; _~ EM a E.B.d}f OR G7ENL R. E. LEE,. ....!: 1? - &,~~~~r:lT~~~ I~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ i~i ~'i l ~:I,~ ~ ~ ~~~!:: -~ ii', I. 7 Berlin~~~~~....~ j,-:~ 51.....L 2-.3(.'-J~'Zz -- iINA:,I A > T. i / D RE:SLY FOR -LEE 8IS i!UTENAI:T S THE EARLY LIFE, CAMPAIGNS, AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF [OB ERT E. LEE WITH A RECORD OF THE CAMPAIGNS AND HEROIC DEEDS OF HIS Compacuionts iri Prms, "NAMES THE WORLD WILL NOT WILLINGLY LET DIE.N BY A DISTINGUISHED SOUTHERN JOURNALIST. THIRTY STEEL PORTRAITS. Sold by Subscription. NEW YORK: E. B. TREAT & CO., PUBLISHERS, 654 BROADWAY. H. C. WRIGHT, ST. LOUIS, W. T. KEENER, Chicago. J. H. DOBBS & CO., Erie, Pa. H. H. NATT & Co., Cincinnati. I871. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year I87o, BY E. B. TREAT & CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. INTRODUCTION. THnE Author proposes in this present work to assemble the most heroic names of the South in the late war, gnd to give to the world biographies of her most illustrious military commanders, including memoirs of all the Army divisions of the Confederacy from Virginia to the Trans-Mississippi. The plan of the work is extensive; the collection is naturally in the shape of a galaxy; but the picture is one, in the common light of the martial glory of the South in which all the figures are grouped. Authenticity is more difficult in biography than in history; the domain of anecdote is always doubtful; and the most we can obtain of the lives of particular men comes to us through the prejudices and colours of personal narration. Sensible of the difficulties and uncertainties which beset his task, the author may yet declare that he has executed it with such care that he has admitted no statement of fact without ample authority,. and mentioned not even the slightest incident without the support of credible testimony. He has been greatly assisted from the notes and memories of surviving actors of the great drama; he has drawn something from various publications contemporary with the war-among which he would especially mention the Southern Illustrated News, one of the most interesting literary souvenirs of the Confederacy; and he has explored for evidence every print and manuscript of the documentary history of the Richmond Government. At least, he has not been deficient in research, however he may have used his discoveries. It has been arranged that the biographies in this volume should cover the whole space of the action of the late war. INTRODUCTION. Including all the great commanders, they contain some name dear to each part of the former Confederacy, and thus have an interest distributed through all the States of the South. The author's design, in short, has been to assemble the most remarkable characters of the late war, and to perform a work, in which Southern youth may look for models of true greatness; the scholar recognize his fruitful themes; and those yet living on the scenes of the great conflict find many subjects of tender and ennobling interest. LIST OF BIOGRAPHIES. _AGi General Robert Edward Lee.......................................... 33 Lieutenant-General " Stonewall" Jackson,............................ 177 General Peter G. T. Beauregard............................................ 231 General Albert Sidney Johnston.............................. 271 Lieutenant-General Braxton Bragg..................................... 284 Major-General Sterling Price................................ 309 General Joseph Eggleston Johnston.................................. 337 Lieutenant-General James Longstreet.............................. 411 Lieutenant-General J. E. B. Stuart....................................... 421 Lieutenant-General Ambrose P. Hill.................................... 440 Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Hill........................................ 448 Lieutenant-General Richard S. Ewell.................................. 457 Lieutenant-General Jubal A Early...................................... 463 Major-General Gustavus W. Smith..............-..-............... 482 Major-General Lafayette McLaws —.................................... 487 Major-General Cadmus Wilcox -—...................................... 496 Major-General George E. Pickett......................................... 09 Major-General Charles W. Field........................................ 520 Major-General Robert E. Rodes.......................................... 524 Major-General Arnold Elzey.......................... 527 Major-General Sam. Jones............................................... 530 Major-General John B. Gordon............................................35 Major-General Fitzhugh Lee............................-................. 549 Brigadier-General Henry A. Wise.................................... 559 Brigadier-General Turner Ashby......................5................. 573 Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk....................................... 587 Major-General John C. Breckinridge................................... 601 Major-General Mansfield Lovell........................................ 621 Major-General Earl Van Dorn.......................................... 627 Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch................................. 637 Major-General John H. Morgan........................................... 645 Lieutenant-General John B. Hood........................................ 663 Lieutenant-General Stephen D. Lee....................................... 674 Major-General Patrick Cleburne................................... 688 Lieutenant-General Joseph Wheeler...................................... 695 Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer......0............................. 705 vi LIST OF BIOGRAPHIES. PAGE Lieutenant-General Alexander P. Stewart.................................. 711 Major-General Benjamin F. Cheatham..................................... 718 Major-General William B. Bate..............22.................... 722 Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton...................3......... 738 Lieutenant-General Nathaniel B. Forrest.......................... 748 Lieutenant-General E. Kirby Smith....................................... 760 Lieutenant-General Simon B. Buckner.................................... 73 Major-General John B. Floyd. 7......................................... 783 Lieutenant-General William J. Hardee............................. 808 Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor....................................... 830 Major-General Dabney HI. Maury....................................... 837 Major-General John B. Magruder......................................... 840 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGB Gen. Robert E. Lee........................................... Frontisp:ece. The Conflagration of Richmond.................................. Vignette Title. Lieutenant-General "Stonewall " Jackson.................................. 177 General P. G. T. Beauregard............................................. 177 Lieutenant-General R. S. Ewell.......................................... 177 Lieutenant-General A. P. Hill.................................... 177 Lieutenant-General J. Longstreet........................................ 177 General A. S. Johnston.................................................. 177 Lieutenant-General J. E. B. Stuart.................................. 177 Major-General Sterling Price....................................... 309 Major-General Fitzhugh Lee............................................. 309 Major-General Earl Van Dorn............................................ 309 Lieutenarv,-tGeneral " Dick " Taylor....................................... 309 Lieutenant-General Joseph Wheeler...................................... 309 Major-General B. F. Cheatham........................................... 309 Lieutenant-General A. P. Stuart.......................................... 309 General Joe E. Johnston................... -...................-.......... 337 Lieutenant-General Braxton Bragg.................................. 663 Lieutenant-General Kirby Smith......................................... 663 Lieutenant-General N. B. Forrest.....................-................. 663 Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk.................................... 66T Lieutenant-General J. B. Hood.......................................... 663 Lieutenant-General W. J. Hardee............. -.....-...................... 663 Major-General John Morgan............................................ 663 Lieutenant-General Jubal A. Early........................................ 463 Major-General J. C. Breckinridge.............................. 463 Brigadier-General Henry A. Wise........................................ 463 Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton....................................... 463 Brigadier-General Turner Ashby......................................... 463 Major-General J. B. Gordon........................................... 463 Major-General J. B. Magruder.......................................... 463 CONTENTS. CHAPTER L GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Standards of human greatness.-Three classes of great men.-Nature and peculiarity of genius.-A second order of greatness. —General Lee, as in the third class of great men.-Key to his character,.33 CHAPTER II. The Lee family in Virginia.-" Light-Horse Harry."-Early life of Robert E. Lee.-His cadetship at West Point.-His home at Arlington Heights.-Services in the Mexican war.-Commended by Gen. Scott.-Appointed Colonel in the First Cavalry. —The John Brown raid.-Colonel Lee and the outlaws.The first act of " rebellion" at Harper's Ferry. —Governor Wise arms Virginia,.. 38 CHAPTER III. Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States.-Anxiety and hesitation of Lee at the commencement of hostilities.-His sense of duty.-He debates the question of his allegiance to Virginia.-His peculiar school of politics.-A reply to a Northern newspaper.-Attitude of Virginia.-A sublime struggle in Lee's mind.-He goes to Richmond.-Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces.-His reception'by the State Convention.-Appearance and carriage of the man.-Military preparations in Virginia.-She joins the Southern Confederacy,.48 CHAPTER IV. Gen. Lee sent to Northwestern Virginia.-Description of the theatre of the war.-Unfortunate military councils in Richmond.-Proclamation of Gov. Letcher.-A caricature of secession.-Disaster of Rich Mountain: Gen. Lee's plans thereafter.-He is foiled at Cheat Mountain.-Marches to the Kanawha Valley.-Escape of Rosecrans.-Failure of Lee's Campaign.-He is abused and twitted in Richmond.-Scoffs of the Richmond " Examiner."-Heo is assigned to " the coast service."-Recalled to Richmond, and made " Commanding General." —This post unimportant, and scarcely honourable, 58 CHAPTER V. McClellan's march up the Peninsula.-Recollections of the " White House."Battle of Seven Pines.-Review of condition of the Confederacy.-An act " to disband the armies of the Confederacy."-Carnival of misrule. —Gen. Lee in command of the forces around Richmond.-Nearly two-thirds of his army raw conscripts. —His adoption of Gen. Johnston's idea of concentration.Manners of Lee as a commander. —The great battle joined.-Beaver-Dam 10 CONTENTS. Creek.-Gen. Lee resting at a farm-house.-The glory of Gaines' Mills.Brilliant audacity of Gen. Lee in delivering this battle.-Retreat of McClellan.-Frazier's Farm.-Malvern HilL-The circuit of Lee's victories broken.His official summary of "the Seven Days' battles,"... 67 CHAPTER VI. General Lee the favourite of the populace.-He moves out to the line of the Rappahannock.-Cedar Run.-Bold and daring enterprise of General Lee, in detaching Jackson to the enemy's rear.-A peculiarity of his campaigns. — How he disregarded the maxims of military science.-The battles of Second Manassas.-Gen. Lee marches for the fords of the Potomac.- His address at Frederick, Maryland.-Jackson detached again.-McClellan finds an important paper.-The Thermopylm of " South Mountain Pass."-Battle of Sharpsburg. —Gen. Lee obtains a victory, but is unable to press it.-He retires to Virginia.-An authentic statement of Gen. Lee's reasons for the Maryland campaign.-His constant and characteristic idea of defending Richmond by operations at a distance from it.-Congratulations to his troops.-Moral results of the campaign of 1862. —Testimonies to Southern heroism,.78 CHAPTER VII. General Lee's perilous situation in North Virginia. —His alarming letter to the War Office. —The happy fortune of McClellan's removal.-The Battle of Fredericksburg.-Gen. Lee's great mistake in not renewing the attack.His own confession of errour. —He detaches nearly a third of his army to cover the south side of Richmond.-He writes a severe letter to the Government.-The enemy's fifth grand attempt on Richmond.-Gen. Lee in a desperate extremity.-The Battles of Chancellorsville.-Three victories for the Confederates. —The masterpiece of Gen. Lee's military life,.. 93 CHAPTER VIII. Controversy between Gen. Lee and the War Department.-The Secretaryl winces.-Gen. Lee's new campaign of invasion.-How it differed from that of 1862.-Reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia.-Some remarks on its artillery service.-Gen. Lee across the Potomac.-His orders at Chambersburg, Pa. —His errours with respect to the policy of " retaliation."-His conversation with a mill-owner.-A letter from President Davis.-Gen. Lee misunderstood and disappointed by the Richmond authorities.-Orders to Stuart's cavalry.-The Confederate army btinded in Pennsylvania for want of cavalry.- The battle of Gettysburg has the moral effect of a surprise to Gen. Lee.-The lost opportunity of the 1st July.-Why Gen. Lee fought the next day.-Temper of his army.-He assaults the enemy's centre on the 3d July.-Recoil of the Confederates.-Gen. Lee cheering and comforting his men. —His fearful retreat, and his wonderful success in extricating his army,. 101 CHAPTER IX. Decline of the fortunes of the Confederacy.-Operations in the autumn of 1863.-Gen. Lee's patriotic exhortation to his troops.-His great care for them.-Meeting of the chaplains in his army.-Relations between General Lee and his troops.-His habits on the battle-field.-Intercourse with his men.-Simplicity of his manners.-His feelings towards the public enemy.How he rebuked a Yankee-phobist.-Sufferings of the Confederate troops.Commissary Northrop.-Gen. Lee demands food for his troops.-Touching CONTENTS. 11 address to his half-starved men.-Anecdote of Gen. Lee and his cook.-Personal recollections of the great commander.-An English officer's description of his person and habits,.116 CHAPTER X. Opening of the great campaign of 1864.-Precise account of Gen. Lee's plans — He acts with his accustomed boldness and takes the offensive.-Actions of the 5th and 6th May.-General Lee determines to lead a critical assault.Protest of the soldiers.-Grant resorts to manceuvre.-Spottsylvania CourtHouse.-General Lee again in the extreme front of his men.-A thrilling spectacle.-Heroic action of Gordon.-" Gen. Lee to the rear / "-Account of the strategy from Spottsylvania Court-House to the vicinity of Richmond.Grant on the old battle-field of McClellan. —His army defeated in ten minutes at Cold Harbour.-His losses in one month exceed Lee's whole army.Precise statement of the odds against Gen. Lee.-Reflections on the nature and degrees of generalship.-Comparison of the two rival commanders of the North and South,.125 CHAPTER XI. Gen. Lee's private opinion of the defences of Richmond.-A serious communication to the Government, and how it was treated. —Vagaries of President Davis.-.Gen. Lee decides that the safety of Richmond lies in raising the siege.-Expedition of Early across the Potomac.-Aniiety of Gen. Lee.He meditates taking command of the force in Maryland.-Retreat of Early. -Gen. Lee next proposes a diversion in the Valley of Virginia.-Failure of this operation.-Constant extension of Grant's left around Richmond.Period of despondency in the South.-A letter of Gen. Lee on the question of supplies.-He proposes bringing in two or three years' supplies from Europe.-Desertion the great evil in the Confederate armies.-Difficulties of dealing with it.-Various letters and protests from Gen. Lee on the subject of discipline.-An angry comment of President Davis.-Gen. Lee a severe disciplinarian, and yet loved by his men.-Anecdote of the General and a one-armed soldier.-Skeleton returns of the army.-The popular clamour against President Davis. —Gen. Lee's quasi acceptance of the position of Commander-in-chief.-Nature and peculiar history of this rank in the Confederate armies.-Hopeful views of Gen. Lee.-Project of arming the negroes. —Growth of new hopes for the Confederacy,... 135 CHAPTER XII. Extraordinary cheerfulness of Gen. Lee.-A psychological reflection.-The Army of Northern Virginia at a third stage in its history. —Military preparations for the evacuation of Richmond.-Protests of the Government.Gen. Lee's last and desperate resolution.-Battle of Five Forks.-Theory and results of the action. —Grant3s assault in front of Petersburg.-How Gen. Lee received it.-His remark to a staff-officer,... 149 CHAPTER XIII. The last retreat of Gen. Lee's army.-Two notable pictures.-Gen. Lee conceives a new prospect of action. —A fatal miscarriage at Amelia CourtHouse.-No food for the army.-Terrible sufferings of the retreat.-General despair and misery.-Action at Sailor's Creek.-Condition of the army at Appomattox Court-House.-Apparition of the white flag.-Correspondenc6 between Generals Lee and Grant.-Authentic and detailed account of their'. interview at McLean's House.-Contradiction of various popular reports 12 CONTENTS. of this event.-General Lee announcing the terms of surrender to his officers.-Scenes in the encampments.-Gen. Lee's last address to his troops. -His return to Richmond.-Last tokens of affection and respect for the Confederacy,.155 CHAPTER XIV. An interesting interview with Gen. Lee after the surrender.-.Remarks upon the Federal rule.-Indicted for " treason."-Proceedings stayed on the protest of Gen. Grant. —Explanation of Gen. Lee's course with reference to amnesty, etc.-Elected President of Washington College. —The true spirit of his advice of "submission."-His hopes for the repose and welfare of the South,:.172 CHAPTER XV. LIEUT.-GEN. STONEWALL JACKSON. Boyhood of Thomas Jonathan Jackson. —His experience at West Point.-His studies and habits.-A novel analysis of awkward manners.-Jackson's promotions in the Mexican war.-His love of fight.-Recollections of "Fool Tom Jackson" at Lexington.-A study of his face and character.-His prayers for " the Union."-A reflection on Christian influences in America.Jackson appointed a colonel in the Virginia forces.-In command at Harper's Ferry.-Constitution of the " Stonewall Brigade." —Jackson promoted to Brigadier.-His action on the field of Manassas.-He turns the enemy's flank and breaks his centre.-How much of the victory was due to him.His expedition towards the head waters of the Potomac,.. 177 CHAPTER XVI. Description of the Shenandoah Valley.-Its importance as an avenue to Washington.-Gen. Jackson retreats from Winchester, and returns and fights the battle of Kernstown.-His first and last defeat.-Analysis of the enemy's " On-to-Richmond."-Four armies to converge on the Confederate capital.-Situation of Gen. Jackson.-Reinforced by Ewell's division.-His rapid movement to McDowell, and its designs.-He falls upon the enemy at Front Royal.-He chases Banks' army through Winchester and across the Potomac.-President Lincoln " sets a trap " for him. —Gen. McDowell's remonstrance.-Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic. —Summary of the Valley campaign,.190 CHAPTER XVII. Gen. Jackson's share in the " Seven Days' battles" around Richmond.-Shifting of the scenes of war from the James River to the Rappahannock.Battle of Cedar Run.-Gen. Jackson moves a column between the enemy's rear -and Washington.-Scenes of the march. —Battle of Groveton.-The two days' conflict on Manassas Plains. —Gen. Jackson strikes the enemy at Ox Hill. —Results of the campaign so far. —Extraordinary achievement 9f Jackson's command.-He moves against, and captures Harper's Ferry.His part in the battle of Sharpsburg,. 199 CHAPTER XVIII. Battle of Fredericksburg.-Gen. Jackson conceives the desperate enterprise of driving the enemy into the river.-But he recalls the attack. —Battle of Chancellorsville. —A night council under the pines.-The flank-march.How Gen. Hooker was deceived.-Gen. Jackson's last dispatch.-Fury of CONTENTS. 13 his attack in the Wilderness. —He is shot from his horse by his own men.Particulars of his wound and sufferings.-His dying moments.-Funeral ceremonies in Richmond,.... 208 CHAPTER XIX. Review of Gen. Jackson's services and character.-True nature of his ambition.-The value of glory.-Religious element in Gen. Jackson's character.Peculiarity of his religious habits.-Anecdotes.-Want of natural amiability. I-Harshness of manner towards his officers.-His severe idea of war.Destructiveness.-His readiness to forgive.-A touching personal incident. — His self-possession as a mark of-" genius."-His military faculty not a partial one.-European estimates of his career.-A lesson to Northern insolence and rancour,,......... 220 CHAPTER XX. GEN. PETER G. T. BEAUREGARD. Early life of P. G. T. Beauregard.-His gallantry and promotions in the Mexican War. —Life in Louisiana.-Appointment in the Confederate Army.-Defences of Charleston.-Battle of Fort Sumter.-Gen. Beauregard takes command in Virginia. —His contempt of "the Yankees."-A grotesque letter.-Popular sentiment concerning the war.-Explanation of the sudden disappearance ot the Union party in the South. —Gen. Beauregard's declaration of the purposes of the war. —" Beauty and Booty."-A Northern journal on Butler vs. Beauregard.-Battle of Manassas.-Complimentary letter from President Davis.-The popularity of Gen. Beauregard alarms the vanity of the President.-A scandalous quarrel.-Gen. Beauregard's political "card" in the Richmond newspapers,.. 231 CHAPTER XXL Gen. Beauregard transferred to command in West Tennessee.-His order about "the bells."-He concentrates the Confederate forces at Corinth.Battle of Shiloh.-A "lost opportunity."-Retreat to Tupelo. —He obtains a sick furlough.-President Davis deprives him of his command.-Official persecution of Gen. Beauregard.-Violent declarations of the President.Gen. Beauregard in retirement.-A private letter on the war,. 249 CHAPTER XXII. 0-en. Beauregard in command at Charleston.-Military importance of " the City of Secession."-Gen. Beauregard's appeal to the patriotism of the Carolinians.-Naval attack on Charleston, 1863.-Gen. Beauregard's department stripped of troops.-Unavailing remonstrance to President Davis.Gen. Gillmore's attempt on Charleston.-Its impotent conclusion.-Fame of Gen. Beauregard as an engineer.-He receives the thanks of Congress. -Returns to Virginia in 1864.-" Battle of the Falchion and the Buzzard." -Gen. Beauregard's plan of campaign before the battle of Drewry's Bluff. -Remarkable interview with President Davis.-Connection of Gen. Beauregard with Hood's campaign.-He advises the evacuation of Richmond.Merits of Gen. Beauregard's military career.-Description of his person and habits,. 257 CHAPTER XXIII. GEN. ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON. Remarkable career of Albert Sidney Johnston. —Ie eludes the Federal 14 CONTENTS. authorities in California.-Declares for the Southern confederacy, and " annexes " Arizona.-In command of the Western armies.-Picture of a hero. -Proclamation on the occupation of Kentucky.-Foolish exaltation of Southern hopes.-True situation of Gen. Johnston.-His noble silence in the face of clamour.-Letter on the fall of Fort Donelson.-A glance at the Western map of the war.-The Confederate line broken and the campaign transferred to the southern bank of the Tennessee river.-Battle of Shiloh. -Gen. Johnston riding on to victory.-His death-wound.-Lamentations in the South.-Tributes to his memory.-A classic inscription,. 271 CHAPTER.P XXIV. GEN. BRAXTON BRAGG. Equivocal reputation of Gen. Bragg in the war.-His services in Mexico.Offers his sword to Louisiana.-His command at Pensacola. —Gallant participation in the battle of Shiloh. —His reflections upon Gen. Beauregard. — In command of the Western forces.-His Kentucky campaign, as correspondent to the Virginia campaign of 1862.-Battle of Perrysville.-Gen. Bragg's retreat through Cumberland Gap. —Criticisms and recriminations touching the campaign,.284 CHAPTER XXV. Battle of Murfreesboro. —Interval of repose.-Retreat to Chattanooga.-Gen. Bragg refuses to fight at the instance of the War Department.-Reinforced from the Army of Northern Virginia.-Battle of Chickamauga.-A commentary in the Richmond Whig.-Violent quarrel between Gens. Bragg and Longstreet.-The disaster of Missie —ary Ridge.-Gen. Bragg relieved from command and appointed "military,dviser" of President Davis.Explanations in a Richmond journal.-Gen. Bragg's last service in the field. -Fall of Wilmington. —Gen. Bragg's military career criticised.-His ardent Southern patriotism,... 295 CHAPTER XXVI. MAJ.-GEN. STERLING PRICE. Anomaly of the Missouri Campaign. —Early life of Sterling Price. —Governor of Missouri.-His Politics.-Formation of " The Missouri State Guard."Personal ap'pearance of the Commander.-His correspondence with Gen. Harney.-Affair at Booneville.-Gen. Price reinforced by Gens. McCulloch and Pearce.-Battle of Oak Hill or Wilson's Creek.-Gen. Price's movement upon Lexington. —His success. —Designs against St. Lmuis. —Why they were abandoned.-Retreat of the Patriot Army of Missouri.-The State joins the Southern Confederacy. —Gen. Price's Proclamation at Neosho,. 309 CHAPTER XXVII. Gen. Price at the head of ten thousand men.-McCulloch refuses to cooperate. -Admirable retreat of Prioe's army to Boston Mountains.-Hardihood of his troops.-A message from Gen. Halleck.-Gen. Van Dorn appointed Confederate Commander of the Trans-Mississippi.-Battle of Elk Horn.-Its importance.-Heroism of Gen. Price on the field.-The Missouri troops cross the Mississippi River. —Gen. Prioe's eloquent address to "the State Guard".321 CONTENTS..15 CHAPTER XXVIII. Career of Gen. Price as a subordinate.-Mortality record of the Missouri Guard. -Their participation in the battle of Corinth. —Battle of Helena.-Gen.: Price's cherished idea of liberating Missouri.-His agreement with Gen. Fremont for the humanities of the war.-How the enemy violated it.-G-en. Price's last attempt to save Missouri. —His final retreat from the State.-Summary of the character of Gen. Price.-A defect in his military career.. —Gen. Price as an exile,.......... 328 CHAPTER XXIX. GEN. JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHNSTON. Some account of " the first families " of Virginia.-Ancestry of Joseph Eggleston.-Peter Johnston in the Revolutionary War, and in the State councils of Virginia.-Early life of Joseph E. Johnston.-Military tastes of the boy. — Services of Lieut. Johnston in the Florida War.-An incident of desperate courage.-Services in the Mexican War.-Bon Mot of Gen. Scott.-Johnston appointed Quartermaster-General,.. 337 CHAPTER XXX. G(en. Johnston's resignation from the United States Army.-He visits Montgomery.-Appointed a full General.-Ordered to Harper's Ferry. —The place a cul de sac.-Johnston abandons it.-Reasons for destroying the property of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. —How Gen. Johnston amused Patterson.He asks permission to join Beauregard at Manassas Junction.-The march to Piedmont, and transportation hence to Manassas,... 344 CHt.MER XXXI. Gen. Johnston's survey of the geld of Manassasa-He indicates the enemy's design to flank the Confederate left. —His anxiety about Patterson's movements.-Plan of attack upon Centreville.-Why it failed.-Non-arrival of part of the Army of the Shenandoah.-Popular misrepresentations of the battle of Manassas.-The real plans of action on each side.-How G0en. Johnston overlapped the flanking movement of the enemy.-His orders to Gen. Bonham to attack on Centreville.-The most brilliant opportunity of the day lost.-Gen. Johnston's published reasons for not attacking Washington.-This explanation criticised.-Evidence of McClellan.-The Confederate Army demoralized by their victory.-Sequel of Manassas.... 352 CHAPTER XXXII. An early council of the Confederate Government.-Unpopularity of Gen. Johnston.-He indicates the value of concentration, and proposes an aggressive movement against the Potomac. —Overruled by President Davis.-Attempt tb bring McClellan to battle.-Blockade of the Potomac River.-True theory of the battle of Leesburg, or Ball's Bluff. —Gen. Johnston meditates a retreat from North Virginia.-A notable Council of War in Richmond.-Gen. Johnston's advice overruled by President Davis and Gen. Lee.-Transfer of Johnston's Army to Yorktown.- Why he abandoned the Peninsula.-Gen. Johnston's share in Jackson's Valley Campaign.-Battle of Seven Pines.How its results were limited.-Gen. Johnston wounded.-He loses command of the Army of Northern Virginia,.361 CHAPTER XXXIII. Gen. Johnston's designs against McClellan.-Why he considered his wound 168 CONTENTS. fortunate for the Confederacy.-Anecdote of a dinner-party in Richmond.Gen. Johnston's mission to the west.-True nature of his appointment and powers.-Rather a Local Secretary of War than a Commanding-General.Interesting conference between Gen. Johnston and Secretary Randolph. — He proposes to make one military department of the whole Mississippi Valley. -Gen. Johnston's visit to Bragg's Army.-The defence of Vicksburg.Antecedents of Gen. Pemberton.-Detailed account of the correspondence and relations between Gens. Johnston and Pemberton.-Gen. Johnston's orders twice disobeyed.-His last order, ".Hold out," as involving the fate of the Confederacy.- Surrender of Vicksburg, and its train of consequences to the close of the war,. 372 CHAPTER XXXIV. Important supplement to the story of Vicksburg.-President Davis' part in the disaster.-Radical difference of military views of the President and of G-en. Johnston.-The disaster of Missionary Ridge.-Gen. Johnston takes. command of the Army of Tennessee.-His successful reorganization of it.-Comparison of forces with the enemy.-Gen. Johnston's reasons for withdrawing from Dalton.-Sherman's plan of campaign.-The retreat towards Atlanta and its incidents.- Gen. Johnston removed from command. —' All hell followed."-A sharp dispatch to Richmond.-Injustice of the government to Gen. Johnston.390 CHAPTER XXXV. The fall of Atlanta and what it involved. Gen. Johnston foretells Sherman's " march to the sea." The Vce Victis.-Gen. Johnston restored to command. -The North Carolina campaign.-Sherman's stipulations for a surrender.Interference from Washington.-Qualities of Gen. Johnston as a great com-,mander.-His military peculiarities.-Compared to George Washington.His patriotic and noble silence under censure.-His person and deportment. -Literary accomplishments.-His advice to the Southern people on their iduties after the surrender.402 CHAPTER XXXVI. LIEUT.-GENX. JAMES LONGSTREET. His early military services.-Affair of Blackburn's Ford. —Battle of Williamsburg.-Gallantry at Gaines' Mills.-Incident of march to Second Manassas. -Separate command in South Virginia.-Desperate fighting at Gettysburg. —Sobriquet of " The Bull-dog.-' Decisive part in the battle of Chickamauga.-Quarrel with Gen. Bragg.-Campaign in East Tennessee.-Its errours.-A sharp correspondence with the Federal General Foster.-0-en. Longstreet rebuked by President Davis.-He is wounded in the Wilderness. —Military character and aptitude of the man.-Fraternal relations with Gen. Lee.-H-is personal appearance,.... 411 CHAPTER XXXVII. LIEUT.-GEN. J. E. B. STUART. Unique figure of Stuart in the war.-His first cavalry command in the valley of Virginia.-Adventure with Capt. Perkins.-Complimented by Gen. Johnston. —The action of Dranesville. —" The Ride around McClellan."Adventure at Verdiersville.-Capture of Gen. Pope's coat and papers. —Expedition into Pennsylvania.-At Fredericksburg. —At Chancellorsville.-aJ Hlis characteristic intercourse with Stonewall Jackson.-Splendid review at CONTENTS. 17 Brandy Station.-The scene changed into bloodiest battle.-Gen. Stuart's serious omission in the Gettysburg campaign.-Adventure in the flanking movement in North Carolina.-Hair-breadth escapes of the commander.He is shot down at Yellow Tavern.-His last moments.-Criticism of his military character,. 421 CHAPTER XXXVIII. LIEUT.-GEN. AMBROSE P. HILL. His record in the United States A rmy.-His part in the battles around Richmond, 1862.-Conspicuous gallantry at Frazier's Farm.-He repulses six assaults in the second battle of Manassas. —Critical service at Sharpsburg. -Episode of Boteler's Ford. —Bristoe Station.-Failure of General Hill's health.-He resumes command in front of Petersburg.-Reams' Station.Tragic death of the Commander.-His virtues and gallantry,. 440 CHAPTER XXXIX. LIEUT.-GEN. DANIEL H. HILL. "Bethel" Hill a curiosity as well as celebrity of the war.-His Revolutionary ancestry.-Services in Mexico.-His adventures as a Professor and literateur.-Curiosities of " Hill's Algebra."-The affair of Bethel and its exaggeration.-Gen. Hill's account of McClellan's retreat from Richmond.-His most memorable and heroic service at South Mountain Pass.-Gen. Hill's criticism of the battle of Sharpsburg.-Heroic record of a North Carolina regiment.-Gen. Hill at Chickamauga.-Removed from command.-His literary exploits and eccentricities,..... 448 CHAPTER XL. LIEUT.-GEN. RICHARD S. EWELL. Gen. Ewell as the companion and friend of Stoncwall Jackson.-His military life anteriour to 1861.-Curious apparition at Fairfax Court-House.-His share in Jackson's Valley campaign.-Cross Keys.-Port Republic.-Compliment to " the Maryland line."-Gen. Ewell wounded at Groveton. —He succeeds to Stonewall Jackson's command.-Enacts part of the old drama at Winchester.-Services in 1864.-He commands the Department of Henrico.-Burning of the city of Richmond,..... 457 CHAPTER XLI. LIEUT.-GEN. JUBAL A. EARLY. HEis early life as a soldier and politician.-His "Union" sentiments in the Virginia Convention.-Why he became an actor in the war.-Reflections upon the Unionists and Secessionists.-Gen. Early's services in 1862.-The disaster of Rappahannock Station.-His different commands in the last year of the war.-His independent campaign into the Valley and Maryland.-Outrages of the enemy in the Valley.-Gen. Early's advance upon Washington City.-Why he dict not attack it.-His return to the Valley.Battle of Winchester.-The dramatic story of Cedar Creek —Failure of the Valley campaign.-The affair of Waynesboro.-Narrow escape of Gen. Early.-Gen. Lee's letter relieving him from command.-Review of the operations in the Valley.-Remarkable character of Gen. Early.-The " bad old iman."-His jokes and peculiarities.-Anecdotes of the camp. —Escape of Gen. Early across the Mississippi River.-His choice of exile,. 463 2 f8'CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLII. -/, MAJ.-GEN. GUSTAVUS W. SMITH. His family in Kentucky.-He serves in the Mexican war.-Complimentary notices from Gen. Scott. —Appointed Street Commissioner of New York.Resigns, visits Kentucky, and accepts a Major-Generalship in the Confederate service. —His slight record in the war.-His resignation.-Injustice of President Davis.-Volunteer services of Gen. Smith in the latter period of the war,.482 CHAPTER XLIII. MAJ.-GEN. LAFAYETTE M LAWS. Services in the United States Army.-Appointed a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States Army, September, 1861.-Promoted in front of Richmond. -His part in the capture of Harper's Ferry. —His glorious and bloody work at Fredericksburg.-The East Tennessee campaign, 1863. —Gen. McLaws opposes the assault on Knoxville.-Extraordinary reply of Gen. Longstreet. — Defective reconnoissances of the enemy's works. —Why the assault failedGen. McLaws court-martialed and triumphantly acquitted.-A remarkable peculiarity of his military career,....... 487 CHAPTER XLIV. MAJ.-GEN. CADMUS M, WILCOX. Military services in Mexico.-l-is gallantry at Chapultepec.-Subsequent services in the United States Army.-His first command in the Confederate States Army.-Heroic conduct of his brigade in the battles around Richmond, 1862.-At Gaines' Mills.-At Frazier's Farm. An incident on the second field of Manassas.-Battle of Salem Church.-Important action of Wilcox's Brigade on the second day of Gettysburg.-A narrow chance of victory.Why the supports failed.-Amusing anecdote of Gen. Wilcox and a chickenthief.-Promoted Major-General.-Record of services in the campaign of 1864-5. —Heroic story of Fort Gregg.-Last scenes of the surrender, 496 CHAPTER XLV. MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE E. PICKETT. His gallantry in the Mexican War.-Spirited Action of Capt. Pickett in the "San Juan Difficulty." —Position of the State of Virginia in the Sectional Controversies. —Pickett's Early Appointments in the Confederate States Service. — "The Game-Cock Brigade," in Longstreet's Division.-Memorable and Heroic Action of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg. —Account of it in the Richmond Enquirer. —Gen. Pickett's Expedition on the North Carolina Coast.-His Return to Petersburg.-How " The Cockade City" was narrowly Saved.-Operations around Petersburg.-Gen. Lee's Compliment to Pickett's Men.-The Battle of Five Forks.-The suppressed Official Report of Gen. Pickett. —His Last Tribute to his Troops.-Historical Glory of "The Virginia Division,.509 CHAPTER XLVI. MAJ. -GEN. CHARLES W. FIELD. Services in the United States Army and at West Point.-Commands a Brigade in the " Seven Days Battles " around Richmond.-Promoted MajorGeneral in 1864. -Field's Division restores the Battle in the Wilderness. CONTENTS. 19 An Unheralded Victory on the Richmond Lines.-Apocrypha of the Newspapers.-Remarkable and Brilliant Appearance of Field's Division at the Surrender.-What the Federal General Meade said of "the Rebels," 520 CHAPTER XLVIL MAJ.-GEN. ROBERT E. RODES. Graduates at the Virginia Military Illstitute.-A civil engineer in Alabama.Elected to a Professor's chair in the Virginia Military Institute.-Commands a Brigade at Seven Pines.-Gallantry at Chancellorsville.-Applauded on the field by Stonewall Jackson.- Killed at Winchester.-A touching tribute to his memory,.524 CHAPTER XLVIII. MAJ.-GEN. ARNOLD ELZEY. A captain in the United States Army.-His surrender of the Augusta Arsenal to the State of Georgia.-" The Blucher of Manassas" —Services in the Shenandoah Valley.-Woinnded at Gaines' Mills, —His successful command of the Department of Richmond,. 527 CHAPTER XLIX. MAJ.-GEN. SAM JONES. Early military services in the field, at West Point and at Washington.Appointed on Gen. Beauregard's staff.-Commands Bartow's Brigade.Ordered to Pensacola.-Various services on the Western theatre of the War.-Commands the Trans-Alleglhany Department.-Relieves Gen. Beauregard at Charleston. —Defence of Tallahassee.-Breadth and variety of his military experience,.530 CHAPTER L. MAJ.-GEN. JOHN B. GORDON. Appearance of a new hero in the last year of the war.-Ancestral stock of John B. Gordon.-" The Racoon Roughs."-The 6th Alabama at Seven Pines.-Personal heroism of Col. Gordon. —At South Mountain.-His bloody and picturesque figure on the field of Sharpsburg.-Gen. Gordon as an orator.-A soldier's commentary on his eloquence.-His part in the Pennsylvania campaign.-A telling speech to Yankee women.- His counsels at Gettysburg.-His splendid action in the Wilderness.-A night attack upon the enemy.-Gen. Gordon rides through the enemy's lines.-His glorious counter-charge at Spottsylvania Court-House.-His part in the Valley campaign of 1864.-A novel and interesting version of the battle of Cedar Creek.-Gen. Gordon's plan of attack rejected or not executed by Gen. Early.-His position and figure in the last scene at Appomattox Court-House.-Review of his military services.-A representative of the "Young South."-His admirable sentiment and advice since the surrender,..535 CHAPTER LI. MAJ.-GEN. FITZHUGH LEE. A grandson of "Light Horse Harry." A "wild " youth.-Tricks at West Point.-Desperate fights with Indians. —His early services in the Confed-: eracy.-Chivalrous incident at the Second Manassas.-Services in the 20 CONTENTS. Maryland campaign.-Action of Kelly's Ford.-With Jackson at Chancellorsville.-Reorganization of the cavalry commands in Virginia.-A complimentary letter from Gen. Robert E. Lee.-Fitzhugh Lee's division in the campaign of 1864-5.-Spottsylvania Court-House.-Yellow Tavern.Reams' Station.-Five Forks.-Conduct of the cavalry on the retreat.Personal recollections of Fitzhugh Lee,.... 549 CHAPTER LII. BRIG.-GEN. HENRY A. WISE. An extraordinary excitement in Richmond. —The days of the Secession Convention.-Wise's idea of " fighting in the Union." —His style of eloquence in the Convention.-A remarkable conversation in his hotel.-His rhetorical bravura.-Short-sighted vanity of the South-Gen. Wise's campaign in Western Virginia.-The disaster of Roanoke Island. —Gen. Wise relieved from censure.-Death of his son. —An affecting scene.-Interview between Gen. Wise and Secretary Randolph.-His command in South Carolina.At Petersburg. -Gen. Wise's fame as a soldier.-His mental gifts.-Marks of an afflicted intellect. —His tribute to the private soldiers of the Confederacy,...... 559 CHAPTER LIII. BRIG.-GEN. TURNER ASHBY. Definition of Chivalry.-Its peculiarities and virtues.-A notable picture of chivalric courage.-Turner Ashby's family.-His early life. —He raises a regiment of cavalry.-His famous white steed. —Death of his brother.-The devotion of Ashby.-Habits and appearance of the cavalier.-Purity of his life.-Adventure with the enemy at Winchester.-Ashby on the retreat from Kernstown.- Chased by the enemy.-His horse killed.-Promoted a Brigadier.-His limited military education.-A scene around the campfires.- Dramatic death of Ashby.-Gen. Jackson's tribute to his memory.Honours to the deceased cavalier.-His place in history,.. 573 CHAPTER LIV. LIEUT.-GEN. LEONIDAS POLK. Exchange of the Bishopric of Louisiana for a military command.-Reasons why Bishop Polk resigned his holy calling for arms. —Reflictions on the ethics of war.-Bishop Polk a graduate of West Point.-Adventures as a Missionary Bishop in Western wilds.-Flatboat-men and gamblers.-Gen. Polk wins the victory of Belmont.-A serious accident.-Battle of Shiloh. -The battle of Perrysville fought under Gen. Polk's direction.-His adventure with an Indiana Colonel.-Interesting incident in the battle of Murfreesboro.-Gen. Polk's conduct at Chickamauga.-Censured by Gen. Bragg. —Transferred to command in the Southwest.-He frustrates Sherman's expedition.-Returned to the Army of Tennessee.-His death at Marietta.-Anecdotes illustrative of his character,... 587 CHAPTER LV. MAJ.-GEN. JOHN 0. BRECKINRIDGE. His life anteriour to the War.-His career in Congress.-Elected Vice-President of the United States.-Democratic candidate for the Presidency, 1860. —The electoral and popular vote of that canvass.-Address to the people of Kentucky.-Last service in the United States Senate.-Bold speech there against the Administration.-Remarks upon Andrew John CONTENTS. 21 son's resolution. —Excited debate with Senator Baker.-Flight of Mr. Breckinridge from Kentucky. —His farewell counsels to her people.Appointed Brigadier-General.-Gallantry at Shiloh.-His expedition against Baton Rouge.-Causes of its failure.-At Murfreesboro.-" The Bloody Crossing of Stono River."-At Chickamauga.-Memorial of the Western commanders to the Richmond Congress.-Gen. Breckinridge's command in Southwestern Virginia.-He is made Secretary of War.Accompanies President Davis in his flight from Richmond.-Last Council of the Confederate leaders.-Gen. Breckinridge escapes from the country.Reflections upon his services and character,.... 601 CHAPTER LVI. MAJ.-GEN. MANSFIELD LOVELL, His early life and politics.-Story of the fall of New Orleans.-Importance of its line of water-defence.-Gen. Lovell's hands tied by red tape at Richmond.-Not to blame for the disaster.-His gallant services after the loss of New Orleans. -President Davis refuses to give him a command under Johnston, 621 CHAPTER LVII. MAJ.-GEN. EARL VAN DORN. His capture of Federal troops in Texas at the beginning of the war. Temporary command in North Virginia. Assigned to the Trans-Mississippi.-Battle of Elk Horn.-Correspondence with Gen. Curtis on civilized warfare.-Gen. Van Dorn crosses the Mississippi River.-The Department of Louisiana.- Heroism of the first defence of Vierksburg.-Battle of Corinth. -Gen. Van Dorn removed from command.-His reflections on the sentence.-His command of calvary.-Destroys Grant's depot of supplies at Holly Springs. —Dies by the hand of private violence. —His genius as a commander,... 627 CHAPTER LVIII. BRIG.-GEN. BENJAMIN M'CULLOCH. Early romance of his life. —His fame as a hunter and pioneer.-Service in the Texan war of independence.-Battle of San Jacinto. —The Mexican WSar.Adventure at Buena Vista.-Appointed United States Marshal for Texas. — His life in Washington City. —Eis appearance and manners at the capital.Relations to President Buchanan.-Seizes the property and arms of the'United States at San Antonio.-Surrender of Gen. Twiggs.-McCulloch's command in the Indian Territory. —His part in Price's Missouri campaign.Defects of his military character.-Killed in the battle of Elk Horn, 637 CHAPTER LIX. MAJ.-GEN. JOHN H. MORGAN. Morgan raises a company in the MAexican war.-" The Captain."-His natural aptitude for arms.-His personal appearance. —His escape from Kentucky. — A trick on the enemy.-His early services on Green River.-How he captured six Federals. —Adventure with a telegraph operator. —His first expedition-into Kentucky.-A new engine of war.-Freaks of the telegraph.The affair of Hartsville.- His expedition through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.-Its captures and ravages.-Gen. Morgan a prisoner.-Cruelty and indignities of the enemy.-His escape from the Ohio penitentiary.-Detailed account of his escape and travel through the enemy's lines.-An ovation at Richmond.-,-His new command on the Virginia border. —Disfavour and ~2 CONTENTS. prejudice of the Government.-Gen. Morgan's last expedition into Kentucky. -Its defeat.-Affair of Mt. Sterling.-Cruel slanders of Gen. Morgan.-Attempts an expedition to Bull Gap, East Tennessee.-Surprised and killed by the enemy.-Different versions of his death.-A brief review of his campaigns,.....645 CHAPTER LX. LIEU T.-GEN. JOHN B. HOOD. Peculiar glory of the soldier-State of Texas.-Early recollections in the war of "Hood and his Texans."-Hood's cavalry command on the Peninsula.Commands the Texas brigade. —The peculiar Lewes of Gaines' Mills.-Gen. Hood in the battle of Sharpsburg.-" The two Little Giant Brigades."Gen. Lee's opinion of Texas soldiers " in tight places."-Gen. Hood wounded at Gettysburg and at Chickamauga.-Commands a corps in Johnston's army.-Remarkable letter to the War Department.-Appointed Commanding General of the Army of Tennessee.-An ascent in rank, but a fall in reputation.-A list of errours in the Georgia-Tennessee campaign.-Failure of that campaign.-Magnanimous confession of Gen. Hood.-HIis chivalry.HIis admirable military figure,....... 663 CHAPTER LXI. LIEUT.-GEN. STEPHEN D. LEE. His ancestry in South Carolina.-His service in the United States Army.Aide to Gen. Beauregard at Fort Sumter.-Commands Virginia Cavalry.Assigned to Artillery.-Gallant and important action of his batteries at Second Manassas. —Anecdote illustrating the spirit of that day.-Gen. Lee in command at Vicksburg. —Extraordinary compliment from President Davis.-G-en. Lee repulses Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou. —Battle of Baker's Creek.-Wonderful escape of Gen. Lee in the retreat.-Siege of Vicksburg. -Action of the 22d June, 1863.-Heroism of Texan soldiers.-Gen. Lee commands the cavalry in Mississippi.-His operations against Sherman.-'He commands the Southwestern Department.-Raids of the enemy.Assignment of Gen. Lee to Hood's Army.-The Tennessee campaign.Gen. Lee protects the retreat.-Reflections upon his extraordinary career, 674 CHAPTER LXII. MAJ.-GEN. PATRICK R. CLEBURNE. His first military experience as a private in the British Army.-campaign, under Hardee, in Missouri. —His part in the Kentucky campaign.-Gallantry at Murfreesboro.-Splendid conduct of his division at Chickamauga.Affairs with the enemy at Tunnel Hill and Ringgold.-Gen. Cleburne's last order in the battle of Franklin.-Effect of his death on the army.I His qualites as a commander. —His honour.-Anecdotes of the camp.-The society or order of " Comrades of the Southern Cross."-The battle-flag of Cleburne's division, 688 CHAPTER LXIII. LIEUT.-GEN. JOSEPH WHEELER. Services in the United States Army.-His command of cavalry under Gen. Bragg. —Important service at Murfreesboro.-Desperate encounter with the enemy at Shelbyville.-Personal gallantry of Gen. Wheeler. —His CONTENTS. 23 famous raid into Tennessee.-Summary of services in the Western Army. -Operations of Wheeler's cavalry on Sherman's march through Georgia.Gen. Wheeler's farewell address to his troops.-What he accomplished in the war.-His career and genius,...... 69 CHAPTER LXV. BRIG,-GEN. FELIX K. ZOLLICOFFER. His early life as a politician and member of Congress.-Appointed a BrigadierGeneral in the Confederate States Army.- His leniency to the people of East Tennessee.-At Cumberland Gap. —Letter to Governor Magoffin.The " wild-cat " stampede. —Killed in the battle of Mill Springs. —How the enemy insulted his corpse. —His character.-Extraordinary public regret of his death,.... 705 CHAPTER LXVI. LIEUT.-GEN. ALEXANDER P. STEWART. Fame as a scholar and instructor.-His different Professorships.- First services in the Confederate States Army.-Various commands in the West.Memorable action of his division at New Hope Church.-A compliment from Gen. Johnston.-A review of his character. -A tribute from one of the most distinguished scholars of the South,.711 CHAPTER LXVII. MAJ.-GEN. BENJAMIN F. CHEATHAM. His military services in Mexico. —His popularity at home.-Commands in the West.-Adventure in the battle of Belmont.-Record of his division in the Army of Tennessee.-Anecdote, illustrating his fighting qualities,. 718 CHAPTER LXVIII. MAJ.-GEN. WILLIAM B. BATE. Enlists as a private in the Mexican War.-His distinction there.-Public honours in Tennessee. —Colonel of the 2d Tennessee Regiment.-Curious plan to capture the Federal fleet in the Potomac.-His extraordinary and successful appeal to the Tennessee soldiers to re-enlist for the war.-Sent to the army of Gen. A. S. Johnston. —A compliment to his command.-In the battle of Shiloh.-Promotion of Gen. Bate.-Action of Hoover's Gap.-An admirable sentiment to a political convention.-At Chickamauga.-Reorganization of the Army of Tennessee.-Record of Bate's division. Its part in Hood's campaign.-How its line was broken in the battle of Nashville.-Explanations of this disaster.-At Bentonville.-The surrender.Gen. Bate a wanderer. —Returns to Tennessee.-His political sentiments after the war,.722 CHAPTER LXIX. LIEUT.-GEN. WADE HAMPTON. An Englishman's remark on the military aptitude of the Southern planter.Wealth and culture of Wade Hampton.-The Hampton Legion. —Its mettle tried at Manassas. —Gen. Hampton in the campaign of 1862. —Detached enterprises against the enemy.-In the battle of Brandy Station.-Wounded ,24 CONTENTS. at Gettysburg.-In the campaign of 1864.-Fights with Sheridan.-Trevil. lian Station.-Sappony Church.-Hampton's "beef-raid."-He joins Gen. Beauregard's command.-Operations against Sherman.-A severe commentary on the enemy's atrocities.-Peculiar compliments of the Northern Radicals to Gen. Hampton since the war. —His admirable speeches and advice to his countrymen,.738 CHAPTER LXX.' LIEUT.-GEN. NATHANIEL B. FORREST. Peculiarities of the Western theatre of the war.-Forrest, "the Great Cavalryman of the West."-Nathaniel B. Folrest, his parentage and early life. -Enters the army as a private.- His escape from Fort Donelson.-His expedition into West Tennessee.-Pursuit and capture of Streight's command in Georgia.-The field of Chickamauga.-Gen. Forrest leaves the Army of Tennessee.-His career in Mississippi.-Victory of Okolona.-The dramatic story of Fort Pillow. —Victory of Tishamingo Creek.-Gen. Forrest rejoins the Army of Tennessee.-His last affair with the enemy at Selma.-The wonder and romance of his career.-A remarkable theory of cavalry service.-His extraordinary prowess in the war, and deeds of blood,. 748 CHAPTER LXXI. LIEUT.-GEN. EDMOND KIRBY SMITH. Early military life of E. Kirby Smith.-His first conspicuous service in the Confederate States army at Manassas. His campaign with Bragg in Kentucky.-Great success of Gen. Smith's part of the campaign —Put in command of the Trans-Mississippi Department.-Extraordinary spirit of this part of the Confederacy.-Peculiar military difficulties of the department.The Red River campaign.-Why Gen. Smith did not pursue Banks.-Affairs with the Federal General Steele.-Judgment and prudence of Gen. Smith in deciding an alternative of campaigns.-Injustice of the popular censure on this subject.- Results and fruits of the Red River campaign.-Prejudice in Richmond against the Trans-Mississippi States.-What they accomplished in the war.-Gen. Smith's resolution to hold out after Lee's surrender.-His troops demoralized, clamnourous, and excited against their commander.-Terrible scenes of disorder.-History of the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi. Review of Gen. Smith's military character.-Some explanations of unjust popular accusations,.. 760 CHAPTER LXXII. LIEUT.-GEN.. SIMON B. BUCKNER. Services and promotions in the United States Army.-His connection with the "State Guard" of Kentucky.-Memorandum of a conference with George B. McClellan, concerning Kentucky neutrality. —He refuses military service with either of the belligerents.-His conversion to the service of the Confederate States.-Commissioned a Brigadier-General.-Captured at Fort Donelson.-Running the gauntlet of Northern mobs.-A cutting remark to a Federal officer. —Released, and takes command in Hardee's corps.-His disagreement with Gen. Bragg concerning the field of Perryville.-In command at Mobile.-Transferred to East Tennessee.-Important assistance in the Chickamauga campaign.-Another disagreement between Bragg and his officers.-Gen. Buckner transferred to the Trans-Mississippi, and commands the District of Louisiana.-Included in Gen. E. Kirby Smith's surrender.A peculiarity of Gen. Buckner's character. —His high moral courage, 773 CONTENTS. 25 CHAPTER LXXIII. MAJ.-GEN. JOHN B. FLOYD. Family record of the Floyds.-Adventures of George Rogers Clarke. —John Floyd, the elder.-His services as Governor of Virginia.-Early life of young Floyd.-A planter in Arkansas. —His political career in Virginia.-A member of President Buchanan's Cabinet. —His political views and services in the Cabinet.-PRIvATE DIARY OF SECRETARY FLoYD.-Extraordinary statement of President Buchanan, justifying the secession of the Southern States, in a certain event.-Private views of Washington politicians.-How Secretary Floyd came to resign his position in the Cabinet.-Clamour and recriminations of the Republican party.-Floyd appointed a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States service.-His campaign in Western Virginia.-Battles of Fort Donelson.-He is relieved from command.-Appointed by Virginia a Major-General of State troops.-Operations on the head-waters of the Big Sandy.-His death.-A great and generous character assailed by partisan influences,. 783 CHAPTER LXXIV. LIEUT.-GEN. WILLIAM J. HARDEE. His military life before the War of 1861.-His command in the Trans-Mississippi. —Ordered to Bowling Green, Kentucky.-At Shiloh. —His views and advice in the Kentucky Campaign.-Promoted to a Lieutenant-General.The first day of Murfreesboro.-Reinforcements wanting at a critical time.Gen. Hardee as an organizer of troops.-Religious incidents of his camp.He joins Johnston's army in Mississippi.-Return to the Army of Tennessee.-The battle of Missioiary Ridge.-Fought against the advice of'Gen. Hardee.-He takes charge of Bragg's army at Dalton.-Why he declined permanent command of it.-The Atlanta campaign.-Protest- against the appointment of Gen. Hood as Commander in Chief.-Hardee's desperate fight at Jonesboro.-He is assigned to the command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.-Condition of this Department at the time of Sherman's "march to the sea."-The evacuation of Savannah.Campaign of the Carolinas.-Hardee's fight at Averysboro.-Battle of Bentonville. —The general loses a.young son in the last affair of arms.-A tribute from Arkansas troops to Gen. Hardee. —Estimate of his military record.His virtues as a soldier and a citizen.808 CHAPTER LXXV. LIEUT.-GEN. RICHARD TAYLOR. Peculiar advantages of Gen. " Dick" Taylor in the war. —His gallantry and critical service at Port Republic.-Transferred to West Louisiana.-Interest of his military life directed to New Orleans.-Operations of 1863 in the Lafourche country.-His part in the Red River campaign. —Violent quarrel with Gen. E. Kirby Smith.-The merits of this controversy canvassed.President Davis sustains Gen. Taylor, and gives him increased rank and command.-His disposition to insubordination.-Destruction of his property by the enemy.-A Vermont soldier's account of the exploit,.. 83C CHAPTER LXXVI. MAJ.-GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY. Ancestral stock of Dabney H. Maury.-Services in the Mexican War.-Ac. cepts the cause of the Southern Confederacy.-Various services in the West. f26 CONTENTS. ern armies.-His gallant defence of Mobile.-The Army of Mobile the last organized body of troops in the Confederacy,. 837 CHAPTER LXXVII. MAJ.-GEN. JOHN B. MAGRUDER. Brilliant service of Magruder's batteries in the Mexican War.-Interesting incident at Contreras.-He makes the tour. of Europe.-Offers his sword to Virginia.-Battle of Bethel.-Important and critical services on the Peninsula. -How he deceived McClellan, and defied his " grand army."-Another desperate situation in front of Richmond.-Transferred to Texas.-Recapture of Galveston.-Affair of Sabine Pass.-Address to the people of Texas.-The enemy compared to " the ravenous cat." —Gen. Magruder resists a surrender — His exile in Mexico.-The tribute of a companion-in-arms to his accomplishments and virtues,........ 840 CHAPTER LXXVIII. SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS. Reflections on the close of the war.-The true glory of history.-" The possession forever."-The duties and hopes of the South.-Two distinct grounds of faith in the future.-The people of the South to make their own history and Pantheon.-Their dead heroes,...... 848 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CTIAPTER I. Standards of human greatness.-Three classes of great men.-Nature and peculiarity of genius.-A second order of greatness. —General Lee, as in the third class of great men.-Key to his character. HUMAN greatness is neither a mystery nor an accident. There is a class of minds, envious or ignorant, which insist that the greatness of men is without reference to any well-settled orders of merit; that it is often the fruit of chance; that it is subject to no well-defined rule or analysis; and that fame is a lawless and irregular thing. We dissent from this view, and disclaim any share in its self-complacency. We believe that human greatness, as interpreted by intelligent fame among mankind, is regulated by wellknown laws, is subject to a clear analysis, and is capable of a precise definition. Especially in modern civilized society, with its multitude of concerns, its intricate organization, and its constant and characteristic multiplication of restraints and difficulties upon the self-assertion of the individual, it is impossible for a man to obtain anything like permanent fame without the possession of some substantial and well-defined merit, or some extraordinary quality. To be sure, in the experience of every people there are hasty judgments of the mob, fits of fickle admiration, short triumphs of charlatanism, ephemera of the newspaper. But equally certain it is that no man succeeds to real and lasting fame, and obtains a permanent place in the regard of his fellows, unless he has some visible mark upon him, some true excellence, and only after a severe test and a precise measure have been applied to those qualities in which he asserts an extraordinary character. That character may be one of great virtues or of brilliant vices; we do not discuss the moral question here; we only insist that the man 3 ^34 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. designated for historical reputation, and the fee of fame, must have something that really distinguishes him from his fellows. Affectation and pretension can never accomplish a permanent name. There is no such thing as being great by accident, and enjoying fame without good reason therefor. Weak men may sometimes make undue noise, and occupy for a little while eminences to which they do not belong; but the sober judgment of mankind soon passes upon the pretender, and reduces him to his proper position. It is the certain and inevitable law of history. Mind, like water, will find its level. We may appear to live in a great confusion of names, amid disordered currents of popular fame, in storms of unjust and turbulent opinion; but after all, we may be sure that there is an ultimate order, that the reputations of men will be finally assigned them by exact rules, and that those only will enter the temple of History who have real titles, by extraordinary virtues or by extraordinary vices, to its places. That excellence which men entitle Greatness, so far from being any peculiar occasion of confusion of mind, may. be readily subjected to analysis, and the classes of fame be separated, with reference to the qualities which obtain it. In the first place, we have a distinction among mankind, and a title to fame in the rare possession of genius. The subtile excellence of mind that bears this name is difficult of definition. But its characteristics are easily recognized and unfailing. We call him the man of genius, who, by a quality or gift superiour to reason, reaches the truth, seizes upon it without the intermediate process by which the ordinary man arrives at it; obtains conclusions by the flashes of intuition; perceives things by a subtile sense in which truth is discovered without the formula of an argument, and almost without the consciousness of a mental operation. It is for the metaphysician to attempt the definition of this rare quality of mind, and determine the relations between reason and intuition. But from what we have said of the characteristics of genius we may readily recognize it: the rapidity of its action, the brilliancy of its execution, the intellectual certainty of all its plans, the directness of its methods, and the decisive air of its manners are peculiar, and cannot escape notice. There is another peculiarity of genius. It is that its particular employment, the department in which it displays itself, is determined by accident; that it is universal in its application, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 35 and capable of excelling in all professions of life, in all arts and sciences, in every domain of mind. Genius contains in itself all excellences, and is bound to show itself in some direction or other. The man who is by genius a great General would also have been, had such directions been given to his life, a great poet, or a great mathematician, or a great politician-an ornament of the State, or a light bf science. Genius is bound to assert itself, and circumstances will determine its direction. A certain reviewer in the pages of a British periodical has declared that the Great Napoleon was only the product of a peculiar French society, the fruit of the exceptional times in which he lived; and that had he been an Englishman, and served in the British army, he would probably never have been known but as a brilliant colonel of artillery. But this view is superficial and silly. The scholarly and cultivated historian has quite a different judgment from that of the writer in the shallow pages of a magazine. The universality of genius is illimitable, its declarations of itself irrepressible; and we are to believe that Napoleon, if he'had chosen, instead of the profession of arms, the peaceful pursuits of science and philosophy, would still have been the great man, would have imprinted the age with great discoveries, and would have taken rank wiih Bacon, Newton, and other luminaries in the world of letters and pure intellect. There is a second order of greatness, lower than that of genius, but often mistaken for it in the opinions of the vulgar. It is some special excellence which comes from some faculty in excess, some inordinate development of a single power or property of mind. This is indeed the most usual type of human greatness, occurring far more frequently than that founded on genius, or that proceeding, as we shall hereafter notice, from a certain rare and -full combination of virtues and powers in a single mind. The largest class of those whom the world calls great represent single ideas, ar specialties and have a well-defined vocation, taken out of whici they are no longer remarkable. It seems here indeed that nature has introduced a certain law of economy in its distribution of powers, giving to us special missions, and raising up for the accomplishment of every particular idea the man for the occasion. A third class of great men in history, not remarkable for genius, and not famous for any special adaptation, rest their reputation on a certain combination, a just mixture of qualities, a perfect balance .36 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. of character at once rare and admirable. This type of greatness may not be a very brilliant one, but it is certainly not a low one. It is seldom that we perceive in one person the full, rotund development of mind, a perfect harmony of character, the precise adjustment of the virtues. We may hesitate in a certain sense in designating such a one as a great man. The very fulness and harmony of such a character precludes brilliancy; and it is remarkable that this full and well-balanced order of mind is generally wrought from a sense of duty —the only motive indeed which embraces all the powers and dispositions of the mind-and partakes but little of ambition, which usually cultivates partial developments of character, and distorts the picture. The excellence and charm of the character we describe is its nice mixture. The man who is suecessful and famous from a happy combination of qualities may not attract the mysteries of hero-worship; he will lack the vigorous selfishness that -puts strong imprints on the pages of history; he will not realize that fierce and romantic theory of greatness which contends that the great man must be cruel, unscrupulous, monstrous, sacrificing all means to one end; he may be more the object of admiration than affection; but after all, he is the great man and not the agreeable commonplace. Apart from any charm in the moral aspects of this character, there is a steady intellectual glow in the contemplation of the man well-developed, and tempered in all his parts, deficient in nothing, with all his powers and dispositions knit in harmony, presenting a single majestic picture of human nature. The brilliant light may startle us for a while; but we shall not the less regard the full-orbed symbol of greatness. The meteor which streams across the vision, the comet which writes its -red hieroglyph on the blue page of heaven, may be taken as symbols of certain human fame; but are there not others more quiet, and yet as majestic, in the full round orb of day as it shines on the meridian, or blazes through the broken storm on the horizon, amid clouds "At sunset, stranded, firing far Their dull distress-guns I" GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 37 To the third class of great men we have no hesitation in assigning the subject of this memoir-Robert E. Lee. We shall recog. nize the. illustrious Virginian as one of those great men who had but little to dazzle the world, and yet a strong and permanent claim on the sober admiration of mankind. We may not have to recite the brilliant story of genius; but we shall have much to record that is beautiful and admirable in a career that drew the eyes of the world, and traversed a domain of fame as broad as Christendom. In brief, we shall find in this man fruitful and peculiar studies; the almost perfect sum of the qualities of a great military commander; an excellent balance between judgment and execution; a spirit not remarkable for the creation of events, of but little originality, yet always equal to whatever events fortune might marshal; a character fairly developed in every direction, wellrounded and Washington-like; an intellect of great power, but with few gifts of learning; a circle of virtues; the store of a wellregulated life, to which there was one unfailing golden key —A SENSE OF DUTY. 38 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CHAPTER II. The Lee family in Virginia.-" Light-Horse Harry."-Early life of Robert E. Lee.His cadetship at West Point.-His home at Arlington Heights.-Services in the Mexican war.-Commended by General Scott.-Appointed Colonel in the First Cavalry. —The John Brown raid. —Colonel Lee and the outlaws.-The first act of "rebellion" at Harper's Ferry.-Governor Wise arms Virginia. ROBERT EDWARD LEE belonged to a family conspicuous for two centuries, not only in the local annals of Virginia, but on the ample pages of the colonial and revolutionary periods of America. The genealogy of the Lee family in Virginia is traced to 1666. About' that time Richard Lee, the early ancestor of the Confederate chieftain, made large settlements in that part of Virginia situated between the Rappahannock and the Potomac rivers, and designated as the Northern Neck. He was faithful to the loyal sentiments of those times; he acted, for some time, as secretary to Sir William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia; and on the restoration of Charles II., he exercised no little influence in restoring the colony to its allegiance, although in Cromwell's time Virginia had taken a step towards independence, and had obtained a quasi recognition in a treaty signed by the Protector's own hand. He shared in the ceremonies of crowning the restored monarch King of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia; from which came the legend on the ancient arms of the last commonwealth: En dat zVirginia quartam. A grandson of this Richard Lee, Thomas Lee, was one of the first of the leading men of the colony of Virginia; was, for some time, president of the council; was known for the ardour of his enterprises in the exploration of the then wild country of the Ohio River; and, although he preceded the Revolution by a generation, he appeared to have had a foresight of that remarkable event, and is reported to have designated, with comparative accuracy, the present site of Washington City as the seat of the new government. He died in 1750. Thomas Lee left six sons, three of whom obtained historical GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 39 distinction. Richard Henry Lee was' a member of the first Continental Congress; and his was the first voice to move a resolution, on the 7th June, 1776, "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." His brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, signed with him the Declariation of Independence. Arthur Lee, another brother, was distinguished as a scholar and diplomatist. The descent of Gen. R. E. Lee, of Confederate times, is traced from Henry Lee, a brother of Thomas. This ancestor married a Miss Bland; his third son, nanmed Henry, was united to a Miss Grimes; and from this marriage came the father of Gen. Lee-the famous "Light-IIorse Harry," ot the' period of the Revolution. The immediate ancestor of General Lee achieved, perhaps, the most brilliant name in the Lee family. He was a brave, elastic officer, referred to by all the historians of the Revolution as an excellent cavalry officer; he commanded a legion noted for its daring exploits; he distinguished himself by the capture of a British fort at Paulus Hook; and he served, with constant brilliant effects, under Greene in the Carolinas, who declared that he was "'under obligations to Lee which he never could cancel," and, with his own hand, wrote to him: " No man in the progress of the campaign had equal merit with yourself." He was an especial and intimate friend of Washington; he obtained the regard of his government, a brilliant Share of popular applause, a vote of thanks from Congress, and a medal on which his services were designated in the following beautiful and classical words: "Notwithstanding rivers and intrenchments, he, with a small band, conquered the foe by warlike skill and prowess, and firmly bound by his humanity tIose who had been conquered by his arms." It is curious that this description of glory the rigid pen of history may almost exactly repeat in epitomizing the deeds of the son. It will thus be' seen that the name of Robert E. Lee comes before the country with a very abundant historical association, and a rare measure of the glory of the Revolution. Two of his grand-uncles were signers of the Declaration of Independence; one of them, Richard Henry Lee, was the orator of the Revolu 40 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. tion, and among the most beautiful characters of his times, deeply sympathizing with Washington and Peyton, Randolph and Pendleton, and Nicholas and Henry, in their religious character and sentiments; while the immediate ancestor, glorious "Light-Horse Harry," won a brilliant reputation in. arms, and obtained an inestimable recognition in the "love and thanks" of Washington himself.: After the battle of iIutaw Springs, Henry Lee returned to Virginia, and married a daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, of Stafford. His political career was short, but very honourable. He served two terms in Congress, and in 1791 was made Governor of Virginia. His first wife having died, he contracted a second marriage with Anne, daughter of Charles Carter, of Shirley. The second son was Robert Edward Lee, born in 1806, at the family seat of Stratford. In 1818 Hertry Lee died, while visiting a member of Gen. Greene's family, in Georgia, and his remains were committed to a grave on the lands once owned by his beloved commander and companion in arms. There is a common curiosity to discover, even in the earliest periods of the lives of great men, some indication or augury of their future greatness, some infantile anticipation of the future. This disposition of mind is often silly and absurd, and not unfrequently carried to the point of extravagance.* There is little * On one of the pages of "The Lost Cause" (the author's history of the war), a place was found for the following brief remark: "There has been a curious Yankee affectation in the war. It is to discover in the infancy or early childhood of all their heroes something indicative of their future greatness, or of the designs of Providence towards them. Thus their famous cavalry commanders rode wild horses as soon as they could sit astraddle; and their greatest commander in the latter periods of the war-Ulysses S. Grant-when an infant desired a pistol to be. fired by his ear, and exclaimed' Fick again!' thus giving a very early indication of his warlike disposition." A Northern journal questioned the authenticity of this anecdote of Grant, challenged the whole statement, and charged that the author of " The Lost Cause" had had recourse to very small and pitiful inventions to make a theme of ridicule. The author is not only able to reply to the' challenge for authorities in the instances referred to above, but the subject has expanded under investigation, and he finds that he has really fallen upon a topic of large and characteristic interest in. the history of the war, that has a philosophical bearing as well as a ludicrous aspect. The world is not yet done with the curiositiesbf Yankee conceit. It has not beer content to date the fame of its heroes in the war from the events of the war, but has ascribed to them infantile phenomena, and iuvented a modern augury of greatness, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 41 indeed to reward such curiosity in the early life of Lee. He grew up in the quiet of home, without showing any uncommon characteristics of mind; and the only thing remarked about him as a boy was that he was disposed to be quiet and sedate. His associawhich would be extremely fanciful, if it was not supremely absurd and disgusting The conceit is part of that Yankee vanity which is constantly asserting its excellence -even in the matter of babies. The genius of Grant is traced to his cradle; Sheridan was enfant terrible; and the Yankee heroes of the war, before their adult achievements, were the most remarkable children of their generation. Now, as to Grant's early pricking of the ears at warlike sounds (something after thie fashion of Jupiter's sons of earth) we have the story from his father, recited as follows in a recent Yankee book, characteristically entitled "Our Great Cap. tains:" " Grant relates that when Ulysses was but two years old, he took him in his arms and carried him through the village on some public occasion, and a young man wished to try the effect of the report of a pistol on him. Mr. Grant consented, though, as he said,'the child had never seen a gun or pistol in his life.' The hand of the baby was accordingly put on the lock, and pressed there quietly, until the pistol was discharged with a loud report. The little fellow exhibited no alarm, neither winking nor dodging, but presently pushed the pistol away, saying,'Fick it again! Fick it again!'" In another part of his book, the biographer of Grant tells us:"A still more characteristic incident is related of him by his father. When Ulysses was twelve years of age, his father wanted several sticks of hewn timber from the forest, and sent him with the team to draw them to the village, telling him that men would be there with handspikes to help them on to the wagon. The boy went with the team, but on arriving at his destination the men were not there, and after some little delay they still did not appear. He had been sent for the timber, however, and he had no intention of going home without it. Looking about, he observed at a little distance a tree which had fallen over, and was leaning against another, its trunk forming an inclined plane. This, he reasoned, would enable him to get the timber into his wagon; accordingly he took out his horses, and hitching them to the logs, drew them up to the foot of the fallen tree, and backing his wagon to the side of the inclined plane, he pushed and drew the timber, piece after piece, up the inclined plane, and shoved it into the wagon, and with his load secured, drove home triumphantly."'The writer recollects to have seen recently in an English newspaper a similar story of two wise elephants, at Ceylon, who, employed in raising logs to construct a house, hit upon the device of getting the heaviest logs to their place by pushing them up two other logs inclined to the ground. This is certainly something remarkable in the life of an elephant; but we scarcely think it so wonderful an intellectual display as to be mentioned in the biography of a modern genius and hero I Of Sheridan we are treated to the following youthful reminiscences in the pages of ". Our Great Captains," indicating his early equine proclivity:"An incident of his early childhood renders his subsequent successes as a cavalry officer less surprising. He was but five years of age when some older boys, 42 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. tion in the first families of Virginia' naturally gave him, even in the period of boyhood, a cultivated appearance, easy manners, and a prompt perception of social proprieties. In the year 1825, at the age of eighteen, Lee entered West Point as a cadet from Virginia. He completed the course of studies in the usual foul' years, without a single mark of demerit against him, and standing number two in a class of forty six, and leading, anlong others, Joseph E. Johnston, O. McK. Mitchell, Albert G. Blanchard and Theophilus H. Holmes. At the expiration of his cadet term, he was immediately selected for service in the corps of topographical engineers, receiving his appointment as brevet second in a spirit of mischief, placed him on the back of a spirited horse grazing in a field near his father's house, and started the horse off at a run; but to their terrour, the horse becoming frightened, leaped the fences, and proceeded at a breakneck pace along the highway, the little urchin clinging fast to his back. The boys supposed that the child would inevitably be killed, but after a run of many miles the horse, completely exhausted and covered with foam, stopped at the stable of a hotel where its owner. was accustomed to put up, the child still on its back. The horse was recognized, and though the child's statement that he had come so many miles on its back, without saddle or bridle, was at first doubted, it was soon confirmed, and the villagers began to question him.'Who learned you to ride?' asked one.'Nobody,' said the boy.' Did no one teach you how to sit on a horse?' inquired another.'Oh, yesl Bill Seymour told me to hold on with my knees, and I did.'' Weren't you scared?' asked the villager.' Nary a bit,' said the boy.' I wanted to go on further, but the horse wouldn't go.''Aren't you sore?' continued his questioner.' Kinder,' said little Phil;' but I'll feel better to-morrow, and then I'll ride back home.'" We might make no end of the wonders in the infantile lives of Northern generals, recorded in books, scattered through the newspapers, and handed down to tradition. But we will choose but one more extract-that from a Philadelphia journal relating a most wonderful phenomenon in the birth of the Yankee "Infant Napoleon:" "A son was born to our professor, and the event scarcely transpired before the father announced it to his delighted pupils. Scales were instantly brought from a neighbouring grocer. Into one dish he placed the babe, into the other all the weights. The beam was raised, but the child moved not I The father emptying his pockets, threw in his watch, coin, keys, knives, and lancet, but to no purpose-the little hero could not be moved. He conquered everything! And at last, while. they were adding more and more weight, the cord suTpporting the bearn gave way, and broke rather than the giant infant would yield! The father was Dr. McClellan, and the son-General McClellan I our young commander on the Potomac. The country will see a prophetic charm in this incident." So, a prophetic charm of some sort or other, appears in the early lives of all modern great Yankees-some of them so wonderful as to be recorded on a cross between biography and mythology. The augur or soothsayer attends on the birth of each. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 43 lieutenant in July, 1829. He was employed for sevelal years on the coast defences; and in 1835 served as assistant astronomer for the demarcation of the boundary line between the States of Ohio and Michigan. In 1832, Lieutenant Lee married Miss Custis, the daughter and heiress of George W. Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Washington, and, through her, became proprietor of Arlington HIouse and the White House on the banks of the Pamunkey. The former place was situated on the heights of the Potomac, overlooking Washington City, and for many years was an object of attraction to visitors, on account of its historical associations, and the Washington relics collected and jealously preserved by the patriotic father of Mrs. Lee. The house was surrounded by a grove of stately trees and underwood, except in front, where a verdant sloping ground descended into a valley, spreading away in beautiful and broad expanse to the river. To the south, north and west, the grounds were beautifully diversified into hill and valley, and richly stored with oak, willow and maple. The view from the height was a charming picture. Washington, Georgetown, and the intermediate Potomac) were all in the foreground, with mountain high and valley deep making a background of picturesque foliage. This place, so charming to the eye, and so full of historical association, was to obtain additional interest as the first camping-ground of the " Grand Army " of the North, that a generation later was to invade Virginia, and make its headquarters in the home of Washington I In 1836, Lee was promoted to a first-lieutenancy; and in 1838 he was made captain. When the Mexican War broke out, he was placed on the staff of Brig.-Gen. Wool as Chief Engineer, and he retained that post throughout the whole campaign under Gen. Scott. At the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, 1847, he was brevetted major for gallantry. In the August following he again won a brevet rank by his meritorious conduct at Contreras and Cherubusco. In the assault on Chapultepec, September 13, 1847, he was wounded, and received therefor the brevet promotion of lieutenant-colonel. Lee's service in AMexico is remarkable for the extraordinary attention which the young officer obtained from Gen. Scott. He appears to have been the special favourite of the veteran commander, and there is hardly a single dispatch. in which his 44 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. name is not honourably mentioned. At Cerro Gordo, Gen. Scott wrote: "I am compelled to make special mention of Capt. R. E. Lee, Engineer. This officer greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Vera Cruz; was again indefatigable during these operations in reconnoissances, as daring as laborious, and of the utmost value. Nor was he less conspicuous in planning batteries, and in conducting columns to their stations, under the heavy fire of the enemy." At Chapultepec, he again highly compliments Capt. Lee "' as distinguished for felicitous execution as for science and daring." And, furthermore, he says: "Capt. Lee, so constantly distinguished, also bore important orders from me, until he fainted from a wound and the loss of two nights' sleep at the batteries." At the close of the Mexican War, Lee was appointed a member of the Board of Engineers, and remained as such until 1850. On the 1st September, 1852, he was appointed to succeed Capt. Brewerton as Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. In 1855, Col. Lee having been promoted to the Cavalry arm of the service, and thereby incapacitated by law from exercising superintendence at the Military Academy, was succeeded by Maj. J. G. Barnard. The regiment to which Lee was now appointed was the Second Cavalry, a new regiment organized under-the act of MIarch 3, 1855, its Colonel being Albert Sidney Johnston, afterwards a General in the service of the Southern Confederacy. This regiment was much employed in the Indian wars on the prairies of Texas. On the 16th March, 1861, Lee obtained his last promotion in the service of the United States; being appointed Colonel in the First Cavalry. He was to hold this position but a few weeks. In the autumn of 1859 occurred the memorable raid of John Brown in Virginia; an event which placed the name of Col. Lee before the public in some very dramatic circumstances. The outlaw had already obtained considerable notoriety in the troubles in Kansas; and among all the men employed to harass and hunt down the proslavery settlers in that Territory, he was the most merciless and cold.blooded. His murderous deeds there have since been paraphrased by Northern writers as "the heroic exploits of the stern old man." His career of crime did not end with the supremacy of the Free-State party in Kansas; but having done his work there, he entered upon the monstrous design of making an irruption into Virginia to excite and to aid an insurrection of the slaves against GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 45 their masters, and to extend the murderous and incendiary pro. gramme to the furthest limits of the South. His passion was to become the instrument of abolishing slavery, by the strong arm, throughout the slaveholding States.- His plan was larger than was generally supposed. After his arrest he declared that he had been promised aid from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, and Canada. With an army, then, consisting of blacks and whites, he designed to make the Blue Ridge his base; and, advancing southward, extending as he went his conquests and his power, he expected to penetrate into Northern Georgia and form a junction there with a column, which was to proceed in the same triumphant manner from-Beaufort, South Carolina, along a route which had been already defined. The first step of this extensive design was on the frontier of Virginia. The outlaw had purchased two hundred Sharpe's carbines, two hundred revolver pistols, and about one thousand pikes, with which to arm the slaves. These arms he had collected and deposited in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry. When the plot was ripe for execution, a little before midnight on Sunday evening, the 16th October, 1859, he, with sixteen white and five negro confederates, rushed across the Potomac to Harper's Ferry, and there seized the armory, arsenal, and rifle factory belonging to the United States. When the inhabitants awoke in the morning, they found, greatly to their terrour and surprise, that these places, with the town itself, were all in possession of John Brown's adventurous force. The slaves in the adjoining county did not rise as Brown had expected, and made no response to his signal of attack. The news spread rapidly over the country; public rumor greatly exaggerated the strength of the outlaw's force; and large numbers of volunteers from Virginia and Maryland were soon hastening to the scene of action. The action of the Government at Washington was prompt, and President Buchanan immediately sent forward a detachment of minarines under Col. Robert E. Lee, who was accompanied by his aide, Lieut. J. E. B. Stuart. Col. Lee and his command arrived at the Ferry in the night of the 17th. The news was too late in reaching Richmond to enable the Governor of the State, Henry A. Wise, to reach the ground with State forces; but a large number of militiamen and volunteers had collected at the Ferry when Col. Lee arrived, and were meditating an attack 46 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. upon Brown and his party, who had now gathered in the engine-house; and debating the policy of storming the refuge, and running the hazard of having the prisoners massacred, whom the outlaw held in the building. This weak hesitation was terminated by Col. Lee's appearance. His manner was cool and severe. He determined that the next morning the engine-house should be stormed by the marines, unless, before that time, the enemy surrendered. During the night, volunteer parties of the hot-blooded Virginians, jealous of the honour of their State, and ashamed of their former hesitation, besought Col. Lee to let them have the privilege of storming the engine-house. All such propositions were, however, refused. As daylight dawned, troops were stationed around the engine-house to cut off all hope of escape, and the United States marines were divided into two squads for storming purposes. At seven o'clock in the morning Brown was summoned to surrender, under a regular flag of truce, and was promised protection from violence, and a trial according to law. Hie replied with the absurd proposition: "That his party should be permitted to march out with their men and arms, taking their prisoners with them; that they should proceed unpursued to the second toll-gate, when they would free their prisoners, the soldiers then being permitted to pursue them, and they would fight, if they could not escape." Col. Lee ordered the attack. The marines advanced by two lines quickly on each side of the door, battered it down, and in a moment terminated the affair; but one volley being fired, which killed one of their number, while Brown was brought to the ground by a blow on the skull from Lieut. Stuart's sword. The whole band of insurgents, with the exception of two who had escaped, were either killed or captured. John Brown himself was wounded almost mortally, but was to survive for the gallows. In the meantime, however, his party had murdered five individuals, four of them unarmed citizens, and had wounded nine others. Col. Lee had terminated a threatening revolt with singular nerve and decision; and having done his duty, at once withdrew from the scene of excitement, turned his prisoners over to the United States District-Attorney (Mr. Robert Ould), and quietly returned to Washington to resume, his cavalry command. The blood shed at Harper's Ferry was the first drops of the crimson deluge that was to overwhelm the South, and whose tides GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 47 were to flow across the breadth of a continent. It was no accidental' event. It was not the isolated act of a desperate fanatic. The Abolitionists of the North gave significance to the John Brown expedition by their enthusiastic and permanent approbation of its object, and spread alarm and apprehension through the South by their displays of honour to his memory. After his death on'the gallows, prayers were offered up for him as if he were a martyr, and even blasphemy was employed to consecrate his memory. It is curious, indeed, that the party that afterwards made war upon the South carried the memory of this man in the van of their armies, and have ever since honoured him as a saint or a martyr in a holy cause. The event of Harper's Ferry was not without its lesson to Virginia. Governor Wise was one of those who saw the impending conflict. With the ostensible design of providing against a rescue of the criminals from the Charlestown jail, he encouraged the organization of military companies throughout the State, and used every legitimate means to excite a war spirit among the people. Companies were received at Charlestown, and after a short stay there, were sent away to make room for others, in order that the war spirit might be disseminated throughout the State. The attention of the Legislature was called to the state of the Commonwealth, and initiatory steps were taken to put Virginia upon a war footing. All over the State, military organizations sprang up, and serious preparations were made for war. It was to come sooner than any man of that day expected-l -48 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CHAPTER III. Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States. —Anxiety and hesitation of Lee at the commencement of hostilities.-His sense of duty.-He debates thile question of his allegiance to Virginia.-His peculiar school of politics.-A reply to a Northern newspaper.-Attitude of Virginia.-A sublime struggle in Lee's mind. -He goes to Richmond.-Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces.-His reception by the State Convention.-Appearance and carriage of the man.-Military preparations in Virginia.-She joins the Southern Confederacy. THE election of Abraham Lincoln by the votes of the Republican or Anti-Slavery party, President of the United States, alarmed the South. When he assumed office, March 4, 1861, the States of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, had withdrawn from the Union; and what were loosely called the Border Slave States, were agitated by the discussion of instant and dread necessities. In the first commotions which threatened war, Robert E. Lee, as a member of the United States Army and a native Virginian, gave evidence of the most painful anxiety. His mind was torn by conflicting emotions. He was ardently attached to the Federal service; he had spent more than thirty years in it; he had obtained in it the best honours of his life. He was unskilled in politics, but he had a sentimental attachment to the Union and its traditions. He saw with alarm and anxiety the indications of a movement to dissolve the old Federal compact, and array against it a new league of States. He was sincerely opposed to such a movement; he saw no necessity for it; and in the doubts and anxieties of his mind, he could determine no other course than to await the action of his native State, Virginia, and to adopt in an overruling sense of duty, whatever she should decide. In the subsequent development of events, when Lee had decided to stand by his mother State, when she drew the sword, a letter from his wife referred to the terrible trials of his mind in reaching this conclusion. She wrote: "My husband has wept tears of blood over this terrible GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 49 war; but he must, as a man of honour and a Virginian, share the destiny of his State, which has solemnly pronounced for independence." Lee's early hesitation at the commencement of hostilities was simply the doubt of duty. Ambition, the bribes of office, personal interest, did not enter into a mind pure, conscientious, introspective, anxious only to discover the line of duty, and then prompt and resolute to follow it. As long as Virginia wavered, Lee stood irresolute. While he maintained an attentive neutrality and waited for events, the Federal authorities at Washington used every effort to commit him to the service of the Union, and did not hesitate to urge his choice by the most splendid bribes. Mr. Blair, senior, has freely admitted that at this time he was deputed by President Lincoln to sound Lee, and to suggest to him his early appointment to the chief command of the Federal forces, in the event of his declaration for the Union. Those who thus approached Lee to tempt his ambition little knew the man. They did not have the key to those quiet meditations which made him reticent and kept him undecided. His only thought was duty. There is a very noble letter written several years before the war by Lee, which exhibits the man and indicates his characteristic idea of the conduct of life. He wrote to his son, who was at West Point in 1852, the following lesson: " In regard to duty, let me in conclusion of this hasty letter, inform you that nearly a hundred years ago there was a day of remarkable gloom and darkness-still known as' the dark day' -a day when the light of the sun was slowly extinguished, as if by an eclipse. The Legislature of Connecticut was in session, and as its members saw the unexpected and unaccountable darkness coming on, they shared in the general awe and terrour. It was supposed by many that the last day-the day of judgment-had come.. Some one, in the consternation of the hour, moved an adjournment. Then there arose an old Puritan legislator, Devenport, of Stamford, and said, that if the last day had come, he desired to be found at his place doing his duty, and, therefore, moved that candles be brought in, so that the house could proceed with its duty. There was quietness in that man's mind, th6 quietness of heavenly wisdom and inflexible willingness to obey present duty. Duty, then, is the sublimest word in our language. 4 50 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Do your duty in all things like the old Puritan. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less." Such was the lesson which Gen. Lee was now to observe and exemplify in his own life. Assailed by importunities, tempted by the highest military office in the gift of the Federal Government, solicited by the voices of friendship, he remained silently waiting for the call of duty. He was prompt to respond to it. On the 17th April, 1861, Virginia seceded from the Union; on the 19th Lee knew it; on the 20th he dissolved his connection with the Federal army, and sent the following letter to Gen. Scott: ARLINGTON, VA., April 20, 1861. GENERAL: —Since my interview with you on the 18th instant, I have felt that I ought not longer to retain my commission in the army. I therefore tender my resignation, which I request you will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once, but for the struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service to which I have devoted all the best years of my life and all the ability I possessed. During the whole of that time-more than a quarter of a century-I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiours, and the niost cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have I been as much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and consideration, and it has always been my ardent desire to merit your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration, and your name and fame will always be dear to me. Save in defence of my native State, I never desire to draw my sword. Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness and prosperity, and believe me, most truly yours, R. E. LEE. LIBUT.-GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT, Commanding United States Army. A copy of the preceding letter was inclosed in the following letter to a relative, which more completely discovers the state of Gen. Lee's mind: GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 51 ARLINGTON, VA., April 20, 1861.' MY DEAR SISTER:-I am grieved at my inability to see you I have been waiting "for a more convenient season," which has brought to many before me deep and lasting regret. Now we are in a state of war which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn, and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet in- my own person I had to meet the question, whether Ishould take part against my native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the army, and save in defence of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword. I know you will blame me, but you must think as kindly of me as you can, and believe that I have endeavoured to do what I thought right. To show you the feeling and struggle it has cost me, I send a copy of my letter to Gen. Scott, which accompanied my letter of resignation. I have no time for more. May God guard and protect you and yours, and shower upon you every blessing, is the prayer of your devoted brother, R. E. LEE. A Northern publication has remarked on the letter quoted above, that it exhibited a narrowness of mind, and a very imperfect patriotism, in that Gen. Lee was not able to sacrifice for the good of the country his affections for Virginia, and pleaded a partiality for his State against his duty to the general government. But this commentary is as unjust as it is plausible-an instance of that shallow fallacy, the petitio principii. It begs the whole question, and proceeds on the supposition that there was no federation of the American States, that the government at Washington represented a national unit, and that any hesitation between its authority and that of the State was the hesitation between loyalty and a mere local affection. It ignores that school of politics to 52 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. which Gen. Lee belonged, which included the whole mind of the South, and which for three. generations had persistently regarded the Union as the creature of the States, representing only their convenience, and having no mission whatever apart from them. In this view of the relations between the Federal government and the State, it is clear that the latter was superiour in its claims upon the affections of the intelligent; that it was the peculiar object of patriotism; that it was the symbol of the love of country, rather than the Union which, in the estimation of the school of politics referred to, was the mere geographical designation of a league created by the States, and designed for the benefit and pleasure of each. All the accusations with which the Northern press has abounded about the " disloyalty " or infidelity of those who left the Federal service, to take part in the war with the States to which they belonged, have been ingeniously coloured by the confusion of two schools of politics, and have no other foundation than a plausible and insolent dogma of partisan sophistry. Lee went with Virginia in the war, and to her side of the contest; for however he valued the Union, and saw no necessity for the secession of his State, he could not assume to judge for its whole population; and whatever the position of his State, he felt bound to recognize it as that political community to which, as the original and only permanent element in the American system, his allegiance belonged; as his home, around which the affections of the man naturally cling; as the abode of family and friends, where the protection of his arm and sword was due in the season of danger. Cold, indeed, would have been the heart of any son of Virginia in which welled not up affection, admiration, and sympathy, when he observed the extraordinary perils which beset her at the commencement of the war, and the heroic attitude she had assumed in the very jaws of' danger. She had not seceded in any expectation of a peaceable solution of the difficulty, but in the very presence of a war that frowned upon her borders, vexed her waters, and plainly threatened to make her smiling fields the theatre of its revenge and crime. Lee had seen at Washington the mighty power preparing to crush his State, and gathering its forces for the bound upon its prey; he knew that the enemy held FortressMonroe, her greatest place of arms, and the gate to all the water avenues into her interiour; he was sensible that the persistent neutral GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 53 ity of Kentucky would practically expose Virginia on three sides to her invaders; he appreciated, as a military man, the weak and dangerous situation; and when he found his noble State daring the worst, taking counsel only of her honour, stepping into the breach, and baring her bosom to the strokes of relentless war, his heart would have been hard, and his spirit dull, had they not sympathized with the touching scene, and his trained sword been drawn in defence of his native land. Whenever a man acts conscientiously, from a sincere conviction of duty, a just world gives credit for his motives, and describes his conduct as generous and noble, whatever may have been the errour of his decision. Judged even by this rule, Lee's adhesion to his native State, on her declaration of war, was a noble action, because it could not have been determined by any other consideration than that of duty, and sacrificed to that sense the meaner questions of fortune. To act as he did, was to turn his back upon the highest military office in the gift of the Washington government; to incur the most painful censures; to sacrifice his private estates, which were on the direct lines of the Federal invasion, and to put his house and fortunes at the mercy of a declared enemy. Powerful must have been the sense of duty that could have conquered such considerations, and sublime must have been the struggle of mind in which every selfish, passion and thought of expediency ultimately surrendered to the conviction of right, and the voice of conscience proclaimed the victory. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Richmond, the State Convention, still assembled there, voted Lee the appointment of Major-General, in command of all the military forces in Virginia. There had been great anxiety and'speculation as to what would be his choice in the war; the newspapers had variously reported his position; a value and interest had been giyen to his, above all other early military names of the war; it was known that Gen. Scott had indorsed him as his ablest lieutenant; and when at last it was made certain that he had abandoned the Federal service, and thrown his great name and abilities into the scale for Virginia, the joy in Richmond was extreme. There had been a hope that Gen. Scott, himself, would have espoused the cause of his native State, Virginia; but when he declared.differently, the people of Virginia were more than consoled in the loss of a valetudinarian General, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. by the gain of Lee, who was popularly reported to have inspired the whole campaign in Mexico, to be superiour in mind to his aged chief, to have been designated as his early successor in command of the armies of the United States, and to have the advantage of ripe years and a vigorous body. When, on the 22d April, the name of Robert E. Lee was thus communicated by Governor Letcher to the Convention as nominee for Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces, there was an eager and affirmative response. The confirmation was unanimous, and without a moment's hesitation. It was made with a heartiness that attested the cordial and unbounded confidence of Virginia in the man to whom, more than all others, she now intrusted her destinies. The next day, a grand ceremony was appointed in the main hall of the Capitol. It was announced that Maj.-Gen. Lee, with a distinguished company, would be personally introduced to the Convention, and might be expected to make a remarkable speech on-the occasion. The hall was crowded with an eager audience; all the members of the Convention stood, as a mark of respect; on the right of the presiding officer were Governor Letcher and Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, and on the left the members of the " Advisory Council" of Virginia, while Gen. Lee, in the immediate company of the committee appointed to receive him, advanced to the centre of the main aisle. Every spectator admired the personal appearance of the man, his dignified figure, his air of self-poised strength, and features in which shone the steady animation of a consciousness of power, purpose, and position. He was in the full and hardy flush of ripe years and vigorous health. His figure was tall, its constituents well knit together; his head, well shaped and squarely built, gave indications of a powerful intellect; a face not yet interlined by age, still remarkable for its personal beauty, was lighted up by eyes black in the shade, but brown in the full light, clear, benignant, but with a deep recess of light, a curtained fire in them that blazed in moments of excitement; a countenance, the natural expression of which was gentle and benevolent, yet struck the beholder as masking an iron will. His manners were at once grave and kindly; without gayety or abandon, he was also without the affectation of dignity. Such was the man whose stately figure, in the Capitol at Richmond, brought to mind the old race of Virginians, and who GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 55 was thereafter to win the reputation, not only as the first commander, but also as the first gentleman of the South, the most perfect and beautiful model of manhood in the war. Gen. Lee was received with a fulsome piece of rhetoric. The presiding officer of the Convention, Mr. Janney, could not resist the temptation to make the gaudy speech common on such occasions. He conceived that the audience, in the circumstances in which they stood, might hear the echo of the voices of the statesmen, the soldiers and sages of by-gone days; he declared that Virginia, having taken a position in defiance of the Federal authority, was " animated by one impulse, governed by one desire and one determination, and that was that she should be defended, and that no spot of her soil should be polluted by the foot of an invader;" and, speaking directly to Gen. Lee, he reminded him of the historical inspirations connected with his name, remarking the singular circumstance that his native county of Westmoreland had shown peculiar productive power in having given birth to the Father of his Country, to Richard Henry Lee, and to Monroe. Connecting the memory of Washington, he closed with this glowing exhortation: " When the Father of his Country made his last will and testament, he gave his swords to his favourite nephews with an injunction that they should never be drawn from their scabbards except in self-defence, or in defence of the rights and liberties of their country, and, that if drawn for the latter purpose, they should fall with them in their hands, rather than relinquish them. Yesterday your mother, Virginia, placed her sword in your hand, upon the implied condition that we know you will keep it to the letter and in spirit, that you will draw it only in defence, and that you will fall with it in your hand rather than the object for which it was placed there shall fail." The reply of Gen. Lee was very simple and short; but touching in its brevity, Washington-like in its modesty, and pervaded by a deep tone of solemnity that penetrated the excited and giddy assembly that had expected a fulsome harangue. He could not have spoken more appropriately. He said: "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, for which I must say I was not prepared, I accept the position assigned me by your par. tiality. I would have much preferred, had your choice fallen 56 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. upon an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote myself tc the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword." When this ceremony took place, Virginia had niot formally perfected her alliance and association with the Southern Confederacy. On the 24th April, it was determined by the Convention, that pending the popular vote on the queston of secession, military operations, offensive and defensive, in Virginia, should be under the chief control and direction of the President of the Confederate States. Confederate troops from South Carolina and the States of the Gulf were now being rapidly thrown forward into Virginia. On the 10th May, the Confederate Secretary of War invested Lee with the control of the forces in Virginia by the following order: MONTGOMERY, May 10, 1861. To MIAJ.-GEN. R. E. LEE: —To prevent confusion, you will assume the control of the forces of the Confederate States in Virginia, and assign them to such duties as you may indicate, until further orders; for which this will be your authority. I. P. WALKER, Secretary of War. About this time Gen. Lee was busily engaged in organizing and equipping the military forces, hurrying from every part of Virginia, and rapidly arriving on the trains from the South. It was not a brilliant service, but one of peculiar vexation and diffi. culty. It required all his experience and skill to establish discipline and order; to subdue the excessive spirits of the volun teers; to organize quartermaster and commissary departments; and to bring out of the general excitement and confusion the substance and form of great armies. More than fifty thousand men were already, in the early days of May, 1861, under arms in Virginia; and to organize these, and to distribute them so as to enable the immediate concentration of troops upon the borders of the State, wherever the movements of the enemy might demand; their presence, was the immense task imposed upon Lee. He sat almost daily in the military council with Gov. Letcher and others; he performed an amount of labor that was almost incredible, yet GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 57 always working with ease and exactness; and he made the reputation of a skilful organizer of armies, before he commenced the career of active commander in the field. Meanwhile, the popular vote of Virginia having pronounced almost unanimously for secession,* and this formality having been accomplished, the State linked her destiny with the Southern Confederacy.; and that government signified the appreciation of the accession of the great Commonwealth, by transferring its capital to Richmond, and making Virginia at once the administrative centre of the new power and the main seat of war. Early in June, Maj.Gen. Lee was created a full General in the Confederate service. But he was assigned to an obscure and difficult field of service; and the reader will be surprised and pained to find his reputation soon clouded by quick and grievous misfortunes. * The aggregate of the popular vote of Virginia, on the ordinance of secession,. so far as exactly known, was as follows: For Ratification........ 125,950 For Rejection....... 20,373 Majority for Ratification...... 10557 There were irregular and conjectural returns from some of the counties, which probably reduced the majority to little less than a hundred thousand votes. -58 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CHAPTER IV. Gen. Lee sent to Northwestern Virginia.-Description'of the theatre of the war. — Unfortunate military councils in Richmond.-Proclamation of Governor Letcher.A caricature of secession.-Disaster of Rich Mountain.-Gen. Lee's plans thereafter.-HIe is foiled at Cheat Mountain. —Marches to the Kanawha Valley.Escape of Rosecrans.-Failure of Lee's Campaign.-He is abused and twitted in Richmond. —Scoffs of the Richmond " Examiner."-He is assigned to " the coast service."-Recalled to Richmond, and made " Commanding General."-This post unimportant, and scarcely honourable. WHAT is known as Northwestern Virginia includes all that part of the State between the Ohio River and the Alleghany Mountains. It has sometimes been called the " highland region " of.Virginia. But this comparative term is weak and ibsufficient to describe the mountainous character of the region and the extreme abruptness and intricacies of its features. The towering ridge of the Alleghanies separates it from the famous Valley of Virginia; and the county of Randolph, which holds the practicable lines of communication between the two, is cut by a series of lofty. mountain ridges known as the Sewell, Rich, Cheat, Slaughter's, and Middle Mountains, which fill more than half of the county, and leave a belt of table, or plain lands, hardly ten miles broad, on its western border. There are passes through Cheat and Greenbrier Mountains (the latter being properly part of the Alleghany ridge); but it needed but an ordinary eye to see that the entire extent of this country was but little practicable for artillery and cavalry. It offered to the movements of light-armed infantry only narrow and rough roads, winding along the edges of chasms, through rugged valleys, over mountain-tops, and across the beds of streams and rivers. Through the ravines ran watercourses which, uniting, flowed away until they fell into the Tygart's Valley and Cheat Rivers, and ran northward and westward to find their way at last into the Ohio. In the spring and summer this whole mountain region was habitually visited by heavy rains, which saturated the forest cover, deluged the few open fields, and converted the road-beds into a GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 59 mixture of mud and clay impassable for artillery and baggage wagons. It was undoubtedly a great military errour, but one for which Gen. Lee was not responsible, to attempt the retention and occupation by the Confederate arms of a country so rugged and intricate, and so remote in its relations to the dominant campaigns of the war. It needs only a glance at the map to indicate to the observer the important fact that the communications of Northwestern Virginia were much more easy with the enemy's country than with the remainder of Virginia. The Ohio River washed its western border; the Monongahela pierced its northern boundary; and in addition to these water facilities of the enemy, two railroads, from the Ohio eastward, united at Grafton, and enabled the Federal government to pour troops rapidly into the very heart of the country. The Confederates had no access to it except by tedious mountain roads; having neither navigable river nor railroad by which to transport their troops, to compete with equal pace in the occupation of the country, and to retreat with facility in case of disaster. The true military policy appears to have been to have left the enemy in possession of Northwestern Virginia, to tolerate his advance from that direction until he involved himself in the arduous mountain roads, to tempt him to lengthen his own lines of communication, and to have awaited his attacks on the nearer side of the wilderness, where the Confederates might have adroitly transferred to him the difficulties of transportation, and concentrated with ease to crush him. The country that was to be contested was no vital part of Virginia; it was embraced between the most populous and fanatical parts of the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania; and its resources were inconsiderable. But the considerations we have referred to did not prevail. The policy of the military council in Richmond to hold Northwestern Virginia, and drive the enemy out of this region, originated in a mistaken generosity towards the inhabitants; proceeded from an unwillingness to leave what was supposed to be a loyal population to the oppressions of a few traitors, backed by invaders; and assumed the fact that a Confederate army would obtain there the active assistance of the people, which would be a great compensation as against the superiour force of the enemy, and with respect to the topographical disadvantages of the country. It may be gene 60 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. rally described as part of the early and much-mistaken military policy of the South, to cover everything. When the Confederate Military Department took control at Richmond, it adopted towards Northwestern Virginia the view that Governor Letcher and his advisory council had already decided. The policy and hopes of the latter are sufficiently indicated in the following proclamation of Governor Letcher, dated June 14, 1861: " To the People of Northwestern Virginia: "The sovereign people of Virginia, unbiassed, and by their own free choice, have, by a majority of nearly one hundred thousand qualified voters, severed the ties that heretofore bound them to the Government of the United States, and united this Commonwealth with the Confederate States. That our people have the right'to institute a new Government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,' was proclaimed by our fathers, and it is a right which no freeman should ever relinquish. The State of Virginia has now, the second time in her history, asserted this right, and it is the duty of every Virginian to acknowledge her act when ratified by such a majority, and to give his willing cooperation to make good the declaration. All her people have voted. Each has taken his chance to have his personal views represented. You, as well as the rest of the State, have cast your vote fairly, and the majority is against you. It is the duty of good citizens to yield to the will of the State. The Bill of Rights has proclaimed'that the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate firom or independent of the. government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.' "The majority, thus declared, therefore have a right to govern. But notwithstanding this right, thus exercised, has been regarded by the people of all sections of the United States as undoubted and sacred, yet the Government at Washington now utterly denies it, and by the exercise of despotic power is endeavouring to coerce our people to abject submission to their authority. Virginia has asserted her independence. She will maintain it at every hazard.. She is sustained by the power of ten of her sister Southern States, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 61 ready and willing to uphold her cause. Can any true Virginian refuse to render assistance? Men of the Northwest, I appeal to you, by all the considerations which have drawn us together as one people heretofore, to rally to the standard of the Old Dominion. By all the sacred ties of consanguinity, by the intermixtures of the blood of East and West, by common paternity, by friendships hallowed by a thousand cherished recollections and memories of the past, by the relics of the great men of other days, come to Virginia's banner, and drive the invader from your soil. There may be traitors in- the midst of you, who, for selfish ends, have turned against their mother, and would permit her to be ignominiously oppressed and degraded. But I cannot, will not believe that a majority of you are not true sons, who will not give your blood and your treasure for Virginia's defence. "I have sent for your protection such troops as the emergency enabled me to collect, in charge of a competent commander. I have ordered a large force to go to your aid, but I rely with the utmost confidence upon your own strong arms to rescue your firesides and altars from the pollution of a reckless and ruthless enemy. The State is invaded at several points, but ample forces have been collected to defend her. "' The troops are posted at Huttonsville. Come with your own good weapons and meet them as brothers! "By the Governor: JOHN LETCHER." It may be remarked here that the people of Northwestern Virginia did not respond to this appeal, but indicated a preference for the Federal authority, proceeded to construct a new government, and thus offered to the army from Richmond that entered this region, the aspect and character of a hostile State, and shifted the perils and disadvantages attending an invading force from the Federals to the Confederates. On the 20th August, a Convention passed an ordinance creating a new State, the boundary of which included the counties of Logan, Wyoming, Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, Randolph, Tucker, Preston, Monongahela, Marion, Taylor, Barbour, Upshur, Harrison, Lewis, Braxton, Clay, Kanawha, Boone, Wayne, Cabell, Putnam, Mason, Jackson, Roane, Calhoun, Wirt, Gilmer, Ritchie, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Dodd %82 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. ridge, Wetzel, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke, and Hancock. A provision was incorporated permitting certain adjoining counties to come in if they should desire, by expression of a majority of their people to do so. The infinite absurdity was committed at Washington, of acknowledging as the State of Virginia a band of disaffected counties; and the Federal government, although conducting its war on the theory that the withdrawal of the States from the Union was heresy and treason, did not hesitate when it suited its purposes to put itself into the most glaring and grotesque inconsistency of adopting and confirming a very caricature of secession. The defence of Northwestern Virginia was first undertaken by Gen. Lee, in dispatching Col. Porterfield to that region, for the purpose of raising there a local force. The results of the recruiting service were small, and to meet the occupation by McClellan, who in the latter part of May was throwing a force across the Ohio, reinforcements to the amount of about six thousand men were directed upon Northwestern Virginia, under command of -Gen. Garnett, who had belonged to the Federal service. On the lth July, this little army, threatened by fourfold numbers and resources, and while imprudently divided —Gen. Garnett having detached Pegram from the main position at Laurel Hill, which commanded the turnpike from Staunton to Wheeling, to hold Rich Mountain, five miles below-was assailed by two columns of the enemy. Both parts were compelled to retreat across the Alleghanies, with the loss of their baggage and artillery, and about a thousand prisoners; and at Carrick's Ford, at the passage of the Cheat River, Gen. Garnett himself was killed, while attempting to rally the rearguard of the retreat. After this disaster, it was determined that Gen. Lee himself should take the field; and he at once proceeded to organize a campaign, with the object of obtaining possession of the Valley of the Kanawha, as well as the country to the northward, from which Gen. Garnett had been driven. He took immediate command of the remains of Garnett's army at Monterey, and also directed the movements of Gens. Floyd and Wise in the lower country; the latter, after the affair of Rich Mountain, having retreated to Lewisburg, on the Greenbrier River, and Floyd's force of about four thousand men having been sent to his relief. The field was one of little promise for Lee. He found himself GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 63 in the midst of a hostile population; the wild ranges in which he was to operate, were known only to the most experienced woods, men and hunters frequenting them; and although he endeavoured to shorten the arduous line of communication over the mountain roads, by leaving the Central Railroad at a point forty miles west of Staunton, and penetrating the northwest, through the counties of Bath and Pocahontas, at the Valley Mountain, he found that a season of unusual rains robbed him even of this success. Gen. Rosecrans was at this time commander-in-chief of the enemy's forces in Western Virginia, and had left Gen. Reynolds at Cheat Mountain to hold the passes, and the roads to Weston and Grafton. The month of August and the early part of September were consumed by a series of skirmishes, between the force under Gen. Lee and that under Gen. Reynolds, at Cheat Mountain. These actions were of but little account; Lee's main object being to dislodge the enemy by manceuvres, rather than by direct attack, and to get a foothold on his flanks or on his rear. At one time he had endeavoured to surround and capture the enemy's forces which occupied a block-house on one of the three summits of the Cheat Mountain, and were also strongly intrenched at a place called Elk Water, the junction of Tygart's Valley River and Elk Run. The plan was well formed; but Col. Rust, with a number of Arkansas troops, having failed to attack what was known as the Cheat Summit Fort, Gen. Lee found the whole day disconcerted, and was compelled to withdraw his troops without any results whatever. The disappointed commander now resolved to march to the relief of Gens. Floyd and Wise, and to unite the whole Confederate army in the Kanawha Valley. The movement was successfully accomplished, and Lee concentrated his forces at Sewell Mountain about the end of September, having left a detachment of about 2,500 men, under Gen. Henry A. Jackson, to guard the road leading to Staunton, and the line of the Greenbrier River. He had now in hand an army of quite 15,000 men; he undoubtedly outnumbered lRbsecrans, who had followed him, and was now daily engaged in skirmishing with Wise's troops at Sewell Mountain; and it was thought that Lee might now deliver battle with effect, and bring to some sort of issue a hitherto fruitless and desultory campaign. Expectation was high, and at last became feverish. For twelve days the GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. two armies remained in position, each waiting an attack from the. other. Finally, one morning, it was discovered by Lee that his enemy had disappeared in the night, and reached his old position on the Gauley River, thirty-two miles distant. Gen. Lee was unable to follow. The: swollen streams and the mud made anything like hopeful and effective pursuit impossible; and the advent of winter was soon to close active operations, and to leave the campaign exactly where it started-the Federals holding the country west of the Alleghanies, the Confederates occupying the mountains and the Greenbrier Valley. Even this slight tenure was to be abandoned; the Confederate troops were recalled to other fields, and in November Gen. Lee returned to Richmond with a sadly diminished reputation. The campaign west of the Alleghanies was a sorry affair, and an undoubted failure. It had accomplished' nothing; it had expended much of time and troops; it had not only surrendered the country which it was to contest, but it had done so without giving to the enemy a single lesson of resolution, or dealing him one important stroke of arms; and it had sacrificed to disease alone, thousands of men who had fallen victims to pneumonia and other sickness, consequent upon exposure to cold and rain. A just explanation of Gen. Lee's failure is perhaps to be found in the circumstances against which he had. to contend-the disconcert of subordinate officers; and the principal fact, which history has abundantly illustrated, that the greatest abilities often fail in small and petty work, where the field is not commensurate with the man, is not suited. for the display of his characteristics, and is destitute of any great inspiration. But there were many persons in Richmond who were not inclined to a generous view of the disappointment Gen. Lee had given the public in his first campaign, and who at once fell to ridiculing and decrying him. He was twitted as "Letcher's pet." He was described as a man living on a historical name and a showy presence, with no merit of mind-one who, puffed by what his family had done, had cultivated a heavy dignity and a superiour manner, with no brains to support the display. It was remembered that on his first assumption of command, he had advised that the volunteer spirit of the country was unsteady and excessive-that it needed repression. It was said that he was tender of blood, and sought to accomplish his campaign in the mountains by strategy, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 65 rather than by fighting; it was assumed that he was the representative of West Point in opposition to the school of " fighting Generals; " and all these things were readily put to his discredit in the early and flushed periods of the war, when the Southern populace clamoured for bloody battles, and were carried away by the imagination that a sudden rush of raw men to arms would be sufficient to overpower the adversary and accomplish their independence. Lee's views were not generally appreciated; his failure in mountain warfare was taken by many persons as decisive of his military reputation; and at the period referred to in Richmond, he was the most unpopular commander of equal rank in the Confederate service. A rumour was circulated about this time, that the one ambition of Lee's life was to be Governor of Virginia after the war, and to manufacture reputation in the contest to recommend him for the position. The writer recollects with what derision the rumour was received in certain quarters in Richmond; how Mr. Daniel, the editor of the Examiner, hooted it, and made it part of his quarrel with John Letcher, who was supposed to be nursing Lee's conceit; and how the claim of the reputed candidate was generally put down as absurd and insolent. And yet, a few years later, and the man thus derided might have had the Dictatorship of the entire Southernn Confederacy, if he had but crooked his finger to accept it! Happily the Government did not share and refused to reflect this early popular injustice towards Lee. But in view of his loss of so much of the public confidence, it was thought advisable to put him into no very active and conspicuous command; and he was accordingly sent South, and appointed to the charge of the coast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. His duties consisted in superintending the fortifications along the coast, and exercising his engineering skill to add to their security. These duties were efficiently performed; the district of South Carolina was placed in an admirable state of defence; and Gen. Lee appears to have won in this department a new accession of popularity and personal esteem. In February, 1862, there was some motion to make him Secretary of War; but it was considered by Congress that he did not command enough of the public confidence for this important position. It was then decided by President Davis to recall him to Richmond, and to confer on him the new appointment of " Commanding General," to take charge of the military movements of the war. The 5 66 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. title of the new office was a sonorous one; but as Mr. Davis had practically annihilated the bill creating it by requiring the miscalled generalissimo "to act under the direction of the President," it may be briefly remarked that the new position of Gen. Lee was not an important one, and was scarcely an honourable one. He was nothing more than a supernumerary in the hands of Mr. Davis. But the great man waits the proper call of events, and the occasion commensurate with his power. In this uncertain period of Lee's reputation a Southern journal ventured to declare that "the time would yet come when his superiour abilities would be vindicated both to his own renown and the glory of his country." GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 67 CHAPTER V. McClellan's march up the Peninsula.-Recollections of the "White House.'-Battle of Seven Pines.-Review of condition of the Confederacy.-An act "to disband the armies of the Confederacy." —Carnival of misrule.-Gen. Lee in command of the forces around Richmond.-Nearly two-thirds of his army raw conscripts.His adoption of Gen. Johnston's idea of concentration.-Manners of Lee as a commander. —The great battle joined.-Beaver-Dam Creek.-Gen. Lee resting at a farm-house.-The glory of Gaines' Mills.-Brilliant audacity of Gen. Lee in delivering this battle.-Retreat of McClellan.-Frazier's Farm.-Malvern Hill. — The circuit of Lee's victories broken. —His official summary of " the Seven Days' battles." IN the early days of May, 1862, McClellan, with his numerous and bedraggled army, was toiling up the peninsular shape of land formed by the James River and the estuary.of the York, while Johnston, in command of the Confederate forces, fell back towards Richmond with admirable precision, leaving no considerable trace of disaster on his retreat. On this memorable march, the advanced guard of the Federals Qccupied the White House on the Pamunkey River, formerly the property and home of George Washington, and which had come into the possession of Gen. Lee when he married Miss Custis. Since the war it had been designated by Gen. Lee as his family seat, and was occupied by his wife until the enemy approached, and she fled towards Richmond for safety. It is a remarkable circumstance, and one much to the honour of McClellan, who was steadily opposed to all private spoliation in the war, that he respected the historical associations of the place, and protected the property from all ravages of the soldiery. It was here the "Father of his Country" had lived, and within a few miles stood the church in which he had been married. When Mrs. Lee departed from the house on the approach of the Federal army, she left a note on a table which read: " Northern soldiers who profess to reverence Washington, forbear to desecrate the home of his first married life, the property of his wife, now owned by her descendants." It happened that almost the first officer who entered the 68 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. house was a cousin of the Lee family, who had continued to serve in the United States army, and commanded a regiment of cavalry. Gen. McClellan strictly complied with the request of the owners of the house, and not only forbade any of his troops to enter the premises, but even abstained from doing so himself, preferring tc encamp in the adjoining field. Upon the wall of the room where Mrs. Lee's note had been found, one of the guard wrote an answer: " A Northern officer has protected your property, in sight of the enemy, and at the request of your officer."' This incident is a very pleasant one; so exceptional to the usual conduct of the Federal armies, and in such honourable contrast to what afterwards ensued in the war of incendiarism, plunder, and wanton destruction. But as an illustration of the rancour at Washington, it may be mentioned that this little exhibition of leniency by McClellan, called forth many animadversions, and was even brought to the attention of Congress, where occasion was taken to accuse him of want of patriotism, and a false sentimentalism towards those in arms against the government. The entire circumstance, slight in itself, is interesting as indicating a line of dispute in the conduct of the war, on one side of which a violent party clamoured for measures of savage revenge, and would even have obliterated all respect for the landmarks of history in a wild scene of indiscriminate ruin. Near the White House the final depot of stores was organized by McClellan, and a base of operations established for a direct advance on Richmond. By the close of May he had advanced on the Chickahominy, and made an unopposed march to within a few miles of the Confederate capital. On the 30th May Johnston made dispositions for an attack on the left wing of the Federals, which had been thrown forward to a point within six miles of Richmond, and fought the brilliant battle of " Seven Pines," severely punishing the enemy's divisions, but gaining no permanent ground. In this engagement Gen. Johnston was struck down with a severe wound. In consequence of this casualty, President Davis yielded to a common desire, and on the 3d June appointed Gen. R. E. Lee to take chief command of the Confederate forces around Richmond. At this critical period of the Confederate arms it will be well to make a brief review of the general situation, and especially of certain radical changes about this time taking place in the military GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 69 system of the South. WYhen Gen. Lee took command at Richmcnd the condition of the Confederacy was decidedly gloomy, and its military fortunes for many months had been evidently on the decline. The Border States, which had at first borne the brunt of battle, had given way; Kentucky, Missouri, and Western Virginia had gradually been occupied by the enemy's troops; and the coasts of the Confederacy, assailed by fleets to which they had but little to oppose, had yielded a footing to the Federal armies. New Orleans had been captured, and the curtain had fallen on the policy of Europe, either as regarded recognition or intervention. Richmond was threatened by an army within a few miles of her limits, the strict effective of which was 115,000 men; whilst converging on the apparently devoted city from the west and north marched the three distinct armies of Fremont, Banks and McDowell, making an aggregate of little less than 200,000 men threatening the capital of the Confederacy. In the internal condition of the South there had been yet more serious causes of alarm and anxiety; and the Confederate armies may be described as having just narrowly escaped annihilation by demagogical laws, and as passing through the severe and critical period of a new organization and morale, acquiring for the first time the substance and integrity of real armies. In December, 1861, the weak Provisional Congress at Richmond had passed an act, the true title of which would have been " to disband the armies of the Confederacy." This law, inspired by the lowest demagogism, permitted the men to change their arm of the service, to elect new officers, and to reorganize throughout the army. It was said that the soldiers claimed the letter of their contract, to leave the service at the expiration of one year; and the weak legislators at Richmond thought it necessary to indulge what was called their democratic sense of individualism, by allowing them to reduce the organization and discipline of the army to whatever standards would content them, and to convert their camps into a carnival of misrule, and into the vilest scenes of electioneering for commissions. This socalled " reorganization" had gone on in the face of an enemy, who, if he had taken timely advantage of it, would have found little else than demoralized men disgracing the uniform of soldiers, covering the most vital points of the Confederacy. Every candidate who was anxious to serve his country with braid on his shoulders plied 70 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. the men with the lowest arts of the cross-roads politician, even tc the argument of whiskey, and contributed to the general demoralization; until the men, feeling the power to dethrone their present officers, lost all respect for their authority, and became the miserable tools of every adventurer and charlatan who imposed upon their confidence. On this scene of disorder-upon which the enemy had happily not broken-followed the'rigorous act of conscription, which at once dated a new military era in the Confederacy, and enabled it to recruit and reorganize its forces, at least in time to meet the tardy steps of the enemy in Virginia. But the forces which came under Lee's hands were raw; there was no time to season the new recruits; and the commander of the forces around Richmond had to contend with all the disadvantages incident upon the transition period in the military affairs of the Confederacy. The reader will doubtless be surprised by the authentic statement, that of the force gathered by Lee for the encounter before Richmond, nearly twothirds were new conscripts, who had never been'under fire, and were only half instructed. This fact affords a pregnant commentary on McClellan's delays; and it indicates-what we shall presently see in the battles around Richmond-a singular want of mobility in Lee's army, that curtailed the plans of the commander, diminished his victory, and deprived him of more than half the expected fruits of his own consummate generalship.. After the battle of Seven Pines both armies intrenched themselves. McClellan erected field-works, and threw up a line of breastworks, flanked with small redoubts, extending from the White Oak Swamp in a semicircle to the Chickahominy, and inclosing within the lines the railway and the several roads and bridges constructed to afford communication with his right wing, which continued to hold the country in the neighbourhood of Mechanicsville and Cold Harbour. It was now declared that the circumvallation, as far as designed, was complete, and that the echoes of [cClellan's cannon bore the knell of the capital of the Confederacy. It is but just to observe here, that that theory of action to which the Southern Confederacy most owed its safety, viz.: to draw in its forces around the capital, concentrate there all its available resources, and then fall with crushing weight upon the enemy, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 71 had originated in Gen. Johnston's clear and masterly mind; while Lee, without a thought of rivalry, readily conceived the merit of his predecessor's plan, and determined to continue the same line of action. It is also to be observed that an unfortunate prejudice of President Davis against Johnston had embarrassed his plans, and cross-questioned all his generalship; but, that when Lee took command at Richmond, he was favoured to the utmost in the prosecution of the design that Johnston had initiated, was authorized to draw in the Confederate detachments scattered along the coast and throughout Virginia, and was by this means, and the growing results of the conscription, enabled to raise his effective to about ninety thousand men.; It remained, however, for Gen. Lee to fill up the general. outline of action his predecessor had traced; he had to make his own immediate plan of battle against the extended front of the enemy; and this he did, as we shall see, not only with the consummate skill of a great mind, but with an audacity that astonished his countrymen, and took the enemy completely by surprise. There was an early popular supposition that Lee was rather too much of the Fabian stamp oyf a commander, and disinclined to the risks of battle. For several weeks after he had assumed his important command, his quiet manners, the absence of all bustle about him, and a singular appearance of doing nothing, when in fact he was most busy, confirmed the popular impression of his slowness and unwillingness. to deliver battle, and inclined the' people of Richmond to believe that he was awaiting the attack of the enemy, which he would at least meet with all the resources of a prudent and skilful commander. They little imagined that he was meditating taking the initiative himself, and putting the insolent enemy on the defensive. The quiet, thoughtful commander never admitted an improper person into his confidence; he was annoyed by politicians and Congressional delegations who wanted information of his plans, but never obtained it; he was assailed by foolish clamours of demagogues, whose interests in the Confederacy appeared to be inclosed within the boundaries of their Congressional districts or counties, and who complained that particular parts of the country had been stripped of troops to defend Richmond; he was pursued by popular impatience for a battle; but to all he was the imperturbable gentleman, opposing to curiosity and clamour a placid man 72 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. ner and a polite but supreme reticence. Each day he was seen on horseback about the lines, dressed in a plain suit of gray, with a scanty attendance of staff-officers, presenting, perhaps, not so impressively his importance and dignity, as a Federal brigadier with his couriers and orderlies at his heels. Each day his army was busy in strengthening their defensive works, and people wondered at McClellan's silence and Lee's apparent unconcern, and speculated when the great battle would be delivered. Lee waited for a precise event. That event was the junction of Jackson's forces from the Valley. His plan of battle contemplated that so soon as Jackson, by his manoeuvres on the north bank of' the Chickahominy, should have uncovered the passage of the stream at Meadow and Mechanicsville bridges, the divisions on the south bank should cross and join Jackson's column, when the whole force should sweep down the north side of the Chickahominy, towards the York River, laying hold of McClellan's communications with the White House. Meanwhile, for almost every day in June, the Federal commander had sent a dispatch to Washington that he was about to bring on a general action. On the 25th June, it was said that he was preparing for a general forward movement by the Williamsburg road. But the preceding night the swift and skilful Jackson had reached Ashland, was within striking distance of the right wing of the Federal army, and the next day the storm of battle was to burst upon the hesitating McClellan and his astounded troops. In the morning of the 26th June, the only intimation that Lee gave at the War Department of the terrible work before him, was a simple brief note, addressed to the Secretary of War, stating that he might be beyond a certain designated point where couriers could find him, should there be anything of importance the Secretary might wish to communicate during the day. That was the day of battle! In the afternoon quick beats of sound told the feverish ear of Richmond that a great battle was in progress, and that the red flails of artillery were at work. The evening sky reflected the conflagration at Mechanicsville; and as the sun descended, the division of A. P. Hill, joined across the stream by those of Longstreet and D. H. Hill, swept down the north bank of the Chickahominy, driving the enemy to a further and stronger line of defence. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 73 At Beaver Dam Creek, a small tributary of the Chickahominy; Porter's corps arrested the progress of the Confederate divisions and held a position on'the almost perpendicular bank of the creek, which seemed to defy assault. But the presence of Gen. Lee upon the field, accompanied by the President, impelled the troops to the attack; the gigantic struggle was begun here; the heroic troops pressed up to the stream, but could effect no lodgment within the hostile works; and the cannonade died away about nine o'clock in the night. Morning, however, brought a swift solution of the difficulty; for at dawn Jackson passed Beaver Dam Creek above and turned the position. It was at once evident to McClellan that the position of his right wing was no longer tenable, and he therefore determined to concentrate his forces, and withdraw Porter's command to a position near Gaines' Mills, where he could concentrate his forces, ahd occupy a range of heights between Cold Harbour and the Chickahominy. It was evident that the enemy designed to fix here a decisive field; and the Confederates advanced in perfect order, and with deliberate dispositions for the attack. Gen. A. P. Hill, who had the advance of Lee's column, swung round by New Cold Harbour, and advanced his division to the attack. Jackson, who was to form the left of the Confederate line, had not yet come up, and Longstreet was held back until Jackson's arrival on the left should compel an extension of the Federal line. While Gen. Lee waited to get all his divisions in hand, he made his temporary headquarters at a farm-house near the battle-field, and there with perfect composure awaited the critical hour that would probably decide the fate of the city whose spires were in sight. What thoughts must have been in his mind as he sat entirely alone on the rear portico of the house, while the foreground and the adjoining orchard were occupied by general officers, aides, couriers, and prisoners, making an animated scene of war! Officers, who in a few moments were to stand face to face with death, chatted as gaily as if they were going to a picnic. Some sat under the shady trees, making a hasty repast. In the brilliant day, fields flecked with sunshine and dotted with dead men stretched away; the white tents of Magruder's and Huger's troops glanced in peaceful light on the other side of the Chickahominy; in other directions were fretted landscapes of cultivated patches, and thickets; 74 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. and marshes; then wooded hill-sides; while, just screened by a narrow zone of trees, the brow of an eminence crowned with batteries told where the demon of destruction had taken cover, and glared for a new struggle of vengeance, and a new feast of slaughter. Gen. Lee sat alone, as in a reverie; there were marks of thought on his face, but no cloud of care upon the fine open countenance; he awaited an hour on which hung mighty and untold destinies, as calmly as a signal for the ordinary duties of the day. It was past noon when a courier rode up, and delivered some papers to him. He perused them calmly. But the next moment he was mounted, and with Gen. Longstreet by his side, was galloping to New Cold Harbour, three miles distant, where it was now understood Jackson's right wing had already arrived. Meanwhile, A. P. Hill had attacked alone, and had gained no advantage, but was losing ground, when Longstreet advanced to relieve him. Terrible was the loss of the attacking force as they marched over the open ground exposed to a fire of artillery that swept every approach to the enemy's lines. Men and officers fell by hundreds; mounted officers, who lost their horses, led their men on foot; an artillery which was the pride of McClellan's army appeared to devour the column of attack. But, as the right of the Confederate line was thus struggling in vain against the terrible fire, Jackson and D. H. Hill pressed forward on the left, and succeeded in driving back the forces opposed to them; the right renewed its efforts, and Gen. Lee, seizing the decisive moment, ordered a general advance along the whole Confederate line. It was ordered just as the sun touched the horizon. Hood's Texan troops were the first to pierce the enemy's stronghold, and seize the guns; his left was broken; what batteries he saved retired in such haste as to overrun the infantry, and throw the whole mass of fugitives into inextricable disorder; and as night fell, the Confederates were satisfied to occupy the field of their victory. It was indeed an important field gained by Lee, and one on which AIcClellan had lost the flower of his army. But it had been won by a boldness of tactics, a brilliant audacity, such as that in which the master of the art of war asserts his superiority over the military commonplace. To deliver an important battle, Gen. Lee had divided his army, bringing the greater portion to the left bank of the Chickahominy, and actually at a greater distance from Rich GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 75 mond than the main body of the enemy's forces. He had left McClellan's centre and left wing on the south side of the stream, with apparently easy access to the city. Twenty-five thousand Confederates on this side of the Chickahominy-the troops of Magruder and Huger-held in check sixty thousand Federal troops; while Lee shattered the enemy's right wing, and inflicted upon him such disaster as to put him on his final retreat. He knew the character of his adversary, his caution, his methodical genius; he calculated upon the exaggerated opinions which McClellan had formed of the Confederate numbers; and having decided that it was practicable to deceive him by feints of attack on his centre and left, he quickly determined to wrest a victory from his right, and by a sudden blow put him beyond the possibility of reclaiming it. After the victory of Gaines' Mills, Gen. Lee entertained no doubt that the enemy would retreat, but by what line was as yet unknown. He therefore retained the bulk of his army on the left bank of the Chickahominy, trusting to Magruder and Huger to observe the movements of the enemy on their front. It was not until the night of the 28th, that Gen. Lee discovered that the enemy had been imperfectly watched by some of his division commanders, and having gathered his forces, was in rapid motion for James River, pursuing a line of retreat through the mass of forest and swamps known as White Oak Swamp. McClellan had gained one precious day, but he was not yet out of danger; he had a considerable stretch of country to traverse; his men were dispirited; and as the unhappy commander rode down the long lines of his army to superintend the retreat, the men of a single corps-Porter's -alone cheered as he went by; and with no other recognition, the sorrowful figure of the defeated General passed the whole army on its line of march. On the morning of the 29th, Lee put his columns in motion in pursuit. Magruder pushed forward on the Williamsburg road, expecting that Jackson, who was to make the passage at Grapevine Bridge, and sweep down the south bank of the Chickahominy, would come in to the flank and rear of Savage Station. He found himself, however, engaging only the rear-guard of the enemy, while Jackson was engaged nearly all day in rebuilding the bridge over the Chickahominy. The next morning McClellan's whole army was across White Oak Swamp. It had been the precise design of 76 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Gen. Lee, that as the enemy debouched into the region looking out towards the James, that Jackson, who was to press on the heels of the retreating army, should come in immediate communication with the force under Longstreet, who was to make a detour by the roads skirting the river, thus uniting the whole Confederate army so as to envelop the enemy, or pierce his line of retreat. The Long Bridge, or New Market road, on which moved the two divisions of Longstreet and A. P. Hill, was nearly at.right angles with the road pursued by the Federal army on its retreat; but as these divisions neared the point of intersection, it happened that Jack-. son's progress was arrested at WVhite Oak Swamp, by the destruction of the bridges, and that McClellan was thus enabled, while Jackson was paralyzed, to turn upon the force menacing his flanks. A severe fight, known as the battle of Frazier's Farm, was maintained for several hours; and it was only by the most desperate courage that the small Confederate force held the field. During the night the forces that had checked Longstreet withdrew; and Lee, proceeding to collect his scattered divisions-awaiting the arrival of'Magruder, who came up about midnight, and that of Huger, who should have come up on the right of Longstreet, but was too slow to get into action, and joined by Jackson the next morning, who had a good cause for his delay-had the Confederate army again concentrated on the morning of the 1st July. But the great opportunity had passed; and when he was next able to strike the enemy it was only after the latter had assembled all his forces on Malvern Hill, and had assured communication with the Federal gunboats in the river. The battle of Malvern Hill was a bloody attempt to take by assault an elevated plateau, on which the enemy had planted all that remained of his artillery, and instanced again the want of concert between Lee's divisions. The troops of A. P. Hill and Longstreet were held in reserve; while Jackson's divisions, on the left, and those under Magruder and Huger, on the right, were advanced to carry the heights by storm. But an attack was prematurely made by D. H. Hill, commanding one of Jackson's divisions; it was not supported by Magruder and Huger; and when the latter did finally advance, a brigade was thrown forward at a time, only to be beaten back in detail. It was unfortunate for Lee's 6clat that the circuit of victory was GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 77 broken here, and that the last incident of the struggle threw a shadow on the succession of fields he had won. But at least the final retreat of the enemy was assured; the Confederate capital was visibly saved; and although Lee had not ascended to the climax of success he had designed, and destroyed McClellan, he had accomplished a great and admirable work with an army, the greater portion of which was raw troops, which was badly officered, and which had bungled the best combinations of the commander. Gen. Lee has since declared that " under ordinary circumstances " the Federal force which menaced Richmond should have been destroyed; but his army was not as mobile as he expected; there was an evident disarray throughout it; some of the division commanders were utterly incompetent; the scene of operations was a country of numerous intricate roads, of marshy streams, and of forests; and the twonder and admiration is that the Confederate commander accomplished what he did under circumstances so exceptional and injurious. In his official report, Gen. Lee wrote: " Regret that more was not accomplished, gives way to gratitude to the Sovereign Ruler of the universe for the results achieved. The siege of Richmond was raised; and the object of a campaign, which had been prosecuted, after months of preparation, at an enormous expenditure of men and money, completely frustrated. More than 10,000 prisoners, including officers of rank, 52 pieces of artillery, and upwards of 35,000 stand of small-arms, were captured. The stores and supplies of every description which fell into our hands were great in amount and value, but small in comparison with those destroyed by the enemy. His losses in battle exceeded our own, as attested by the thousands of dead and wounded left on every field; while his subsequent inaction shows in what condition the survivors reached the protection to which they fled." 78 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CHAPTER VI. General Lee the favourite of the populace. —He moves out to the line of the Rappa. hannock. —Cedar Run. —Bold and daring enterprise of General Lee, in detaching Jackson to the enemy's rear.-A peculiarity of his campaigns.-How he dis. regarded the maxims of military science.-The battles of Second Manassas.-Gen. Lee marches for the fords of the Potomac.-His address at Frederick, Maryland. -Jackson detached again.-McClellan finds an important paper.-The Thermopylam of " South Mountain Pass."-Battle of Sharpsburg.-Gen. Lee obtains a victory, but is unable to press it.-He retires to Virginia.-An authentic statement of Gen. Lee's reasons for the Maryland campaign.-His constant and characteristic idea of defending Richmond by operations at a distance from it.-Congratulations to his troops.-Moral results of the campaign of 1862.-Testimonies to Southern heroism. GEN. LEE had fought what was now the greatest battle of the war, in sight of Richmond; he had effected the deliverance of more than one hundred thousand people within sound of his guns; he became the favourite of the populace, and was cheered in the streets of the capital. But his great historical fame and the best display of his abilities was to commence when he withdrew from Richmond, moved out to the line of the Rappahannock, and for two years carried his arms along the Blue Ridge and the Potomac, and extended the blaze of war to the very foreground of Washington. The failure of McClellan to take Richmond was a great disappointment to the North, but, like all its disappointments, was followed by energetic measures for the prosecution of the war. On the 11th July, by order of President Lincoln, Gen. IHalleck was appointed General-in-Chief of the whole land forces of the United States. Gen. Burnside, with a large portion of his army, was recalled from North Carolina, and dispatched to the James River to reinforce Gen. McClellan, and plans were considered for another advance on Richmond, upder the guidance of Gen. Pope, who had been appointed to the command of the forces in the vicinity of Washington, and in the Shenandoah Valley. But while these movements were in progress, Gen. Lee had GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 79 detached Jackson to check Pope in his supposed advance on Gordonsville, which he effectually did by the battle of Cedar Run; and in a few weeks, the Confederate commander removed from James River, and massed his army between the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, directly on the flank of the new Grand Army which Pope had assembled. In his expectation, however, of a decisive battle here, he was disappointed. Gen. Pope had no intention of renewing a trial of strength with the Confederates after his experience at Cedar Run; and with a prudence which ill assorted with his insolent address to his troops, promising them that they should see nothing but the " backs of rebels," he fell back promptly to the north bank of the Rappahannock, and, crowning every hill with his batteries, prepared to dispute the passage of the river. In this situation Gen. Lee conceived a bold arid daring enterprise, which' appears never to have entered even the imagination of the enemy. In the morning of the 24th August, he sent for a courier, and after asking Gen. Chilton, his Adjutant-General, if he was sure the man could be relied upon, he said to that officer:'a General, make it a positive order to Gen. Jackson to march through Thoroughfare Gap, and attack the enemy in the rear, while I bring up the rest of the army;" and then turning to the courier, remarked: "Young man, if you are not well mounted, my Inspector-General will see that you are." The order was swiftly conveyed, and by night Jackson had taken up his hard and perilous march in the direction indicated. The detachment of Jackson with twenty thousand men, so as to have the whole army of Pope interposed between it and its friends, was a hazardous measure, and was in fact contrary to the maxims of the military art, as it put Lee to the risk of being beaten in detail. But there is a higher generalship than that of formal maxims, which quickly and rightly estimates the mind and temper of an adversary, and founds its plan of action on these conditions, rather than on fixed rules of military science, and often in defiance of them; and of this supreme and fine order of generalship, we shall find many instances in the career of Lee. We have already seen a display of it in the battles around Richmond, when, to obtain a great victory, he exposed an advantage to McClellan, which he calculated his mind and temper were incapable of seiz 80 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. ing; and we now find him repeating the same experiment with Pope, and using, as a great General always does, knowledge of the character of his opponent as a condition of his enterprises. This peculiarity, indeed, runs through the whole of Gen. Lee's campaigns, and is most interesting in its suggestions; it exhibits what at first view seems a curious inexplicable union of great prudence on some occasions, with the most daring enterprise on others; and it offers to the military inquirer a fine study of those instances in which genius surmounts the rules of war, constructs theories on moral as well as material grounds, and wins victories in spite of the maxims of science. Had Pope been a Lee, the order which detached Jackson to the rear, would indeed have been putting the Confederate army in the jaws of death. As it was, the movement took him by the surprise which Lee had calculated, and when he heard that Jackson was in his rear at Manassas, he was so utterly unable to take into his imagination a thing so opposed to his military commonplaces, so little sensible of the extent of the enterprise, that he at first supposed it was only an incursion of cavalry upon his supplies. When at last Pope's army faced towards Washington, Lee and Longstreet at once started on the circuitous march through Thoroughfare Gap, to join Jackson. When they came up with him, along the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad, he had already fought the battle of Groveton; and on the 29th August, he sustained the shock of Pope's attack, with no assistance from Longstreet, beyond a few brigades sent to his support in the evening. The great battle occurred on the 30th August. The enemy had been reinforced, but from the experience of the two preceding days, appeared to have lost much of his confidence, and to hesitate in manceuvres for attack. For a considerable time the action was fought principally with artillery. Then followed an advance in three lines of the Federal infantry, which was repulsed with great loss by the concentrated fire of some batteries posted on a commanding position. It was now evening, and Gen. Lee perceiving that there was confusion in the enemy's lines, ordered a general advance. Jackson on the left, and Longstreet on the right, pushed forward. The advance was never checked; the result was, the enemy was driven back in confusion over the old battle-ground of Bull Run; a large number of prisoners were captured-7,000 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 81 paroled on the field of battle-and the remains of Pope's army, during the night of the 30th, crossed Bull Run stream, and took refuge behind the field-works at Centreville, where Sumner's and Franklin's corps, which had arrived from Alexandria and the lines around Washington, were drawn up. The next morning, the enemy was discovered in the strong position at Centreville, and Gen. Lee's army was put in motion towards the Little River turnpike, to turn his right. Upon reaching Ox Hill, on the 1st September, Gen. Lee again discovered'the enemy' in his front, on the heights of Germantown; and about 5 P.M. a spirited attack was made by the Federals upon the front and right of Lee's columns, with a view of apparently covering the withdrawal of their trains on -the Centreville road, and masking their retreat. The position of the Confederates was maintained with but slight loss on both sides. Maj.-Gen. Kearney was left by the enemy dead on the field. During the night the enemy fell back to Fair — fax Court-house, and abandoned his position at Centreville. The next day, about noon, he evacuated Fairfax Court-house, taking the roads to Alexandria and Washington. So far, the summer campaign in Virginia had been a succession of Confederate victories. Gen. Lee had already obtained an extraordinary reputation for moderation in his statements of success, and when he telegraphed to Richmond that he had obtained, on the plains of Manassas, " a signal victory," the popular joy was assured. The results were large and brilliant. Virginia was now cleared of invading armies, and there was no appearance of an enemy within her borders, save at the fortified posts along the coast, where they were protected by their overwhelming naval forces, at Alexandria, and at Harper's Ferry, and Martinsburg, in the Valley. A circuit of wonderful victories illuminated the fortunes of the Confederacy; an aggregate force of the enemy, much exceeding 200,000 men, had been defeated; an immense spoil had been gathered; and in a few weeks the war had been carried from the gates of Richmond to the foreground of the enemy's capital. But Gen. Lee was not a man to repose on laurels, when there were others yet to be won. - On the 3d September his army was on the march for the fords of the Potoniac! He had quickly resolved to turn aside from Washington, cross the Potomac, and pursue his advantage by invading the country of the enemy in return, 6 82wZ GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. and thus give such occupation to him as would secure to Virginia, during the remainder of the season, a respite from the devastations of war, and the burden of invading armies. It was considered, too, in some quarters, that such a movement might inspirit the people of Maryland to attempt something in the way of their own liberation; and that there might be many speculative results of an invasion of the enemy's territory, which the temper of the South had so long demanded. On the Wth September we find Gen. Lee assembling his army at Frederick, in AMaryland, and issuing the following address to the people of that State:'"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORT'HERN'VIRGINIA, " NEAR FREDERICK, Monday, Sept. 8, 1862. "'To THE PEOPLE OF MARYLAND:-It is right that you should know the purpose that has brought the army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves. The people of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a commonwealth allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political, and commercial ties, and reduced to the condition of a conquered province. Under the pretence of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions, your citizens have been arrested and imprisoned, upon no charge, and contrary to all the forms of law. A faithful and manly protest against this outrage, made by an illustrious Marylander, to whom, in better days, no citizen appealed for right in vain, was treated with contempt and scorn. The government'of your chief city has been usurped by armed strangers; your Legislature has been dissolved by the unlawful arrest of its members; freedom of speech and of the press has been suppressed; words have been declared offences by an.arbitrary decree of the Federal Executive, and citizens ordered to be tried by military commissions for what they may dare to speak. " Believing that the people of Maryland possess a spirit too lofty to submit to such a Government, the people of the South have long wished to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you again to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen, and,restore the independence and sovereignty of your State. In GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 83 obedience to this wish, our army has come among you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been so unjustly despoiled. This, citizens of Maryland, is our mission, so far as you are concerned. No restraint on your free will is intended,; no intimidation will be allowed within the limits of this army, at least. Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech. We know no enemies among you, and will protect all of you in every opinion. It is for you to decide your destiny, freely and without constraint. This army will respect your choice, whatever it may be; and while the Southern people will rejoice to welcome you to your natural position among them, they will only welcome you when you come in of your own free will. "R. E. LEE, General Commanding." Gen. Lee had supposed that his advance to Frederick would cause the evacuation of Harper's Ferry. This not having occurred, and it being necessary to open the line of communication through the Valley, Jackson's command was detached to accomplish this purpose; it being calculated by Gen. Lee that the reduction of Harper's Ferry would be accomplished, and his columns again concentrated, before he would be called upon to meet the Federal army, which, placed again under the command of McClellan, showed great hesitation in the resumption of the campaign, and was evidently bewildered as to the designs of the Confederates. But these designs were betrayed by a singular circumstance. While Gen. Lee moved to Boonsboro and Hagerstown, to await Jackson's operations, there curiously fell into the hands of the enemy a copy of the order which Gen. Lee had prepared at Frederick, detailing with exactitude the proposed movements of the several portions of his army. The paper had been conveyed to Gen. D. H. Hill, who from some cause of dissatisfaction, and in a characteristic fit of impatience, tossed it to the ground; and, lying there forgotten, it was picked up by a soldier of the Federal army, and forwarded at once to McClellan, who thus became possessed of the exact detail of his adversary's plan of operations. McClellan immediately ordered a rapid movement towards Harper's Ferry; and Gen. Lee, unaware of what had happened, was surprised to find the Federal army marching from its lines, with 84'GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. the intention of offering battle, and relieving Harper's Ferry. The division of P. H. Hill was instantly ordered to guard the South Mountain p'ass, and Longstreet was instructed to move from Hagerstown to his support. A severe action took place here; but the object was only to delay the enemy; and when at last McClellan broke through South Mountain and was in position to relieve the beleaguered force at Harper's Ferry, he found it had already been surrendered to the rapid and indomitable Jackson. Meanwhile, the forces of Longstreet and D. H. Hill were withdrawn into the valley of the Antietam; and Gen. Lee prepared to take position to confront a united army, far larger than his own, advancing to meet him, and to fight a battle against superiour forces, not for conquest, but for safety. On the 14th and 15th September, Gen. Lee took up a posit tion on a range of low heights near the creek of Antietam; the little town of Sharpsburg, which gave the Confederate name to the battle that was to ensue, being almost in the centre of his line. The undulations of the ground and the thick masses of wood that clothed the hill-sides enabled him to conceal the strength of his army. On the 16th, Jackson arrived from Harper's Ferry with a greater portion of his corps; but the divisions of McLaws, Anderson, WValker, and A. P. Hill, had not yet effected a junction with Gen. Lee, and on the morning of the 17th, about 33,000 Confederates were in line of battle to engage a united army which certainly exceeded 100,000 men within the limits of the field. It was an anxious situation for the Confederates. Gen. Jackson held the left of the line, extending from near the Potomac to the Sharpsburg and Boonsboro road; in the centre was D. 1H. Hill's division, and the right was but thinly occupied by what remained of Longstreet's corps. As the morning of the 17th of September broke, the batteries of both armies opened fire, and the battle was commenced by Hooker attacking with a corps of 18,00'0 men on the Confederate left. Here for several hours the action raged with varying success. The Confederates for some time held their ground, though suffering terribly. More than half the brigades forming the first line were either killed or wounded, together with nearly every regimental commander. Of this appalling loss, Gen. Early, who took com. mand of Ewell's old division, after Gen. Lawton had been shot GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 85 down, says: "The terrible nature of the conflict in which these brigades had been engaged, and the steadiness with which they maintained their position, is shown by the losses they sustained. They did not retire from the field until Gen. Lawton (commanding division) had been wounded and borne from the field. Col, Douglas, commanding Lawton's Brigade, had been killed, and the brigade had sustained a loss of 554 killed and wounded, out of 1,150, losing five regimental commanders out of six. Hayes, Brigade had sustained a loss of 323 out of 550, including every regimental commander and all of his staff; and Col. Walker and one of his staff had been disabled, and the brigade he was commanding had sustained a loss of 228 out of less than 700 present, including three out of four regimental commanders." But as the Confederate line at last gave way under an attack so terrible, some portions of Walker's and McLaw's divisions reached the field, and Early, converting the defence into an attack, led forward his brigades, drove back Hooker's corps, and shook the Federal line so severely that McClellan feared at one time that his centre would be broken. The retreat, however, of the enemy's infantry, unmasked the powerful artillery in the first line of woods, and the fire from these batteries checked the Confederate pursuit. While the battle slackened here, there occurred on another part of the field a yet more critical and desperate struggle, occasioned by the effort of Burnside to obtain possession of the lower bridge over the Antietam. Five attacks here at different times, were heroically repulsed by two Georgia regiments under Gen. Toombs, and the enemy was at last compelled, by crossing the fords lower down, to flank the position, Toombs withdrawing his command, and Burnside being content to hold the bridge without demonstrating further. About 3 P.M., however, there came an imperative order from McClellan that Burnside should press forward to the attack of the batteries on the heights in his front. Here again the first incident was a successful advance of the enemy; Burnside gained the crest, driving back Jones's division of 2,000 men. But at this critical moment Gen. A. P. Hill arrived on the ground from Harper's Ferry, and took up a position on the right of the Confederate line, and opposed to Burnside. This reinforcement was most opportune; it enabled the Confederates to assume the offensive," and Burnside was driven from the heights he had carried, and with 86 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. some difficulty maintained his hold of the bridge. I; was now a desperate time with the enemy. A correspondent of a Northern newspaper thus describes what was taking place on the Federal side in the half hour of daylight that was yet left: " More infantry comes up; Burnside is outnumbered, flanked, compelled to yield the hill he took so bravely. His position is no longer one of attack; he defends himself with unfaltering firmness, but he sends to McClellan for help. McClellan's glass for the last halfhour has seldom been turned away from the left. He sees clearly enough that Burnside is pressed-needs no messenger to tell him that. His face grows darker with anxious thought. Looking down into the valley where 15,000 troops are lying, he turns a half-questioning look on Fitz-John Porter, who stands by his side, gravely scanning the field. They are Porter's troops below, are fresh, and only impatient to share in this fight. But Porter slowly shakes his head, and one may believe that the same thought is passing througlh the minds of both Generals.'They are the only reserves of the army; they cannot be spared.' McClellan remounts his horse, and with Porter and a dozen officers of his staff, rides away to the left in Burnside's direction. Sykes meets them on the road-a good soldier, whose opinion is worth taking. The three Generals talk briefly together. It is easy to see that the moment has come when everything may turn on one order given or withheld, when the history of the battle is only to be written in thoughts and purposes and words of the General. Burnside's messenger rides up. His message is:'I want troops and guns. If you do not send them, I cannot hold my position half an hour.' )McClellan's only answer for the moment is a glance at the western sky. Then he turns and speaks very slowly:' Tell Gen. Burnside this is the battle of the war. He must hold his ground till dark at any cost. I will send him Miller's battery. I can do-nothing more. I have no infantry.' Then as the messenger was riding away he called him back.'Tell him if he cannot hold his ground, then the bridge to the last man!-always the bridge! If the bridge is lost, all is lost.'" But the Confederates did not press their advantage; they fcund the approaches to the Antietam swept by a heavy artillery fire; they were too much exhausted to encounter fresh troops of the enemy, and as night fell they were recalled to their former posi GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 87 tion, satisfied to have driven Burnside under the shelter of his batteries. The next day McClellan was indisposed to renew the battle. He consulted anxiously with his officers, and finally resolved to defer attack during the 18th, with the determination, however (as he reports), to renew it on the 19th, if reinforcements expected from Washington should arrive. The morning of the 19th came, and with it the discovery that Lee had withdrawn across the Potomac, and already stood again with his army on the soil of Virginia. Although victory had inclined to him on the field of Sharpsburg, the Confederate commander readily perceived that with his worn and diminished army he could not hope to make head against an army so superiour in numbers, and situated so as to receive constant reinforcements; that, in fact, there was an end to the invasion, although all the other objects of the campaign had been fully accomplished; and so, with a sufficient sum of glory, without loss or molestation on their retreat, the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac, remained in the vicinity of Bunker Hill and Winchester to recruit before being moved to Lee's favourite ground of combat between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, and concluded the ever-memorable campaign of the summer and autumn of 1862. Gen. Lee always claimed Sharpsburg as a Confederate victory. His force on that field, all told, including the divisions which came up in the evening, was less than 40,000 men; with these numbers he had inflicted a loss upon the enemy of 12,500 men-nearly double his own-had gained some ground, and although too weak to assume the offensive, had awaited steadily for a whole day a renewal of the attack. But if Sharpsburg had been more than a statistical victory-one constituted by a comparison of casualty lists-if Gen. Lee had routed McClellan and broken the only array of force between him and Washington, he would then have had at his mercy the capital, and all the principal cities of the North, and would probably have been able to continue his invasion to the successful issue of peace and independence; and it was only with respect to such a result, pictured by the lively popular imagination of the South, that his campaign fell short, and produced a feeling of disappointment. How fearful was the situation was well described in McClellan's 88 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. own words, when, speaking of what depended on the field of Sharpsburg, he declared: " At that moment, Virginia lost,-TWashington menaced, Maryland invaded, the national cause could afford no risks of defeat. One battle lost, and almost all would have been lost. Lee's army might then have marched as it pleased on Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York. It could have levied its supplies from a fertile and undevastated country, extorted tribute from wealthy and populous cities; and nowhere east of the Alleghanies was there another organized force able to arrest its march." These almost mortal apprehensions of the enemy were not realized. The idea of an invasion reaching to the vitals of the North had to be abandoned; the prospects of a popular rising in Maryland proved illusory; but although these expectations of the campaign, which were popular and speculative, and really subordinate in Gen. Lee's plan of action, were not fulfilled, the result actually accomplished was a real and considerable success, and answered the reasonable expectations of the commander. This success consisted in the facts that Virginia was relieved of invading armies; that a respite was obtained for the revival of her industry and the collection of her resources; that important time was secured for recruiting and reorganizing the army; and that "the line of the Rappahannock " was cleared, and made the proper defence of Richmond. So many various reasons have been ascribed to Gen. Lee for his movement into Maryland, and that campaign has been estimated on so many different hypotheses, that it will be well here to give the authentic version of it, and with it the key-to all of Gen. Lee's campaigns in the war. When he first took command before Richmond he had conceived the idea that the proper line of defence for the capital was at the greatest possible distance from it, aind that any investment of the city by the enemy's forces, unless it could be speedily broken, would ultimately and surely prove fatal to the defenders. The situation of Richmond he regarded as peculiar, and as plainly justifying this view of defence. It was an inland city, fed by seven different railroads and one canal, and was entirely dependent on its communications; and as Gen. Lee properly assumed, what the war subsequently proved, that railroads could not be protected against cavalry, he concluded that Richmond could not be held as a defensive point, and was to be protected by GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 89 an army operating at some distance frbm it, with its lines of supply drawn through the city. His great anxiety was to keep the wal as far as possible from Richmond, and especially to get it on the enemy's frontier,- so as to relieve the country he protected, and make himself sure of supplies. This idea ran through all his campaigns. It urged him to cross the Potomac whenever he could, and at any rate to keep the war on the line of the Rappahannock. The persistent effort of all his campaigns was to make the theatre of operations as far as possible from Richmond; and in the'last periods of the war, when the army holding that city and its outposts was almost palsied, we shall find him making the last, desperate, characteristic effort to relieve the capital by a campaign in the Valley and on the Potomac. But we must not anticipate the events of the war, and we return to consider the results of the Maryland campaign. The account of the operations of the summer and autumn of 1862 is appropriately concluded with Gen. Lee's address to his troops on their return to Virginia: HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, October 2, 1862. In reviewing the achievements of the army during the present campaign, the Commanding General cannot withhold the expression of his admiration of the indomitable courage it has displayed in battle, and its cheerful endurance of privation and hardship on the march..Since your great victories around Richmond, you have defeated the enemy at Cedar Mountain, expelled him from the.Rappahannock, and, after a conflict of three days, utterly repulsed him on the plains of Ilanassas, and forced him to take shelter within the fortifications around his capital. Without halting for repose you crossed the Potomac, stormed the heights of Harper's Ferry, made prisoners of more than eleven thousand men, and captured upwards of seventy pieces of artillery, all their small-arms, and other munitions of war. While one corps of the army was thus engaged, the other insured its success by arresting, at Boonsboro, the combined armies of the enemy, advancing under their favourite General to the relief of their beleaguered comrades. 90 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. On the field of Sharpsburg, with less than one-third his num bers, you resisted, from daylight until dark, the whole army of the enemy, and repulsed every attack along his entire front, of more than four miles in extent. The whole of the following day you stood prepared to resume the conflict on the same ground, and retired next morning, without molestation, across the Potomac. Two attempts, subsequently made by the enemy, to follow you across the river, have resulted in his complete discomfiture and being driven back with loss. Achievements such as these demanded much valour and patriotism. History records few examples of greater fortitude and endurance than this army has exhibited; and I am commissioned by the President to thank you in the name of the Confederate States for the undying fame you have won for their arms. AMuch as you have done, much more remains to be accomplished. The enemy again threatens us with invasion, and to your tried valour and patriotism the country looks with confidence for deliverance and safety. Your past exploits give assurance that this confidence is not misplaced. R. E. LEE, General Comnzanding. The moral effect of the campaign which Gen. Lee had now concluded is too large and brilliant to be omitted from any estimate of results. To the world it was a chapter of wonders. It had accomplished a sum of victories unequalled in the same space of time by anything in the previous or subsequent experience of the war; it had made a record of toils, hardships, and glories famous in history; it had accumulated a brilliant spoil; and the wonderful statement is derived from the books of the provost-marshal in Richmond, that in twelve or fifteen weeks the Confederates had taken and paroled no less than forty-odd thousand prisoners I If " the opinion of foreign nations may be taken as an anticipation of the judgment of posterity," the Confederates had already for these achievements an assurance of historical memory that nothing could defeat. Of the events we have narrated, the leading journal of Europe-the London Times-declared: " The people of the Confederate States have made themselves famous. If the renown of brilliant courage, stern devotion to a cause, and military achieve GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 91 ments almost without a parallel, can compensate men for the toil and privations of the hour, then the countrymen of Lee and Jackson may be consoled amid their sufferings. From all parts of Europe, from their enemies as well as their friends, from those who condemn their acts as well as those who sympathize with them, comes the tribute of admiration. When the history of this war is written, the admiration will doubtless become deeper and stronger, for the veil which has covered the South will be drawn away, and disclose a picture of patriotism, of unanimous self-sacrifice, of wise and firm administration, which we can now only see indistinctly. The details of extraordinary national effort which has led to the repulse and almost to the destruction of an invading force of more than half a million of men, will then become known to the world; and, whatever may be the fate of the new nationality, or its subsequent claims to the respect of mankind, it will assuredly begin its career with a reputation for genius and valour which the most famous nations may envy." Even the enemy was forced to tributes of admiration. " It was not," writes a historian* of the events, "without mixed feelings that the better classes in the North heard of the exploits of their former fellow-countrymen. They could not but admire the military qualities and personal character of the leaders of the Confederate armies; and although feeling the reproach that their own well-equipped troops had been beaten by men who possessed few of their advantages, yet they receded some comfort from the fact that their opponents were Americans. Even if a portion of the Democratic party could scarce refrain from the opinion that a Union under President Davis and Gen. Lee would be preferable to discord under President Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, few can blame them." Indeed, this admiration of the Confederates went so far that popular orators in New York freely and abundantly declared that the war had increased the respect felt by the North for the South. For once, without the fear of Federal authorities before their eyes, they pointed to what appeared to them the miraculous resources of the "rebel" government, the bravery of its troops, their patience under hardships, their unshrinking firmness in the * Fletcher: History of the American War. BENTLEY, London. 92 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. desperate position they had assumed, the wonderful success with which they had extemporized manufactures and munitions of war, and kept themselves in communication with the world in spite.of a magnificent blockade; the elasticity with which they had risen from defeat, and the courage they had shown in threatening again and again the capital of the North, and even its interiour. It will be recollected that such a eulogy of the Confederates was publicly pronounced by Dr. Bellows, one of the most popular preachers of New York. He concluded: " Well is Gen. McClellan reported to have said (privately), as he watched their obstinate fighting at Antietam, and saw them retiring in perfect order in the midst of the most frightful carnage,'What terrible neighbours these would be! We must conquer them, or they will conquer us!'" These testimonies to Confederate heroism are not idly repeated here. Each year of the war had some characteristic by which it is easily remembered; and that of 1862 may be taken as the period of the greatest lustre of the Confederate arms. Whatever its sequel, what is testified of it here remains, cannot be recalled from the memory of the world, and constitutes a secure monument of history, which no after-thought of envy, no modification of opinions on the part of an enemy ultimately successful, can possibly destroy or diminish. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 93 CHAPTER VII. General Lee's perilous situation in North Virginia.-His alarming'Otter to the War Office. —The happy fortune of McClellan's removal.-The Battle of Fredericksburg.-Gen. Lee's great mistake in not renewing the attack.-His own confes. sion of errour.-He detaches nearly a third of his army to cover the south side of Richmond. —He writes a severe letter to the Government. —The enemy's fifth grand attempt on Riclhmond.-Gen. Lee in a desperate extremity.-The Battles of Chancellorsville.-Three victories for the Confederates.-The masterpiece of Geu. Lee's military life. AFTER the battle of Sharpsburg, Gen. Lee did not indicate an immediate purpose to retire from the Potomac, but remained in the neighbourhood of Winchester, anxiously waiting for the development of McClellan's designs. There was serious reason to apprehend that the enemy would again press him to battle. But the extreme moral timidity of McClellan again gave opportunities to the Confederates; and while with an army already triple that of Lee, he was yet entreating and importuning the government at Washington for reinforcemenfts, the latter was recruiting his strength so terribly diminished by the hardships of the Gordonsville and Maryland campaign, and making necessary preparations for the renewal of operations. In not pressing Lee after his retirement into Virginia, McClellan made the great mistake of his military career. Of the reality and extent of his opportunity at this time, we have in evidence a letter of Gen. Lee himself. In the first days of November, 1862, he wrote to the War Department that he had not half men enough to resist McClellan's advance with his mighty army, and that he would have to resort to manceuvring in preference to risking his army in battle. He added that threefourths of the cavalry horses were sick with sore-tongue, and their hoofs were falling off; he complained that his soldiers were not fed and clad as they should be; and he expressed the greatest anxiety as to any movement of McClellan threatening battle. But most happily for the Confederates, the uncertainty of McClellan's designs terminated in his removal from command. and 94 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. the appointment of Gen. Burnside to succeed him; event which gave occasion to a new meditation and plan of campaign, and secured for Gen. Lee the delay which he so much needed. It was a deliverance from an alarming crisis. Gen. Lee had at first supposed that Burnside intended to embark his army for the south side of James River, to operate probably in eastern North Carolina; but in the latter part of November, the enemy showed plainly another design, and the Confederate scouts reported large masses of infantry advancing on Fredericksburg. On the 18th November, a portion of Longstreet's corps was marched thither; and Gen. Lee wrote to Richmond: "Before the enemy's trains can leave Fredericksburg" (i.e. for Richmond) " this whole army will be in position." The assurance was faithfully and fully kept, and Burnside found his alert antagonist in full force on the banks of the Rappahannock. The battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th December, 1862, was one of the most easily and cheaply won Confederate victories of the war. It was a striking illustration of the advantage of fighting in a strong position-an advantage too little regarded by the Confederates during the war; for although victories in open fields obtained for the South a certain prestige, it was at the woful price of the flower of her people, for which there was but little compensation in the loss of life in the enemy's ranks, recruited as they were from the dregs of his own society, and the mercenary markets of the whole world.* At Fredericksburg, the Confederate position was all that could be desired by Gen. Lee. His army was drawn up along the heights, which, retiring in a semicircle from the river, embraced within their arms a plain six miles in length, and from two to three in depth. This semicircle of hills terminated at Massaponax River, about five miles below Fredericksburg. The right * Dr. Dabney, the biographer of Stonewall Jackson, writing in 1863, says: " One. half of the prisoners of war, registered by the victorious armies of the South, have been foreign mercenaries. Mr. Smith O'Brien, warning his race against the unhallowed enterprise, declares that the Moloch of Yankee ambition has already sacrificed 200,000 Irishmen to it. And still, as the flaming sword of the South mows down these hireling invaders, fresh hordes throng the shores. Last, our country has to wage this strife only on these cruel terms, that the blood of her chivalrous sons shall be matched against the sordid streams of this cloacacpopulorum. In the words of Lord Lindsay, at Flodden Field, we must play our'Rose Nobles of gold, against crooked sixpences.'" GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 905 of the Confederate army, extending nearly as far as the Massaponax, comprised the cavalry and horse artillery under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, posted on the only ground at all suitable for that arm of the service. On his left was Gen. Jackson's corps, of which Early's division formed the right, and A. P. HIill's the left; the divisions of Taliaferro and D. H. Hill being in reserve. The left wing of the army, under Gen. Longstreef, comprised the division of Hood on the right, next to it that of Pickett, then those of McLaws, Ransom and Anderson. The artillery was massed together, and not dispersed among the divisions, and was so posted as to sweep the front of the position. It may be remarked that this was Gen. Lee's favourite disposition of his artillery in battle, and in this instance it was much favoured by the semicircular formation of the hills. The battle was at first declared against the Confederate right by a heavy attack upon Jackson, which was repulsed, and finally ceased about noon. By this time fresh divisions had crossed the ~iver at Fredericksburg, and the mass of Burnside's army was brought to the desperate attack of Marye's Height, held by McLaws' division and the WVashington artillery. Here, during the whole afternoon, attack after attack was repeated with a desperation never before exhibited by the enemy, and with appalling recklessness of human life. "It is hardly to be supposed," says a Northern writer, "that Gen.'Burnside had contemplated the bloody sequence to which he was committing himself when first he ordered a division to assail the heights of Fredericksburg; but having failed in the first assault, and then in the second and third, there grew up in his mind something which those around him saw to be akin to desperation. Riding down from his headquarters to the bank of the Rappahannock, he walked restlessly up and down, and gazing over at the heights across the river, exclaimed vehemently,'That crest must be carried to-night.' Already, however, everything had been thrown in, saving Hooker, and he was now ordered over the river." But all was in vain. Hooker's attack shared the' fate of its predecessors; the men rushed forward, then wavered, a third of their number fell, and the remainder fled. During the entire afternoon the struggle continued. The simile, so commonly used in descriptions of battles, of waves breaking upon a rock-bound coast, was never more just in its conception than in the frantic battle in which the Federal divisions were shattered upon the heights assailed, 96~ GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. and were hurled back, one after the other, on the. crimson tide of death. Night closed on a field on which lay more than ten thousand Federals killed or wounded. Gen. Lee dispatched to Richmond: " Our loss during the operations since the movements of the enemy began, amounts to about 1800 killed and wounded." It was a great victory; but the Confederate public expected from it something more than eclat, and had reason to hope that there would be inflicted upon the enemy not only defeat, but destruction. It was thus that the inconsequence of B urnside's safe retreat across the river was a great disappointment, attended for the first time with some popular censure of Gen. Lee. The only reply to such censure was a very candid explanation, in which Gen. Lee confessed he had been surprised as to the extent of the enemy's disaster and his design of retreat. In an official report he says: " The attack on the 13th had been so easily repulsed, and by so small a part of our army, that it was not supposed the enemy would limit his effort to one attempt, which, in view of the magnitude of his preparations, and the extent of his force, seemed to be comparatively insignificant. Believing, therefore, that he would attack us, it was not deemed expedient to lose the advantages of our position, and expose the troops to the fire of his inaccessible batteries beyond the river, by advancing against him. But we were necessarily ignorant of the extent to which he had suffered, and only became aware of it when, on the morning of the 16th, it was discovered that he had availed himself of the darkness of night, and the prevalence of a violent storm of wind and xain, to recross the river." With the Confederate victorv of Fredericksburg quiet fell upon the lines of the Rappahannock; but on other theatres of the war there was not that cessation of interest that might have been expected in the harshest months of winter. The authorities at Richmond were soon disturbed by reported movements of the enemy in other directions, apparently against the city and its southern communications; and the consequence of these alarms and anxieties, in which Gen. Lee fully shared, was, that about one-third of his army had to be detached to cover the south side of the capital. In the month of February, 1863, the greater portion of Longstreet's command was sent to confront the army corps of Hooker, supposed to have been sent to the Peninsula, and to watch the movements GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 97 of the enemy in the neighbourhood of Suffolk and on the coast of North Carolina. It was a period of indecision and anxiety; Charleston was threatened, and Gen. Lee advised every available man to be sent thither; the enemy was reported at various points of the sea-coast south of James River, and it —was not known where his heaviest blow would be delivered; and distracted by so many prospects of attack, the policy of dispersion became, for a time, a necessary one, and Gen. Lee found himself, with not more than two-thirds of the army he had in the battle of Fredericksburg, left to watch the movements of the enemy still remaining north of the Rappahannock. This serious diminution of his forces affected Gen. Lee with great anxiety, in view of the exigencies of the approaching spring campaign, in which the fate of Virginia; and of the sea-coast, and of the Mississippi Valley, appeared to be equally involved, and naturally led to a revision of all the Confederate forces in the field. He made it the occasion of one of the plainest letters he ever wrote to the War Department-a letter in which the tone of censure and rebuke was more apparent than in any appeal he ever made to the patriotism of the people and the wisdom of the authorities. He suggested to the government an appeal to the Governors of the States to aid more directly in recruiting the armies. He said the people habitually expected too much from the troops now in the field; that because they had gained many victories, it did not follow that they should always gain them; that the legitimate fruits of victory had hitherto been lost for the want of numbers on our side; and, finally, that all those who failed to go to the field at such a momentous period, were guilty of the blood of the brave soldiers who perished in the effort to achieve independence. While Lee's force on the Rappahannock was reduced to the extent we have noticed, the enemy had always been able to keep up its army in Northern Virginia to a strength exceeding 100,000 men; and now, for its fifth attempt on Richmond, had a force not less than 150,000, under the command of "Fighting Joe Hooker," the hero of Northern prints. To meet this tremendous force, Gen. Lee had the corps of Jackson, and only two divisions of Longstreet's corps-Anderson's and McLaws'-a total of about 45,000 men. Jackson's corps consisted of four divisions, commanded by A. P. Hill, Rodes, Colston, and Early. 7 98 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Gen. Hooker's plan of attack was to divide his army into two portions, of which the stronger, having crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, should advance against the Confederate left wing; while the Federal left wing, under Sedgwick, equal in num bers to Gen. Lee's whole army, should attack and occupy the heights above Fredericksburg, and seize the railroad to Richmond. On the night of the 28th April, the greater portion of the Federal army crossed the rivers, and headed towards Chancellorsville, the assigned point of concentration. The situation in which Hooker boasted that the Confederate army must " either ingloriously fly or come out from behind its defences," where "certain destruction awaited it," was no sooner perceived by Gen. Lee, than he determined, leaving Early's divisionto deal with Sedgwick at Fredericksburg, to " come out" with the remainder of his little army against Hooker's four corps at Chancellorsville. On the 29th April, Jackson's three divisions, and those of McLaws and Anderson (Early's division remaining in the lines of Fredericksburg), were on the road to Chancellorsville. The aspect of affairs was anything but reassuring. The force moved out towards Chancellorsville was outnumbered nearly three to one; from 90,000 to 100,000 men were on what had formerly been its left rear, but which was now, its front; while a force equalling in strength the whole army, threatened, by all advance from Fredericksburg, either to crush it or force it to retreat with both flanks exposed, and with a cavalry column of 10,000 sabres already on its communications with Richmond. But it was the absence of his cavalry which he had sent away in assurance of Lee's retreat, that proved the fatal circumstance for Hooker.; for it at once suggested the surprise of a movement on his flank. While, therefore, the divisions of Anderson and McLaws were sufficient to amuse him by feints of attack in front -indeed to such effect that on the 1st May he ordered another of his divisions from across the river, under the impression that the Confederates were in force in his front-Jackson was marching swiftly and silently to find his flank in the Wilderness. In the evening of the 2d May, the battle of the Wilderness was fought; Jackson striking the extreme right of the Federal army, routing Howard's corps, and driving the entire right wing of the enemy down upon the divisions of Anderson and McLaws. The torrent GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 99 of Jackson's success was stemmed only by his fall in the midst of a victory, the completion of which had to be reserved for another day. On the 3d May, Gen. Stuart, having succeeded to Jackson's command, bore down again on the enemy's right wing, while Gen. Lee's remaining divisions attacked the centre and left. By ten o'clock in the morning, Hooker was driven to his second line of intrenchments, Chancellorsville was taken, and the destruction of the enemy now appeared to be the work of but a few hours. But just here that adverse combination of circumstances in which Gen. Lee fought was again apparent; and as he gathered up his forces to attack Hooker's fresh position, news came that Sedgwick, having turned Marye's Heights, was advancing from Fredericksburg, while Early had fallen back to a position at Salem Church, five miles from the town. It became necessary at once to turn attention to this movement; and McLaws' division was rapidly marched to Early's support in time to check Sedgwick's advanced troops, and drive them back on the main body. On the 4th May the battle was renewed, and Sedgwick was overwhelmed and driven back in disgraceful confusion, while Hooker remained idle in his intrenchments, detained in a defensive attitude by a few Confederate divisions, thoroughly cowed, and without spirit even to make the attempt to relieve one of his own corps. On the night of the 5th, his grand army, despite its losses yet larger than that of Lee, but directed by a commander who had evidently lost all stomach for fight, retreated across the river in a drenching storm of wind and rain, leaving behind it 17,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, 14 pieces of artillery, and 30,000 stand of arms. Thus three victories-that of the Wilderness, that on Hooker's front, and that at Salem Church, all compassed in the general name of "the battle of Chancellorsville "-had been achieved by Gen. Lee in so many days. In looking back upon all the circumstances of this struggle, it must be pronounced to have been for Gen. Lee the most brilliant of the war, and to have crowned his reputation for transcendent courage and ability. All the movements of the enemy preceding the battle had been successful and well-timed; he had turned the Confederate line of defence on the right and on the left; and he had apparently placed the little army of Lee in the jaws of destruction. With what consummate 100 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. skill the great Confederate commander extricated his army; with what impregnable equanimity he awaited the full development of his adversary's designs; with what admirable readiness he divided his forces, and concentrated his chief strength upon the important point; with what towering courage he at last struck the enemy on his vulnerable side, then engaged him in front, and finally turned to engage a victorious column in his rear, the reader will perceive even from the bare outlines.of the battle we have given in the preceding narrative. Those who were near Gen. Lee's person in these eventful three days, say that his self-possession was perfect, and his calm, courteous demeanour the same as on ordinary occasions; he spoke of his success without exultation; and from first to last, his unshaken confidence in his men fortified his resolution and manners, and assured him of victory. A few days after the battle of Chancellorsville, Gen. Lee issued an address to his army, congratulating them for "the heroic conduct they had displayed under trying vicissitudes of heat and storm, in a tangled wilderness, and again on the hills of Fredericksburg," and inviting them to unite on the following Sunday "in ascribing to the Lord of Hosts the glory due His name." At the same time a letter from President Davis was read, wherein he said to Gen. Lee: "In the name of the people, I offer my cordial thanks to you and the troops under your command, for this addition to the unprecedented series of great victories which your army has achieved. The universal rejoicing - produced by this happy result, will be mingled with a general regret for the good and the brave who are numbered among the killed and wounded." Two great victories, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, had now been won on the banks of the Rappahannock; but they had no other effect than driving the enemy back to the hills of Stafford. The position was one in which he could not be attacked to advantage. It was on this reflection that Gen. Lee resolved on a new and adventurous campaign. It was to manceuvre Hooker out of Virginia, to clear the Shenandoah Valley of the troops of the enemy, and to renew the experiment of the transfer of hostilities north of the Potomac. But the events of this campaign we reserve for another chapter. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 101 CHAPTER VIII. Controversy between Gen. Lee and the War Department.-The Secretary winces. — Gen. Lee's new campaign of invasion.-How it differed from that of 1862.-Reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia.-Some remarks on its artillery service. —Gen. Lee across the Potomac.-His orders at Chambersburg, Pa.-His errours with respect to the policy of " retaliation." —His conversation with a millowner.-A letter from President Davis.- Gen. Lee misunderstood and disappointed by the Richmond authorities.-Orders to Stuart's cavalry.-The Confederate army blinded in Pennsylvania for want of cavalry.-The battle of Gettysburg has the moral effect of a surprise to Gen. Lee. —The lost opportunity of the 1st July.-Why Gen. Lee fought the next day. —Temper of his army.-He assaults the enemy's centre on the 3d July. —Recoil of the Confederates.-Gen. Lee cheering and comforting his men.-His fearful retreat, and his wonderful success in extricating his army. IN the shifting of forces consequent upon the battle of Chancellorsville, the divisions of Longstreet that had been operating in Southeastern Virginia were recalled to Gen. Lee; and the usual consequence of a great victory in the return of large numbers of "absentees " to the ranks, was fully realized. From these sources Gen. Lee rapidly increased his army to the mark of the necessities of the campaign he now designed. Since Gen. Lee had been in command, he had been able to effect a much-desired reform in curtailing the authority of "the War department, which at one time had presumed to dictate campaigns, and had once driven Gen. Jackson to the extremity of resignation by moving forces under his command by its peremptory orders. That despotic department was now much reduced in i its authority, and its favourite idea of a dispersion of forces was brought within limits. After what we have already said of detachments from Gen. Lee's army, and the peril this policy occasioned at Chancellorsville, it will surprise the reader to learn that on the 15th May, 1863, the Secretary of War dispatched him that a portion of his army (Pickett's division) might be sent to Mississippi. To this untimely and vexatious call, Gen..Lee replied that it was a dangerous and doubtful expedient; that it was a question 102 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. between Virginia and Mississippi; but that he would send off the division without delay, if still deemed necessary. The issue was thus boldly and sharply thrust upon the Richmond authorities. The Secretary winced, and the troops were not sent away. The campaign which Gen. Lee had now determined upon was more properly one of invasion than when in the previous year he had crossed the Potomac into Maryland. His design was larger and more ambitious; and so far as it contemplated not merely putting back the war to the trans-Potomac region for the purpose of respite, but a steady and formidable invasion of the enemy's territory, it overleaped the former defensive and prudent policy that had hitherto prevailed in the military councils of the Confederacy. The reoccupation of the Shenandoah Valley, the invasion of Pennsylvania, and the change in the theatre of the war from Virginia to the enemy's country, were the immediate objects of Lee's intended movements. Whatever might result from these operations could not be foreseen, and the ultimate designs could only develop themselves as success, or the reverse, should occur in the campaign, and influence its prosecution. But never was the prospect of invasion more hopeful. It was undoubtedly thrust upon Gen. Lee by the excited and extraordinary spirit of his army and the country. The morale of his troops had been wonderfully improved by the victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville; the confidence of the men and of their commander had been greatly raised by these events; the army of Northern Virginia had been mobilized, improved, was in better condition in transportation, equipment, and clothing (and in every respect but supplies) than it had been before, and in increased confidence in itself and contempt for the enemy, was said to be " equal to anything; " and, above all, the public temper of the South, swollen and bursting with grief at the ruin the enemy had wrought on its own dwellings and fields, fiercely and with one voice demanded that in this season of opportunity, some of the suffering and rigour of the war should be carried home to the people of the North. Gen. Lee could not be insensible to these considerations, or wholly deaf to the appeals of the populace. Pennsylvania offered supplies for his troops, and Commissary Northrop had told him to go there to find them; the spirit of his army pointed to invasion; and so, when the alternative of campaigns was presented at Richmond, of reinforcing the GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 103 armies of the West or carrying the war across the Potomac, Gen. Lee chose the latter, believing that a victory in Pennsylvania, besides all its other advantages, would be a counterpoise to what-' ever successes the enemy might obtain in the West, and relieve the pressure on our armies in Tennessee, Mississippi, and in all parts of the Confederacy. It was thus for various reasons and in peculiar circumstances that he cut loose from the defensive policy, and on his own responsibility undertook the experiment of invasion. In preparation for the campaign, the Army of Northern Virginia was now thoroughly reorganized, and divided into three equal and distinct corps. The reorganization was made with a view to recent promotions in the army —five Major-Generals and two Lieutenant-Generals having obtained their promotions, without a proper distribution of commands. The two Lieutenant-Generals were Ewell and A. P. Hill. To each of these a corps was assigned, consisting of three divisions; Gen. Longstreet, for this purpose, parting with one of his divisions (Anderson's). A. P. Hill's old division, reduced by two brigades, was assigned to Maj.-Gen. W. D. Pender. The two brigades taken from A. P. Hill's division were united with Pettigrew's and another North Carolina brigade, and assigned to Maj.-Gen. Heth, who; with Maj.-Gen. Pender, had been recently promoted from the rank of Brigadier-General. Gen. A. P. Hill was assigned to the command of this corps, whilst Gen. Ewell retained Jackson's old corps, consisting of Early's division (Early having been made a lMVajor-General in February, and receiving command of Ewell's old division), Rode's division, and Trimble's division, the latter assigned to Gen. Edward Johnson, then just promoted to a Major-Generalship. There were thus three corps of three divisions: Longstreet (McLaws, Hood, and Pickett); A. P. Hill (Anderson, Pender, and Heth); Ewell (Early, Rodes, and Johnson)-each corps numbering about 25,000 men, with about 15,000 cavalry, under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, making a total of 90,000 men. But the most important part of the reorganization, directed by Gen. Lee, was the reform of the artillery arm, which had been wonderfully growing in strength and brilliancy since the time when the famous " Washington Artillery " first wreathed the Confederate banner with the smoke of its guns on the field of Manassas. It had now become the matchless pride of the Army of North 104 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. ern Virginia, and presented a splendid array of high intelligence, practised skill, and disciplined valour. The original organization of the Confederate artillery was into companies, attached each to its infantry brigade, and subject to the orders of the brigadier; but it was soon discovered that commanders of brigade, the great majority of whom were from the walks of civil life, were not the class of officers to give the artillery arm that power and effectiveness, of which, under skilful scientific direction, it was so eminently susceptible. Therefore, before the opening of the spring campaign of 1863, a regular artillery and ordnance staff was organized in the Army of Northern Virginia, with Gen. Pendleton at its head. Battalions were formed, numbering from sixteen to twenty guns each, and operating in the field, with its respective infantry division, and each under the immediate command of its own artillery chief, who had been assigned, or promoted to it, by reason of his distinguished fitness and qualification, as indicated by former tests of high excellence in the practice of the field. And under the direction of this able corps of artillery officers, the grand Southern field-park, both mounted and horse, proudly asserted its claim to a place in the very front rank of the artillery armament of the world. Pelham's and McGregor's famous cavalry batteries, that operated with the dashing troopers of Stuart, won a distinction, second not even to the celebrity of the famous flying artillery of Austria. For the first two years of the war, the field-metal. of the Confederate park was greatly inferiour to that of the enemy. The battles of Bull Run, and Manassas, and the Seven Pines, were fought with six-pounder guns, twelve-pounder howitzers, and a few threeinch rifles; and it was not until the battle of Chancellorsville, that the Confederate artillery armament was of sufficiently heavy metal to cope successfully with the formidable Federal field-ordnance. By capture and foreign purchase, the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia was strengthened by a full field-complement of ten and twenty-pounder Parrotts, the twelve-pounder Parrotts, the twelve-pounder Napoleon gun-howitzer, and a few Whitworth and Armstrong rifles; but the twenty-pounder Parrotts, and the twelvepounder Napoleons, were the weapons with which the Confederate artillerists chiefly won their bloody trophies, and wrote such a brilliant chapter in the records of artillery performance. In nothing was the Southern artillery inferiour to that of the Federals, save in GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 105 the matter of ammunition; in every other particular it was decidedly superiour, as attested on every field where the two armies were brought into direct collision. To gain the Shenandoah Valley and relieve the town of Winchester was the first aim of the intended movement. In the first week in June, Longstreet's and Ewell's corps were directed to march on Culpeper, whilst: the corps of A. P. Hill was left to occupy the lines of Fredericksburg. A reconnoissance of cavalry imperfectly disclosed the movement to Hooker; but while his attention was turned to Culpeper, and guarding the line of the Rappahannock, Ewell's corps was thrust into the Valley through Chester Gap, and, moving rapidly on Winchester, captured the place, with more than three thousand prisoners and thirty pieces of artillery. Upon learning the movement, and now quite bewildered as to the designs of the Confederates, Hooker broke up his camps along the Rappahannock, and moved on the direct route towards Washington, following the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, his first anxiety being to respond to Mr. Lincoln's usual fears for the safety of the capital. The disappearance of the enemy behind the hills of Stafford was the signal for A. P. Hill to take up his line of march towards Culpeper, where Longstreet's corps still held position. On the 22d June, Ewell, with the van of the invading columns, passed into Maryland; and two days later the corps of Longstreet and Hill, making the passage of the Potomac at Williamsport and Shepherdstown, followed the path of Ewell into Pennsylvania. The troopers of Jenkins had already preceded Ewell's advance by a week, and had penetrated Pennsylvania as far as Chambersburg, throwing the whole country into a condition of unparalleled alarm and excitement. President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for one hundred thousand militia from the States most directly menaced; New York was summoned to send twenty thousand men; the archives were removed from Harrisburg, and the farmers in the rich valleys drove their cattle to the mountains. Some asserted positively that Pittsburg and Ohio were the objects of Lee's march; others that Harrisburg, and even Philadelphia, would fall into his hands; and others, again, pointed to Baltimore and Washington as the true points which were menaced by the invading army. After crossing the Potomac, Gen. Lee had marched up the :106 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Cumberland Valley, while Ewell's corps occupied York and Carlisle, and threatened the passage of the Susquehanna at Columbia and Harrisburg. Within twenty days he had brought his army from Fredericksburg into Pennsylvania, made the march in the face of hostile garrisons at Winchester, Martinsburg, Harper's Ferry, and Berryville, blinded the enemy as to his designs, and moved without his progress having been once seriously arrested. iHe had now fairly entered upon the campaign, and at Chambersburg issued the following order to his troops for their government in the enemy's country: H:EADQUARTERS ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA, CHAMBERSBURG, PA., June 27, 1863. GENERAL ORDERS NO. 73.-The Commanding General has -observed with marked satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and confidently anticipates results commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested. No troops could have displayed greater fortitude, or better performed the arduous marches of the past ten days. Their conduct in other respects has, with few exceptions, been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and entities them to approbation and praise. There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on the part of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own. The Commanding'General considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it, our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the innocent and defenceless, and the wanton destruction of private property, that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country. Such pro. ceedings not only disgrace the perpetrators and all connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the army and destructive of the ends of our present movements. It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemy, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favour and support our efforts must all prove in vain. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. Iod0 The Commanding General, therefore, earnestly exhorts the troops to abstain, with most scrupulous care, from unnecessary or wanton injury to private property; and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any Vway offend against the orders on this subject. R. E. LEE, General. The reader will perceive in this address some pleasing and honourable sentiments; although the distinction appears to have been clouded in Gen. Lee's mind, between retaliation in kind, and such severe and regular retribution as might have been visited upon the enemy by acts of war; such as devastating the country in line of battle, without endangering the morale of his troops, and running counter to the charges of irregular pillage and brigandish atrocities. Such devastations of the enemy's country, the Confederate public had expected; and, while Gen. Lee professed to yield much to the temper of the South in the project of invasion, he might have reflected that the main object of the popular desire for such a measure was to visit upon the enemy, not necessarily the exact repetition of his atrocities, but the severest penalties of war that could be executed under the authority of superiours, without risk to the discipline of the army, and without contravention of the just practices of a provoked invasion. But these were not his views; and even the commonest penalties of war were unexpectedly' spared the people of Pennsylvania.* * Of the extreme forbearance of Confederate soldiers in Pennsylvania, abundant evidence may be gathered even from the most violent newspapers printed in the North. The following is quoted from a Northern account of the proceedings of Jenkins' cavalry:-" By way of giving the devil his due, it must be said, that although there were over sixty acres of wheat, and eighty acres of corn and oats in the same field, he (Gen. Jenkins) protected it most carefully, and picketed his horses so that it could not be injured. No fences were wantonly destroyed, poultry was not disturbed, nor did he compliment our blooded cattle so much as to test the quality of their steak and roasts. Some of his men cast a wistful eye upon the glistening trout in the spring; but they were protected by voluntary order; and, save a few quarts of delicious strawberries, gathered with every care, after first asking permission, nothing in the gardens or about the grounds was taken." An intercepted letter from a Confederate officer to his wife in Virginia, which found its way into Northern newspapers, contained the following: "I felt, when I first came here, that I would like to revenge myself upon these people for the devastation they have brought upon our own beautiful home; that home where we could 108 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. In the Northern newspapers an account was given by a millowner of Pennsylvania, of a conversation with Gen. Lee, in which occurred the following: "It is not that we love the Pennsylvanians," observed Lee, "that we refuse to let our men engage in plundering private citizens. We could not otherwise keep up the morale of the army. A rigid discipline must be maintained, or the men would be worthless." "In fact," adds this mill-owner, "I must say that they acted like gentlemen, and, their cause aside, I would rather have forty thousand rebels quartered on my premises than one thousand Union troops. The Colonel of one of the New York regiments (militia) drove his horse into the engine-room of my mill, a place which must be kept as clean as a parlour; the men broke all the locks, and defiled every apartment from basement to garret. Yet all this time I have been quartering sick Federal officers at my house, and my new hotel is thrown open to the men to sleep in, free of charge." "I told Gen. Lee," continues this correspondent, "that the South must give it up; that the North would fight it out rather than see the country broken in two, and that their invasion of Pennsylvania was a great mistake." "What-would you do," replied the General, " if you were in our place?" Here he produced copies of the Richmond papers, which complained so bitterly about the war being waged in the South, while it ought to be carried into the Free States. But we must return to the movements of the two armies, which were now approaching the greatest crisis of the war. The day Gen. Lee issued at Chambersburg the order just referred to, Hooker relinquished the command of the Federal army, which he had now marched to: Frederick in Maryland; and Gen. Meade, who succeeded him, having ascertained the general direction of Lee's march, at once put his columns in motion by the inner line from Frederick towards Harrisburg. But he had ascertained something more. Whilst reconnoitring the passes of South Mountain, have lived so happily, and that we loved so much, from which their Vandalism has driven you and my helpless little ones. But though I had such severe wrongs had grievances to redress, and such great cause for revenge, yet when I got among these people, I could not find in my heart to molest them. They looked so dreadfully scared, and talked so humbly, that I have invariably endeavoured to protect their property, and have prevented soldiers from taking chickens, even in the main road." GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 109 Capt. Dahlgren-the same who afterwards made a murderous raid on Richmond-had captured an orderly carrying an important dispatch from President Davis to Gen. Lee, in which the former stated his disapproval of the advance into Pennsylvania, throw. ing the responsibility of it-entirely on Lee, and informing him that he could expect no reinforcements, as Richmond was almost stripped of troops; also that no assistance could be furnished by Beauregard from South Carolina, as his hands were full, and he could not spare a man. This dispatch afforded a new encouragement to the enemy, and gave him the important assurance that Washington could not be threatened by any forces remaining in Virginia. It had been Gen, Lee's idea, not that Gen. Beauregard should get a force for active operations, but that he should merely collect the semblance of an army at Gordonsville, announce his headquarters there, etc., so as to distract the enemy's attention, and continue his anxiety for Washington. In this respect he was misunderstood and disappointed by Richmond authorities. But a greater mishap had already befallen him, and compelled him practically to relinquish the campaign. When Gen. Lee crossed the Potomac from the Shenandoah Valley, the plainest orders had been given to Stuart's cavalry column, left on the east side of the Blue Ridge, to watch the enemy, keep on his left flank, and maintain constant communications with Lee, so as to develop the enemy's designs. Now it happened that Stuart had not followed these orders, but crossing the Potomac at Seneca, below where Hooker crossed, found the entire Federal army interposed between him and Lee, and finally resolved to make a circuit of it by way of Westminster and Carlisle. Unaware of this disappointment of the most essential part of his plans, Gen. Lee had marched on day after day, inquiring ceaselessly after his lieutenant. His anxiety was extreme; all his staff-officers observed the troubled look in his face, as day after day, and at last hour after hour, he inquired for " news from Stuart." The phrase at headquarters was: "We are hungry for cavalry." Gen. Lee had depended upon Stuart for information of the enemy's movements; he had designed an advance upon Harrisburg; but when he headed his columns to cross the Susquehanna, there was still no news of Stuart, and no information of the movements of the 11e0 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. enemy. The situation was one in which Gen. Lee found himself in the mountains of Pennsylvania, with the eyes of his army put out, not knowing where the enemy was, or where would be the field of battle, compelled to grope his way to whatever issue accidents might determine. It was in these circumstances that he determined to relinquish his hold on the Susquehanna, to look after his routes of retreat on the east side of the South Mountain range, and to find the enemy in order to bring himn to a battle. With this view, Ewell was recalled from the demonstration on Harrisburg, and the several corps ordered to march towards Gettysburg. It will surprise the reader to learn that when this movement was made, Gen. Lee was actually ignorant that Hooker had crossed the Potomac, and was compelled to turn from his designs on the Susquehanna river, to hunt the enemy up for battle! Such were the disastrous results of the absence of Stuart's cavalry. And in such circumstances the battle of Gettysburg had all the moral effect of a surprise for the Confederates.* On the 1st July Heth's division of Hill's corps, moving towards Gettysburg, became engaged near the town with the enemy's advance, Reynolds' corps. Gen. Reynolds was shot down as he rode forward to superintend the dispositions of his troops; and Ewell, coming up by the Harrisburg road, completed the disorder of the enemy, driving his fugitive and disorganized troops through the streets of Gettysburg with heavy loss, including about five thousand prisoners and several pieces of artillery. The success was not followed beyond the town; the broken Federal divisions were re-formed on a high range of hills south and east of Gettysburg; and the attack of the Confederates, which might have easily pushed this routed detachment of the enemy beyond this critical position, was recalled as the sun inclined to the horizon. Gen. Lee had had the opportunity of getting possession of these heights, instead of * In Gen. Lee's official report he makes no complaint of the disappointment of the campaign by the absence of Stuart's cavalry column; and, indeed, this circumstance was, until recently, lost to history. Gen. Lee was always very abstinent of censure of his officers; and he once remarked that he could never consider himself at liberty to make a reference in his official reports to a fault of an officer, unless it had been found and established by a court-martial. Despite Gen. Stuart's abundant record of glorious services, he is said to have deeply regretted his failure to get his cavalry in position to serve as designed in the campaign, and to have been affected by the disappointment to the day of his death. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 111 being forced to fight the succeeding days on a sunken parallel, under every disadvantage of position. But the opportunity slipped away in the darkness of one night; and Gen. Meade, who had in fact laid out a different line of battle, being advised of the singular advantages of the new position overlooking Gettysburg, pressed forward the bulk of his army, and on the morning of the 2d July had all his forces concentrated in the strongest position that had ever been taken by either army in the war. But it was no fault of Lee's generalship that he had been thus anticipated, and the table of position turned upon him; it was but another consequence of the circumstances which fettered him in the absence of his cavalry. It must be remembered that when he recalled the attack of the preceding evening, he was completely in the dark as to the movements and dispositions of the enemy's forces; his army was not concentrated; it was at a great distance from its base; he was uncertain of the numbers of his opponents; he was unable, by reason of the nature of the ground, to ascertain their exact position; and in these circumstances it would have been the height of imprudence to have risked, in the late hours of the day, an attack upon what might have been the whole Federal army. But while Gen. Lee is thus cleared of the censure, which popular opinion sometimes attached to him, of having allowed the enemy to take at leisure an almost impregnable position in the face of his victorious divisions, the more serious question remains, why he should have risked a battle after the enemy had secured an advantage so decisive, and in view of what were now the unequal circumstances of the field. In his official report he has given a partial statement of the reasons which determined him to deliver battle. He says: "It had not been intended to fight a general battle at such distance from our base, unless attacked by the enemy; but finding ourselves unexpectedly confronted by the Federal army, it became a matter of difficulty to withdraw through the mountains with our large trains. At the same time the country was unfavourable for collecting supplies while in the presence of the enemy's main body, as he was enabled to restrain our foraging parties by occuping the passes of the mountains with regular and local troops. A battle thus became, in a measure, unavoidable. Encouraged by the successful issue of the first day, and in view of 112 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. the valuable results which would ensue from the defeat of the army of General Meade, it was thought advisable to renew the attack." The fact is, the difficulties of retreat was an inferiour consideration, in Gen. Lee's mind, to others which he hints in his official word. Those difficulties were not insuperable. Gen. Longstreet was opposed to the risk of attack at Gettysburg, and proposed to manceuvre Meade out of his position by a march on Frederick, threatening Washington. But the confidence of Gen. Lee in his troops, inspired by the results of the first day, overruled all other considerations; he felt that the temper of his men justified almost any enterprise; he had promised a repetition in Pennsylvania of the victories that had so often crowned their arms in Virginia; and witnessing the enthusiasm of his men, he could not bear to shock their expectations and to abandon his own towering hopes by declining battle, and changing the bold policy of invasion to a campaign of manceuvres. It was the animus and inspiration of the invasion that determined him to attack. In the morning of the 2d July, his line of battle was formed: Ewell occupying the left, A. P. Hill the centre, and Longstreet the right. The battle raged with unexampled fury. Longstreet broke the first part of the enemy's line in his front, and made one of those mortal struggles, rare in war, for the possession of "Round Top "-a steep hill, the key of the enemy's position. The opposing forces were clinched here in close contest. It was, as Longstreet describes it, fighting -" belly to belly." He gained some ground, and once some of his brigades were in temporary possession of the prize, but unable to hold it for want of a timely reinforcement. On the left, Ewell had thrust himself within the breastworks of the enemy, and gained some important positions, but the chief action of the day had been borne by Longstreet's corps and a part of Anderson's division of Hill's corps; and although the force had failed to obtain the coveted prize of " Round Top," it had carried the whole front of the enemy on which Sickles' ill-fated corps had been drawn, and night found the advantage on the side of the Confederates. The next day the fiery drama was resumed at noon. Gen Lee's plan of attack had been previously directed against both flanks of the enemy's position, but he now altered his determina GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 113 tion, and resolved to assault Meade's centre, under cover of a heavy fire of artillery. More than 100 guns of the batteries of Longstreet's and Hill's corps opened a simultaneous fire, whilst Ewell's artillery, from the neighbourhood of Gettysburg, played on the slopes of Cemetery Hill. The Federal batteries replied, and for the space of two hours, a cannonade, whose volume had not yet been equalled in the war, thundered in the narrow valley separating the two armies. The Confederate columns of attack were formed on the edge of the woods, Pickett's division to lead the van, with one brigade of Hill's corps, commanded by Wilcox, on his right, and Heth's division under Gen. Pettigrew, on his left. There was an intervening space of near a mile, over not more than one-half of which, the Confederate artillery could protect the devoted troops. As they descended the hill and emerged into the plain, they received the fire of the enemy's artillery; but through shot and shell, Pickett carried his hostile front in compact and magnificent order. With a steady advance that awed the enemy, the Virginia troops came within musketry range. The artillery had ploughed their ranks in vain, and the lines of Federal infantry, with breathless expectation, braced themselves to receive the impact. Buffeting the severe volleys that met it, rushing up the crest of Cemetery Ridge, thrusting itself within the lines of the enemy, the solitary division of Pickett carried the long-contested heights and crowned the stone wall, from which had leaped so many messengers of death, with the battle-flags of the Confederacy. But, under the quick, desperate volleys of the enemy's musketry, and as the last fringe of fire blazed along the stone wall, Pettigrew's division had faltered, and was now in retreat; Wilcox's command had not attacked in time; and Pickett's division remained alone " a solid lance-head of Virginia troops tempered in *the fire of battle." It only remained to consult safety where a moment before it had won success, and to withdraw from what were now desperate straits, which might have been the breach of a decisive victory. As the shattered column of Pickett. returned to its lines on Seminary Ridge, Gen. Lee saw that the day was lost. He had watched the battle from a hill in rear of Gen. Hill's position; and when he witnessed the fatal recoil, he saw at once the necessity of providing against a counter-attack of the enemy, and 8 114 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. displaying, in these terrible moments, the confidence and self-possession by which alone he could now hope to save his army. Never was he more sublime, more forgetful of self, more perfect in temper, as in this one hour of great misfortune and terrible danger. Among the throng of disrupted troops he rode quite alone, calm in manner, kind in voice, comforting the wounded, and encouraging the officers dispirited by the reverse. lHe exclaimed, repeatedly, " It's all my fault l" His presence, his generous words, kindled a new inspiration; the disorder was quickly remedied; and as successive detachments were formed in the woods, they were quietly brought forward, and placed in positions to resist the attack which all considered imminent. The men were ordered to lie down in the woods, to await the attack. Presently a prolonged cheer arose from the Federal lines. It was thought to be the painful signal of another battle; but it proved to be only the greeting awarded Gen. Meade, as he rode along the lines, in full sense and satisfaction of the victory he had won. The 4th of July, heretofore the most joyful and proudest of American anniversaries, was spent in burying the thousands of dead that strewed an arena of civil war, and cursed with fraternal slaughter what had once been a valley of beautiful and supreme peace. More than 16,000 killed and wounded Federals had fallen on that field. On the Confederate side, the casualties were scarcely less, while their loss in prisoners was considerably greater than that of the enemy. Gen. Lee, so far from being in a condition to renew the conflict, was at the extremity of fear for the safety of his army; his ammunition was nearly exhausted, and the Potomac was reported to be rising, fr'om recent freshets, so as to cut off his chances of retreat. In the night of the 5th July, he commenced his fearful retreat, compelled to leave many of his wounded behind; and by daylight his rear column had left Gettysburg, without interruption from the enemy. On reaching the Potomac he found, as he had feared, his retreat barred by the rise of the river; and until the 12th July, his desperate army remained in line of battle at Williamsport. But the timidity of the enemy, which appeared to be consequent on all his victories, or rather that weak characteristic fear of a mediocre commander, which fears to spoil kclat already won, by the possibility of a reverse, and stops half-way in success, saved Gen. Lee from the fearful trial of another battle; and, eventually, GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 115 in face of the hesitating Federals, his pontoon bridges being completed, he crossed the river, was again in Virginia, and by leisurely movements succeeded in planting his suffering and diminished army on the banks of the Rapidan. His scheme of invasion had been baulked and brought to naught; he had sustained a severe defeat; but he had reason to congratulate himself that he had extricated his army, which the whole Northern public had waited to hear would be cut off by Meade, as the crowning prize of his campaign. "The fruit seemed so ripe, so ready for plucking," said President Lincoln, " that it was very hard to lose it." 116 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. CHAPTER IX. Decline of the fortunes of the Confederacy.-Operations in the autumn of 1863. — Gen. Lee's patriotic exhortation to his troops.-His great care for them.-Meeting of the chaplains in his army. —Relations between General Lee and his troops.His habits on the battle-field. —Intercourse with his men. —Simplicity of his manners. —His feelings towards the public enemy.-How he rebuked a Yankee-phobist.-Sufferings of the Confederate troops.-Commissary Northrop. —General Lee demands food for his troops. —Touching address to his half-starved men.-Anecdote of Gen. Lee and his cook.-Personal recollections of the great commander. -An English officer's description of his person and habits. THE recoil at Gettysburg marked a period when the Southern fortunes commenced to decline, and on its disastrous field was buried much of the former prestige of the Army of Northern Virginia. But the army had saved itself and its honour, if it had not done all that popular admiration had predicted for it; and it obtained at least the advantage of several months' repose. It was not in motion again until October, and the remainder of the year was consumed by a campaign of manceuvres, which, as it was generally without result, we need not give in detail here. An attempted flank march on Centreville, by which Gen. Lee aimed to get between Meade and Washington, was anticipated by the enemy, and proved a failure; and in the month of November the enemy appeared to make a retaliatory signal of attack, advancing, and crossing the Rapidan at several points. Gen. Lee, noticing the movement, issued the following general order, in which his patriotic exhortation and appeal to the army were expressed in words of more than usual urgency and power: "The enemy is again advancing upon our capital, and the country once more looks to this army for its protection. Under the blessings of God, your valour has repelled every previous attempt, and, invoking the continuance of His favour, we cheerfully commit to Him the issue of the coming contest. " A cruel enemy seeks to reduce our fathers and our mothers, our wives and our children, to abject slavery; to strip them of GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 117 their property, and drive them from their homes. Upon you these helpless ones rely to avert these terrible calamities, and to secure to them the blessings of liberty and safety. Your past history gives them the assurance that their trust will not be in vain. Let every man remember that all he holds dear depends upon the faithful discharge of his duty, and resolve to fight, and if need be to die, in defence of a cause so sacred and worthy the name won by this army on so many bloody fields." But the expected battle did not occur; Meade's plan of action came to an abortive issue, and, in a few days, he withdrew across the Rapidan, and resumed his old camps. Both armies went into winter-quarters; and Gen. Lee, who was always busy in the in.tervals of action in recruiting and improving his army, again addressed himself to the usual tasks of winter, providing for the comfort of his men, and corresponding with the War Department at Richmond on the many needs of the military service. It is interesting to observe how the religious interests of his men were attended to by a commander who appears to have taken into his heart every comfort and care of the soldiers he commanded, and to have omitted nothing from his scheme of welfare. In November, all the chaplains of Gen. Lee's army held a meet. ing or convention in the camps on the Rapidan, to invoke the God of Battles, and to consult about their spiritual cares. Most interesting reports were made, showing a high state of religious feeling throughout the army. At a later day, in his winter-quarters, Gen. Lee appointed a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer;" requiring military duties to be suspended, and desiring the chaplains to hold divine service in their regiments and brigades. A correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch said: "The great success of Gen. Lee's army is due to the religious element which reaches every corner of it; whilst, on the other hand, I am very much disposed to fear, from what I have been told by officers who have served in the Army of Tennessee, that the lack of success of that army is due, in a large measure, to the want of religious influence upon the troops." The task of reorganizing and inspiriting his army, after the most arduous campaigns, was one in which Gen. Lee was more successful than any other Confederate commander. And while engaged in this work, preparatory to the great spring campaign of 118 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 1864, it will be convenient for us to pause here to make some estimate of the commander for which the accounts of so many battles already fought will prepare the reader, and to explain those relations to his army in which he was so fortunate and powerful. A great element of Gen. Lee's popularity in his army was his exceeding, almost paternal, care for his men. It is a remarkable circumstance that he never harangued his troops on a battle-field; he employed but little of rhetoric, and was innocent of theatrical machinery in maintaining the resolution and spirit of his army. He was never a conspicuous figure in the field of battle. His habit was to consult the plan of battle thoroughly; assign to each corps commander his precise work, and leave the active conduct of the field to his lieutenant-generals, unless in some case of critical emergency. He but seldom gave an order on the field of battle. It is indeed remarkable that with such little display of his person, and with a habit bordering on taciturnity, Gen. Lee should have obtained such control over the affections of men whom he tried not only by constant battle but by tests of hardship, privation and suffering, and by a measure of general endurance such as has not been applied to any armv of modern times. But his intercourse with his army was peculiar. He mingled with the troops on every proper occasion; he spoke a few simple words here and there to the wounded and distressed soldier; and his kindliness of manner was so unaffected that it at once gained thed confidence and touched the heart. IHe had a rare gift, which many persons copy or affect, but which can never be perfectly possessed unless by a great man and a true gentleman-a voice whose tones of politeness never varied, whether uttered to the highest or lowest in rank. His men not only felt a supreme confidence in his judgment as a commander, but they were conscious everywhere of his sympathy with their sufferings, and his attention to their wants; and they therefore accepted every sacrifice and trial as inevitable necessity imposed upon them by a paternal hand. In those long and weary marches which try the patience of the soldier, he would not allow the men to be hurried without necessity, gave them sufficient opportunities for rest and refreshment, and would inquire among them at the end of the day how they had stood the march, and receive any suggestions for making that of the next day less irksome. When the march was necessarily a hard one, it GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. I1 was his custom to send back couriers, when the point aimed at was near at hand, to encourage his weary men with the intelligence. The habits of Gen. Lee was those of a thorough soldier, and all that men can require in the assurance that their commander shares with them the hardships of war. On a march, when camping out, he did not, as some of his brigade commanders did, select the finest dwelling-house in the neighbourhood of his camp, and insist upon the occupant entertaining himself and staff. It was only when he had established headquarters at a place where he was likely to remain some time, that he sought the protection of a house. He dressed without unnecessary display of -his rank; he endured the commonest hardships without the affectation that calls attention to them; and in the sincere simplicity of his manners he afforded an example how readily even the much-abused populace will distinguish between the arts of the demagogue and the virtues of the man. In all his official intercourse and private conversation Gen. Lee never breathed a vindictive sentiment towards the enemy who so severely taxed his resources and ingenuity, and put against him so many advantages in superiour means and numbers. Ile had none of that Yankee-phobia common in the Southern army; he spoke of the Northern people without malevolence, and in a style that deprecatea their political delusions rather than denounced their crimes; and he generally referred to the enemy in quiet and indifferent words, quite in contrast to the epithets and anathemas which were popularly showered on "the Yankees." On one occasion, a spectator describes him riding up to the Rockbridge Artillery, which was fiercely engaging the enemy, and greeting his son Robert, who as a private soldier was bravely working one of the guns. "How d'ye do, father?" was all that Robert had to say as he continued his duty at his gun; and Gen. Lee replied quietly: "That's right, my son; drive those people back."* At another time, * Gen. Lee had three sons, all of whom did hard and noble service in the Confederate army. Brig.-Gen. G. W. Custis Lee, was for some time aide-de-camp to the President, and held part of the Richmond defences; Maj.-Gen. W. H. F. Lee commanded a division of cavalry in the Army of Northerh Virginia: and Robert Edward Lee, to whom we have referred as a private in the Rockbridge Artillery, was afterwards on the staff of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, a son of Commodore Lee, and nephew of the great commander. 120 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. in sight of the enemy on the Rapidan, Gen. Lee was standing near his lines, conversing with two of his officers, one of whom was known to be not only a hard fighter and a hard swearer, but a cordial hater of the Yankees. After a silence of some moments, the latter officer, looking at the Yankees with a dark scowl on his face, exclaimed most emphatically, "I wish they were all dead." Gen. Lee, with the grace and manner peculiar to himself, replied, "How can you say so, General! Now I wish they were all at home, attending to their own business, and leaving us to do the same." He then moved off, when the first speaker waiting until he was out of earshot, turned to his companion, and in the most earnest tone said, "I would not say so before Gen. Lee, but I wish they were all dead and in hell!" When this " amendment" to the wish was afterwards repeated to Gen. Lee, in spite of his goodness and customary reproof of profanity, he could not refrain from laughing heartily at the speech, which was so characteristic of one of his favourite officers. The greatest suffering of Confederate troops was in the article of food; and on this subject Gen. Lee exhibited especial care, and exhausted every possible appeal to the proper authorities. He was constantly writing to Richmond of the deficiency of food in his army; he experienced here the greatest difficulty of his campaigns; and he appears never to have convinced the dull brain of the government, of the vital importance of a concern which lacerated his sensibilities, weighed down his energies, depleted the army by "' absenteeism," and contributed largely to the final catastrophe of his arms. In the first winter of his campaign in Northern Virginia, he recommended that an appeal should be made to the people to bring food to the army, to feed their sons and brothers. But the plan was overruled by Commissary Northrop, who put on it a curt and impertinent indorsement, that as he had no acquaintance with that means of maintaining an army (the patriotic contributions of the people), he could not recommend the adoption of Gen. Lee's suggestion.,In the spring of 1863, Gen. Lee appears to have been more deeply concerned in this matter, and wrote a remarkable letter to the government at Richmond. He stated that his men had each, daily, but a quarter-pound of meat, and sixteen ounces of flour; they had, besides, one pound of rice to every ten men, two or three times a week; and he plainly declared that such GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 121 rations might sustain life in his men, but if they were expected to keep the field, they must have more generous food. But this was only the beginning of trials and sufferings which culminated in later periods of the war, when, for days, Lee's army was entirely without meat, and the supply of bread, even, was in danger. That these deficiences were the-result of culpable neglect in Richmond, appears to have been the persistent opinion of Gen. Lee, as there is a letter from him as late as December, 1864, declaring his judgment that, even then, there were supplies enough in the country, if the proper means were used to procure them. There is no more noble and touching appeal to his army than that made by Gen. Lee in the bitter winter that preceded the mighty campaign of 1864 in Virginia, when the destitute and halfstarved troops found themselves in almost the last extremity of suffering. In this dark period, he issued the following proclamation, expressive of proud congratulation and noble encouragement: HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGLNIA, January 2:2, 1864. The Commanding General considers it due to the army to state that the temporary reduction of rations has been caused by circumstances beyond the control of those charged with its support. Its welfare and comfort are the objects of his constant and earnest solicitude, and no effort has been spared to provide for its wants. It is hoped that the exertions now being made will render the necessity but of short duration; but the history of the army has shown that the country can require no sacrifice too great for its patriotic devotion. Soldiers! you tread, with no unequal steps, the road by which your fathers marched through suffering, privation, and blood, to independence. Continue to emulate in the future, as you have in the past, their valour in arms, their patient endurance of hardships, their.high resolve to be free; which no trial could shake, no bribe seduce, no danger appall; and be assured that the just God who crowned their efforts with success, will, in His own good time, send down His blessings upon yours. R. E. LEE, General. In the article of food, as in other things, Gen. Lee appears to 122 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. have uniformly shared the distress of his men, and to have claimed for headquarters no exemption from the common lot of the army. His scanty meals were the occasions of some thoughtless jokes, and many comic anecdotes. In his tent, meat was eaten but twice a week. His ordinary dinner consisted of a head of cabbage, boiled in salt water, and a pone of corn bread. The story is jocosely told that on one occasion, a number of gentlemen having appointed to dine with him, he had ordered his servant to provide a repast of cabbage and middling. A very small bit of middling garnished the dish; so small that the polite guests all declined middling, and it remained on the dish when they rose from the table. Next day, the General, remembering the untouched meat, ordered his servant to bring " that middling." The man hesitated, scratched his head, and finally said: "De fac is, mass'r Robert, dat ar middlin' was borrid middlin,' and I done giv it back to de man whar I got it from." Gen. Lee never allowed familiarity; but he was of that dignity that rather disarmed than repulsed it. Yet to those immediately around him he often spoke in a simple, playful speech, that was quite charming. An aide relates of him, that just before the battle of Chancellorsville, when the army was alert for action, he entered Gen. Lee's tent with a hurried message that the enemy was supposed to be crossing the river about Fredericksburg. Gen. Lee replied: "Well, I heard firing, and I was beginning to think it was time some of you lazy young fellows were coming to tell me what it was all about. Say to Gen. Jackson that he knows just as well what to do with the enemy as I do." When Jackson was prostrated with his wound that unexpectedly proved mortal, Gen. Lee sent him a number of kindly messages in his peculiarly simple and affectionate words. "Give him," he said in his half-playful and tender manner, "my affectionate regards, and tell him to make haste and get well, and come back to me as soon as he can. He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm." At another time, hearing of the threatening change in the condition of the sufferer, he said with great feeling: "Surely Gen. Jackson must recover. God will not take him from us, now that we need him so much. Surely he will be spared to us, in answer to the many prayers which are offered for him." He afterwards added: "When you return, I trust you will find him better. When a GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD' LEE. 123 suitable occasion offers, give him my love, and tell him that I wrestled in prayer for him last night, as I never prayed, I believe, for myself." We have already referred to Gen. Lee's noble and collected behaviour on the field of Gettysburg. An English colonel, who observed him closely on that momentous occasion, has made such a characteristic relation, that every one will recognize in it the manner and words of Gen. Lee, especially,his simple and unaffected way of talking to his men. This writer says: "I joined Gen. Lee, who had, in the meanwhile, come to the front on becoming aware of the disaster. Gen. Lee was perfectly sublime. He was engaged in rallying and encouraging the broken troops, and was riding about, a little in front of the wood, quite alone-the whole of his staff being engaged in a similar manner further to the rear. His face, which is always placid and cheerful, did not show signs of the slightest disappointment, care, or annoyance, and he was addressing to every soldier he met a few words of encouragement, such as,' All this will come right in the end; we'll talk it.over afterwards; but, in the meantime, all good men must rally. We want all good and true men just now,' etc. He spoke to all the wounded men that passed him, and the slightly wounded -he exhorted to'bind up their hurts and take up a musket' in this emergency. Very few failed to answer his appeal, and I saw many badly wounded men take off their hats and cheer him. " There was a man lying flat on his face, in a small ditch, groaning dismally; Gen. Lee's attention was drawn to him, and he at once appealed to the man's patriotism to arouse -himself, but finding such to be of no avail, he had him ignominiously set on his legs, by some neighbouring gunners. " Gen. Wilcox now came up to him, and, in very depressed tones of annoyance and vexation, explained the state of his brigade. But Gen. Lee immediately shook hands with him, and said, in a cheerful manner,'Never mind, General. All this has been my fault. It is I that have lost this fight, and you must help me out of it the best way you can.' In this mannner did Gen. Lee, wholly ignoring self and position, encourage and reanimate his somewhat dispirited troops, and magnanimously take upon his own shoulders the whole weight of the repulse. It was impossible to look at him, or to listen to him, without feeling the strongest 124 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. admiration, and I never saw any man fail him, except the man in the ditch." The same writer (Col. Fremantle) has made the following description of the person and habits of the great and beloved Confederate commander: " Gen. Lee is, almost without exception, the handsomest man of his age I ever saw. He is tall, broad shouldered, very well made, well set up-a thorough soldier in appearance-and his manners are most courteous, and full of dignity. He is a perfect gentleman in every respect. I imagine no man has so few enemies, or is so universally esteemed. Throughout the South all agree in pronouncing him as near perfection as a man can be. He has none of the small vices, such as smoking, drinking, chewing, or swearing; and his bitterest enemy never accused him of any of the greater ones. He generally wears a well-worn, long, gray jacket, a high, black felt hat, and blue trowsers, tucked into his Wellington boots. I never saw him carry arms; and the only marks of his military rank are the three stars on his collar. He rides a handsome horse, which is extremely well groomed. He himself is very neat in his dress and person; and in the most arduous marches he always looks smart and clean." GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 125 CHAPTER X. Opening of the great campaign of 1864.-Precise account of Gen. Lee's plans. —He acts with his accustomed boldness, and takes the offensive. —Actions of the 5th and 6th May.-General Lee determines to lead a critical assault.-Protest of the soldiers. —Grant resorts to manceuvre.-Spottsylvania Court-House.-General Lee again in the extreme front of his men.-A thrilling spectacle.-Heroic action of Gordon. —" Gen. Lee to the rear! "-Account of the strategy from Spottsylvania Court —Iouse to the vicinity of Richmond. —Grant on the old battle-field of McClellan. -His army defeated in ten minutes at Cold Harbour.-His losses in one month exceed Lee's whole army.-Precise statement of the odds against Gen. Lee.-Reflections on the nature and degrees of generalship.-Comparison of the two rival commanders of the North and South. THE most terrible campaign that had yet happened in Virginia took place when the Federal army, numbering from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand men, under U. S. Grant, now acclaimed the hero of the North, and the little army of Lee, consisting of not one-third of that number, of all arms, with diminished strength, but unabashed front, came into the grand collision of the war, and upstarting in the days of spring, faced each other on the lines of the Rapidan. At midnight of the 3d May, 1864, Grant commenced his advance in two columns, crossing the river at Germanna and Ely's Fords, and designing a turning movement on the right flank of the Confederate line. The passage of the Rapidan was not disputed by Lee. His army was positioned in echelon from the river to Gordonsville-the corps of Longstreet being near the latter place, that of Hill in the vicinity of Orange Court-House, and that of Ewell stretching thence towards the Rapidan, in the direction of Raccoon Ford-and he immediately determined on a rapid concentration of his forces so as to give battle before the enemy emerged from the Wilderness, thus taking the offensive where Grant had expected him to fall back. The- movement was characteristic of Gen. Lee, and displayed his accustomed boldness in seizing the opportunity., of attack; there was no hesitation when he found his flank turned, 126 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. no thought of retreat; but an instant determination to make a rapid change of front, and fall upon the enemy before he should have time, by a march beyond the Wilderness, to lay hold of the Confederate communications with Richmond. Such was the theory of the battle. In the morning of the 5th May, Ewell's corps, moving by the old turnpike, and Hill's by the plank-road, were in close proximity to the enemy's line of march. The action commenced by Ewell's advance, consisting of Johnson's division, making an impetuous attack on the enemy on the turn pike; it was momentarily repulsed; but joined by Ewell's other divisions, it resumed the offensive, broke WVarren's corps, and gave a severe shock to the enemy's column, entailing upon it a loss of above 3,000 men. Later in the day the enemy concentrated against Hill, who, with his own and Wilcox's divisions, successfully resisted the repeated and desperate assaults, which continued until eight o'clock in the night. Satisfied with the work of the day, Gen. Lee did not press his advantage, and awaited during the night the arrival of Longstreet's corps, which had to march from Gordonsville-forty milesto the scene of battle. It was appointed that Longstreet, on his arrival, should come upon the right flank of Hill's corps; but before he got into position,'the enemy renewed his heaviest attack on that part of the line, and for a time carried away the whole hostile front, throwing Hill's division into confusion, and driving them back more than a mile. It appeared that the enemy was about to snatch a great victory; but, at the height of Hill's confused retreat, the head of Longstreet's division came upon the ground. There was now a pause on the enemy's side; a rehabilitation of the Confederate line, and then again, with a new breadth and weight, the battle was restored. B]ut in the fury of the onset, which drove Hancock's corps back, and while Longstreet prepared for a decisive blow on his flank, he fell severely wounded, as he rode forward in front of his column, from a musketry fire of his own flanking force. The attack was stayed; Gen. Lee arrived to take charge of this critical part of the field, but precious time was obtained by Hancock to thoroughly reestablish his position, now strengthened by fresh troops sent to him. It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that any new demonstration was made on the part of the Confederates. About GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 127 that time, Gen. Lee, having got well in hand the troops of Longstreet and Hill, prepared to make a desperate assault upon the enemy's intrenched position, where Hancock had taken refuge under the pressure of the former attack. At this anxious moment he expressed a determination to lead the assault'himself; but as he moved forward to take his place at the head of the troops, an anxious murimur ran along the lines, and grim and ragged soldiers refused to advance unless their beloved commander retired to a place of safety. The protest was one of touching solicitude; the troops would not move while their commander was in the advance, but with shouts declared that they were ready to drive the enemy, and only waited for the word of,command. It was given, and nobly did the men redeem the promise by which they had urged Gen. Lee's withdrawal from the post of danger. Within less than a hundred yards of the enemy's breastwork of logs, they delivered their fire, got temporary possession of the intrenchments, and only retired a little space under the heat and smoke of a conflagration which had sprung up in the woods, and was nowv,communicated to the logs behind which the enemy had fought. This closed the main action of the day. But on the Confederate left, about dark, Ewell gained the last success, moving a force around the right flank of the wing held by a portion of the Sixth corps, driving the enemy in confusion through the forest, and captuhing Brig.-Gens. Seymour and Shaler, and the greater part of their commands. The next day (7th May) the Confederates were found standing at bay behind their intrenchments; and Grant, now despairing, after two days of bloody battle, of finishing his adversary by the application of brute masses in rapid and remorseless blows, i.e., " hammering continuously," determined to resort to manoeuvre, and to plant himself between Lee's army and Richmond, by a movement upon Spottsylvania Court-House. When darkness came he began his march to this new trial of fortune. Although in the battles of the Wilderness Lee had not obtained a positive victory, yet the result was a grievous disappointment to Grant, who had hoped to destroy his antagonist, and who, coming to the command of the Army of the Potomac with the declared opinion that it had never fought its successes out, had expected at one blow of his immensely superiour numbers, and without the aid of strategy, to 128 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. accomplish his work, and clear the road to Richmond. Disillu. sionized by the bloody experience of two days, he was now content to essay a new route, to attempt a strategic operation, and yet, in the end, to repeat the dreadful experiment of the application of brute masses and the competitive destruction of human life in the decision of the contest. At Spottsylvania Court-House he found Lee ready to receive him and his entire army, right across the path by which he must marchl to get to Richmond. It was the repetition of the slaughter of the Wilderness. Of the battle which took place here, and its monument of carnage, the Richmond Examiner had the following account: " Grant attempted no manceuvre; he relied on main strength; bringing up his ten lines at a run, each one close behind another, and dashing them like the waves of the sea against the rocks, on the breastworks of the South. By these tactics, either a perfect victory is won, or an attacking army is lost. The first rush was successful on one point. The enemy broke through the blaze of the living volcano upon Johnson's men, leaped the works, took 2,000 men and 10 guns. But reserves were ready, and a charge of greater fury than their own drove them out in brief time. On all other parts of the line they were entirely unsuccessful; they were utterly repulsed with scarcely any loss to the Confederates, who fired with the advantages of rest, aim, and cover, but with a slaughter of the foe which is represented by universal testimony to have been the most terrible of modern warfare. "The Confederate loss, killed, wounded, and missing, in all these battles, beginning with the Wilderness, and including that at Spottsylvania Court-House, was under 15,000. The Washington Chronice, the organ of Lincoln, that sees all these things in the rose's colour, announces the depletion of Grant's army, by the battle of the Wilderness and'other causes,' to have been on Tuesday evening ascertained at 35,000. To this awful figure must now be added the two days of unsuccessful assault on the breastworks of Spottsylvania-assault without manoeuvre, full in front, with deep columns, each forcing the other on the muzzle of the guns. "There are butchers of humanity, to whom the sight of their fellow-creatures' blood affords an intoxicating pleasure. They are indifferent whose blood it is, so it does not come from their veins. GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 129 And Grant is one of those charming individuals. HIis government and his Generals will not baulk him in the present instance. A large part of the army now in his hands is composed of the regiments enlisted for three years, and their time expires in this coming summer. They have resisted every inducement to re-enlist, and have formally notified the Secretary of War that they will obey orders so long as they are legally given, but no longer. The government is entirely willing that Grant should save it the trouble and mortification of giving the discharge to these veterans. He will use them, and he'is using them." At one time in the terrible contest of Spottsylvania, it seemed that the fate of Lee's army hung in the balance-the time when the enemy had taken a salient of the works and overrun Johnson's division, when Hancock sent to Grant his laconic dispatch: " I have finished Johnson, and am going into Early " (meaning A. P. Hill's corps, then commanded by Gen. Early). It was at this time that the quick and impetuous Gordon, commanding two brigades, Evans' Georgians and Pegram's Virginians, saw his opportunity and determined to check the enemy. His brigades were too short to extend across the front of attack; but he had determined to make a counter-charge, and by sheer audacity stem the current of the battle. At this fearful moment, when the men waiting the word of command could hear the pulses in their hearts, Gen. Lee himself was suddenly seen to ride out in front of the line, as if to lead the desperate charge. He took a position near the colours of the Fifty-ninth Virginia regiment. Not a word did he say. He simply took off his hat, as he reined up his gray charger. It was a spectacle that thrilled the senses of the men. But at this moment Gordon spurred his foaming horse to the front, seized the-bridle-rein in the hand of his Commanding General, and exclaimed with passionate anxiety: " Gen. Lee, this is no place for you: go to the rear. -These are Virginians and Georgians, sir-men who have never failed. Men, you will not fail now!" Loud cries of ":No,, no Gen. Lee to the rear! Gen. Lee to the rear! " burst along the line. As his horse was guided a little way to the rear, his speaking eyes yet turned upon the men who carried upon their arms the trembling issues of the day, the command, "Forward I Charge I' rang out, and well did Gordon's brave troops redeem their promise; rushing through bush and swamp, coming so suddenly on the first 9 130 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. line of Federals that they shouted " Surrender!" to men motion. less with surprise, the next moment scattering them like straw, pressing forward, driving everything before them, and following the enemy half a mile within his lines. If the charge did not terminate the day, if again the enemy rallied to the attack, yet it was the most powerful and dramatic incident of the field, and restored the spirit of the Confederate army, and recovered its position just as it had been pushed to the verge of a great disaster. The Confederate lines at Spottsylvania were but slightly broken, and stood firm at the close of the day. Although Grant had taken the field with triple Lee's numbers, he found it necessary to call for reinforcements. Out-generalled, beat, he was now detained a whole week by Lee's little army, waiting for fresh troops from Washing-, ton. Resolved at first to carry the Confederate positions by direct attack, he was willing at last to resort to manceuvre. That manceuvre would have been easy enough in the first instance, if Grant had not been in love with the," hammering process," and deliberately and criminally reckless of the lives of his men. On the 21st May, he commenced a movement to the North Anna River, resolved by a turning operation to disengage Lee from a position he now declared to be unassailable. But Lee had already taken up a position here before Grant reached his new destination, and again confronted him on the path to Richmond. Here the Federal commander, defeated in the game of war, took up a new line of advance, and headed his army eastward and southward, to cross the Pamunkey River. But it was only again to encounter the Confederate force ready to accept the gage of battle. The whole strategy from Spottsylvania to the neighbourhood of Richmond, was simply a series of movements in which each of Grant's turning movements was met by a corresponding retrograde on the part of Lee, and at each stage of operations the two armies stood constantly face to face. It was thus at last that Grant found himself on the old battlefields of McClellan (which he might have reached by the Peninsular route without loss or opposition); found Lee confronting him, covering the approaches to the Chickahominy; found the zost of another great battle demanded to decide the experiment of securing the prize of the Confederate capital by an action in the field. The ground occupied by Gen. Lee, in the vicinity of Cold Harbour, was the same as that on which McClellan had sustained his GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 131 most decisive defeat in the battles of 1862 around Richmond; while the Federal army held about the same position to which the Confederates had been pushed out in the attempt to dislodge McClellan. In view of the relative situations of the two combatants thus reversed, it will be interesting to compare the results of the first and of the second battle of Cold Harbour. In the position which McClellan had failed to hold, Lee's army gained in ten minutes one of the most decisive victories of the war! In the first gray light of the morning of the 3d June Grant advanced in full line of battle; but one corps (Hancock) came in contact with the Confederate works; it was immediately repulsed most disastrously; while other parts of the enemy's line staggered before they had got beyond their rifle-pits. It was the most shameful spectacle the enemy had ever exhibited; more shameful than the drama of Bull Run-an entire army beat in ten minutes, standing stock-still in fear, its palsied commanders in vain issuing orders to advance, absolutely without power to move the demoralized and terrour-stricken mass. Mr. Swinton, the Northern historiographer of the Army of the Potomac, says: —" The action was decided in an incredibly brief time in the morning's assault. But, rapidly as the result was reached, it was decisive; for the consciousness of every man pronounced fuirther assault hopeless. The troops went forward as far as the example of their officers could carry them; nor was it possible to urge them beyond; for there they knew lay only death, without even the chance of victory. The completeness with which this judgment had been reached by the whole army was strikingly illustrated by an incident that occurred during the forenoon. Some hours after the failure of the first assault, Gen. Meade sent instructions to each corps-commander to renew the attack without reference to the troops on his right or left. The order was issued through these officers to their subordinate commanders, and from them descended through the wonted channels; but no man stirred, and the immobile lines pronounced a verdict, silent, yet emphatic, against further slaughter. - The loss on the Union side in this sanguinary action was over thirteen thousand, while on the part of the Confederates it is doubtful whether it reached that many hundreds." It is said that Grant rode from the field slow and serious, and with a cast of deep thought on his face. He had probably in the brief space of time decided that the experiment of taking Rich 132 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. mond by assault was at an end, and that nothing was left for him but the slow results of siege-operations, wherein he would have tc demand a new lease of Northern patience, which he had abused by promises to destroy Lee and to eat a patriotic dinner in Richmond on the Fourth of July. He had sacrificed in the experiment thus concluded more men than there were in Lee's whole army; in one pregnant month of operations he had lost more than sixty thousand men; while Lee had lost in the same time, as reported by his Adjutant-General, about eighteen thousand men, covered probably by the reinforcements of Beauregard, etc, and had conducted his army with such skill, constantly thrusting it between Grant and Richmond, that its morale was never better than after the battle of Cold Harbour. A review of this remarkable one month's campaign in Virginia, so glorious to Lee, illustrates the difference between the mediocre commander and the master of the art of war, and is a striking commentary on the fruitful topic of skill against numbers. Gen. Lee was not reinforced by a single musket upon the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court-House, and had no resource at hand from which to repair the terrible losses sustained on those bloody fields. It was not until he arrived at Hanover Junction that he received any addition to his thinned ranks; and here he was joined by Pickett's division of Longstreet's' corps, and Breckinridge, with two small brigades of infantry, and a battalion of artillery. These, with Hoke's brigade, were the first and only reinforcements received by Gen. Lee since the opening of the cam. paign. He had commenced the campaign with not more than 50,000 effective men of all arms. The report of the Federal Secretary of War shows that the "available force present for duty, May 1, 1864,". in Grant's army, was 141,166, to wit: In the Army of the Potomac 120,386, and in the Ninth corps 20,780. The draft in the United States was being energetically enforced, and volunteering had been greatly stimulated by high bounties. The Northwestern States had tendered large bodies of troops to serve one hundred days, in order to relieve other troops on garrison and local duty, and this enabled Grant to put in the field a large number of troops which had been employed on that kind of duty. It was known that he was receiving heavy reinforcements up to the very time of his movement on the 4th May, and after GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 133 wards; so that the statement of his force on the 1st May, by Stanton, does not cover the whole force with which he commenced the campaign. Moreover, Secretary Stanton's report shows that there were, in the Department of Washington and the NMiddle Department, 47,751 available men for duty, the chief part of which, he says, was called to the front after the campaign began, " in order to repair the losses of the Army of the Potomac;" and Grant says that, at Spottsylvania Court House, "the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th May, were consumed in manoeuvring and awaiting the arrival of reinforcements from Washington." His army, therefore, must have numbered very nearly, if not quite, 200,000 men, before a junction was effected with Butler. To a review of the odds and difficulties against which Gen. Lee had to contend, and to the comparisons suggested by the operations from the Rapidan to the Chickahominy, there is a view so apposite in the work of a recent military writer,* that we transcribe it here as a just conclusion of what may be said of this campaign, and the two rival commanders of the North and South: " Skill in arms is the equivalent of thousands of good troops, and may again succeed, as it has so often succeeded before, in gaining, against odds, victories which fix the fate of nations. Let us imagine that an army in the field is commanded by a General who has fought his way upward from grade to grade, who is valiant, devoted, and practised in war. He is versed in all routine duties, knows the uses and capabilities of the different arms, can choose and occupy a-position, make the dispositions for the march of his columns, stubbornly cover a retreat, and save his army even after a heavy disaster. But not having a mind capable of comprehensive views or of deep study, he knows nothing of great combinations. Strategy, in the sense of a flexible science to be adapted to circumstances, is a sealed book to him; the theatre of war is written in a cipher to which he has not the key; he can deal with accidents of the country, when they present themselves, as something to be immediately attacked or defended, but they suggest no large problems by the solution of which a few marches decide a campaign. Cautious, from not knowing when he ma~y venture to be bold,. and rash from ignorance of what may be attempted * Col. Hamley: Operations of War. 134 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. against him, he spoils his offensive movements by hesitation, de. fends himself by makeshifts, and only half understands his own blunders when they have ruined his army. This is no unfair picture of what has often passed muster in the world as a respectable leader to be intrusted with the fate of hosts. It would do injqstice to some of Napoleon's most celebrated marshals. Such a one will probably acquit himself with credit so long as he is opposed by no qualities superiour to his own. "But let us imagine that a General of a different stamp enters the field-one who has been taught by study and thought, not merely what has been done in war, and how to conform to respectable precedent (although that may be much), but how to meet new circumstances with new combinations. He has mastered the problems of strategy, and can read the theatre of war. He knows not only how to draw from a situation all its inherent advantages, but how to produce the situation. Thus when a great opportunity arrives he is the less likely to lose it, because it is of his own making; he seizes it unhesitatingly, because he has confidence in his own knowledge of the game; and in darkness and difficulty his step is assured, because he is familiar with the ground he moves on. When such opponents are matched we have the conditions of startling, brilliant, decisive success in war." GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 135 CHAPTER XI. General Lee's private opinion of the defences of Richmond.-A serious commul ication to the Government, and how it was treated.-Vagaries of President Davis.-Gen. Lee decides that the safety of Richmond lies in raising the siege-Expedition of Early across the Potomac.-Anxiety of Gen. Lee.-He meditates taking command of the force in Maryland.-Retreat of Early.-Gen. Lee next proposes a diversion in the Valley of Virginia;.-Failure of this operation.-Constant extension of Grant's left around Richmond.-Period of despondency in the South.-A letter of Gen. Lee on the question of supplies.-He proposes bringing in two or three years' supplies from Europe.-Desertion the great evil in the Confederate armies.-Difficulties of dealing with it.-Various letters and protests from Gen. Lee on the subject of discipline.-An angry comment of President Davis.-Gen. Lee a severe disciplinarian, and yet loved by his men.-Anecdote of the General and a onearmed soldier.-Skeleton returns of the army.-The popular clamour against President Davis.-Gen. Lee's quasi acceptance of the position of Commander-in-chief. Nature and peculiar history of this rank in the Confederate armies.-Hopeful views of Gen. Lee.-Project of arming the negroes.-Growth of new hopes for the Confederacy. ALTHOUGH Gen. Lee had fought, in most respects, a successful campaign, and in all respects a glorious one, he feared now that the safety of Richmond was to be put to a test which he had been long persuaded it could not withstand. As long as the enemy chose to " hammer" on his lines, he had nothing to fear; but the anxiety was that Grant might proceed to envelop the city as far as possible, without attacking fortifications; might turn his attention to the railroads on the south side, and trusting to the slow operations of taking one by one Lee's communications, and wearing out his little army, assure himself of a result which he had not been able to obtain by an action in the field. It was not long before Grant's operations against Richmond developed the very designs which Gen. Lee had suspected and feared; the bulk of the Federal army being transferred to the south side of the James, and after an abortive attempt to take Petersburg, turning its attention to the railroad lines which fed Richmond, and were, indeed, of vital concern to the army which defended it. 13i6 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. It is not necessary to detail these operations further than to explain the ideas which governed Gen. Lee in his radical change of the defence of the capital from a distant line to one immediately covering Richmond and its outpost in Petersburg. When Grant crossed the James River, and developed his design upon the communications of Richmond, Gen. Lee seriously advised the Richmond authorities that he could not hope to hold the Weldon road; and he frequently thereafter expressed his surprise that the government received this information with so little concern, scarcely exhibiting a sense of danger. Indeed, such was the almost incredible obtuseness of the Confederate President and his advisers, that the reader will scarcely be prepared for the statement that while Lee's little army stood in the desperate straits of Richmond and Petersburg, Mr. Davis was actually proposing a detachment from his thin lines to reinforce Charleston, in answer to letters from the Governor of South Carolina, exclaiming, what was the constant cry from that State, that if Charleston was lost, the Southern Confederacy would be instantly non-extant by that event! But such insane counsels were ultimately abandoned. As Gen. Lee had predicted, the Weldon Railroad, after repeated attemps of the enemy, was at last seized, and firmly held by him; while Grant extended the left flank of his army to insure its tenure. IHis operations now appeared, by repeated extensions of the left, to be directed against the Southside and Danville roads, which remained covered by Lee's army. These remaining lines of supply were threatened not only by the extension of Grant's line, but might be operated against by a column able to cut itself loose from its base. In these circumstances of the danger and difficulty of his communications, and the constant accession of unstinted numbers to the enemy in the design of enveloping his army, which could not possibly keep pace with that of Grant in reinforcements, Gen. Lee decided that the safety of Richmond lay in raising the siege. About the first of July, Washington was uncovered as it had never been before. The Army of the Potomac was south of the James; and that of Hunter, which had been defeated at Lynchburg, had retreated wildly into the mountains of Western Virginia, leaving open the line of march to Washington by the Shenandoah Valley. It was an extraordinary opportunity to strike Washington, or at GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 137 least to make such a menace against it as to compel Grant to turn his attention in that direction, and relieve the pressure on the beleaguered lines of Richmond; and Gen. Lee was prompt to avail himself of a great advantage which the chances of war had now cast in his way. It was a matter of great concern to select, for the important enterprise of a movement. against Washington to relieve Richmond, a commander of certain qualifications. Jackson, who would have been the man for the occasion, was dead; Ewell was disabled and out of the field; Longstreet was thought unfit for separate commands; Early, upon whom the choice at last fell, had a mediocre reputation, and only that of a division commander who had fought courageously and tenaciously in the positions to which his superiours had assigned him. With a force consisting of the greater portion of Ewell's old corps, and numbering more than twelve thousand men, Early commenced his march from Lynchburg without hindrance, and on the 7th July reached Frederick in Maryland, from which point he might threaten both Baltimore and Washington. How large and anxious were Gen. Lee's expectations from this movement may be judged from a letter which he wrote to the War Department, on hearing of Early's arrival at Frederick. He desired of the Secretary of War most especially that the newspapers be requested to say nothing of his movements for some time to come, and that the department would not publish any communication