck-en-ridge then 
 marched to the help of 
 Lee. 
 
 Grant then, on the 
 night of June 12th, be-gan 
 to move his ar-my south 
 of the James riv-er to 
 march to-wards Pe-ters- 
 burg, a cit-y a-bout twen- 
 ty-one miles south of 
 Rich-mond. 
 
 The fa-mous Gen-er-al 
 Beau-re-gard (Bo^-re- 
 gard) was at Pe-ters-burg 
 with on-ly a-bout two 
 thou-sand men, as he had 
 
 sent the most of his troops 
 to the north side of the 
 James riv-er to the help 
 of Lee. 
 
 A-gainst these, on the 
 ISth, Gen-er-al Grant sent 
 eio-h-teen thou-sand men. 
 
 Beau-re-gard held 
 these men in check un-til 
 Lee sent troops to aid 
 him. Lee then came up 
 with the main ar-my, and 
 Grant, hav-ing lost ten 
 thou-sand men, now be- 
 gan to make trench-es 
 and build forts to pro-tect 
 his men, as he was go-ing 
 to lay siege to Pe-ters- 
 burg, the key to Rich- 
 mond. 
 
 Lee had to de-fend 
 both Rich-mond and Pe- 
 ters-burg with lines thir- 
 
58 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ty-five miles long, a-gainst 
 Grant's ar-my, which was 
 twice as laro^e as his own. 
 In fact, Grant had all the 
 men that he asked for ; 
 while Lee's ranks were 
 thin and food scarce. A 
 fourth of a pound of meat 
 and one pound of flour 
 was all that each sol-dier 
 had for one day. 
 
 In this stress, it is said 
 that Lee thought it best 
 to give up Rich-mond 
 and march south to join 
 the ar-my there. I do 
 not know the truth of that 
 state-ment. At an-y rate, 
 he did not go, but went 
 to work to make his lines 
 strong-er and to get in 
 food for his men. One of 
 his great cares was to 
 
 keep Grant from get-ting 
 hold of the rail-roads 
 which brought food from 
 the South and oth-er parts 
 of the coun-try. 
 
 Just here, it will be well 
 to give you some of the 
 war prices at that time. 
 Flour brought, in Con- 
 fed-er-ate mon-ey, two 
 hun-dred and fif-ty dol- 
 lars per bar-rel ; meal, fif- 
 ty dol-lars ; corn, for-ty ; 
 and oats, twen-ty-five dol- 
 lars per bush-el. Brown 
 sug-ar cost ten dol-lars 
 per pound ; cof-fee, twelve 
 dol-lars ; tea, thir-ty-five 
 dol-lars ; and they were 
 scarce and hard to get. 
 Wool-en goods were 
 scarce ; cal-i-co cost thir- 
 ty dol-lars per yard, and 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 59 
 
 lead pen-cils one dol-lar 
 a-piece. Wom-en wore 
 dress-es that were made 
 of cloth spun, wov-en and 
 dyed by then* own hands. 
 Large thorns were used 
 for pins and hair-pins, and 
 shoes were made with 
 wood -en soles. Hats 
 were made by girls out of 
 wheat straw, plait-ed in-to 
 a braid and then sewed 
 in-to shape. 
 
 Those were in -deed 
 hard tmies ; but m spite 
 of want and care, the spir- 
 its and cour-age of the 
 South-ern peo-ple did not 
 flag. All food that could 
 be spared was sent to 
 Rich-mond, and ev-er-y 
 one hoped for the best. 
 
 Time af-ter time 
 
 Grant's men made at- 
 tacks up-on Lee's works, 
 but were al-ways sent 
 back fast-er than they 
 came, by his watch-ful 
 men. 
 
 The shells from Grant's 
 big guns fell in-to the cit-y 
 of Pe-ters-burg day af-ter 
 clay, burst-ing in-to the 
 church-es and hous-es, 
 and mak-ing the peo-ple 
 flee for their lives. 
 
 One day, as Gen-er-al 
 Lee was sit-tinor on a 
 chair un-der a tree at 
 his head-quar-ters, the 
 " Clay House," the balls 
 fell so thick a-bout him 
 that his aids beo^^ed him 
 to seek a saf-er place. 
 He at last mount-ed his 
 horse and rode a-way. 
 
60 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 A mo-ment af-ter, a gay 
 young sol-dier sat down 
 in the chair and tilt-ed it 
 back, say-ing, "I'll see if 
 / can fill Lee's place for 
 a-while." Just then a ball 
 struck the front round of 
 the seat of the chair and 
 cut it in twain. If Lee 
 had been there, with the 
 chair up-on the ground, 
 he would have been bad- 
 ly hurt. All thanked 
 God that he was safe. 
 
 On June 22d, the Con- 
 fed-er-ates un-der Gen- 
 er-al Ma-hone made a 
 sal-ly from their lines and 
 gave the Fed-er-als a 
 great sur-prise. As the 
 South-ern shot and shell 
 burst up-on them, they 
 fled back in-to their lines 
 
 and the Con-fed-er-ates 
 brought off two thou-sand 
 pris-on-ers, four can-non 
 and eight flags. 
 
 On the same day, there 
 was a fight at Reams' Sta- 
 tion, in which the Fed- 
 er-als were put to flight 
 and lost twelve guns and 
 one thou-sand men. 
 
 All this time. Grant 
 was mak-ino: earth-works 
 and forts, and at last car- 
 ried out a ver-y cru-el 
 plan. From a spot out 
 of sight, he had a mine 
 dug un-til it reached un- 
 der one of the Con-fed- 
 er-ate forts. In that hole 
 he had placed a blast of 
 eight thou-sand pounds 
 of pow-der. His plan 
 was to blow a hole in 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 61 
 
 Lee's lines and then rush 
 in with a large band of 
 men and take the cit-y. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee found 
 out that they were dig- 
 ging the mnie and where 
 it was, and had a strong 
 line made in the rear, 
 while biir auns were 
 placed so as to fire a-cross 
 the breach when the mine 
 was sprung. 
 
 At that time there were 
 on-ly thn'-teen thou-sand 
 men in the trench-es at 
 Pe-ters-burg, as Gen-er- 
 al Lee had been forced 
 to send some of his troops 
 to the north of the James 
 to check a move which 
 Grant had made on pur- 
 pose to draw off Lee's 
 men from the mine. 
 
 Just at dawn, Ju-ly 30, 
 the blast was fired. A 
 great roar was heard, and 
 then two hun-dred and 
 fif-ty-six men from South 
 Car-o-li-na and twen- 
 ty-two from Pe-ters- 
 burg, with guns, large 
 mass-es of earth, stones 
 and logs, were thrown 
 high in-to the air. A 
 breach one hun-dred and 
 thir-ty-five feet long, nine- 
 ty feet wide, and thir-ty 
 feet deep, had been made 
 in the Con-fed-er-ate 
 lines. Those near the 
 spot were at first stunned, 
 and those far a-way could 
 not think what the noise 
 meant. 
 
 Grant's guns fired at 
 once all a-long the line, 
 
62 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 and a band of men 
 marched out to rush in 
 through the breach. 
 When they had rushed 
 a-cross the space to the 
 gap, they found a deep 
 pit at their feet. 
 
 The Con-fed -er-ates 
 had now gained their 
 wits, and at once o- 
 pened fire on them. 
 Down in- to the pit 
 they sprang to get out 
 of the storm of shot and 
 shell; but when there, 
 they could not get out. 
 Band af-ter band of Fed- 
 er-als were sent for-ward 
 to charge the works, but 
 they ei-ther fell in-to the 
 Cra-ter or ran back to 
 their own lines. 
 
 Two hours had now 
 
 passed, when black troops 
 were sent to seize the 
 o^uns which were do-inor 
 such dead-ly work. 
 They marched brave -ly 
 up, but the Con-fed-er- 
 ate fire was too hot for 
 them and they ran for 
 their lives — some in-to 
 the Cra-ter, and some 
 back to their own lines. 
 White troops were a-gain 
 sent for-ward, but they, 
 too, were driv-en back. 
 All this tune the Cra-ter 
 was full of wound-ed, 
 strug-ghng and dy-ing 
 men, up-on whom the 
 hot sun beat and shot 
 poured. 
 
 At last Gen-er-al Lee 
 rode up, and soon af-ter, 
 by his or-ders, Gen-er-al 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 63 
 
 Ma-hone, with Wei-si- 
 ger's and Wright's brig- 
 ades, came up and 
 charged with a yell up-on 
 the Fed-er-als who had 
 for the first time reached 
 the breast-works. There 
 was a fierce hand-to-hand 
 fight, but the Fed-er-als 
 were quick- ly forced 
 back. 
 
 All hon-or is due to 
 the few men who had so 
 brave-ly held the breach 
 un-til help came. 
 
 Just at this time a white 
 flag was seen to float a- 
 bove the side of the Cra- 
 ter, which told that some 
 were a-live down there 
 and read-y to give up. 
 
 In this strange fight 
 Grant lost a-bout four 
 
 tkou-sa7td men and Lee 
 a-bout four hun-dred. 
 
 The pluck and skill of 
 Lee and a few men had 
 foiled a well-laid plan and 
 showed what these brave 
 he-roes could do af-ter 
 years of toil and bat-tie. 
 
 Lee now thought that 
 if he would a-gain send 
 troops to threat-en Wash- 
 ing-ton, he might cause 
 Grant to move some of 
 his large ar-my there, and 
 thus give him (Lee) a 
 chance to hurl back the 
 hosts of Grant from 
 Rich-mond. So he sent 
 Gen-er-al Ear-ly down 
 the Val-ley in-to Ma-ry- 
 land with on-ly ten thou- 
 sand men. 
 
 They went as fast as 
 
64 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 they could, and on July 
 9th met, at Mo-noc-a-cy 
 Bridge, Gen-er-al Lew 
 Wal-lace with sev-en 
 thou-sand men. Hav-ino^ 
 whipped him and tak-en 
 from him two thou-sand 
 men, Ear-ly marched on 
 to Wash-ing-ton. 
 
 On the 10th, his troops 
 marched thir-ty miles, and 
 on the 11th were in front 
 of Wash-ing-ton. But 
 his force was too small 
 and too much worn out 
 to try to at-tack the cit-y. 
 He cool-ly camped in 
 front of it all day, and 
 at night, af-ter a fight 
 with some Fed-er-al 
 troops sent to catch him, 
 went back in-to Vir-gin- 
 i-a. 
 
 This raid of Ear-ly's 
 did not move Grant. He 
 left Mr. Lin-coln to take 
 care of Wash-ino--ton and 
 kept the most of his men 
 massed in front of Lee's 
 lines. 
 
 It was a- bout this 
 time that the Fed-er-al 
 Gen-er-al Sher-i-dan 
 passed up the Val-ley and 
 burned two thou-sand 
 barns filled with wheat 
 and hay, and sev-en-ty 
 mills filled with flour. 
 He al-so drove off' and 
 killed four thou-sand head 
 of stock. The boast was 
 that '' if a crow wants to 
 fly down the Val-ley he 
 must car-ry his food 
 a-long." 
 
 This was a part of the 
 
THE LIFB OF GBN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 65 
 
 plan to crush and starve 
 Lee, for a great part of 
 his flour and meat was 
 sent from the Val-ley. 
 
 Af-ter man-y tri-als, on 
 Au-gust 18th Grant at 
 last got hold of the Wel- 
 don rail-road, which 
 brought sup-plies from 
 the south. This was a 
 great blow to Lee. 
 
 In the fall of this year, 
 when meat was scarce, 
 Gen-er-al Wade Hamp- 
 ton sent a note to Gen-er- 
 al Lee, tell-ing him that 
 there was a laro-e drove of 
 beeves m the rear of 
 Grant's ar-my and asked 
 leave to take a force of 
 horse-men and drive out 
 the cat-tie. Gen-er-al 
 Lee at last told him to go, 
 
 but urged him to take 
 great care not to be 
 caught. 
 
 The men were well on 
 their way when day broke, 
 and rode on un-til dark, 
 when they came to a halt 
 in a road o-ver-hung by 
 the branch-es of trees. 
 Here they slept, men and 
 horses, 'til just at dawn 
 they sprang to their sad- 
 dles, and with the well- 
 known yell dashed in-to 
 the camp of the foe. The 
 Fed-er-als made a eood 
 fight for their meat ; but 
 at last fell back, and the 
 Con-fed-er-ates cap- 
 tured and drove out more 
 than two thou-sand 
 beeves. These they 
 brought safe in-to camp 
 
66 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 af-ter hav-ing two fights 
 and rid-ing one hun-dred 
 miles. 
 
 This fi*esh meat was a 
 great treat to Lee's men 
 and the cause of much fun. 
 
 Lee's fines were so 
 close to Grant's at one 
 point that the men would 
 of-ten call o-ver to each 
 oth-er. The Fed-er-als 
 called the Con-fed-er-ates 
 John-ny Rebs, while the 
 Con-fed-er-ate name for 
 the Fed-er-als was Bil-ly 
 Yanks. On the day af- 
 ter the beef raid, one of 
 Grant's men called out : 
 
 'T say, John-ny Reb, 
 come o-ver. I've got a 
 new blue suit for you." 
 
 '' Blue suit ? " growled 
 out John-ny. 
 
 **Yes," said the oth-er, 
 '' take off those greas-y 
 but-ter-nut clothes. I 
 would, if I were you." 
 
 " Nev-er you mind the 
 grease, Bil-ly Yank," 
 drawled out the Con-fed- 
 er-ate, 'T got that otcfn 
 them beeves d yourny 
 
 Pop went the Fed-er- 
 al's gun, and the Con-fed- 
 er-ate was not slow to 
 pop back at him. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee's life 
 was now full of care ; as 
 soon as one at-tack on his 
 lines was o-ver, an-oth-er 
 was be-ofun. He lived in 
 a tent and would go down 
 to the trench-es him-self 
 to see how his men were 
 
 o^et-tino- on. 
 
 An old sol-dier re-lates 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 6\ 
 
 that one day he came in- 
 to the trench-es when the 
 fir-ing was quite rap-id. 
 The men did not dare to 
 cheer, lest they might 
 bring a hot-ter fire fi-om 
 the foe, but they crowd-eel 
 a-round hmi and beo-o-ed 
 him to go back. But he 
 calm-ly asked af-ter their 
 health and spoke words 
 of cheer. Then he 
 walked to a bisf eun and 
 asked the lieu-ten-ant to 
 fire, so that he might see 
 its range and work. The 
 of-fi-cer said, with tears in 
 his eyes, "Gen-er-al, don't 
 or-der me to fire this crun 
 while you are here. They 
 will o-pen fire o-ver there 
 with all those bie euns 
 and you will sure-ly get 
 
 hurt. Go back out of 
 range and I'll fire all day." 
 Gen-er-al Lee was ereat- 
 ly touched by this, and 
 went back, while the men 
 quick-ly fired off the huge 
 
 gun. 
 
 Lee not on-ly need-ed 
 men, but food for those he 
 had. Man-y men died 
 from cold and want. 
 
 The win-tcr of 1864 
 and '65 was a sad one for 
 Lee and the South. 
 There were no more men 
 in the South to take the 
 place of those who had 
 been killed. 
 
 The corn and wheat of 
 the South had been burnt 
 and their cat-tie killed by 
 the North-ern ar-mies. 
 The peo-ple sat down to 
 
68 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 emp-ty ta-bles and had no 
 more food to send their 
 men. 
 
 Mrs. Lee, in her sick 
 chair in Rich-moncl, 
 "with large heart and 
 small means " knit socks, 
 which she would send at 
 once to the bare-foot-ed 
 men. 
 
 On Jan-u-a-ry 10, 1865, 
 Gen-er-al Lee writes to 
 Mrs. Lee : 
 
 " Yes-ter-day three lit- 
 tle girls walked in-to my 
 room, each with a small 
 bas-ket. The eld-est had 
 some fresh eggs, the sec- 
 ond some pick-les, and 
 the third some pop-corn, 
 which had o^rown m her 
 gar-den. * * They 
 had with them a young 
 
 maid with a block of soap 
 made by her moth-er. 
 They were the daugh-ters 
 of a Mrs. Not-ting-ham, 
 a ref-u-o^ee from North- 
 amp-ton coun-ty. * * 
 I had not had so nice a 
 vis-it for a long^ tmie. 
 I was a-ble to fill their 
 bas-kets with ap-ples and 
 begged them to bring me 
 here-af-ter noth-ing but 
 kiss-es, and to keep the 
 eggs, corn, etc., for them- 
 selves." 
 
 Lee's men were raor-aed 
 and starv-ing, but they 
 fought on 'til A-pril 1st, 
 1865, when, at Five Forks, 
 the left wmor of Grant's 
 large ar-my swept a-round 
 the rig"ht and rear of Lee, 
 
 and ma 
 
 de h 
 
 mi give up 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 60 
 
 Rich-mond and Pe-ters- 
 buror. 
 
 When the South-ern 
 troops were leav-ing 
 Rich-mond, by law of 
 Con-oTess the to-bac-co 
 hous-es were set on fire 
 to keep them fi'om fall-ing 
 in-to the hands of the foe. 
 The fire spread, and Mrs. 
 Lee's house was in dan- 
 ger of be-inor burnt. 
 Friends rushed in and 
 wished to move her to a 
 place of safe-ty, but she 
 would not go. The fire 
 had no ter-ror for her as 
 she thought of her hus- 
 band with his band of 
 rag-ged, starv-ing men 
 march-inor with their fa- 
 ces turned from Rich- 
 mond. White clouds of 
 
 dense smoke, with the 
 light of fire in their folds, 
 hung a-bove the cit-}^ as 
 the Fed-er-al ar-my, with 
 wav-ino^ flacrs and clash- 
 ing mu-sic, marched in 
 and stacked arms in the 
 Capitol Square. 
 
 In the mean-time, Lee 
 marched on to-warcls A- 
 me-li-a Court-House, 
 where he had or-dered 
 meat and bread to be sent 
 for his men. But when 
 he got there he found that 
 it had been sent else- 
 where, and now real want 
 set in. His men had 
 noth-ing to eat but corn, 
 which they would parch 
 at night and eat as they 
 marched a-long. Gen- 
 er-al Lee's plan had been 
 
70 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 to march south and join 
 Gen-er-al John-ston, but 
 some time had been lost 
 in look-ino- for food, and 
 Gen-er-al Grant's hosts 
 were near at hand. 
 
 So Lee fell back to- 
 wards Lynch-burg, but 
 on A-pril 9th, 1865, be- 
 ing en-tire-ly siu'-round- 
 ed by Grant's vast ar-my, 
 he and his few rag-ged 
 men sur-ren-dered to Gen- 
 er-al Grant at Ap-po- 
 mat-tox Court- House. 
 Lee had on-ly eio'/il thoM- 
 sand men, while Grant's 
 ar-my num-bered about 
 two hun-dred thoit-sand. 
 
 In all these bat-ties, of 
 which I have told you, 
 Gen-er-al Lee had nev-er 
 been real-ly de-feat-ed ; 
 
 but he gave up at last be- 
 cause he had no more men 
 and no more food. The 
 North-ern gen-er-als had 
 all the men and food they 
 asked for, as they had the 
 world to draw from ; but 
 the South, be-ing block- 
 ad- ed, or shut in by 
 North-ern ships of war, 
 could not get what she 
 need-ed from oth-er lands. 
 
 Lee did all that cour- 
 age and oen-ius could do 
 a-eainst such odds, and 
 was, with-out doubt, the 
 great-est com-mand-er of 
 his time. 
 
 Col-o-nel Ven-a-ble, 
 an of-fi-cer on Gen-er-al 
 Lee's staff, tells this sto-ry 
 of the sur-ren-der: 
 ^'When I told Gen-er-al 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 71 
 
 Lee that the troops in 
 front were not a-ble to 
 fight their way out, he 
 said ' Then, there is noth- 
 ing left me but to go and 
 see Gen-er-al Grant, and 
 I would rath-er die a 
 thou- sand deaths! " 
 
 An-oth-er of-fi-cer says 
 that when Lee was think- 
 ing of the sur-ren-der he 
 ex-claimed, '' How eas- 
 i-ly I could get rid of all 
 this and be at rest ! I 
 have on-ly to ride a-long 
 the lines and all will be 
 o-ver. But," he add-ed 
 quick-ly, '' // is our dti-ty 
 to live, for what will be- 
 come of the wom-en and 
 chil-dreu of the South if 
 we are not here to sup- 
 port and pro-tect them ?" 
 
 So, with a heart burst- 
 ing with grief, he once 
 more did his du-ty. He 
 went at once to Gen-er-al 
 Grant and sur-ren-dered 
 him-self and his few re- 
 
 main-ing men. 
 
 By the terms of the 
 sur-ren-der, Lee's men 
 gave up their fire-arms, 
 but all who had hors-es 
 took them home, "to work 
 their lit-tle farms." 
 
 Gen-er-al Grant, it 
 must be said, was most 
 kind to Gen-er-al Lee 
 and his men. He did 
 not ask for Gen-er-al 
 Lee's sword, nor did Lee 
 of-fer it to him ; nei-ther 
 did he re-quire Lee's men 
 to march up to stack 
 their guns be-tween ranks 
 
72 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 of Fed-er-als with flags 
 fly-ing and bands play- 
 ing. Lee's men sim-ply 
 went to pla-ces which were 
 point-ed out and stacked 
 their guns. Their of-fi- 
 cers then signed a pa-role 
 not to fight a-gain a-gainst 
 the U-ni-ted States. 
 They were then free to go 
 back to their homes, 
 which, in some ca-ses, 
 were burnt — blight and 
 want be-ing on ev-er-y 
 side. 
 
 Af-ter all. Grant did 
 not go to Lee's camp or 
 to Rich-mond to ex-ult 
 o-ver the men who had 
 so of-ten met him in bat- 
 tle; but he mount-ed his 
 horse, and, with his staff, 
 rode to Wash-ing-ton. 
 
 Be-fore go-ing, he sent to 
 Lee twen-ty-five thou- 
 sand ra-tions; for, as I 
 have told you, Lee's men 
 had noth-ing to eat but 
 parched corn. 
 
 Af-ter the sur-ren-der, 
 Lee rode out a-mong his 
 men, who pressed up to 
 him, ea-ger to "touch his 
 per-son, or e-ven his 
 horse," and tears fell down 
 the pow-der-stained 
 cheeks of the strono; men. 
 Slow-ly he said : 
 
 " Men, we have fouo-ht 
 the war to-geth-er ; I have 
 done my best for you ; 
 my heart is too full to say 
 more." 
 
 And then in si-lence, 
 with lift-ed hat, he rode 
 through the weep-ing ar- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 73 
 
 my to-wards his home in 
 Rich-mond. 
 
 As Gen-er-al Lee rode 
 on to-wards Rich-mond, 
 he was calm and his 
 thoughts dwek much more 
 on the state of the poor 
 peo-ple at whose hous-es 
 he stopped than up-on his 
 own bad for-tune. When 
 he found that all a-long 
 the road the peo-ple were 
 olad to see him and crave 
 
 o o 
 
 him glad-ly of what they 
 had to eat, he said, 
 ''These good peo-ple are 
 kind — too kind. They 
 do too much — more than 
 they are able to do — for 
 us. 
 
 At a house which he 
 reached just at night, a 
 
 poor worn -an gave him a 
 nice bed; but, with a kind 
 shake of the head, he 
 spread his blank-et and 
 slept up-on the floor. 
 
 The next day he 
 stopped at the house of 
 his broth-er, Charles Car- 
 ter Lee ; but, when night 
 came, left the house and 
 slept in his old black 
 wag-on. He could not 
 give up at once the hab- 
 its of a sol-dier. 
 
 When, at last, the cit-y 
 of Rich-mond was in 
 sight, he rode a-head with 
 a few of his of-fi-cers. A 
 sad sight met his view. 
 In the great fire of the 3d 
 of A-pril, a large part of 
 the cit-y had been burned, 
 
74 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 and, as he rode up Main 
 street, he saw on-ly mass- 
 es of bhick ru-ins. 
 
 As he rode slow-ly, 
 some of the peo-ple saw 
 him, and at once the news 
 flashed through the streets 
 that Gen-er-al Lee had 
 come. 
 
 The peo-ple ran to 
 greet hmi, and showed by 
 cheers and the wav-ing of 
 hats and hand-ker-chiefs 
 how much they loved 
 hmi. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee now 
 went home and there a- 
 gain took up his du-ty. 
 He had fought for the 
 South, which had failed 
 to gain the vic-to- ry. He 
 thouoht that it was now 
 
 the du-ty of ev-er-y good 
 man to a-void hate and 
 mal-ice and do all that he 
 could to build up the 
 waste pla-ces of his dear 
 land. He had been a 
 sol-dier for for-ty years, 
 and, for the first time since 
 man-hood, was m pri-vate 
 Hfe. 
 
 He now en-joyed the 
 com-pa-ny of his wife and 
 chil-dren, and as long as 
 he kept his pa-role and 
 the laws in force where 
 he lived, was thought to 
 be safe. There were, 
 how-ev-er, steps tak-en to 
 try him for trea-son ; but 
 Gen-er-al Grant went to 
 the pres-i-dent and 
 told him that his hon-or 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 75 
 
 was pledged for the safe- 
 ty of Gen-er-al Lee, and 
 that he wished \\\m to be 
 let a-lone. So, Gen-er- 
 al Grant's re-quest was 
 o-rant-ed and no tri-al 
 took place. 
 
 Af-ter some months 
 the Lee fam-i-ly left Rich- 
 
 mond and went to live at 
 the house of a friend in 
 Pow-ha-tan coun-ty. 
 
 The spring and sum- 
 mer of 1865 was spent by 
 our he-ro in tak-ing the 
 rest which he so much 
 need-eel. 
 
 ReP-u-gee', one who leaves home for safe-ty. 
 
 Siege, the act of be-set-ting a for-ti-fied place. 
 
 Hurled, thrown. 
 
 Gen-ius, a great mind. 
 
 Sur-ren'-der, the act of yield-ing to an-oth-er. 
 
76 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 
 
 In Oc-to-ber, 186S, 
 Gen-er-al Lee be-came 
 Pres-i-dent of Wash-ing- 
 ton Col-lege, in Lex-ing- 
 ton, Vir-gin-i-a. Man-y 
 oth-er pla-ces of trust 
 were of-fered him, but he 
 chose to be-come a lead- 
 er of the young men of 
 the South in the paths of 
 peace and learn-ing, as he 
 had so no-bly led them 
 in times of war. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee rode on 
 his war-horse, Trav-el-er, 
 from Pow-ha-tan coun-ty 
 to Lex-inor-ton in four 
 days. As he drew rein 
 
 in front of the vil-lage 
 inn, an old sol-dier knew 
 him, gave the mil-i-ta-ry 
 sa-lute, and, plac-ing one 
 hand up-on the bri-dle 
 and the oth-er up-on 
 the stir-rup, stood and 
 wait-ed for hmi to dis- 
 mount. 
 
 On Oc-to-ber 2d, 1865, 
 Gen-er-al Lee took the 
 oath of of-fice, be-fore Wil- 
 liam White, Esq., jus-tice 
 of the peace. The Gen- 
 er-al stood, dressed in a 
 plain suit of grey, his 
 arms folded, and his eyes 
 calm-ly fixed up-on Judge 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 77 
 
 Brock-en-brough, as he 
 read the oath of of-fice. 
 
 The great chief was 
 now changed in-to a col- 
 lege pres-i-dent. ''I 
 have," said he, ''a task 
 which I can-not for-sake." 
 That task was not ea-sy, 
 for the col-lege had lost 
 much dur-ing the war and 
 now had to be built up in 
 ev-er-y way. 
 
 He went to work with 
 great skill and en-er-gy, 
 and soon all felt that a 
 great man was lead-ing 
 them. 
 
 Some one has apt-ly 
 said, '' Suns seem larg-er 
 when they set;" so it was 
 with Lee. At this time 
 of his life he ap-pears 
 no-bler and grand-er than 
 
 ev-er be-fore. In his qui- 
 et stud-y, a-way from the 
 noise of the world, he 
 gave his time and tal-ents 
 to the young men of his 
 dear South. His earn-est 
 wish was to make Wash- 
 ing-ton Col-lege a great 
 seat of learn-ing, and for 
 this he worked and made 
 wise plans. 
 
 In March, 1866, he 
 went to Wash -inor- ton 
 Cit-y to ap-pear as a wit- 
 ness be-fore the com-mit- 
 tee which was in-quir-ing 
 in-to the state of things in 
 the South. This was his 
 first vis-it to any of the 
 cit-ies since the war, and 
 it caused much com-ment. 
 
 Gen-er-al Fitz. Lee 
 tells us that the day af-ter 
 
78 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 his re-turn, he pro-posed 
 a walk with one of his 
 daugh-ters, who said, In 
 fun, that she did not ad- 
 mire the new hat which 
 he was a-bout to put on. 
 "You do not hke my 
 hat?" said he; "why, 
 there were a thou-sand 
 peo-ple in Wash-ing-ton 
 the oth-er day ad-mir-ing 
 this hat." This was the 
 on-ly time that he spoke 
 of the crowds of peo-ple 
 who sought him while in 
 that cit-y. 
 
 When his neph-ew, 
 Gen-er-al Fitz. Lee, wrote 
 to know what he thought 
 of hav-ing the South-ern 
 dead moved from the 
 field of Get-tys-burg, he 
 said, "I am not in fa-vor 
 
 of mov-ing the ash-es of 
 the dead un-less for a 
 wor-thy ob-ject, and I 
 know of no fit-ter rest- 
 ing-place for a sol-clier 
 than the field on which 
 he so no-bly laid down 
 his life." 
 
 It is some-times asked 
 if Gen-er-al Lee was con- 
 tent in the qui-et of his 
 home at Lex-ing-ton. 
 This is what he wrote to 
 a friend : 
 
 " For my own part, I 
 much en -joy the charms 
 of civ-il life, and find, too 
 late, that I have wast-ed 
 the best years of my 
 life." 
 
 In his life as Col-lege 
 Pres-i-dent, du-ty was, as 
 ev-er, his watch-word. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 79 
 
 He knew each stu-clent 
 by name, and just how 
 well he stud-ied. 
 
 Once, when asked how 
 a cer-tain young man was 
 eet-tinor a-lonor he said : 
 " He is a ver-y qui-et and 
 or-der-ly young man, but 
 he seems ver-y care-fttl 
 not to in- jure the health 
 of his fa-ther s son. 
 Now, I do not want our 
 young men to in-jure their 
 health, but I want them 
 to come as near it as pos- 
 si-ble." 
 
 One of his friends re- 
 lates that, e-ven a-midst 
 this bus-y life at col-lege, 
 he found time to be the 
 most po-lite gen-tle-man 
 in town. " How of-ten 
 have I seen him," says 
 
 this friend, '' in the stores 
 and shops of Lex-ing-ton, 
 talk-ing pleas-ant-ly with 
 each new com-er; or, 
 walk-ino- a mile through 
 mud and snow to call on 
 some hum-ble fam-i-ly, 
 who will hand it down as 
 an e-vent in their lives 
 that they had a vis-it from 
 Gen-er-al Lee ! " 
 
 See-ing, dur-ing the 
 first year, that the col-lege 
 chap-el was not large e- 
 nough, he at once be-gan 
 to plan for a new one. 
 He chose the site for it in 
 front of the oth-er hous- 
 es, so that it miorht be in 
 full view. He then had 
 the plan drawn un-der his 
 own eye, and did not rest 
 un-til it was fin-ished and 
 
80 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 o-penecl for the ser-vice 
 of God. 
 
 In this chap-el his 
 bod-y now rests, as I shall 
 tell you here-af-ter. 
 
 Ear-ly in 1870, in the 
 midst of these la-bors, his 
 health be-gan to fail. 
 There was a flush up-on 
 his cheek, and an air of 
 wea-ri-ness a-bout him 
 which a - 1 a r m e d his 
 friends. Rheu-ma-tism 
 of the heart and oth-er 
 parts of the bod-y had set 
 in, and in March, 1870, 
 he went south "to look 
 up-on oth-er scenes and 
 en-joy the breez-es in the 
 'land of sun and flow- 
 ers.'" His daugh-ter 
 Ag-nes went with him. 
 
 On this trip he once 
 
 more went to see his fa- 
 ther's grave, on an is-land 
 off the coast of Geor-gi-a, 
 where, you re-mem-ber, 
 that Gen-er-al Hen-ry 
 Lee was tak-en when so 
 ill on board ship, and 
 where he died. They 
 placed fresh flow-ers up- 
 on the grave, which they 
 found in good or-der, 
 though the house had 
 been burnt and the is-land 
 laid waste. 
 
 His health seemed bet- 
 ter when a-gain at home ; 
 but soon his step was 
 slow-er, and the flush up- 
 on his cheek be-gan to 
 deep-en. " A no-ble life 
 was draw-ing to a close." 
 
 On the morn-inor of 
 Oc-to-ber 12, 1870, the 
 
/ / 
 
 / / 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 81 
 
 news flashed o-ver the 
 wires that Gen-er-al Lee 
 was dead. He had tak- 
 en cold at a ves-try meet- 
 inor. The church was 
 cold and damp, and a 
 storm was rag-uig out- 
 side. He grew chil-ly, 
 and when he reached 
 home was un-a-ble to 
 speak. 
 
 Mrs. Lee wrote thus 
 of his last hours : 
 
 ''My hus-band came 
 In while we were at tea, 
 and I asked where he had 
 been, as we had wait-ed 
 some tmie for hmi. He 
 did not re-ply, but stood 
 up as if to say grace. 
 No words came from his 
 lips, but with a sad smile 
 he sat down in his chair." 
 
 He could not speak ! 
 A bed was at once 
 brouorht to the clin-ino-- 
 room, and the doc-tors 
 sent for. At first he 
 grew bet-ter, but soon a 
 chano^e came for the 
 worse. 
 
 He rare-ly spoke ex- 
 cept when sleep-ing, and 
 then his thouohts were 
 with his much-loved sol- 
 diers on the "dread-ful 
 bat-tle-fields." A-mone 
 his last words were, 
 "Tell Hill he must come 
 up. 
 
 Once when Gen-er-al 
 Cus-tis Lee said some- 
 thinor about his o-et-tine 
 well, he shook his head 
 and point-ed up- ward. 
 When his doc-tor said, to 
 
82 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 cheer him, "How do you 
 feel to-day, Gen-er-al ? " 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee said 
 slow-ly, ''I feel bet-ter." 
 
 The doc-tor then said : 
 
 ** You must make haste 
 and get well. Trav-el-er 
 has been stand-ing so 
 lone in the sta-ble that he 
 needs ex-er-cise." 
 
 The Gen-er-al made 
 no re-ply, but shook his 
 head and closed his eyes. 
 Once or twice he put 
 a-side his med-i-cine, say- 
 ing, *' It is no use." 
 
 On Oc-to-ber 10th, a- 
 bout mid-night, he was 
 seized with a chill and his 
 pulse be-came fee-ble and 
 rap-id. The next day he 
 was seen to be sink-ing. 
 He knew those a-round 
 
 him, but was not a-ble to 
 speak. Soon af-ter nine 
 o'clock on the morn-ing 
 of the 12th, he closed his 
 eyes on earth-ly things 
 and his pure soul took its 
 flight to God. 
 
 It was thought that the 
 strain and hard-ships of 
 war, with sor-row for the 
 ''Lost Cause" and the 
 griefs of his friends, had 
 caused his death. Yet, 
 to those who saw his calm- 
 ness in all the tri-als of 
 life, it did not seem true 
 that his great soul had 
 been worn a-wayby them. 
 
 The col-lege chap-el 
 was cho-sen by Mrs. Lee 
 as a bur-i-al place for her 
 hus-band, and one-and- 
 a-half o'clock P. M. on 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 83 
 
 the 13th of Oc-to-ber was 
 the time fixed on for mov- 
 ing the re-mains to the 
 chap-el, where they were 
 to he in state un-til Sat-ur- 
 day, the 15th of Oc-to-ber, 
 the day for the bur-i-al. 
 
 At the hour named, a 
 long pro-ces-sion, with 
 Pro-fes-sor J. J. White 
 as chief mar-shal, was 
 formed. Old sol-diers 
 formed an es-cort of hon- 
 or. Just af-ter the es-cort 
 came the hearse, pre- 
 ce-ded by the cler-gy 
 and twelve pall-bear- 
 ers. In rear of the 
 hearse, Trav-el-er, the 
 iron-grey war-horse of 
 Gen-er-al Lee, was led 
 by two old sol-diers. 
 Then fol-lowed a long line 
 
 of stu-dents, ca-dets and 
 peo-ple. The bod-y was 
 borne to the col -lege 
 chap-el and laid in state 
 up-on the dais, the peo- 
 ple pass-ing slow-ly by, 
 that each one might look 
 up-on the face of the 
 dead. The bod-y was 
 clad in a sim-ple suit of 
 black and lay in a cof-fin, 
 strewed by lov-ing hands 
 with rare, pale flow-ers. 
 The chap -el was then 
 placed in charge of the 
 guard of hon-or This 
 guard of stu-dents kept 
 watch by the cof-fin day 
 and nieht. 
 
 On the 14th, a fu-ner- 
 al ser-vice was held in 
 the chap-el ; and on the 
 15th of Oc-to-ber, as I 
 
84 
 
 711 L LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 have said, the bod-y was 
 borne to the toml). The 
 flag of Vir-gin-i-a hung 
 at half-mast a-bove the 
 col-lege and a deep gloom 
 rest-ed up-on all. 
 
 As the pro-ces-sion 
 moved off, the bells of the 
 town be-gan to toll, and 
 the Vir-gin-i-a Mil-i-ta-ry 
 In-sti-tute bat-ter-y fired 
 min-ute-guns. All was 
 sim-ple and w^ith-out dis- 
 play. Not a flag was to 
 be seen a-long the line. 
 The Rev. J. Wil-liam 
 Jones tells us as fol-low^s : 
 
 "The old sol-diers 
 w-ore their cit-i-zen's 
 drees, with black rib-bon 
 in the la-pel of their 
 coats; and Trav-el-er, 
 with trap-pings of mourn- 
 
 ing on his sad-die, was 
 a-gam led by two old sol- 
 diers. The Vir-gln-i-n 
 Mfl-i-ta-ry In-sti-tute was 
 ver-y beau-ti-ful-1 v 
 draped, and from its tur- 
 rets hung at half-mast, and 
 draped in mourn-ing, the 
 flags of all the States of 
 the late South-ern Con- 
 fed-er-a-cy. 
 
 ''When the pro-ces- 
 sion reached the In-sti- 
 tute, it passed the corps of 
 ca-dets drawm up m line, 
 and a guard of hon-or 
 pre-sent-ed arms as the 
 hearse went by. When 
 it reached the chap-el, 
 where a large throng had 
 gath-ered, the stu-dents 
 and ca-dets, a-bout six 
 hun-dred and fif-ty strong, 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 85 
 
 marched in-to the left door 
 and aisle past the re- 
 mains and out by the 
 right aisle and door to 
 their prop-er place. 
 
 "The rest of the line 
 then filed in, the fam-i-ly, 
 with Drs. Bar-ton and 
 Mad-i-son,and Col-o-nels 
 W. H. Tay-lor and C. 
 S. Ven-a-ble, mem-bers 
 of Gen-er-al Lee's staff 
 dur-ing the war, were 
 seated just in front of the 
 pul-pit, and the cler-gy 
 and the Fac-ul-ties of the 
 Col-lege and In-sti-tute 
 had places on the plat- 
 form." 
 
 The cof-fin was a-gain 
 cov-ered with flow-ers and 
 
 ever-o^reens. 
 
 Then the Rev. Dr. 
 
 Pen -die- ton, the dear 
 friend of Gen-er-al Lee, 
 his Chief of Ar-til-ler-y 
 dur-ing the war, and his 
 rec-tor the past five years, 
 read the beau-ti-ful bur- 
 i-al ser-vice of the Epis- 
 co-pal Church. There 
 was no ser-mon, and noth- 
 ing said be-sides the sim- 
 ple ser-vice, as Gen-er-al 
 Lee had wished. 
 
 When the bod-y had 
 been placed in the vault, 
 the chap-lain read the 
 con-clud-ing ser-vice from 
 the bank on the south-ern 
 side of the chap-el, and 
 then the grand old hymn, 
 
 "How firm a found-a-tion, ye 
 saints of the Lord/' 
 
 was sung by the peo-ple. 
 The vault is of brick 
 
86 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 and just reach-es the floor 
 of the li-bra-ry. Up-on 
 the white mar-ble are 
 these words : 
 
 " RoB-ERT Ed-ward Lee, 
 
 Born Jan-u-a-ry 19, 1807; 
 
 Died Oc-to-ber 12, 1870." 
 
 The white mar-ble top 
 has now been re-placed 
 by the beau-ti-ful re-cum- 
 bent stat-ue by Val-en- 
 tine, a Vir-gin-i-a sculp- 
 tor. 
 
 All the South mourned 
 for Lee. Bells were 
 tolled in cit-ies and vil- 
 la-ges, and meet-ings were 
 held to ex-press the grief 
 of the peo-ple. 
 
 This is what a lit-tle 
 girl wrote to Mrs. Lee : 
 
 " I have heard of Gen- 
 er-al Lee, your hus-band, 
 
 and of all his great and 
 no-ble deeds dur-ing the 
 war. I have al-so heard 
 late-ly of his death. I 
 have read in the pa-pers 
 that col-lec-tions are be- 
 ing made for the Lee 
 mon-u-ment. I have 
 asked my moth-er to let 
 me send some mon-ey 
 that I earned my-self. I 
 made some of the mon-ey 
 by keep-ing the door shut 
 last win-ter, and the rest 
 I made by dig-ging up 
 grass in the gar-den. I 
 send you all I have. I 
 wish it was more. I am 
 nine now. 
 
 *' Re-spect-ful-ly, 
 *'Mag-gie Mc-In-tyre." 
 
 Man-y no-ble men and 
 wom-en al-so wrote to 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 87 
 
 Mrs. Lee, and mon-ey 
 was giv-en, un-til now 
 there are two beau-ti-ful 
 stat-ues of him — one in 
 Lex-ing-ton, where he Is 
 bur-ied, and the oth-er in 
 Rich-mond, the cit-y he 
 fouQrht so hard to save. 
 
 Vir-ofin-i-a mourned for 
 her no-ble son. The 
 State Leg-is-la-ture 
 passed a bill mak-ing Jan- 
 u-a-ry 19th, the birth-day 
 of Rob-ert E. Lee, a le- 
 gal hol-i-day. 
 
 On that day, all o-ver 
 the South, meet-ings are 
 held in mem-o-ry of him, 
 where speech-es are made 
 by great men, and chil- 
 dren re-cite po-ems which 
 hon-or his name and 
 deeds. 
 
 Per-haps no man has 
 ev-er lived, so great, so 
 good, so un-self-ish as 
 Lee. Du-ty was the key- 
 note of his life. In the 
 midst of his great-ness he 
 was hum-ble, sim-ple, and 
 gen-tle. He loved lit-tle 
 chil-dren wher-ev-er he 
 met them. 
 
 "One day, dur-ing the 
 war, a num-ber of lit-tle 
 girls were roll-ing hoops 
 on the side-walks in 
 Rich-mond, when Gen- 
 er-al Lee came rid-ing: 
 to-wards them. They 
 stopped play-ing to gaze 
 at so great a man. To 
 their sur-prise, he threw 
 his rein to his cou-ri-er, 
 dis-mount-ed, and kissed 
 ev-er-y one of them. 
 
88 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Then mount-ing, he rode 
 a-way, with a s u n - n y 
 smile of chikl-hoocl in his 
 heart and plans of great 
 bat-ties in his mind." 
 
 "While in Pe-ters- 
 burg, in the win-ter of 
 1864, he went to preach- 
 ing one day at a crowd- 
 ed church, and saw a lit- 
 tle o'irl dressed in fad-ed 
 gar-ments stand-ing just 
 in-side the door and look- 
 ing for a seat. ' Come 
 with me, my lit-tle la-dy,' 
 said the great sol-dier, 
 'and you shall sit by me.' 
 Thus the orreat chief and 
 poor child sat side by 
 side." 
 
 Once when rid-ing in 
 the moun-tains with one 
 of his daugh-ters, they 
 
 came up-on a group of 
 chil-dren who ran at the 
 sight of him. Gen-er-al 
 Lee called them back and 
 asked : 
 
 " Why are you run- 
 ning a-way ? Are you a- 
 fraid of me? " 
 
 " Oh ! no, sir ; but we 
 are not dressed nice e- 
 nough to see you." 
 
 "Why, who do you 
 think I am ? " 
 
 "You are Gen-er-al 
 Lee. We know you by 
 your pic-ture." 
 
 Af-ter the war, so great 
 was the love of the peo- 
 ple for Lee, al-most ev- 
 er-y home had some pic- 
 ture of their great chief. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee knew all 
 the chil-dren in Lex-ing- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 89 
 
 ton whom he met in his 
 walks and rides, and it 
 was charm-mg to see their 
 joy when he would meet 
 them. 
 
 Once, when call-ing 
 up-on the wid-ow of Gen- 
 er-al A. P. Hill, her lit-tle 
 girl met him at the door 
 and held out her pup-py, 
 which she had named af- 
 ter our he-ro. "O, Gen- 
 er-al Lee," she cried, 
 ''here IS 'Bob-by Lee'; do 
 kiss him." The o^reat 
 man made be-lieve to kiss 
 him and the child was de- 
 light-ed. 
 
 In one of the Sun-clay- 
 schools of Lex-ing-ton a 
 prize was of-fered to the 
 child who should brino- in 
 the most pu-pils. 
 
 A lit-tle boy of five 
 went for his friend, Gen- 
 er-al Lee, to get him to 
 go to his school. When 
 told that Gen-er-al Lee 
 went to an-oth-er school, 
 he said with a deep sigh, 
 " I am ver-y sor-ry. I 
 wish he could go to our 
 school, and be my new 
 schol-ar." 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee thoueht 
 it quite fun-ny, and said 
 kind-ly : 
 
 "Ah ! C — — , we must 
 all try to be ooocif Chris- 
 tians — that is the ereat 
 thing. I can't go to your 
 school to be your new 
 schol-ar to-day. But I 
 am ver-y glad you asked 
 me. It shows that you 
 are zeal-ous in a good 
 
90 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 cause, and I hope that 
 you will ev-er be so as 
 you grow up. And I do 
 not want you to think 
 that I am too old to go to 
 Sun-day-school. No one 
 is ev-er too old to stud-y 
 the truths of the Bi-ble." 
 
 When he died, all the 
 schools of Lex-Ing-ton 
 were closed, and the chil- 
 dren wept with the grown 
 peo-ple when they heard 
 that their kind friend was 
 dead. 
 
 A gen-tle-man tells this 
 sto-ry, which is quite in 
 keep-ing with his way of 
 pleas-ing chil-dren: 
 
 ** When my lit-tle girl, 
 a-bout four years old, 
 heard of Gen-er-al Lee's 
 death, she said to me, 
 
 ' Fa-ther, I can nev-er 
 for-get Gen-er-al Lee.' 
 I asked, 'Why?' 'Be- 
 cause, when Mag-gie and 
 I were play-ing at the gate 
 the oth-er day, and Gen- 
 er-al Lee was rid-ing by, 
 he stopped and took off 
 his hat and bowed to us 
 and said, 'Young la-dies, 
 don't you think this is the 
 pret-ti-est horse you ev-er 
 saw?' And we said it 
 was a ver-y pret-ty horse. 
 ' Oh, no,' he said; ' I want 
 to know wheth-er Trav- 
 el-er is not the ver-y pret- 
 ti-est horse you ev-er saw 
 in your life.' And when 
 we looked at him, and 
 saw how white and gay 
 he was, we said, 'Yes.' 
 Then he laughed and 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 91 
 
 said, 'Well, if you think 
 he is so pret-ty, I will just 
 let you kiss him ' ; and 
 then he rode off smil-ing, 
 and I don't be-lieve I can 
 ev-er for-o^et that." 
 
 An-oth-er e^'n-tle-man, 
 who was clerk of the Fac- 
 ul-ty at Wash -ing- ton 
 Col-lege, says that Gen- 
 er-al Lee was ver-y care- 
 ful a-bout lit-tle things. 
 One day the clerk wrote 
 a let-ter to some one at 
 Gen-er-al Lee's re-quest, 
 in which he used the term 
 ''our stu-dents." When 
 Gen-er-al Lee looked at 
 it, he said that he did not 
 like the phrase "our stu- 
 dents." He said that we 
 had no prop-er-ty rights 
 in the young men, and he 
 
 thought it best to say, 
 ''the stu-dents," not ''otcr 
 stu-dents." The clerk 
 struck out with his pen 
 the word "our" and wrote 
 "the." He then brouorht 
 the let-ter to Gen-er-al 
 Lee. "This will not 
 an-swer," said he. "I 
 want you to write the let- 
 ter o-ver." So the clerk 
 had to make a fresh 
 cop-y. 
 
 One day Gen-er-al Lee 
 di-rect-ed him to go to 
 the Mess Hall and meas- 
 ure for a stove-pipe. 
 "Set the stove in its place 
 on its legs," he said, "and 
 meas-ure the height to a 
 point op-po-site the flue- 
 hole, and then the space 
 from the joint to the wall." 
 
92 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 The man re-turned with 
 the meas-ure. "Did you 
 set the stove on its leo^s ?" 
 asked the Gen-er-al. The 
 clerk re-phed no; that 
 the legs were packed up 
 in-side the stove, and that 
 he snii-ply al-lowed for 
 the leers. "But I told 
 you to put the stove on its 
 legs and then meas-ure. 
 Go back and do as you 
 were told," said the Gen- 
 er-al, who was al-ways 
 kind but meant to be o- 
 beyed. 
 
 The same gen-tle-man 
 re-mem-bers this a-mus- 
 ing in-ci-dent: 
 
 One day they saw a 
 gen-tle-man com-mg up 
 the lawn, and won-dered 
 who he was. Gen-er-al 
 
 Lee shook hands with 
 him as though he knew 
 him, and chat-ted for 
 some time. He tried in 
 vain to re-mem-ber his 
 name. At length Rev. 
 J. Wil-liam Jones, whose 
 month it was to lead the 
 ser-vices in the chap-el, 
 came up and whis-pered 
 to Gen-er-al Lee to in- 
 tro-duce the strange cler- 
 gy-man to hmi, so that he 
 might ask him to con-duct 
 the ser-vices in his place. 
 But Gen-er-al Lee, with 
 his own read-y tact, said: 
 "Mr. Jones, it is time for 
 ser-vice ; you had bet-ter 
 go m the chap-el." 
 
 Af-ter ser-vice, when 
 he could do so with-out 
 be-ing heard, Gen-er-al 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 93 
 
 Lee asked Mr. Jones to 
 find out the stran-ger's 
 name. He had met hmi 
 m the Mex-i-can war but 
 could not re-call his name. 
 Mr. Jones did so, and 
 Gen-er-al Lee, stand-ing 
 near, heard it, and then, 
 with-out mak-ing it known 
 that he had for-got-ten his 
 fi'iend of the Mex-i-can 
 war, in-tro-cluced him to 
 those w^ h o were near. 
 He could not think of 
 hurt-ing the cler-gy-man's 
 feel-ings by let-ting him 
 know that he had been 
 for-got-ten. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee w^as al- 
 ways care-ful not to in-jure 
 what be-longed to oth-ers. 
 
 -A Reb-el Girl" tells 
 this sto-ry of him : 
 
 '' When in Ma-ry-land, 
 he gave strict or-ders that 
 no harm should be done 
 to prop-er-ty, and was 
 once seen to get down 
 from his horse and put 
 up a fence-rail which his 
 men had thrown down." 
 
 This sto-ry of Gen-er- 
 al Lee went the rounds 
 of the south-ern news-pa- 
 pers in 1864 : 
 
 " One ver-y cold morn- 
 ing a young sol-dier, with 
 his arm in a sling, in the 
 cars go-ing to Pe-ters-burg 
 was mak-ing great ef-forts 
 to put on his o-ver-coat. 
 \n the midst of his troub-le 
 an of-fi-cer rose from his 
 seat, went to him and 
 kind-ly helped him, draw- 
 ing the coat gent-ly o-ver 
 
94 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 the wound-ed arm, and 
 then with a few kind 
 words went back to his 
 seat. 
 
 '' Now, the of-fi-cer was 
 not clad in a fine u-ni-form 
 with a oilt wreath on his 
 col-lar and man-y straps 
 on his sleeves, but he had 
 on a sim-ple suit of grey, 
 with on-ly the three gilt 
 stars which ev-er-y Con- 
 fed-er-ate col-o-nel could 
 wear. And yet, he was 
 no oth-er than our chief 
 gen-er-al, Rob-ert E. 
 Lee, who is not brav-er 
 than he is good and mod- 
 est." 
 
 In the win-ter of 1864, 
 some of the cav-al-ry 
 were moved to Char- 
 lottes-ville, in or-der to 
 
 get food for their hors-es, 
 and not hav-ing much to 
 do, the of-fi-cers be-gan to 
 at-tend dances. Gen-er- 
 al Lee, hear-ing of this, 
 wrote to his son Rob-ert 
 thus : 
 
 " I am a-fraid that Fitz 
 was anx-ious to get back 
 to the ball. This is a bad 
 time for such thinors. * * 
 There are too man-y Lees 
 on the committee. I 
 like them all to be at bat- 
 tles, but I can ex-cuse 
 them at balls." 
 
 It is said that, dur-ing 
 the sev-en days' bat-tie, 
 of which I have told 
 you, he was sit-ting un- 
 der a tree, the shades of 
 e-ven-ino^ hid-iuQ^ e-ven 
 the stars on his coat col- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 95 
 
 lar, when a cloc-tor rode 
 up and said : 
 
 ''Old man, I have 
 chosen that tree for my 
 field hos-pi-tal and I want 
 you to get out of the 
 way." 
 
 *' I will glad-ly give way 
 when the wound-ed come 
 up, but in the mean-time, 
 there is plen-ty of room 
 for both of us," was the 
 re-ply. 
 
 The an-gry man was 
 a-bout to make some re- 
 tort when a staff of-fi-cer 
 rode up and spoke to his 
 **old man" as Gen-er-al 
 Lee. 
 
 The doc-tor then be- 
 gan to make ex-cuse for 
 his rude-ness, but Gen- 
 er-al Lee said qui-et-ly : 
 
 '' It is no mat-ter. Doc- 
 tor ; there is plen-ty of 
 room till your wound-ed 
 come up." 
 
 This sto-ry is of-ten 
 told of him. In 1864, 
 when Gen-er-al Lee was 
 on the lines be-low Rich- 
 mond, man-y sol-diers 
 came near him and thus 
 brought to them the fire 
 of the foe. He said to 
 the sol-diers : '' Men, you 
 had bet-ter go in-to the 
 back-yard ; they are fir- 
 ing up here and you might 
 get hurt." 
 
 The men o-beyed, but 
 saw their dear Gen-er-al 
 walk a-cross the yard and 
 pick up some ob-ject and 
 place it in a tree o-ver his 
 head. They found out 
 
96 
 
 THE LIFE OF GES. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 that the ob-ject he had 
 risked his Hfe for was on- 
 ly a Ht-tle bird which had 
 fal-len out of its nest. 
 God had giv-en the stern 
 chief a heart so ten-der 
 that he could pause a- 
 mid a rain of shot and 
 shell to care for a ti-ny 
 fal-len bird-ling. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee dear-ly 
 loved his hors-es. Once, 
 when at the springs, he 
 wrote to his clerk in Lex- 
 ing-ton and sent this mes- 
 sagfe to his horse Trav- 
 el-er: "Tell hun I miss 
 him dread-ful-ly." 
 
 Trav-el-er lived on-ly 
 two years af-ter the death 
 of his mas-ter. In the 
 sum-mer of 1872, when 
 he was fif-teen years old, 
 
 the fine, faith-ful an-i-mal, 
 that had car-ried the Gen- 
 er-al through the storms 
 of war and the calm of 
 his lat-ter years, died of 
 lock-jaw in Lex-ing-ton. 
 He was not-ed for his 
 spring-y walk, high spir- 
 it, and great strength. 
 When a colt, he was 
 called Jeff. Da-vis. The 
 Gen - er - al changed h i s 
 name to Trav-el-er. He 
 was Lee's most fa-mous 
 war-horse. 
 
 Li the sum-mer of 1862 
 he owned a beau-ti-ful 
 war-horse called Rich- 
 mond, giv-en to hmi by 
 some friends in the cit-y 
 of Rich-mond. But, to 
 the grief of his mas-ter, 
 this pet was short-lived ; 
 
THE LIFE OF GBN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 9: 
 
 and what he writes af-ter 
 his loss, sounds al-most as 
 if he was look-nig back 
 to the death of a friend : 
 
 *' His la-bors are o-ver, 
 and he is at rest. He 
 car-ried me ver-y faith- 
 ful-ly, and I shall nev-er 
 have so beau-ti-ful an an- 
 i-mal a-gain." 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee was 
 not-ed for his want of ha- 
 tred to-wards the North. 
 He called the North-ern 
 sol-diers ''those peo-ple." 
 Once, in the midst of a 
 fierce bat-tie, he said to 
 his son Rob-ert, who was 
 brave-ly work-ing at a big 
 gun, '' That's right, my 
 son ; drive those peo-ple 
 back." When told of 
 Jack-son's fa-tal wound, 
 
 his eye flashed fire and 
 his face flushed as he 
 thought of his great loss; 
 but he qui-et-ly said : 
 
 ''Gen-er-al Jack-son's 
 plans shall be car-ried 
 out. Those peo-ple s/ia// 
 be driv-en back to-day y 
 
 The Rev. J. Wil-liam 
 Jones says that one day, 
 as he went up the street, 
 he saw Gen-er-al Lee 
 stand-ing talk-ing to a 
 poor man. As the man 
 walked a-way he said to 
 him : " That is one of our 
 old sol-diers, and add-ed, 
 'he fought on the oth-er 
 side ; but we must not 
 think of that.'" 
 
 Af-ter the war, when 
 at the springs, a la-dy 
 friend point-ed to a man 
 
98 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 near by and said to Gen- 
 er-al Lee, " That is Gen- 
 
 er-al , of the Fed-er- 
 
 al Ar-my. He is hav-ing 
 quite a dull time. He is 
 here with his daugh-ters, 
 but we do not care to 
 have any-thing to do with 
 them." 
 
 " I am glad that you 
 told me," said Gen-er-al 
 Lee; "I will see at once 
 that they have a bet-ter 
 time." 
 
 Af-ter that he took 
 pains to make friends 
 with "those peo-ple," and 
 so set the fash-ion for oth- 
 ers. Gen-er-al and 
 
 his daugh-ters were soon 
 hav-ino^ "a bet-ter time." 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee was 
 more than brave and ten- 
 
 der ; he was meek, yet 
 with a heart big e-nough 
 to love ev-er-y one of his 
 sol-diers, and great e- 
 nough to plan long march- 
 es and olo-ri-ous bat-ties. 
 
 Af-ter the bat-tie of 
 Get-tys-burg, one of his 
 of-fi-cers rode up and told 
 him that his men were for 
 the most part killed or 
 wound-ed. Lee shook 
 hands with him and said: 
 "All this has been my 
 fault. It IS / who have 
 lost this fight, and you 
 must help me out as best 
 you can." 
 
 Not once did Lee cast 
 the blame where it be- 
 longed, but rode a-mong 
 his men with such words 
 of cheer as these : " All 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 99 
 
 this will come riofht in the 
 end." "We want all 
 good and true men just 
 now." "All good men 
 must ral-ly." In this way 
 he closed up his bro-ken 
 lines, and showed such a 
 brave front that Meade 
 did not deem it well to 
 re-new the fight. 
 
 Once, when some 
 friends were at his house 
 in Rich-mond, the Rev. 
 
 Dr. spoke in sharp 
 
 terms of the way in which 
 the North had used the 
 South. Gen-er-al Lee 
 said, " Well ! it mat-ters 
 lit-tle what they may do 
 to me ; I am old, and have 
 but a short time to live at 
 best." 
 
 When Dr. 
 
 got up 
 
 to go home, Gen-er-al 
 Lee went with him to the 
 door and said to him, 
 " Doc-tor, there is a good 
 book which I read, and 
 which you preach from, 
 which says, ' Love your 
 en-e-mies, bless them that 
 curse you, do good to them 
 that hate you.' Do you 
 think your speech just 
 now quite in that spir-it.^" 
 
 When Dr. made 
 
 some ex-cuse, Gen-er-al 
 Lee said : " I have fought 
 the peo-ple of the North 
 be-cause I thought that 
 they were seek-ing to 
 wrest from the South her 
 rights. * * * I have 
 nev-er seen the day when 
 I did not pray for them." 
 
 One day dur-ing the 
 
100 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 war, as they were look- 
 ing at the hosts of the foe, 
 one of his gen-er-als said, 
 ''I wish those peo-ple 
 were all dead ! " Gen-er- 
 al Lee, with that grace 
 which was his own, said : 
 ''How can you say so? 
 Now, I wish that they 
 would all go home and 
 leave us to do the same." 
 At the close of the 
 war, some of our best 
 men went to seek homes 
 in oth-er lands. This, 
 Gen-er-al Lee deemed 
 wronQ[-. He thouo^ht that 
 the men of the South 
 should stay at home and 
 help to build up what 
 had been laid waste by 
 war. He wrote to one 
 of his friends thus: "She 
 
 (Virginia) has need for 
 all of her sons, and can 
 ill af-ford to spare you." 
 Once more he wrote: 'T 
 think the South needs the 
 aid of her sons more than 
 at any time of her his-to- 
 ry. As you ask, I will 
 state that I have no 
 thought of leaving her." 
 
 In a word, the wel-fare 
 of the South was his 
 chief con-cern. He kept 
 in sight the hon-or of the 
 South, but not that hate 
 to the North which 
 brought on-ly e-vil. 
 
 A la-dy who had 
 lost her hus-band in the 
 war, and had brought her 
 two sons to col-lege, 
 spoke in sharp terms of 
 the North to Gen-er-al 
 
THE LTFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 101 
 
 Lee. He gen-tly said : 
 *' Mad-am, do not train 
 up your chil-dren as foes 
 to the Gov-ern-ment of 
 the U-ni-ted States. * * 
 We are one coun-try 
 now. Bring them up to 
 be A-mer-i-cans." Thus 
 did this grand man with 
 a sad heart try to do his 
 du-ty to the land of his 
 birth. 
 
 Though meek in the 
 way I have told you, Gen- 
 er-al Lee was at the same 
 time too proud to take 
 the aid which from trnie 
 to time his friends would 
 of-fer him. They knew 
 that he had lost his "all" 
 by the war, and felt that 
 he should now be helped, 
 so that he might pass his 
 
 days with-out care. But 
 his proud soul would take 
 no aid. When, in a qui- 
 et way, the trus-tees of 
 the col-lege gave the 
 house in which he lived 
 to Mrs. Lee, and al-so 
 the sum of three thou- 
 sand dol-lars each year, 
 he wrote, in Mrs. Lee's 
 name, a kind but firm let- 
 ter and de-clined the eift. 
 
 Af-ter his death, they 
 a-gain deed-ed the home 
 to Mrs. Lee and sent her 
 a check for a laro-e sum 
 of mon-ey. But she, 
 with the pride of her hus- 
 band, sent back the check 
 and would not let the 
 funds of the col-leee be 
 tak-en for her use. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee was al- 
 
W2 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ways neat In his at-tire. 
 This trait was the cause 
 of much com-ment at the 
 time of the "sur-ren-der." 
 
 Gen-er-al Sharp, of the 
 U. S. Ar-my, says: 
 
 '' It was late in the day 
 when it was known that 
 Gen-er-al Lee had sent 
 for Gen-er-al Grant to 
 sur-ren-der to him. The 
 sur-ren-der took place in 
 the left-hand room of an 
 old house which had a 
 hall-way through it. In 
 that room were a few of- 
 fi-cers, of whom I was 
 one. 
 
 '*A short space a-part 
 sat two men. The larg- 
 er and tall-er of the two 
 was the most strik-ing. 
 His hair was as white as 
 
 snow. There was not a 
 speck up-on his coat ; not 
 a spot up-on those gaunt- 
 lets that he wore, which 
 were as briorht and fair as 
 a la-dy's glove. That was 
 Rob-ert E. Lee. The 
 oth-er was U-lys-ses S. 
 Grant. His boots were 
 full of mud ; one but-ton 
 of his coat — that is, the 
 but-ton-hole — was where 
 it should not have been — ■ 
 it had clear-ly gone a- 
 stray ; and he wore no 
 sword. 
 
 *'The words that 
 passed be-tween Lee and 
 Grant were few. Gen- 
 er-al Grant, while the men 
 wrote out the terms of the 
 sur-ren-der, said : 'Gen- 
 er-al Lee, I have no 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 103 
 
 sword; I rode all night/ 
 And Gen-er-al Lee, with 
 the pride which be-came 
 him well, made no re-ply, 
 but in a cold, for-mal 
 way, bowed. 
 
 "Then Gen-er-al 
 Grant, in the at-tempt to 
 be po-lite, said: T don't 
 al-ways wear a sword.' 
 
 '' Lee on-ly bowed a- 
 gain. 
 
 "Some one else then 
 said: 'Gen-er-al Lee, 
 what be-came of the white 
 horse you rode in Mex-i- 
 co ? He might not be 
 dead yet ; he was not so 
 old.' 
 
 "Gen-er-al Lee a-gain 
 bowed and said : ' I left 
 him at the White House, 
 on the Pa-mun-key riv-er. 
 
 and I have not seen him 
 since.' 
 
 " Then there were a 
 few words spo-ken in a 
 low tone of voice be-tween 
 Grant and Lee, which we 
 could not hear. 
 
 "At last, when the 
 terms of sur-ren-der had 
 all been signed, Lee a- 
 rose, cold and proud, and 
 bowed to each man on 
 our side in the room. 
 And then he went out 
 and passed down that lit- 
 tle square in front of the 
 house, and mount-ed the 
 gray horse that had car- 
 ried him all o-ver Vir- 
 
 gm-i-a. 
 
 "When he had gone 
 we learned what the low- 
 toned words had meant. 
 
104 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Gen-er-al Grant turned 
 and said: 'You go and 
 ask each man that has 
 three ra-tions to turn o- 
 ver two of them, and send 
 them on to Gen-er-al 
 Lee. His men are on 
 the point of star-va-tion.' " 
 
 This calm, proud man 
 was the same who a few 
 hours be-fore had said : 
 ''Then there is noth-mg 
 left me but to go and see 
 Gen-er-al Grant, and I 
 would rath-er die a thou- 
 sand deaths." His su- 
 perb, proud mien won 
 from the foe on-ly praise 
 and re-spect. 
 
 I must here give you 
 Gen-er-al Fitz-hugh 
 Lee's pic-ture of the two 
 gen-er-als at that time : 
 
 " Grant, not yet for-ty- 
 three years old, five feet 
 eight inch-es tall, should- 
 ers slight-ly stooped, hair 
 and beard nut-brown, 
 wear-ing a dark-blue 
 blouse ; top-boots, pants 
 in -side; dark thread 
 gloves ; with-out spurs or 
 sword, and no marks of 
 rank save the straps of a 
 gen-er-al. 
 
 " Lee, fif-ty-eight years 
 old, six feet tall, hair and 
 beard sil-ver-gray; a 
 hand-some u-ni-form of 
 Con-fed-er-ate gray, but- 
 toned to the throat, with 
 three stars on col-lar, fine 
 top-boots with spurs, new 
 gaunt-lets, and at his side 
 a splen-did sword. Lee 
 wore his best in hon-or of 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 105 
 
 the cause for which he 
 fought." 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee nev-er 
 touched to-bac-co, bran- 
 dy, or whis-key ; he was 
 al-ways a so-ber man. 
 Just as he was start-ing 
 to the Mex-i-can war, a 
 la-dy ni Vir-gin-i-a gave 
 him a bot-tle of fine old 
 whis-key, say-ing that he 
 would be sure to need it, 
 and that it was ver-y fine. 
 On his re-turn home he 
 sent the bot-tle, un-o- 
 pened, to his friend to 
 con-vince her that he 
 could oret a-lonor with-out 
 whis-key. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee once 
 pro-posed to treat some 
 of his of-fi-cers, say-ing, 
 "I have a dem-i-john 
 
 which I know is of the 
 besty The dem-i-john 
 was brought, and the cups 
 held out for the treat were 
 filled to the brim — not 
 with old " Rye," but with 
 fresh but-ter-milk, which 
 a kind la-dy had sent him. 
 The Gen-er-al seemed to 
 en-joy the joke huge-ly. 
 Be-ing once asked to 
 a fine din-ner, he re-fused 
 all the good dish-es, and 
 said to the la-dy of the 
 house : '' I can-not con- 
 sent to be feast-incr while 
 my poor men are near-ly 
 starv-inof." 
 
 It was his way to send 
 any nice thing he might 
 have to the sick and 
 wound-ed in the hos-pi- 
 tals. 
 
106 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 A la-dy re-mem-bers 
 that when her broth-er 
 was bacl-ly wound-ed 
 near Pe-ters-burg, he was 
 tak-en to a tent close by 
 a hos-pi-tal, out of range 
 of the fire of the foe. 
 One day Gen-er-al Lee 
 came rid-ing up and went 
 in to see the wound-ed 
 man. He took him gen- 
 tly by the hand and told 
 him to cheer up and get 
 well ; that he had need of 
 all brave men like him. 
 Then he drew two fine 
 peach-es from his pock-et 
 and laid them on the side 
 of the cot. 
 
 Tears fell down the 
 wound-ed man's pale 
 cheeks as he heard these 
 kind words and felt that 
 
 his chief cared so much 
 for him, a pri-vate sol-dier. 
 Near the close of the 
 war, when meat had be- 
 come cjuite scarce, an 
 aide of Pres-i-dent Da- 
 vis being at head-quar- 
 ters, was asked to dme. 
 The meal spread on the 
 rough board was corn- 
 bread and a small piece 
 of meat in a large mess 
 of greens. The aide saw 
 that the meat was not 
 touched, though Gen-er- 
 al Lee had asked all to 
 take a piece of it. When 
 the meal was o-ver, the 
 aide asked one of the 
 men why the meat was 
 not eat-en. The re-ply 
 was, that it had been 
 loaned by a friend to cook 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 107 
 
 with the greens, and had 
 to be re-turned. 
 
 It was Gen-er-al Lee's 
 wish to fare just as his 
 men did. When, dur-ing 
 the siege of Pe-ters-burg, 
 Mrs. Lee, fear-ing the 
 great strain would be too 
 much for him, begged him 
 to take more care of his 
 health, he wrote: *'But 
 what care can a man give 
 to him-self in time of 
 war?" He then went on 
 to say that he lived in a 
 tent to be near his men 
 and the of-fi-cers with 
 whom he had to act; that 
 he had been of- fere d 
 rooms by kind friends, but 
 that he could not turn 
 their homes in-to a camp. 
 
 An Eng-lish of-fi-cer 
 
 wrote this ac-count of 
 Lee's head-quar-ters in 
 1862: "Lee's head-quar- 
 ters I found were on-ly 
 sev-en or eight pole-tents, 
 with their backs to a stake- 
 fence, while a lit-tle stream 
 of good wa-ter flowed 
 close by. In front of the 
 tents were three wae-ons, 
 and a num-ber of hors-es 
 roamed o-ver the fields. 
 No guards were seen near, 
 and no crowd of aides 
 swarmed a-bout. A large 
 farm-house stood close 
 by, which would have 
 made a good home for the 
 Gen-er-al, but Lee does 
 not let his men rob or 
 dis-turb the peo-ple, and 
 likes to set them a eood 
 ex-am-ple." 
 
108 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 It was in this way that 
 he gained the great love 
 of his men. 
 
 A short time af-ter the 
 sur-ren-der, two rag-ged 
 Con-fed-er-ates, just from 
 pris-on in the North, wait- 
 ed up-on the Gen-er-al 
 and said that there were 
 six-ty oth-er fel-lows a- 
 round the cor-ner who 
 were too rag-ged to come. 
 They had sent these two 
 to of-fer their loved chief a 
 home in the moun-tains of 
 Vir-gin-i-a. "We will 
 give you," said one of 
 them, ''a good house and 
 a fine farm. We boys will 
 work for you and you shall 
 nev-er want." The tears 
 came to the eyes of Gen- 
 er-al Lee as he told them 
 
 that he must de-cline 
 their gift. The of-fer of 
 these men was but the 
 feel-ing of the whole 
 South. Though poor 
 them-selves, they would 
 have giv-en him hous-es, 
 lands and mon-ey had he 
 let them. This is a let- 
 ter which he oot from one 
 of his old sol-diers just 
 af-ter the war : 
 " Dear Gen-er-al : 
 
 *' We have been fight- 
 ing hard four years, and 
 now the Yan-kees have 
 got us in Lib-by Pris-on. 
 They are treat-ing us aw- 
 ful bad. The boys want 
 you to get us out if you 
 can ; but if you can't, just 
 ride by the Lib-by and 
 let us see you and give 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE 
 
 109 
 
 you a cheer. We will all 
 feel bet-ter for it." 
 
 This let-ter touched the 
 ten-der heart of Lee as 
 well as this sto-ry which 
 was told to him by Rev. 
 J. Wil-liam Jones. Af- 
 ter the war the lat-ter 
 was rid-ino- a-lono- a 
 road one day, when he 
 saw a young man plow- 
 mg in the field, guid-ing 
 the plow with one hand, 
 for on the oth-er side was 
 an emp-ty sleeve. 
 
 He soon saw that the 
 man plow-ing was a sol- 
 dier whom he had known, 
 and stopped to speak to 
 him. In fact, he had 
 known the young man 
 from boy-hood ; how, at 
 the first tap of the drum 
 
 he had gone to fioht for 
 his na-tive State ; and how 
 he had been maimed for 
 life and gone home, to 
 find that he must work 
 with one arm for his 
 bread, as his for-tune had 
 been wrecked by the war. 
 When he told the young- 
 man how sad it made him 
 to see him thus, the lat- 
 ter said : " Oh ! it is all 
 right. I thank God that 
 I have 07te arm left, and 
 can use it for those I 
 love." 
 
 When the Rev. Mr. 
 Jones told this to Gen- 
 er-al Lee, his face flushed 
 and he said : '' What a 
 no-ble fel-low ! But it is 
 just like one of our sol- 
 diers. The world has 
 
no 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 nev-er seen no-bler men 
 than those who be-longed 
 to the Ar-my of North- 
 ern Vir-gin-i-a." 
 
 But the real cor-ner- 
 stone of Lee's Hfe was 
 his trust in God. What- 
 ev-er came to hmi he al- 
 ways said, "God's will be 
 done." 
 
 One of his great-est 
 o^riefs was the death of the 
 wife of his son, Gen-er-al 
 W. H. Fitz-hugh Lee. 
 The lat-ter was wound-ed 
 and tak-en pris-on-er. 
 While in pris-on his love- 
 ly wife died. In this bit- 
 ter grief Gen-er-al Lee 
 wrote to his son these 
 words : 
 
 '' My whole trust is in 
 God, and I am read-y for 
 
 what-ev-er He may or- 
 dain." 
 
 While the ar-my was 
 at Mine Run, in No-vem- 
 ber, 1863, and a bat-tie 
 was at hand, Gen-er-al 
 Lee, with a num-ber of 
 of-fi-cers rid-ing down the 
 line of bat-tie, came up- 
 on a par-ty of sol-diers 
 who were hold-ing a 
 pray -er- meet -ing. The 
 shoot-ing had be-gun a- 
 long the lines, the can- 
 nons were al-read-y roar- 
 mg, and the mind and 
 heart of the o-reat chief 
 were on the bat-tie. Yet, 
 as he saw these men bent 
 in pray-er, he dis-mount- 
 ed and joined in the sim- 
 ple wor-ship. So these 
 hum-ble men led the de- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 vo-tions of their loved 
 Gen-er-al. 
 
 One day in 1865, while 
 rid-ino^ a-lonor the lines 
 with his staff, Gen-er-al 
 Lee met the Rev. J. Wil- 
 liam Jones, who was giv- 
 ing tracts to the men in 
 the trench -es. He at 
 once remed m his horse 
 and spoke to this ''man of 
 God," while the of-fi-cers 
 crowd-ed a-round. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee asked if 
 he ev-er had calls for 
 pray-er-books, and said 
 that if he would come to 
 his head-quar-ters he 
 would give him some — 
 that a friend m Rich-mond 
 had giv-en him a new 
 book ; and up-on his say- 
 ing that he would give his 
 
 old one, that he had used 
 ev-er since the Mex-i-can 
 war, to some sol-dier, the 
 friend had of-fered him a 
 doz-en new books for the 
 old one. He had, of 
 course, tak-en so grand 
 an of-fer and now had 
 twelve, in place of one, to 
 give a-way. 
 
 When the Rev. Mr. 
 Jones called, Gen-er-al 
 Lee had gone out, but 
 had left the books with 
 one of his staff for Mr. 
 Jones. He had writ-ten 
 on the fly-leaf of each 
 book, " Pre-sent-ed by R. 
 E. Lee." 
 
 We are sure that if 
 an-y of these books were 
 saved a-mid the din and 
 stress of w^ar, that they are 
 
11^ 
 
 THE LIFB OF GUN. ROBERT B. LEE. 
 
 now much prized by those 
 who own them. 
 
 These are some of the 
 words which he would 
 use when his ar-my had 
 gained the day : " Thanks 
 be to God." "God has 
 a-gain crowned the val-or 
 of our troops with suc- 
 cess." A-gain, up-on a 
 fast-clay, he said in an or- 
 der, " Sol-diers ! let us 
 hum-ble our -selves be- 
 fore the Lord our God, 
 ask-ing, through Christ, 
 the for-oive-ness of our 
 sins." 
 
 With the close of the 
 war, the pi-e-ty of this 
 great man seemed to in- 
 crease. His seat at 
 church was al-ways filled 
 un-less he was kept a- 
 
 way by sick-ness, and he 
 was ev-er read-y for good 
 works. He did not find 
 fault with preach-ers, as 
 so man-y do, but was 
 most fond of those who 
 were sim-ple and true to 
 the teach-ings of the Bi- 
 ble. 
 
 Once he said to a 
 friend : '' Do you think 
 that it would be an-y harm 
 
 for me to hint to Mr. 
 
 that we would be glad if 
 he made his morn-ino- 
 pray-ers a lit-tle short .^ 
 You know our friend 
 makes his pray-er too 
 long. He prays for the 
 Jews, the Turks, and the 
 heath-en, and runs in-to 
 the hour for our Col-lege 
 rec-i-ta-tions. Would it 
 
The Lee Monument Unveiled. 
 
 Richmond, Va., May 29th, 1890. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 113 
 
 be wrong for me to hint 
 
 to Mr. 
 
 that he con- 
 
 fine his morn -nig pray-ers 
 to us poor sin-ners at the 
 Col-lege, and pray for the 
 Turks, the Jews, the Chi- 
 nese, and oth-er heath-en 
 some oth-er tmie?" 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee was a 
 con-stant read-er of the 
 Bi-ble. One of his 
 friends re-lates that, as he 
 watched be-sicle his bod-y 
 the day af-ter death, he 
 picked up from the ta-ble 
 a well-worn pock-et Bi- 
 ble, in which was writ-ten 
 in his own hand " R. E. 
 Lee, Lieu-ten-ant-Col-o- 
 nel of U. S. Ar-my." 
 This lit-tle book had 
 been the light of his path- 
 way through man-y tri-als. 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee gave 
 free-ly of his small means 
 to his church and the 
 poor. At the ves-try 
 meet-ing, which took 
 place the e-ven-ing of his 
 ill-ness, fif-ty-five dol-lars 
 were lack-ing for the pay 
 of the pas-tor. Though 
 he had be-fore g-iv-en his 
 share, he now said in a 
 low voice, 'T will give the 
 sum." These were the 
 last words he spoke to the 
 meet-ing, and this giv-ing 
 was his last pub-lie act. 
 
 His love for his wife 
 and chil-dren is shown 
 by the ten-der, lov-ing 
 let-ters he wrote when a- 
 way from them. Dur-ing 
 the Civ-il War his anx-i- 
 e-ty for them was great. 
 
114 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 Just be-fore the North- 
 ern ar-my crossed the Po- 
 to-mac, in 1861, Mrs. Lee 
 left her beau-ti-ful home, 
 Ar-ling-ton, and came 
 south. Ar-ling-ton was 
 at once seized by the U-ni- 
 ted States Gov-ern-ment, 
 and the grounds tak-en as 
 a bur-i-al-place for the 
 U-ni-ted States sol-diers. 
 
 Mrs. Lee and her 
 daugh-ters then sought a 
 home at the ''White 
 House," on the Pa-mun- 
 key riv-er, where Wash- 
 ing-ton had mar-ried the 
 '' Wid-ow Cus-tis," and 
 which had been left by 
 Mr. Cus-tis to one of 
 Gen-er-al Lee's sons. 
 But they were soon driv- 
 en from there by the hosts 
 
 of Mc-Clel-lan, and the 
 house was burned to the 
 ground. At last they 
 found a home in Rich- 
 mond, where they Hved 
 un-til the close of the 
 war. 
 
 Mrs. Lee's health had 
 failed, but the most of her 
 best hours were spent in 
 knit-ting socks for the 
 poor bare-foot-ed sol- 
 diers of the South. Her 
 brave daugh-ters al-so 
 knit socks and nursed the 
 sick and wound-ed sol- 
 diers. Those were sad 
 times, and the Lee fam- 
 i-ly suf-fered most heav- 
 i-ly. 
 
 The death of her no- 
 ble hus-band was a great 
 shock to Mrs. Lee, who 
 
THB LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 115 
 
 was then not a-ble to 
 walk with-out aid. She 
 did not sur-vive him 
 man-y years, and now 
 rests be-side hmi in the 
 Col-lege chap-el at Lex- 
 ino-ton. Their dau^h- 
 ter Ag-nes, who died 
 short-ly af-ter her fa-ther, 
 is bur-ied in the same sa- 
 cred place. 
 
 Close by is the grave 
 of Stone-wall Jack-son. 
 How meet that these two 
 friends and he-roes should 
 rest so near each oth-er ! 
 
 The blue moun-tains of 
 their loved Vir-gin-i-a 
 
 keep ''watch and ward " o- 
 ver their graves ; and each 
 year, pil-grims from ev- 
 er-y part of the land come 
 to vis-it their tombs and 
 place fresh flow-ers and 
 green wreaths up-on 
 them. 
 
 Gen-er-al Cus-tis Lee 
 was made Pres-i-dent of 
 the Col-lege in his fa- 
 ther's place. The Col- 
 lege is now called the 
 '' Wash-ing-ton and Lee 
 U - n i - V e r - s i- 1}^" af-ter 
 Wash-ing-ton and Lee, the 
 two great-est names in the 
 his-to-ry of the coun-try. 
 
 Con'-course, a crowd of peo-ple. 
 
 Cou'-ri-er (koo'-ri-er), a man who car-ries an or-der for an 
 of-fi-cer. 
 
 Fir-grim, a trav-el-er to ho-ly pla-ces. 
 
U6 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A PEOPLES HERO. 
 
 Af-TER the death of 
 Gen-er-al Lee, man-y 
 speech-es were made in 
 his praise, and man-y let- 
 ters writ-ten tell-ino^ of the 
 sor-row of his friends. 
 These let-ters came not 
 on-ly from the South, but 
 from the North, and oth- 
 er lands. 
 
 The New York Sun 
 thus clos-es its no-tice : 
 
 "His death will a-wa- 
 ken great grief through 
 the South, and man-y 
 peo-ple in the North will 
 drop a tear of sor-row on 
 his bier. * * * j^ 
 
 Gen-er-al Lee, an a-ble 
 sol-dier, a sin-cere Chris- 
 tian, and an hon-est man 
 has been tak-en from 
 earth." 
 
 The New York Her- 
 a/of said these kind words 
 of him : 
 
 " In a qui-et au-tumn 
 morn-ing, in the land he 
 loved so well, and, as he 
 held, he had served so 
 faith-ful-ly, the spir-it of 
 Rob-ert E. Lee left the 
 clay which it had so much 
 en-no-bled, and trav-eled 
 out of this world in-to the 
 great and un-known land. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 117 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Not to the 
 South-ern peo-ple a-lone 
 shall be lim-it-ed the trib- 
 ute of a tear o-ver the 
 dead Vir-gin-i-an. Here 
 in the North, for-oret-tinor 
 that the time was when 
 the sword of Rob-ert E. 
 Lee was drawn a-gainst 
 us, we have long since 
 ceased to look up-on him 
 as the Con-fed-er-ate 
 lead-er, but have claimed 
 him as one of our-selves ; 
 for Rob-ert Ed-ward Lee 
 was an A-mer-i-can, and 
 the great na-tion which 
 gave hmi birth would to- 
 day be un-wor-thy of such 
 a son if she looked up-on 
 him light-ly." 
 
 The Pall Mall Ga-zette, 
 Lon-don, Eng-land, said: 
 
 "The news from A- 
 mer-i-ca, that Gen-er-al 
 Rob-ert E. Lee is dead, 
 will be re-ceived with 
 great sor-row by man-y 
 in this coun-try, as well 
 as by his fel-low-sol-diers 
 in A-mer-i-ca. 
 
 '' It is but a few years 
 since Rob-ert E. Lee 
 ranked a-mong the great 
 men of his time. He 
 was the a-ble sol-dier of 
 the South-ern Con-fed - 
 er-a-cy, the lead-er who 
 twice threat-ened, by the 
 cap-ture of Wash-ing-ton, 
 to turn the tide of suc- 
 cess and cause a rev-o-lu- 
 tion which would have 
 changed the des-ti-ny of 
 the U-ni-ted States." 
 
 The Lon-don Staitd- 
 
118 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ard gave this tri-bute to 
 Lee : 
 
 " A coun-try which has 
 giv-en birth to men hke 
 him, and those who fol- 
 lowed him, may look the 
 chiv-al-ry of Eu-rope in 
 the face with-out shame ; 
 for the lands of Sid-ney 
 and of Bay-ard nev-er 
 brought forth a no-bler 
 sol-dier, gen-tle-man and 
 Chris-tian, than Rob-ert 
 E. Lee." 
 
 He was called ''the 
 great cap-tain of his age" 
 — "the great gen-er-al of 
 the Re-bel-lion " — " a 
 good knight, no-ble of 
 heart and strong of pur- 
 pose, and both a sol-dier 
 and a gen-tle-man." 
 
 These beau-ti-ful 
 
 words were said of him 
 in a speech soon af-ter 
 his death : 
 
 '* Gen-er-al Lee's fame 
 is not bound-ed by the 
 lim-its of the South, nor 
 by the con-ti-nent. I re- 
 joice that the South gave 
 him birth. I re-joice that 
 the South will hold his 
 ash-es. But his fame be- 
 longs to the hu-man race. 
 Wash -ing- ton, too, was 
 born in the South and 
 sleeps in the South, but 
 his fame be-longs to man- 
 kind. We place the name 
 of Lee by that of Wash- 
 ing-ton. They both be- 
 long to the world. 
 
 "There is one thing 
 more I wish to say be-fore 
 I take my seat. Gen-er- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 119 
 
 al Lee's fame ought to 
 rest on the true base. He 
 did not draw his sword 
 in the cause of sla-ver-y — 
 he did not seek to o-ver- 
 throw the Gov-ern-ment 
 of the U-ni-ted States. 
 He drew it in the de-fense 
 of con-sti-tu-tion-al Hb- 
 .er-ty. That cause is not 
 dead, but will live for-ev- 
 er. 
 
 Gen-er-al W. Pres-ton 
 spoke of him thus : 
 
 " I knew him first when 
 he was a cap-tain. * * 
 At that time, Gen-er-al 
 Scott had fixed up-on Gen- 
 er-al Lee as the man who 
 would make his mark if 
 ev-er the coun-try need- 
 ed his ser-vi-ces. He 
 nev-er drank, he nev-er 
 
 swore an oath, but there 
 was nev-er a dis-pute a- 
 mong gen-tle-men that his 
 voice was not more po- 
 tent than an-y oth-er; his 
 rare calm-ness and die- 
 ni-ty were a-bove all. 
 When the war came on, 
 he fol-lowed his na-tive 
 State, Vir-gin-i-a. * * 
 Scott main-tained that 
 Lee was the great-est sol- 
 dier in the ar-my. * * 
 I re-mem-ber when Scott 
 made use of these words : 
 ' I tell you one thing, if 
 I was on my death-bed, 
 and knew that a bat-tie 
 was to be fought for my 
 coun-try, and the Pres-i- 
 dent was to say to me, 
 'Scott who shall com- 
 mand?' I tell you that, 
 
120 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 with my dy-ing breath, I 
 should say Rob-ert Lee. 
 No-bod-y but Rob-ert 
 Lee ! Rob-ert Lee and 
 no-bod-y but Lee ! " 
 
 These ex-tracts would 
 not be com-plete with-out 
 this one, bear-ing up-on 
 his life as a teacher : 
 
 '' And it is an hon-or 
 for all the col-leg-es of 
 the South, and for all our 
 schools, that this pure 
 and bright name is joined 
 by the will of him that 
 bore it with the cause of 
 ed-u-ca-tion. We think 
 that so long as the name 
 of Lee is loved a-monor 
 us, our South-ern teach- 
 ers may re-joice and grow 
 strong-er in their work, 
 when they re-mem-ber 
 
 that he was one of their 
 num-ber, and that his 
 great heart, that had so 
 brave-ly borne the for- 
 tunes of an em-pire, bore 
 al-so, a-mid its lat-est as- 
 pi-ra-tions, the in-ter-ests 
 and hopes of the teach- 
 er. 
 
 But the great-est hon- 
 or ev-er paid to our he-ro 
 was when the bronze 
 stat-ue by Mer-ci-e 
 (Mur-se~a) was un-veiled 
 in Rich-mond. 
 
 Short-ly af-ter the death 
 of Gen-er-al Lee, a few 
 la-dies met in a par-lor in 
 Rich-mond and formed a 
 so-ci-e-ty known as the 
 La-dies' Lee Mon-u-ment 
 As-so-ci-a-tion. Their 
 plan was to e-rect a mon- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 121 
 
 u-ment in Rich-mond to 
 the mem-o-ry of the great 
 chief, and to col-lect funds 
 for the same from the en- 
 tire South. They be-gan 
 at once their la-bor of 
 love. Though the South 
 was at that time ver-y 
 poor, the peo-ple gave 
 glacl-ly of their small 
 means, un-til, at last, the 
 La -dies' As-so-ci-a-tion 
 had col-lect-ed o-ver fif- 
 teen thou-sand dol-lars. 
 
 Al-most at the same 
 time an-oth-er ''Lee 
 Mon-u-ment As-so-ci-a- 
 tion " was formed of the 
 old sol-diers and sail-ors 
 of the Con-fed-er-a-cy, 
 which had Gen-er-al Ju- 
 bal A. Ear-ly for its pres- 
 i-dent. The la- dies of 
 
 the Hol-ly-wood Me-mo- 
 ri-al As-so-ci-a-tion were 
 asked to aid, and they 
 proved great work-ers in 
 the cause. 
 
 I can-not tell you the 
 man-y ways in which 
 these and oth-er so-ci-e- 
 ties worked to raise the 
 mon-ey, but at last there 
 was e-nough in the treas- 
 u-ry to e-rect the stat-ue. 
 
 In the mean-time Gen- 
 er-al Fitz-hugh Lee was 
 made Gov-ern-or of Vir- 
 gin-i-a, and he at once 
 be-gan to take meas-ures 
 to bring a-bout the e-rec- 
 tion of the mon-u-ment. 
 By his ef-forts a ''Board 
 of Man-a-gers " was ap- 
 point-ed, whose work was 
 to choose the de-sign, the 
 
122 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 ar-tist, and the site for the 
 mon-u-ment. The Al- 
 len lot, in the west-ern 
 part of the cit-y, was at last 
 cho-sen for the site, and 
 was ac-cept-ed as the gift 
 of Mr. Ot-way Al-len, 
 June 18th, 1887. It was 
 then the du-ty of the 
 Board to find a sculp-tor 
 wor-thy of their choice. 
 Af-ter man-y tri-als, it 
 se-lect-ed Mon-sieur 
 Mer-cie, a French-man, 
 who is both a paint-er and 
 a sculp-tor of note. In 
 the sum-mer of 1887, the 
 best pho- to -graphs of 
 Gen-er-al Lee, as well as 
 one of his shoes and his 
 u-ni-form, were sent to the 
 sculp-tor. A small spur, 
 such as Gen-er-al Lee 
 
 wore, was al-so tak-en o- 
 ver to France by Miss 
 Ran-dolph, who was one 
 of the Board of Man-a- 
 gers. Mon-sieur Mer- 
 cie told her that when 
 Gen-er-al Lee's shoe was 
 sent to him, there was 
 no one in his house-hold 
 with a foot small e-nough 
 to wear it but his twelve- 
 year-old son. 
 
 In work-ing out the 
 like-ness to Gen-er-al 
 Lee, Mon-sieur Mer-cie 
 had the good for-tune to 
 have Miss Ma-ry Lee, 
 who was then in Par-is, 
 as a crit-ic of his work. 
 
 On the 27th of Oc-to- 
 ber, 188 7, the cor-ner- 
 stone was laid with splen- 
 did rites, and on the 3rd 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 123 
 
 of May, 1890, the stat-ue 
 reached Rich-mond by 
 way of New York. It 
 was packed in three 
 box-es. On the 7th of 
 May each box was placed 
 in a wag-on, from which 
 waved the flags of Vir- 
 gin -i -a and the Con- 
 fed-er-a-cy. Then one 
 wag -on was drawn by 
 men of the cit-y, one by 
 old sol-diers, and one by 
 wom-en and orirls — the 
 fine la-dy stand-ing by the 
 side of her hum-bler sis- 
 ter. They went on 
 through the cit-y, pull- 
 ing the ropes a-mid the 
 cheers of twen-ty thou- 
 sand peo-ple, un-til they 
 came to the spot where 
 the stat-ue was to stand. 
 
 Such was their love for 
 Lee! 
 
 The mon-u-ment in all 
 is a-bout six-ty-one feet 
 in height, and cost six-ty- 
 five thou -sand dol-lars. 
 It shows the Gen-er-al 
 mount-ed up-on his war- 
 horse Trav-el-er. His 
 feet touch the stir-rups 
 light-ly, af-ter the man-ner 
 of the south-ern horse- 
 men. He is clad in a 
 plain u-ni-form. A sash 
 girds his waist, and the 
 sword of a cav-al-ry of-fi- 
 cer hangs from his side. 
 He holds the bri-dle reins 
 in his left hand, while in 
 his right is his hat, which 
 he grasps as if he had 
 just tak-en it off to ac- 
 knowledge the cheers of 
 
124 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 his men, through whose 
 ranks we may sup-pose 
 him to be pass-ing. 
 
 The day at last fixed 
 up-on for un-vell-ing the 
 stat-ue was Fri-day, May 
 29th, 1890. 
 
 From the north, south, 
 east and west peo-ple 
 thronged to do hon-or to 
 the great chief. 
 
 All the cit-y was then 
 think-ing of one man — 
 Lee, just as, twen-ty-five 
 years be-fore, all their 
 hopes had turned to him. 
 
 On that day the sun 
 rose bright, and the peo- 
 ple with it. Soon, the 
 noise of tramp-ing feet and 
 the tap of the drum were 
 heard, and ere long the 
 glit-ter of bay-o-nets, the 
 
 flash-ing of sa-bers and 
 the wav-ing of flags told 
 that the line was form-ing. 
 The streets were crowd- 
 ed and rang with cheers 
 as some not-ed sol-dier 
 rode by or an old Con- 
 fed-er-ate flag was waved. 
 At last the long line 
 was formed, and moved 
 at noon from Broad street. 
 Ev-er-y win-dow, door- 
 way, and e-ven the house- 
 tops a-long the line of 
 march, were filled with 
 folks ea-ger to see the 
 great pa-rade, which 
 stretched through the 
 streets four miles in mov- 
 
 me mass. 
 
 Gen-er-al Fitz-hugh 
 Lee, neph-ew of the he- 
 ro, who had been one 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 of his most dar-ing cav- 
 al-ry gen-er-als dur-ing 
 the war, and who had for- 
 mer-ly been Gov-ern-or 
 of Vir-gui-i-a, was chief 
 mar-shal of the pa-rade. 
 Cheer af-ter cheer a-rose 
 as he rode by, wear-ing 
 the slouch hat of a cav- 
 al-ry-man. ''Our Fitz," 
 as his men loved to call 
 him, "was him -self a- 
 
 o^am. 
 
 The guests rode in o- 
 pen car-riag-es, and a- 
 mong them were Miss-es 
 Ma-ry and Mil-dred Lee, 
 and Gen-er-al W. H. 
 Fitz-hugh Lee, wife and 
 sons. They were fol- 
 lowed by band af-ter band 
 of vol-un-teer troops from 
 all the South-ern States, 
 
 in the fol-low-inor or-der : 
 South Car-o-li-na, North 
 Car-o-li-na, Mis -sis -sip- 
 pi, Tex-as, Ma-ry-land, 
 Dis-trict of Co-lum-bia, 
 Al-a-bam-a, West Vir- 
 gin-i-a and Vir-gin-i-a. 
 Be-hind these marched 
 the vet-er-ans — men who 
 had fought in the late 
 war, and who came from 
 all parts of the South. 
 Brave men were there 
 from Tex-as, the far-off 
 '' Lone Star State." With 
 the vet-er-an troops from 
 Lou-is-i-an-a was ''the 
 old war-horse" Lone- 
 street, who had led the 
 First Corps of the ar-my 
 of North-ern Vir-gin-i-a; 
 and at the head of the 
 Geor-gi-a men was the 
 
126 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 tried and true Gor-don. 
 Gal-lant sons of Flor-I-da, 
 Mis-sis-sip-pi and Al-a- 
 bam-a, were in line with 
 the brave men of North 
 and South Car-o-H-na. 
 Vet-er-ans from Ar-kan- 
 sas, Ten-nes-see, Ken- 
 tuck-y, Ma-ry-land, West 
 Vir-gin-i-a and Vir-gin- 
 i-a were al-so there to hon- 
 or the mem-o-ry of their 
 lead-er. 
 
 When-ev-er and where- 
 ev-er these vet-er-ans were 
 seen, they were greet-ed 
 with hear-ty cheers. 
 Some wore their old grey 
 u-ni-forms, all of which 
 were fad-ed and worn, 
 and man-y full of bul-let- 
 holes. Here and there 
 a-long the line could be 
 
 seen the old and tat-tered 
 flaos of the Con-fed-er- 
 a-cy. 
 
 Af-ter the vet-er-ans 
 came the civ-ic or-clers in 
 Rich-mond and the stu- 
 dents of Wash-inor-ton 
 and Lee U-ni-ver-si-ty. 
 
 The cross-bars and bat- 
 tle fla^s of the Con-fed- 
 er-a-cy float-ed in the 
 breeze by the side of the 
 stars and stripes, which 
 meant that the peo-ple of 
 the U-ni-ted States were 
 a-gain one na-tion. 
 
 As the line moved a- 
 lonor the streets decked 
 with float-ing flags and 
 gay bunt-ing, the sound 
 of the man-y feet was 
 lost in loud and hear-ty 
 cheers that a-rose from 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
 127 
 
 doors, house-tops and 
 crowd-ed side-walks. 
 
 At last the throng at 
 the grand-stand heard the 
 roll of the drum and the 
 near-ing din of the pa- 
 rade, and soon the bright 
 line swept in-to view. 
 The crowd was so dense 
 that per -sons on the 
 grand-stand could not be 
 seen by those on the 
 ground. Ring-ing cheers 
 a-rose, not once, but time 
 and time a-gain, as the 
 great men took their pla- 
 ces on the stand, and it 
 was not un-til 3:45 o'clock 
 P. M. that Gov-ern-or 
 Mc-Kin-ney stepped for- 
 ward to make the o-pen- 
 ing speech. 
 
 Then there was a pray- 
 
 er by Rev. Dr. Min-ni- 
 ge-rode, who had been 
 rec-tor of St. Paul's 
 church dur-ing the war, 
 at which church Gen-er- 
 al Lee wor-shipped when 
 in Rich-mond. 
 
 When the pray-er end- 
 ed, the band played Dix- 
 ie, the war-song of the 
 South, un-der whose 
 strains the old sol-diers 
 had so of-ten thrilled as 
 they marched in-to bat- 
 tle. Then there was a 
 great noise which at last 
 wore it-self a-way, and 
 Gen-er-al Ear-ly rose and 
 spoke a few words of 
 cheer to the old sol-diers. 
 
 The speech of the day 
 was made by Col-o-nel 
 Ar-cher An-der-son, who 
 
\, 
 
 128 
 
 THE LIFE OF GEN. ROBERT B. LEE. 
 
 eave scene af-ter scene in 
 the life of Gen-er-al Lee 
 with great force and clear- 
 ness. A-gain the grand 
 he-ro seemed to live and 
 act in their midst — to lead 
 them on to vic-to-ry or to 
 teach them how to bear 
 de-feat. 
 
 When the speak-er 
 took his seat, a- mid 
 cheers, Gen-er-al Jo-seph 
 E. John-ston a-rose and 
 with two old sol-diers 
 marched to the base of 
 the mon-u-ment. Each 
 of the sol-diers car-ried a 
 bat-tie flag, tat-tered and 
 torn by shot and shell. 
 When the mon-u-ment 
 was reached, Gen-er-al 
 John-ston pulled the rope 
 and one part of the veil 
 
 fell off. An-oth-er pull 
 brought off the rest of the 
 veil, and the splen-did 
 stat-ue was in plain view 
 of the ea-ger mul-ti-tude. 
 A score of old sol-diers 
 mount-ed its base and 
 waved their old Con-fed- 
 er-ate flags in loy-al ea- 
 ger love for their dead 
 chief. Migh-ty cheers 
 broke from the watch-ing 
 throng, like the wild 
 break-mg of a storm, but 
 at last they died a-way. 
 
 Up there, a-gainst the 
 blue sky, kissed by the 
 rays of the set-ting sun, 
 in the midst of his own 
 peo-ple, were the match- 
 less face and form of Lee. 
 
 Some wept, oth-ers 
 shout-ed, but all thanked 
 
THE LIFE OF GEN. EGBERT E. LEE. 
 
 129 
 
 God that He had giv-en 
 to A-mer-i-ca such a son 
 as Lee. 
 
 Nev-er had men looked 
 on such a scene be-fore. 
 At last the crowd went 
 slow-ly a-way, leav-ing 
 their he-ro in bronze to 
 keep a si-lent watch o-ver 
 the cit-y he loved so well. 
 Be-neath him were the 
 homes of his friends, and 
 be-yond, in "Hol-ly- 
 wood" and "Oak-wood," 
 Rich-mond's "cit-ies of 
 
 the dead," were the graves 
 of his fal-len he-roes, and 
 far a-way, a-cross and a- 
 down the James, were his 
 bat-tie-fields. 
 
 As time rolls on, stat- 
 ue and cit-y will pass a- 
 way. But the name and 
 vir-tues of Rob-ert E. 
 Lee will nev-er die, for 
 they are writ-ten in the 
 his-to-ry of his coun-try 
 and in the Book of Life, 
 and will live be-yond the 
 shores of Tmie. 
 
 Mon-sieur (mos-yurO, a French word for Mr. 
 
 Sin-cere', hon-est. 
 
 Ac-knowl-edge (ak-nor-eg), to own a gift or fa-vor. 
 
 Po'-tent, strong, hav-ing pow-er. 
 
 Sid'-ney, an Eng-lish pa-tri-ot. 
 
 Bay-ard (ba'-yar'), a French he-ro. 
 
 Pa'-tri-ot, one who loves his coun-try. 
 
GEN. R. E. LEE'S 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS. 
 
 Headquarters Army Northern Virginia, 
 
 Appomattox C. H., April lo, 1865. 
 General Orders Ho. 9. 
 
 After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed 
 courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has 
 been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. 
 
 I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought bat- 
 tles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have con- 
 sented to this result from no distrust of them ; but feeling that 
 valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that would com- 
 pensate for the loss that must have attended a continuance of the 
 contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose 
 past services have endeared them to their countrymen. 
 
 By the terms of the Agreement, Officers and men can return 
 to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with 
 you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty 
 faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God 
 will extend to you His blessing and protection. With an 
 unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your 
 Country and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous 
 consideration for myself, I bid you all an Affectionate Farewell. 
 
IN COURSE OF PREPARATION: 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Gen'l T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson, 
 
 FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 By Mrs. MARY L WILLIAMSON. 
 
 This book will be gotten up in the same 
 style as Mrs. Williamson's Life of GenT 
 Robert E. Lee, and will be followed by 
 extended sketches of other great men of 
 the South, making a 
 
 Library of SoLitherm Heroes. 
 
^ilPlMl mflllPiilil- liil^ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 008 857 263 4