UC-NRLF 
 
 013 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 RECEIVED BY EXCHANGE 
 
 Class /J 
 
CEREMONIES 
 
 CONNKCTKI) \VJTII 
 
 INAUGURATION OF THE MAUSOLEUM AND THK UXVE1LIN 
 OF THK RECUMBENT FIGURE 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 LEXINGTON, VA.. JUNE 28, 188 ). 
 
 ORATION OF JOHN W. DANIEL, LL D, 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 LEE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 RICHMOND, V 
 
 W K * T , .1 O 1 1 N ,S T O 
 
 1883. 
 
 
 3H. 
 
CEREMONIES 
 
 OOKXECTXD WITH 
 
 THE INAUGURATION OF THE MAUSOLEUM AND THE UNVEILING 
 OF THE RECUMBENT FIGURE 
 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LEXINGTON, VA., JUKE 28, 1883. 
 
 ORATION OF JOHN W. DANIEL LL. D, 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 LEE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.r 
 pT. JpnKsxoar &~ Co. 
 
 3H1 JO 
 
 
 
. U 
 

 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LEE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 BY 
 
 W. ALLAN, 
 
 A Member of ths Executive Committee, 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE was prostrated bj his last 
 illness on September 28, 1870. He died two weeks later, on 
 the morning of October 12. On October 15 he was buried 
 beneath the chapel of Washington College, now Washington 
 and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. This place was 
 selected by Mrs. Lee after the authorities of the College had 
 placed at her disposal any part of the grounds she might prefer. 
 The day, though full of the glory of autumn, was the most 
 mournful in the annals of Lexington. A vast concourse, com 
 prising the entire population of the town and the vicinity, with 
 delegations from other places, followed, with sadness and tears, 
 the remains of General Lee to the tomb. The funeral services 
 were conducted by the Rev. W. N. Pendleton, D. D., (late 
 Brigadier General and Chief of Artillery of the Army of North 
 ern Virginia,) the rector of Grace Episcopal Church, of which 
 General Lee was a member. The body was deposited in a vault 
 prepared for the purpose. 
 
 On the day of the funeral a large number of ex-Confederate 
 soldiers assembled in the court-house at Lexington, and after 
 giving expression to the love and veneration of the South for 
 General Lee, and to the sorrow at his death, resolved to take 
 steps to erect a monument in honor of their great leader. They 
 felt that even in the midst of poverty and disaster, no labor 
 could be more grateful, no duty more sacred, than that of 
 making manifest to the future, in some enduring way, the love 
 and admiration of his countrymen for the character and genius 
 of Robert E. Leo. ::;,; 
 
At tliis meeting was formed the LEE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, 
 and the following were appointed an Executive Committee to 
 carry into effect the objects of the Association : 
 
 Gen. W. N. Pendleton, Chief Artillery, A. N. Y. 
 
 Capt. J. J. White, Liberty Hall Vols., 4th Ya. Reg t 
 
 Col. J. K. Edmondson, 27th Ya. Reg t. 
 
 Col. W. Preston Johnston, Staff of President Davis. 
 
 Capt. A. Graham, Rockbridge Artillery. 
 
 Maj. Jas. B. Dorman, C. S. A. 
 
 Lt,Col. W. Allan, Chief Ord. Officer, 2nd Corps, A. N. Y. 
 
 Capt. J. C. Boude, 27th Ya. Reg t. 
 
 Capt. C. A. Davidson, 1st Ya. Battalion. 
 
 Lt.-Col. Win. M. McLaughlin, Artillery, C. S. A. 
 
 Lt.-Col. J. W. Massie, 51st Ya. Reg t. 
 
 W. A. Anderson, Liberty Hall Vols., 4th Ya. Reg t. 
 
 This Committee met October 24, 1870, at the office of Capt. 
 C. A. Davidson, and organized by electing Gen. W. X. Pen 
 dleton as chairman, and Capt. Charles A.Davidson as secretary. 
 The Committee, in accordance with the duties entrusted to it, 
 then elected the -following officers of the Lee Memorial 
 Association : 
 
 President Gen. Jno. C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 
 
 Yice-Pres t-at-Large Gen. Jos. E.Johnston, of Yirginia. 
 
 ^ r - - - | Gen. Jubal A. Early, 
 Yice-Pres ts from A irgmia, | CoL WaUer n Tajlor 
 
 Yice-Pres t from Louisiana, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. 
 
 " X. Carolina, Gen. D. II. Hill. 
 
 " " " S. Carolina, Gen. Wade Hampton. 
 
 " " " Georgia, Gen. John B. Gordon. 
 
 " Alabama, Gen. W. J, IJardee. 
 
 ; u " Mississippi, Gen. S. D. Lee. 
 
 " " u Tennessee, R. S. Ewell. 
 
 " u i; Texas, Gen. Jno. B. Hood. 
 
 a Maryland, Gen. I. R. Trimble. 
 
 " - Missouri, Gen. J. S. Marmaduke. 
 
 * - Arkansas. Gen. J. C. Tappan. 
 Treasurer, C. M. Fig^JEsq.j-Piiijar pa rik of Lexington, Ya. 
 
A committee was appointed to prepare an address for publi 
 cation, setting forth the purposes of the Association, and an 
 other committee was instructed to draw up a charter, and to 
 submit it to the Legislature of Virginia for enactment. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Custis Lee was requested by the Executive Com 
 mittee to indicate her preference in regard to the monument to 
 be erected by the Association, and at her suggestion, Mr. Ed. Y. 
 Valentine, the distinguished Virginian sculptor, was sent for. 
 Mr. Valentine had, the preceding summer, modeled a bust of 
 General Lee from life, which was considered an admirable 
 work of art. Mrs. Lee, after examining a number of drawings 
 and photographs of celebrated works of art, suggested, as a 
 suitable design for the monument, a recumbent figure of Gen 
 eral Lee lying- asleep upon the field of battle. The design was 
 suggested to her by Ranch s figure of Louise of Prussia in the 
 mausoleum at Chariot ten burg. This figure of Lee, some 
 what above life size, was to be placed upon a sarcophagus suit 
 ably inscribed and decorated. The whole was to be of white 
 marble and was designed to be placed over the remains of Gen 
 eral Lee. 
 
 The suggestions of Mrs. Lee, both as to the monument and 
 as to the artist, having been cordially adopted by the Associa 
 tion, Mr. Valentine was, on November 24, 1870, requested to 
 "prepare a design for the tomb of Gen. R. E. Lee, proposed 
 to be erected, and an estimate of the probable cost of the same." 
 Measures were also taken for collecting from the admirers of 
 General Lee, the funds needed for erecting the monument. 
 Liberal responses were received from a number of sources, 
 among which was a donation of $1000 from W. W. Corcoran, 
 Esq., of Washington, and the Executive Committee became 
 satisfied that the means needed for the work could be obtained* 
 
 On June 23, 1871, Mr. Valentine, having completed a model 
 of the proposed figure and sarcophagus, appeared before the 
 Executive Committee and submitted it together with an esti 
 mate of cost. This latter amounted to $15,000. The model 
 was approved and accepted, and Mr. Valentine was commis 
 sioned to go on with the work. 
 
6 
 
 By the fall of 1872 Mr. Valentine bad completed the cast of 
 the monument in plaster and was ready to put it into marble. 
 Some 5,000 bad up to this time been contributed to the Asso 
 ciation, and active steps were now taken to collect the remain 
 der of the sum needed to secure the completion of the figure. 
 The Association of the Army of Northern Virginia, at its 
 meeting in Richmond, October 31, 1872, resolved : 
 
 " That the sarcophagus now in course of preparation by our 
 Virginian artist, Valentine, to be placed over the tomb of Lee, 
 at Lexington, commends itself to especial favor as promising, 
 from the beauty of the design, and the skill of the sculptor, to 
 be a worthy memorial of our departed chief. 
 
 ** That for the purpose of assuring and expediting the com 
 pletion of this noble work of art, to be placed, as a fitting token 
 of a whole people s love and homage, above the ashes of their 
 dead hero, we recommend to the ladies of the South to hold 
 memorial meetings on the next anniversary of the birth of 
 Gen. R. E. Lee, and to take such measures as shall to them 
 seem best for collecting money on that day to be specially ap 
 propriated to the decoration of his tomb by the erection of the 
 sarcophagus." 
 
 The Memorial Association in an address united their voice 
 with that of the Association of the A. N. V. 
 
 The ladies of Lexington promptly responded by having a 
 fair and a cantata in the winter of 1872- 3, the proceeds of 
 which, amounting to over $800, were turned over to the Asso 
 ciation. This sum was still further increased by private sub 
 scriptions. The example thus set was followed in many other 
 places. On the 20th January, 1873, contributions were made 
 in a number of Southern cities and towns to the object of the 
 Association. In Savannah, Gen. Hampton, by invitation, de 
 livered a lecture upon Gen. Lee, which added over $500 to the 
 funds of the Association. The ladies of Leesburg, Va., of 
 Alexandria, Va., and of Palmyra, Missouri, sent handsome 
 contributions. Similar responses came from many other places. 
 During the spring and summer contributions continued to come 
 in. Among these was a liberal donation of $500 from W. H. 
 
McLellan, Esq., of New Orleans. Admirers of Gen. Lee 
 abroad also contributed liberally. Mr. W. T. McCanslane, of 
 Glasgow, Scotland, took particular interest in the matter, and 
 through his efforts nearly $700 were added to the funds of the 
 Association. A considerable sum was realized from a steel 
 engraving of Gen. Lee published by Bostwick & Co., of Cin 
 cinnati, and sold under the authority of the Association ; also, 
 from the sale of u Personal Reminiscences of Gen. Lee" by 
 Rev. J. W. Jones, D. D., a part of the proceeds of which book 
 were turned over to the Executive Committee. 
 
 An act incorporating the Association had been passed by the 
 Virginia Legislature and approved January 14, 1871. By this 
 it was enacted, " That Win. N. Fendleton, F. W. M. Eolliday, 
 
 C. S. Venable, J. W. Massie, Charles A. Davidson, Win. Me- 
 Laughlin, J. B. Dorman, Win. Allan, Win. P. Johnston, J. C. 
 Boude, J. J. White, A. Graham, Jr., Wm. Terry, Wm. A. 
 Anderson, John S. Mosby, John Echols, Thos. S. Flournoy, 
 Robert Stiles, James K. Edmondson, and such other persons 
 as they shall associate with them, be and they are hereby incor 
 porated by the name and style of The Lee Memorial Associa 
 tion." The usual corporate powers were conferred upon them, 
 and the officers of the corporation were to be "a president, 
 fifteen vice-presidents, a secretary, a treasurer, and an execu 
 tive committee of nineteen membors." The persons named 
 above were declared the Executive Committee, with full powers 
 to appoint officers and till vacancies. 
 
 The Association organized under the charter May 31, 1873. 
 At this meeting Gen. Jos. E. Johnston was elected President 
 of the Association to succeed Gen. John C. Breckenridge, w r ho 
 had died. Col. Bolivar Christian and Capt. Walter Bowie were 
 elected members of the Executive Committee in place of Col. 
 J. W. Massie (deceased) and of Col. John S. Mosby (unable to 
 serve). Gen. Pendleton was elected Chairman of the Execu 
 tive Committee, C. M. Figgat, Esq., Treasurer, and Capt. C. 
 A. Davidson, Secretary. Subsequently the Rev. J. W. Jones, 
 
 D. D., was made a member of the Executive Committee in 
 place of Major Robt. Stiles. 
 
The funds contributed up to this time were sufficient to jus 
 tify the committee in ordering the completion of the figure in 
 marble, and in July, 1873, the artist was instructed to go for 
 ward and finish his task. 
 
 On April 1, 1875, Mr. Valentine reported the work done, 
 and the Association took steps to have the monument brought 
 to Lexington. At this time the students of Richmond Col 
 lege made application for the "privilege of taking charge of 
 the monument when it is sent up to Lexington, and bearing 
 the expenses of its transportation." This kind and courteous 
 proposal was cordially accepted by the Executive Committee, 
 and the monument was brought by canal from Richmond un 
 der an escort of the students of Richmond College. The 
 escort was composed of Messrs. J. T. E. Thornhill, W. M. 
 Turpin, R. II. Pitt A. M. Harris, II. C. Smith and J. W. 
 Martin, of Virginia ; S. S. Woodward, of JS~ew Jersey ; R. T. 
 Hanks, of Alabama, and C. N. Donaldson, of South Carolina. 
 As the figure was being taken from the artist s studio to the 
 boat landing in Richmond, on April 13, a large number of the 
 citizens of Richmond, headed by the students of Richmond 
 College and the First Virginia Regiment, followed in proces 
 sion to honor the memory of Lee. The monument reached 
 Lexington April 17. 1875. Mr. Thornhill, in appropriate 
 terras, delivered it to the committee, on whose behalf ex-Go v. 
 John Letcher responded. Addresses were also made on this 
 occasion by Lt. Gen. Early and Col. W. Preston Johnston. 
 The monument was temporarily stored in a room upon the 
 grounds of Washington and Lee University, and confided, for 
 the time, to the guardianship of the students of that institution. 
 
 When the completion of the figure had been assured, the 
 Executive Committee turned their attention to providing a 
 suitable mausoleum in which it might be placed. Gen. R. D. 
 Lilly was appointed agent to collect funds for this purpose in 
 the winter of 1874-5. Through his efforts a handsome sum 
 was realized, and in February, 1875, a committee was appoint 
 ed to invite from architects designs for a suitable mausoleum. 
 
The chairman of this committee, Prof. J. J. White, devoted 
 much time and labor to conferences and correspondence with 
 eminent architects on this subject ; and many suggestions were 
 proposed to the committee. Prominent among these was a 
 design kindly presented in December, 1875, by Mr. J. L. 
 Smithmeyer, of Washington, which seemed to the Executive 
 Committee to be marked by such taste and beauty that it was 
 determined to adopt it if the estimated cost should be found 
 not greater than the sum the Association might expect to re 
 alize from contributions within a reasonable time. It was 
 found, however, (in August, 1876,) when the plans and estimates 
 were fully made, that the cost of this building would be $45,- 
 000, which the committee deemed to be far in excess of their 
 probable resources. Meantime donations had come in from 
 various places. The ladies of Baltimore sent, in May, 1875, 
 $1,319.82, the result of an entertainment given by them. Sub 
 sequently there came from Charleston, S. C., $1,167.11, and 
 from Xew Orleans, $1,548, from Mobile, $539.65, and valua 
 ble donations from Washington, D. C., Staunton, Ya., and 
 Camden, S. C. A handsome contribution (over $500) came 
 from Texas, where Mr. J. S. Sullivan, of Galveston, displayed 
 great and 1 efficient interest in the matter. The committee were 
 also indebted to Cyrus H. McCormick, Esq.. of Chicago, for 
 8500, and to W. A. Stuart, Esq., of Saltvillc, Ya., for $100, as 
 well as to many other gentlemen for smaller sums. In the 
 summer of 1876 it seemed to the Executive Committee, from 
 their progress so far, that they might expect the contributions 
 for a mausoleum to reach an aggregate of $10,000 or $15^000, 
 but not more. They therefore laid aside Mr. Smithmeyer s 
 plan and directed their committee to select one more in ac 
 cordance with their means. 
 
 A year now passed, and in May, 1877, J. Crawford Neilson, 
 Esq., a leading architect of Baltimore, offered to furnish a de 
 sign for the mausoleum. Mr. Neilson s kind offer was accept 
 ed and he was invited to visit Lexington. After full confer 
 ence and investigation Mr. Xeilson proposed as the design for 
 the mausoleum a rectangular apse to be placed in the rear of 
 
10 
 
 the chapel of the University, where General Lee was buried. 
 His plan was approved and adopted by the Association. As 
 described at the time, it " consists of a fire proof apse, an ad 
 dition to the rear of the chapel, conforming in material and de 
 sign to the chapel itself. The lower story is a crypt of massive 
 stone masonry, and the superstructure is built of brick. The 
 interior is encrusted with brick and Cleveland stone, of sub 
 dued tints, and is lighted from above. The whole constitutes 
 a solemn and tender memorial of the warrior who rests in 
 peace beneath, surrounded by the ashes of those who were 
 dearest on earth." 
 
 The ceremonies of laying the corner-stone took place on 
 November 29, 1878. On this occasion Prof. J. J. White made 
 a statement of the work of the Association, and then introduced 
 U. S. Senator R. E. Withers, who delivered an eloquent ad 
 dress. After this, Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, the President of the 
 Association, assisted by the Hon. J. Randolph Tucker, pro 
 ceeded to lay the corner-stone. This is on the northeast corner 
 of the building, about ten feet above the ground. 
 
 In February, 1879, the Association lost by death Capt. C. A. 
 Davidson, its secretary, and one of the most active and efficient 
 members of the Executive Committee. His contributions of 
 time and money to the Association had been very liberal, his 
 labors in its behalf earnest and useful, and these had extended 
 over the entire period from its organization to his death. A. 
 T. Barclay, ensign 4th Ya. Regiment, was elected to fill the 
 vacancy thus caused in the Executive Committee, and Capt. 
 J. C. Boude was appointed secretary. 
 
 In January, 1879, a statement of the condition of the work 
 was prepared by Col. W. Preston Johnston, and published, and 
 additional subscriptions were asked for to complete it. Among 
 the generous responses was that of W. W. Corcoran, Esq., who 
 having heretofore given $1,000 for the figure, now added $1,000 
 for the mausoleum. Moro Philips, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
 donated $500, and Geo. W. Childs, Esq., of Philadelphia, W. 
 C. Rives, Esq., and F. R. Rivers, Esq., of New York, Robt. 
 Garrett, Esq., of Baltimore, Hon. Win. Milnes, Hon. J. R. 
 
11 
 
 Tucker, Prof. C. A. Graves, Jno. D. Sterrett, Esq., and Col. J. 
 D. H. Ross, of Virginia, and Col. R. G. Cole, of Georgia, each 
 $100. Several of the resident members of the Executive Com 
 mittee had each contributed previously $100. A considerable 
 amount was added by means of musical entertainments kindly 
 given by the ladies of Lexington, under the direction of Mrs. 
 Judge McLaughlin. Additions were also made to the funds 
 through some entertainments given at different places by Profs. 
 Cromwell and Wheeler. 
 
 The building of the mausoleum was carried forward during 
 1879 and I860, but the funds of the Association became ex 
 hausted before the iron roof and the interior were complete. 
 
 In the spring of 1882 the Association made a proposition to 
 the trustees of Washington and Lee University, on the grounds 
 of which the mausoleum stands, offering to transfer the build 
 ing and monument to them in perpetual trust upon their com 
 pleting the mausoleum. From a statement embodied in this 
 proposition, it appeared that the Association had collected and 
 expended between $23,000 and $24,000 upon the figure and 
 mausoleum, and that $5,000 were needed in addition to com 
 plete the entire work. This proposal was accepted by the 
 trustees of the University on April 11, 1882, and the necessary 
 appropriation made. The agreement provided: "That upon 
 the completion of the mausoleum and its inauguration under 
 the auspices of this Association the title to, and the care and 
 custody of, both the mausoleum and the marble statue of 
 General Lee shall be vested in the corporation of Washington 
 and Lee Universit} T , upon the sacred trust that the mausoleum 
 shall be preserved as a perpetual place of sepulture for the re 
 mains of Gen. R. E. Lee, and of Mrs. Lee, and of such other 
 members of their family as it maybe the pleasure of the family 
 to have interred there, and that the building and statue shall 
 receive from the authorities of the University such care and 
 attention from time to time as shall be needful for their preser 
 vation ; and upon the further trust that neither the mausoleum, 
 nor the ground upon which it is erected, nor the statue and 
 appurtenances of the mausoleum, shall ever be in any way, or 
 
to any extent, liable for any claim against, or debt of said Uni 
 versity, or be charged with any mortgage, deed of trust, or 
 other encumbrance." 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Lee Memorial Association 
 thus finally secured the completion of their labor of love. For 
 twelve years it had been in progress. Many doubts had at 
 times discouraged, many difficulties had delayed them, but the 
 satisfaction now derived from a certainty of success more than 
 compensated for all these. Measures were taken for the com 
 pletion of the building and the placing of the figure, and the 
 28th of June, 1883. was selected as the day for unveiling it to 
 the public. 
 
 In accordance with a long cherished design, the Hon. Jeffer 
 son Davis, the former President of the Confederate States, was 
 invited to deliver on that day an address upon General Lee s 
 military career. The Hon. Jno. W. Daniel, of Virginia, was 
 invited to deliver, on the same occasion, an address on General 
 Lee s life and character as a citizen and civilian. Ex-President 
 Davis, though deeply interested in the occasion and anxious to 
 do all in his power to honor the memory of Lee, was finally 
 forced by advancing years and precarious health to decline, and 
 to Major Daniel was committed the whole of the splendid 
 theme. 
 
 The mausoleum was complete, the monument had been put 
 in place, and the committee looked forward with pleasure to 
 the day which should witness the end of their work and the 
 unveiling of the figure to the public. Ere this day arrived, 
 however, their venerable chairman, Gen. W. N. Pendleton, 
 was summoned to join his great commander. His death on 
 January 15, 1883, closed a long and distinguished career of hon 
 orable service to his generation, both in war and peace. He 
 acted as Chairman of the Executive Committee of this Associ 
 ation, from its organization, for more than twelve years, and 
 was most zealous and active in promoting its objects. The 
 various relations in which he ha^ stood to General Lee, inten 
 sified his interest in the purposes of the Association, and no 
 one worked more earnestly for their attainment. 
 
13 
 
 Judge Wm. McLaughlin was elected chairman to fill the 
 place left vacant by the death of General Pendleton. 
 
 The final arrangements having been completed under the 
 supervision of the architect, Mr. Neilson, arid the artist, Mr. 
 Valentine, the monument was formally transferred to the As 
 sociation by Mr. Valentine on May 7, 1883, and was accepted 
 on their behalf by the Hon. W. A. Anderson, who in fitting 
 terms gave expression to the appreciation and admiration felt 
 by all present as they looked upon the beautiful creation of the 
 genius of Valentine and realized the perfection of the arrange 
 ments made by the skill and taste of Mr. Xeilson for its pre 
 servation and display. 
 
 The dimensions of the mausoleum on the ground plan are 
 31x36 feet. The lower story, which is constructed of coraline 
 limestone to correspond with the basement of the chapel, is a 
 crypt containing cells or receptacles for twenty-eight bodies. 
 Three of these contain the ashes of Gen. II. E. Lee, Mrs. Mary 
 Custis Lee, arid Miss Agnes Lee. Ad joining the crypt, but 
 underneath the chapel, is the room used as an office by General 
 Lee during the later years of his presidency of Washington 
 College, which is preserved as he left it on the day he was 
 taken ill. 
 
 The chamber containing the monument is directly over the 
 crypt and is of brick like the corresponding part of the chapel. 
 " The floor of the chamber is tessellated with white-veined 
 marble and encaustic tiles. The walls consist of panels of 
 grayish Indiana marble enframed in dark Baltimore pressed 
 brick, and surmounted by semicircular compartments which 
 can be used for lasso-rilievo medallions. In otic of these com 
 partments, immediately facing the chapel, is inscribed the 
 name of General Lee, together with the dates of his birth and 
 death. Immediately around the base of the sarcophagus is a 
 border of dark tiling. The tessellated floor is on the level of 
 the platform of the chapel, which is raised three feet above 
 the floor of the audience chamber. 
 
 u The figure and couch, which are of statuary marble, are 
 
u 
 
 mounted on a sarcophagus simple almost to severity in its 
 order, and which rests on a granite base course. The sides of 
 the sarcophagus are composed of two marble panels each, the 
 space between the panels bearing, in basso-rilievo, on the one 
 side the Lee coat of arms, and on the other the arms of Vir 
 ginia. The head and foot consist of one panel each, the former 
 being ornamented by a simple cross, the latter bearing the 
 legend : 
 
 ROBERT EDWARD LEE. 
 
 BORN 
 January 19, 1807; 
 
 DIED 
 October 12, 1870. 
 
 " The figure is over life size, and rests upon a heavily draped 
 couch in an attitude of easy repose, the head being elevated to 
 a natural position, with the face turned slightly to the right. 
 The feet are lightly crossed. The right forearm lies across the 
 breast the hand holding by simple weight the blanket which 
 covers the lower part of the body while the left arm is fully 
 extended along the couch, this hand holding the hilt of a 
 sword." The contour of the limbs is easily discerned through 
 the covering which falls over the lower part of the body. 
 
 An anti-chamber connects the monument chamber with the 
 chapel and is separated from the former by iron doors. A 
 large arched opening, heavily curtained, leads from the chapel 
 into this anti-chamber. The monument is so placed and the 
 light, which falls from the roof, so arranged, that when the 
 curtains are drawn and the iron doors open, the figure can be 
 seen from nearly every part of the floor and galleries of the 
 chapel. 
 
 The 28th of June, the day for the public opening of the 
 mausoleum, was the day after the Commencement of Wash 
 ington and Lee University, the exercises of which had already 
 drawn many persons to Lexington. In addition to these a 
 much larger concourse of ex-Confederate soldiers gathered from 
 every quarter on the day itself. All old Confederates and all 
 admirers of General Lee were invited to attend, and special 
 cards were sent to all former cabinet officers of the Confederate 
 
15 
 
 States, the general officers of the Confederate army, the princi 
 pal officers of the Confederate navy, the members of General 
 Lee s staff, the Governors of the Southern States, the execu 
 tive and judicial officers of Virginia, and the representatives in 
 Congress and the Senators from Virginia. No effort was 
 spared by the people of Lexington and Rockbridge county to 
 honor the day. Business was suspended, and the people devo 
 ted themselves to the exercises of the day, and to entertaining 
 tlije crowds that came from a distance. Special trains on the 
 Richmond & Alleghany and the Shenandoah Valley railroads 
 brought numbers from every point within reach. A large 
 number of the survivors of the Stonewall Brigade, as well as 
 of other commands of the Army of Northern Virginia, were 
 present. Prominent among those on the ground were the 
 Maryland Line, consisting of the survivors of the soldiers and 
 sailors of that State, who had served in the Confederate army 
 and navy. Besides residents of the town and county, there 
 were present among the distinguished persons from a distance, 
 Gen. Wade Hampton, Gen. J. A. Early, Gen. Fitz. Lee, Gen. 
 W. H. F. Lee, Gen. Wm. Terry, Gen. Geo. II. Steuart, Gen. 
 M. D. Corse, Gen. R. D. Lilly, Col. Wm. Norris, Chief of the 
 Confederate Signal Bureau, Col. H. E. Peyton and Col. T. M. 
 R. Talcott, of General Lee s Staff, Col. W/H. Palmer, of Gen. 
 A. P. Hill s Staff, Capt. R. E. Lee, Capt. J. H. II. Figgat, 
 Maj. E. L. Rogers, Judge H. W. Bruce, Judge J. H. Fulton, 
 Hon. C. R. Breckinridge of Arkansas, Father Ryan, Rev. Dr. 
 Alexander, Leigh Robinson, Esq., John J. Williams, Esq., C. 
 W. Button, Esq., and D. Gardner Tyler, Esq. Mrs. Gen. 
 Stonewall Jackson, Mrs. Gen. J. E. B. Stewart, Mrs. Gen. 
 Geo. E. Picket* and Mrs. Carlisle (formerly Mrs. Gen. Geo. B. 
 Anderson), were also present. The venerable philanthropist, 
 W. W. Corcoran, Esq,, of Washington, and the venerable ex- 
 Gov. Wm. Smith, of Virginia, honored the occasion by their 
 presence. 
 
 In the morning a procession was formed under General 
 Hampton as chief marshall, which visited the grave of Stone 
 wall Jackson in the Lexington Cemetery. Here were seen 
 
16 
 
 many touching evidences of the devotion of his people to this 
 great soldier. The soldiers of the Maryland Line, under Gen. 
 G. H. Steuart, who had shared in many of Jackson s cam 
 paigns, brought a handsome bronze tablet inscribed with the 
 arms of Maryland, which they placed at the head of his grave. 
 The grave itself was covered with flowers and immortelles 
 placed there by a number of ladies under the direction of Miss 
 Edmonia Waddell. The railing around it was similarly deco 
 rated, and at each corner was a shield surrounded by an evej-- 
 green wreath, and containing a motto furnished by Mrs. Mar 
 garet J. Preston. These mottoes were : 
 
 1. " Faith that could not fail nor yield, 
 "Was the legend of his shield." 
 
 "Port Republic." 
 
 2. " From the land for which he bled, 
 Honor to the warrior dead." 
 
 "Manassas," 
 
 3. " From the field of death and fame. 
 Borne upon his shield he came." 
 
 " Chancellorsville." 
 
 1 " In the Valley let me lie, 
 Underneath God s open sky." 
 
 "Lexington." 
 
 More precious still was the silent tear which forced its way 
 to the eye of many an old soldier as the green grave brought 
 the scenes of twenty years ago before his sight. Among the 
 beautiful incidents of the day was the following : The daugh 
 ter of Ex-President Davis, Miss Winnie Davis, had sent to 
 General Early two floral designs composed entirely of immor 
 telles and made to represent the Confederate battle flag. They 
 were exquisite in design and finish. One was intended for the 
 grave of Lee and the other for that of Jackson. General Early 
 selected Miss Carrie W. Daniel, the little ten-year-old daughter 
 of the orator of the day, to place the tribute upon Jackson s 
 grave. The tomb of Lee had been beautifully decorated with 
 evergreens and flowers by a committee of the ladies of Lex 
 ington under the direction of Mrs. Gen. Edwin G. Lee. Amid 
 these decorations was placed the Confederate battle flag in im 
 mortelles. After the ceremonies of the day were over, many 
 a bronzed and gray-headed soldier might have been seen culling 
 
17 
 
 some of these beautiful immortelles from the graves of Lee 
 and Jackson to commit as a sacred memento to the keeping of 
 his children. 
 
 The procession returned from the cemetery to the grounds 
 of Washington and Lee University, where in fropt of the 
 chapel a stand and seats had been placed for the accommoda 
 tion of the audience and speaker. The day was a propitious 
 one. It \v r as rainless, cool and bright. By 11 o clock a mass 
 of from 8,000 to 10,000 people filled the grounds. As many 
 of them as could get within sound of the orator s voice gath 
 ered about the stand, and listened with absorbed attention. In 
 the absence of Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, who was detained at 
 home by serious illness, Lt.-General Early, the first Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Association, presided. After prayer by the Rev. 
 R. J. McBryde, Gen. Early introduced Maj. Daniel, who for 
 three hours held his audience by the spell of his eloquence, 
 moving it now to applause, and now to tears. At the close of 
 the speech, Gen. Early called upon Father Ryan to recite his 
 poem, " The Sword of Lee." As the poet s voice gradually 
 rose and spread over the throng the intense emotion with which 
 his form and his words were filled spread too, and fairly thrilled 
 the great audience. 
 
 The moment for the unveiling of the figure was then an 
 nounced by a salute fired by the survivors of the " Rockbridge 
 Artillery," who used for the purpose two guns which had con 
 stituted a part of their armament at the first battle of Manas- 
 sas. These guns were part of the cadet battery used by 
 Stonewall Jackson when a professor at the Virginia Military 
 Institute, and are now again in the keeping of that Institution. 
 Some fifty of the former members of this famous artillery com 
 pany had assembled for the occasion, and under Col. Win. T. 
 Poague, who had long bqen their captain, fora few moments 
 resumed their former organization and duties. What memo 
 ries of the past, what deeds of daring, and what days of toil, 
 what moving incidents of camp and field did the sound of 
 those guns recall as those old soldiers looked into the faces or 
 grasped the hands they had not seen or felt for eighteen years ! 
 
18 
 
 As the guns opened fire the chapel and mausoleum were 
 thrown open, the figure was unveiled by Miss Julia Jackson, 
 (daughter of Stonewall Jackson.) and the vast throng began to 
 move through the building to view it. For many hours the 
 current continued its steady flow, and indeed only ceased at 
 nightfall. Meantime the hospitable town and county was en 
 tertaining the crowd of strangers. The houses of citizens of 
 the town were everywhere thrown open, and handsome enter 
 tainments were provided at many of them. In addition to this, 
 a lunch, provided by the citizens of the county and town, was 
 served on the University grounds to several thousand people. 
 
 The evening fell upon a day forever marked in the annals of 
 Lexington. It was felt by all that Valentine s chisel had cre 
 ated a worthy memorial of Lee, and that Daniel, in words not 
 less fitting had committed it to the keeping of the future. 
 
 With this day closed the active labors of the Lee Memorial 
 Association. It only remained for them to complete the 
 transfer of the mausoleum and monument to the perpetual care 
 of Washington and Lee University, and to return thanks to 
 the generous friends, who had by their contributions, rendered 
 possible a noble work. They placed on record, in fitting terms, 
 their high appreciation of the valuable services (services ren 
 dered as a labor of love) of their treasurer, C. M. Figgat, Esq.; 
 of the skill and taste of J. Crawford Neilson, Esq., who placed 
 his architectural experience gratuitously at the service of the 
 Association in "designing and superintending the construc 
 tion of the mausoleum " ; of the splendid success of the artist s 
 work, and of the oration of Major Daniel, u which can receive 
 no higher, no juster commendation, than that it is worthy of its 
 great subject." 
 
 A great name is passing into history. As the smoke of con 
 flict and passion passes away the world is beginning to recog 
 nize the outlines of a character in which capacity of the first 
 rank was harmoniously united with virtue of the highest order ; a 
 character equally grand in victory and defeat. The Lee Memorial 
 Association have not looked upon their work as needful to 
 
19 
 
 
 
 preserve the fame or extend the influence of Lee, but have 
 deemed it both a duty and a privilege to testify to coming gen 
 erations the genuine affection, admiration arid homage with 
 which his countrymen and contemporaries regard the man, 
 who seems to them the foremost of his time in those great 
 qualities which best deserve the respect and veneration of 
 mankind. 
 
PROGRAMME OF CEREMONIES 
 
 AT THE 
 
 Inauguration of the Lee Mausoleum, 
 
 LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, JUNE 28, 1883. 
 
 The following gentlemen were requested to act as Marshals 
 and assistant Marshals, and to aid in the orderly conduct of the 
 ceremonies of the day ; and all persons were requested to re 
 spect their authorit}* as such : 
 
 Chief Marshal Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton. 
 
 Marshals Gen. R. D. Lilly, Col. W. T. Poague, Col. John 
 A. Gibson, Col. J. D. H. Boss, Maj. Charles F. Jordan, Maj. 
 S. W. Paxton, Mr. John T. Dunlop, Mr. W. F. Johnston, Mr. 
 Wra. M. Dunlap, Mr. Harry E. Moore, Mr. W. B. F. Leech, 
 Mr. S. H. Letcher, Mr. J. E. McCauley, Capt, J. H. H. Figgat, 
 Capt. T. C. Morton, Capt. Jas. A. Strain, Capt. J. G. Updike, 
 Dr. Z. J. Walker, Capt. William Wade, Capt. J. P. Moore, 
 Lieut. J. H. B. Jones, Mr. R. T. McLeod, Capt. W. F. Pier- 
 son, Mr. W. B. Poindexter. 
 
 Chief of Assistant Marshals Mr. E. C. Day, of Kentucky. 
 
 Assistant Marshals Mr. J. M. Becker, Pennsylvania ; Mr. 
 R. Godson, Kentucky ; Mr. L. L. Campbell, Virginia, Mr. II. 
 D. Flood, Virginia; Mr. J. T. Bugg, Louisiana; Mr. G. 
 O Bieme, West Virginia; Mr. II. McCmm, Virginia. 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
 9:30 A. M. to 10:30 A. M. Decoration of the Tomb of Lee 
 
 and Grave of Jackson. 
 10:30 A. M. Music on the Grounds of Washington and Lee 
 
 University by the Virginia Military Institute band and 
 
 visiting bands. 
 11 A. M. Prayer by the Rev. R. J. McBryde, Hector of Grace 
 
 Memorial Church. 
 
21 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 11:15 A. M. Oration by Maj. John W. Daniel. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 -2 P. M. Figure of Lee unveiled, monumental chamber thrown 
 
 o - 
 
 open, and procession around the Figure. 
 
 3 P. M. Collation provided by the citizens of Rockbridge 
 and Lexington for Confederate veterans and military 
 companies. 
 
 Seats will be set apart and reserved in front of the stand for 
 military companies, societies, and organized bodies of veterans, 
 of whose coming the Committee may have due notice. 
 
 The platform to the right of the stand will be set apart for 
 
 representatives of the press. The other two small platforms 
 
 are for the musicians of the V. M. I. band and visiting bands. 
 
 The seats upon the main stand will be reserved for : 
 
 I. Generals of the Confederate States Army and officers of 
 
 the Confederate States Navy. 
 
 II. Officers of the general Government of the Confederate 
 States. 
 
 III. The Governor of Virginia and members of the present 
 
 State Government. 
 
 IV. Governors of any of the States of the Union, members 
 
 of the Senate or Bouse of Representatives of the Uni 
 ted States. 
 Y. Members of the Board of; Trustees and Faculty of 
 
 Washington and Lee University. 
 VI. Members of the Board of Visitors and Faculty of the 
 
 Virginia Military Institute. 
 VII. Specially invited guests. 
 VIII. Members of the Lee Memorial Association. 
 By order of the Executive Committee, 
 
 WILLIAM MCLAUGHLIN, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 WILLIAM A. ANDERSON, 
 Chairman of Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 JOHN C. BOUDE, 
 Sec y Ex. Coin. Lee Memorial Association. 
 
22 
 
 When the procession had returned from Jackson s grave to 
 the grounds of Washington and Lee University, and those form 
 ing it had taken the seats assigned them, the exercises were 
 opened by the Rev. R. J. McJBryde, rector of Grace Memorial 
 Church, Lexington, Ya., who offered the following prayer : 
 
 Almighty and Everlasting God the King of Kings and 
 Lord of Lords! our help in ages past, our Lope for years to 
 corne to Thee glory belongeth. Thou only art worthy to be 
 praised. 
 
 For Thou art from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art 
 gracious and full of compassion ; Thou art good to all, and Thy 
 tender mercies are over all Thy works. 
 
 W 7 e praise Thee, O God ; we acknowledge Thee to be the 
 Lord. In Thee we live and move, and have our being. 
 
 We would render unto Thee most humble and hearty thanks 
 for the goodly heritage Thou hast given us in this land of civil 
 and religious freedom, for the peace and prosperity within our 
 borders, and for all the innumerable manifestations of Thy 
 goodness towards us. 
 
 We would also recognize that it is our duty arid privilege to 
 begin, continue, and end all our works in Thee. And there 
 fore this day, and upon this occasion, we would realize that 
 "promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West 
 nor from the South. God is the judge ; He putteth down one 
 and setteth up another." Then praise to Thee alone, thou 
 Great Creator, for the leader and commander of this people, 
 whose memory w r e seek to preserve and whose name we honor 
 to day ! To Thee be all the glory for what he was and is to 
 us. O, God, Thou wast his God ; his soul followed hard after 
 Thee ; Thy right hand upheld him. He was not ashamed to 
 confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight un 
 der His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to be 
 Christ s faithful soldier and servant. And we pray Thee that 
 the influence of his life and the power of his example may 
 never die out in the land. May a double portion of his spirit 
 fall on his people, whom he loved, for whom he made such 
 sacrifices, and for whom he labored with unwearied fidelity. 
 
May they reverence Thy name ; may they retain Thee in 
 their thoughts; may they ever live in obedience to Thy laws 
 as did Thine honored servant ; may they follow him as he fol 
 lowed Christ ; may they love that Word which he believed, 
 arid uphold the faith which he confessed ; may the well-being 
 of our people enlist our abilities as it did his; may we, like 
 him, seek to make the world the better for our living in it. As 
 he was "subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord s 
 sake," so make us to be more and more a law-abiding people, 
 in obedience to Thy will. Give us a like patience under afflic 
 tions, and a like cheerful resignation to Thy blessed will, and 
 by well-doing " may we put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
 men." 
 
 Regard with Thy favor and visit with Thy blessing this in 
 stitution of which he was the honored head, and secure to it 
 the patronage needful to the carrying of its designs into good 
 effect. And finally, when we shall have served Thee in our 
 generation, may we, like him, be gathered unto our fathers, 
 having the testimony of a good conscience, in the communion 
 of the catholic church, in the confidence of a certain faith, in 
 the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, in favor 
 with Thee our God, and in perfect charity with the world. All 
 of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, ximen. 
 
 GENEKAL EARLY then arose and spoke as follows: 
 
 Friends, Comrades and Fellow- Citizens, Ladles and Gentle 
 men : 
 
 The sickness of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, the distinguished 
 President of the Lee Memorial Association, which prevents his 
 attendance here, has devolved on me, as First Yice-President, 
 the unexpected duty of presiding on this occasion ; and I am 
 sure no one can regret the cause of this change in the pro 
 gramme more than I do. 
 
 The great commander of the Army of Northern Virginia 
 died on the 12th of October, 1870, and as soon as his remains 
 were consigned to the tomb, a meeting of the citizens of Lex 
 ington was held, and steps taken for the formation of an Asso- 
 
24 
 
 elation to erect a monument to his memory. More effectually 
 to carry out that purpose, an act of incorporation was obtained 
 from the Legislature of Virginia on the 14th of January, 1871, 
 by which certain gentlemen, most of whom were residents of 
 Lexington, and such other persons as they should associate with 
 themselves, were incorporated by the name and style of " The 
 Lee Memorial Association." Subsequently the Association was 
 further organized by the appointment of Gen. John C. Breck- 
 inridge, of Kentucky, who had been the last Secretary of War 
 of the Confederate States, as President, and of fifteen Vice- 
 Presidents, as also a Treasurer, the nineteen persons named 
 in the act of incorporation, by the terms of the act itself, con 
 stituting the Executive Committee. The chairman of that 
 Committee was Gen. Wm. JST. Pendleton, the distinguished 
 Chief of Artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia, and 
 the Secretary was Captain Charles A. Davidson, a gallant offi 
 cer of the First Virginia Battalion. 
 
 The act of incorporation does not specify the place at which 
 the proposed monument should be erected, nor the nature of 
 it; but, after the passage of the act changing the name of 
 Washington College to that of Washington and Lee Uni 
 versity, it was determined by the Executive Committee, with 
 the sanction of the authorities of the University, that the 
 monument should consist of a Mausoleum, attached to the Uni 
 versity Chapel, which latter had been constructed under the 
 supervision of General Lee himself, where his remains should 
 be deposited in a vault, to be surmounted by a recumbent figure 
 in marble, representing our great chieftain at rest it being 
 part of the plan to provide vaults also in the same Mausoleum 
 for the immediate members of his family, especially the esti 
 mable and noble lady who had been his partner in life. 
 
 The resident members of the Executive Committee pro 
 ceeded to carry out this scheme with great energy and perse 
 verance, in which the Chairman and Secretary were especially 
 conspicuous. A distinguished Virginia artist was selected to 
 execute in marble the recumbent figure, and years ago he com 
 pleted his work in a manner that links his name forever with 
 that of Lee* 
 
25 
 
 Upon the death of General Breckinridge, General Joseph 
 E. Johnston, the senior surviving officer of the Confederate 
 Army, and the predecessor of General Lee in command of 
 that army, which, under the lead of the latter, became so re 
 nowned as the Army of Northern Virginia, was made the 
 President. 
 
 On the 29th of November, 1878, the corner-stone of the 
 Mausoleum was laid, under the superintendence of a distin 
 guished architect of Baltimore, who was charged w r ith its con 
 struction. The requisite funds have been raised by great 
 exertion, a large part having been contributed in small sums. 
 The noble work has now been completed, and we are as 
 sembled here to perform the crowning act, in unveiling the 
 recumbent figure of one of the grandest and noblest heroes, 
 soldiers, and patriots, who have figured in all the history of the 
 world. In doing this, we are not conferring honor on the mem 
 ory of General Robert E. Lee we are merely demonstrating 
 to the world that we were w r orthy to have been the followers 
 and compatriots of such a man. Unfortunately, neither the 
 gallant soldier and Christian gentleman, Gen. Pendleton, Chair 
 man of the Executive Committee, nor the gallant Davidson, the 
 efficient Secretary of that Committee, have survived to witness 
 the completion of the work, to the success of which they con 
 tributed so largely. 
 
 It is deeply to be regretted that President Davis, who was 
 expected to deliver an address on this occasion, has been pre 
 vented by circumstances from being present, but his lovely and 
 accomplished young daughter, whose pride it is to have been 
 born on the soil of Virginia, has sent from his Southern home 
 two Confederate flags made of immortelles, and two bay 
 wreaths, one of each to be placed on the tombs of Generals Lee 
 and Jackson, respectively, as tokens of her admiration for their 
 great characters, and of the sympathy of her family with us. 
 There is also another whose absence is to be deeply regretted, 
 though he is nearly within reach of my voice I mean that 
 war Governor of Virginia, who conferred upon Generals Lee 
 and Jackson the commissions which brought them into the ser- 
 
26 
 
 vice of their native State, in defence of right, justice, liberty, 
 and independence ; and who sustained them throughout, 
 whether they were in the State or Confederate service, with 
 such unswerving fidelit} 7 and unselfish devotion you must 
 know that I can mean no other than John Letcher, with whom 
 we all so heartily sympathize in the bodily affliction which 
 alone prevents him from being with us. 
 
 And now permit me to introduce to you, as the orator of the 
 occasion, Major John W. Daniel, who needs no words of 
 commendation from me, but will speak for himself. 
 
 Major Daniel was received with rounds of applause. When 
 tins had subsided he delivered the following oration : 
 
 ADDRESS OF JOHN W. DANIEL, LL. D. 
 
 Mr. President, My Comrades and Countrymen : 
 
 There was no happier or lovelier home than that of Colonel 
 Robert Edward Lee, in the spring of 1861, when for the first 
 time its threshold was darkened with the omens of civil war. 
 
 Crowning the green slopes of the Virginia Hills that over 
 look the Potomac, and embowered in stately trees, stood the 
 venerable mansion of Arlington, facing a prospect of varied 
 and imposing beauty. Its broad porch, and wide-spread wings, 
 held out open arms, as it were, to welcome the coming guest. 
 Its simple Doric columns graced domestic comfort with a 
 classic air. Its halls and chambers were adorned with the por 
 traits of patriots and heroes^ and with illustrations and relics 
 of the great revolution, and of the Father of his country 
 And within and without, history and tradition seemed to 
 breathe their legends upon a canvass as soft as a dream of 
 peace. 
 
 The noble river, which in its history, as well as in its name, 
 carries us back to the days when the red man trod its banks, 
 sweeps in full and even flow along the forefront of the land 
 scape; while beyond its waters stretch the splendid avenues 
 and rise the gleaming spires of Washington ; and over all, the 
 
2T 
 
 great white dome of the National Capital looms up against the 
 eastern sky, like a glory in the air. 
 
 Southward and westward, toward the blue rim of the Al!e- 
 ghanie?, roll away the pine and oak clad hills, and the fields of 
 the " Old Dominion," dotted here and there with the homes of 
 a people of simple tastes and upright minds, renowned for 
 their devotion to their native land, and for their fierce love of 
 liberty ; a people who had drunk into their souls with their 
 mothers milk, that Man is of right, and- ought to be, free. 
 
 On the one hand there was impressed upon the most casual 
 eye that contemplated the pleasing prospect, the munificence 
 and grandeur of American progress, the arts of industry and 
 commerce, and the symbols of power. On the other hand, 
 Nature seemed to woo the heart back to her sacred haunts, 
 with vistas of sparkling waters, and verdant pastures, and many 
 a wildwood scene ; and to penetrate its deepest recesses with 
 the halcyon charm that ever lingers about the thought of 
 Home. 
 
 THE HOST OF ARLINGTON. 
 
 The head of the house established here was a man whom 
 Nature had richly endowed with graces of person, and high 
 qualities of head and heart. Fame had already bound his 
 brow with her laurel, and Fortune had poured into his lap her 
 golden horn. Himself a soldier, and Colonel* in the army of 
 the United States, the son of the renowned " Light Horse 
 Harry Lee," who was the devoted friend and compatriot of 
 Washington in the revolutionary struggle, and whose memora 
 ble eulogy upon his august Chief ^ has become his epitaph; 
 descended indeed from a long line of illustrious progenitors, 
 whose names are written on the brightest scrolls of English 
 and American history, from the conquest of the Norman at 
 Hastings, to the triumph of the Continentals at Yorktown, 
 he had already established his own martial fame at Vera Cruz, 
 Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, Chepul- 
 tepec and Mexico, and had proved how little he depended upon 
 any merit but his own. Such was his early distinction, that 
 
 Appointed Colonel March 10th, 1SG1. 
 
when but a Captain, the Cuban Junta had offered to make him 
 the leader of their revolutionary movement for the independ 
 ence of Cuba ; a position which as an American officer, he 
 felt it his duty to decline. And so deep was the impression 
 made of his genius and his valor, that General Scott, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the army in which he served, had declared 
 that he " was the best soldier he ever saw in the field," " the 
 greatest military genius in America," that " if opportunity 
 offered, he would show himself the foremost Captain of his 
 times," and that "if a great battle were to be fought for the 
 liberty or slavery of the country, his judgment was that the 
 commander should be Robert Lee." 
 
 Wedded to her who had been the playmate of his boyhood, 
 and who was worthy in every relation to be the companion of 
 his bosom, sons and daughters had risen up to call them 
 blessed, and there, decorated with his country s honors and sur 
 rounded by " love, obedience, and troops of friends," the host 
 of Arlington seemed to have filled the measure of generous 
 desire with whatever of fame or happiness fortune can add to 
 virtue. And had the pilgrim started in quest of some happier 
 spot than the Yale of Easselas, well might he have paused by 
 this threshold and doffed his " sandal shoon." 
 
 THE ANTECEDENTS OF COLONEL LEK. 
 
 So situated was Colonel Lee in the spring of 1861, upon the 
 verge of the momentous revolution, of which he became so 
 mighty a pillar and so glorious a chieftain. But we cannot 
 estimate the struggle it cost him to take up arms against the 
 Union nor the sacrifice he made, nor the pure devotion with 
 which he consecrated his sword to his native State without 
 looking beyond his physical surroundings, and following fur 
 ther the suggestions of his history and character, for the springs 
 of action which prompted his course. Colonel Lee was em 
 phatically a Union man ; and Virginia, to the crisis of dissolu 
 tion, was a Union State. He loved the Union with a soldier s 
 ardent loyalty to the Government he served, and with a patriot s 
 faith and hope in the institutions of his country. His ances- 
 
29 
 
 tors had been among the most distinguished and revered of its 
 founders ; his own life from youth upward had been spent and 
 his blood shed in its service, and two of his sons, following his 
 footsteps, held commissions in the army. 
 
 He was born in the same county, and descended from the 
 same strains of English blood from which Washington sprang, 
 and was united in marriage with Mary Custis, the daughter of 
 his adopted son. He had been reared in the school of simple 
 manners and lofty thoughts which belonged to the elder gene 
 ration ; and with Washington as his exemplar of manhood and 
 his ideal of wisdom, he reverenced his character and fame and 
 work with a feeling as near akin to worship as any that man 
 can have for aught that is human. 
 
 Unlike the statesmen of the hostile sections, who were con 
 stantly thrown into the provoking conflicts of political debate, 
 he had been withdrawn by his military occupations from scenes 
 calculated to irritate or chill his kindly feelings toward the 
 people of the North ; and on the contrary in camp, and field, 
 and social circle he had formed many ties of friendship with 
 its most esteemed soldiers and citizens. With the reticence 
 becoming his military office, he had taken no part in the con 
 troversies which preceded the fatal rupture between the States 
 other than the good man s part, to " speak the soft answer 
 that turns away wrath," and to plead for that forbearance and 
 patience which alone might bring about a peaceful solution of 
 the questions at issue. 
 
 Years of his professional life he had spent in Northern com 
 munities, and, always a close observer of men and things, he 
 well understood the vast resources of that section, and the 
 hardy, industrious, and resolute character of its people ; and he 
 justly weighed their strength as a military power. When men 
 spoke of how easily the South would repel invasion he said : 
 u You forget that we are all Americans." And when they 
 prophesied a battle and a peace, he predicted that it would take 
 at least four years to fight out the impending conflict. None 
 was more conscious than he that each side undervalued and 
 misunderstood each other. He was, moreover, deeply imbued 
 
30 
 
 with the philosophy of history, and the course of its evolutions, 
 and well knew that in an upheaval of government deplorable 
 results would follow, which were not thought of in the begin 
 ning, or, if thought of, would be disavowed, belittled and 
 deprecated. And eminently conservative in his cast of mind 
 and character, every bias of his judgment, as every tendency of 
 his history, filled him with j-earriing and aspiration for the peace 
 of his country arid the perpetuity of the Union. Is it a won 
 der, then, as the storm of revolution lowered, Colonel Lee, 
 then with his regiment, the Second Cavalry, in Texas, wrote 
 thus to his son in January, 1861 : 
 
 "The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts 
 of the North as you say. I feel the aggression, and am will 
 ing to take any proper steps for redress. It is the principle I 
 contend for, not individual or private benefit. As an American 
 citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and 
 institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were 
 invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the 
 country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an 
 accumulation of all evils we complain of, and I am willing to 
 sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, 
 therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before 
 there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. 
 Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and 
 bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place 
 of love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for 
 my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If 
 the Union is dissolved, and the government is disrupted, I shall 
 return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, 
 and, save in defence, will draw my sword on none." 
 
 WAR. 
 
 A few weeks later Colonel Lee was ordered, and came to 
 Washington, reaching there three days before the inauguration 
 of President Lincoln. At that time South Carolina, Missis 
 sippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, had already 
 seceded from the Union, and the Provisional Government of 
 the Confederate States was in operation at Montgomery. 
 
31 
 
 The Virginia Convention was in session, but slow and delib 
 erate In its course. The State which had done so much to 
 found the Union was loth to assent to its dissolution, and still 
 guided by the wise counsels of such men as Robert E. Scott, 
 Robert Y. Conrad, Jubal A. Early, John B. Baldwin, Samuel 
 McDowell Moore, and A. II. II. Stuart, she persisted in efforts 
 to avert the calamity of war. Events followed swiftly. The 
 Peace Conference had failed. Overtures for the peaceful 
 evacuation of Fort Sumpter had likewise failed. On the 13th 
 of April, under bombardment, the Federal Commander, Major 
 Anderson, with its garrison, surrendered. On April 15th 
 President Lincoln issued his proclamation for 75,000 men to 
 make war against the seceded States, which he styled : " Com 
 binations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course 
 of judicial proceedings." This proclamation determined Vir 
 ginia s course. War had come. Her mediation had been in 
 vain. She was too noble to be neutral. 
 
 Of the arts of duplicity she knew nothing save to despise. 
 She must now level her guns against the breasts of her South 
 ern brethren, or make her own breast their shield. On April 
 17th Virginia answered Mr. Lincoln s proclamation with the 
 Ordinance of Secession, and like Pallas-Athene, "the front 
 fighter" stepped with intrepid brow to where, in conflict, his 
 tory has ever found her to the front of war. 
 
 Where now is Robert Lee? On the border line, between 
 two hostile empires, girding their loins for as stern a fight as 
 ever tested warriors steel, he beholds each beckoning to him 
 to lead its people to battle. On the one hand, Virginia, now 
 in the fore-front of a scarcely organized revolution, summons 
 him to share her lot in the perilous adventure. The young 
 Confederacy is without an army. There is no navy. There 
 is no currency. There are few teeming work-shops and 
 arsenals. There is little but a meagre and widely scattered 
 population, for the most part men of the field, the prairie, the 
 forest and the mountain, ready to stand the hazard of an auda- 
 
32 
 
 cious endeavor, to meet aggression with whatever weapons 
 freemen can lay their hands on, and to carry high the banners 
 of the free, whatever may betide. 
 
 Did he fail ? Ah, did he fail ? His beloved State would be 
 trampled in the mire of the ways ; the Confederacy would be 
 blotted from the family of nations, home and country would 
 survive only in memory and in name ; his people would be 
 captives, their very slaves their masters ; and he, if of him 
 self he thought at all, he, mayhap, might have seen in the 
 dim perspective, the shadow of the dungeon or the scaffold. 
 
 On the other hand stands the foremost and most powerful 
 Republic of the earth, rich in all that handiwork can fashion 
 or that gold can buy. It is thickly populated. Its regular 
 army, and its myriad volunteers, rush to do its bidding. Its 
 navy rides the Western seas in undisputed sway. Its treasury 
 teems with the sinews of war, and its arsenals with weapons. 
 And the world is open to lend its cheer and aid and comfort. 
 Its capital lies in sight of his chamber window, and its guns 
 bear on the portals of his home. A messenger comes from its 
 President and from General Scott, Commander-in-Chief of its 
 army, to tender him supreme command of its forces. Did he 
 accept it, and did he succeed, the conqueror s crown awaits 
 him, and win or lose, he will remain the foremost man of a 
 great established nation, with all honor and glory that riches 
 and office and power and public applause can supply. 
 
 Since the Son of Man stood upon the Mount, and saw "all 
 the kingdoms of the earth and the glory thereof" stretched be 
 fore him, and turned away from them to the agony and bloody 
 sweat of Gethsemane, and to the Cross of Calvary beyond, no 
 follower of the meek and lowly Saviour can have undergone 
 more trying ordeal, or met it with higher spirit of heroic sacri 
 fice. 
 
 There was naught on earth that could swerve Robert E. Lee 
 from the path where, to his clear comprehension, honor and 
 duty lay. To the statesman, Mr. Francis Preston Blair, who 
 brought him the tender of supreme command, he answered : 
 
 " Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned 
 
33 
 
 the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them 
 all to the Union. But how can I draw my sword against Vir 
 ginia? 
 
 Draw his sword against Virginia? Perish the thought! 
 Over all the voices that called him lie heard the still small voice 
 that ever whispers to the soul of the spot that gave it birth, 
 and of her who gave it suck ; and over every ambitious dream, 
 there rose the face of the angel that guards the door of home. 
 
 On the 20th of April, as soon as the news of Virginia s seces 
 sion reached him, he resigned his commission in the army of 
 the United States, and thus wrote to his sister who remained 
 with her husband on the Union side : 
 
 " 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 np my mind to raise my hands against my relatives, 
 my children, my Lome. I have, therefore, resigned my com 
 mission in the army, and save in the defence of my native 
 State (with the sincere hope that my poor services may never 
 be needed) I hope I may never be called upon to draw my 
 sword." 
 
 LEE DEVOTES HIS SWORD TO HIS NATIVE STATE. 
 
 Bidding an affectionate adieu to his old friend and com 
 mander, General Scott, who mourned his loss, but nobly ex 
 pressed his confidence in his motives, he repaired to Richmond. 
 Governor John Letcher immediately appointed him to the 
 command-in-chief of the Virginia forces, and the Convention 
 unanimously confirmed the nomination. Memorable and im 
 pressive was the scene when he came into the presence of that 
 body on April 23d. Its venerable President, John Janney, 
 with brief, sententious eloquence, addressed him, and con 
 cluded saying : 
 
 " Sir, we have by this unanimous vote expressed our convic 
 tions that you are at this day, among the living citizens of Vir 
 ginia, < first in war. We pray to God most fervently that you 
 may so conduct the operations committed to your charge, that 
 it may be said of you that you are first in peace, and when 
 
34 
 
 that time comes, 1 you will have earned the still prouder dis 
 tinction of being c first in the hearts of your countrymen. 
 
 " Yesterday your mother, Virginia, placed her sword in your 
 hand upon the implied condition that we know you will keep 
 in letter and in spirit : that you will draw it only in defence, 
 arid that you will fall with it in your hand rather than the ob 
 ject for which it was placed there should fail." 
 
 General Lee thus answered : 
 
 "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 partiality. I would have preferred had 
 your choice fallen upon an abler man. Trusting in Almighty 
 God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow-citizens, 
 I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose 
 behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword." 
 
 Thus came Robert E. Lee to the State of his birth and to the 
 people of his blood in their hour of need ! Thus, with as chaste 
 a heart as ever plighted its faith until death, for better or for 
 worse, he came to do, to suffer, and to die for us, who to-day 
 are gathered in awful reverence, and in sorrow unspeakable, to 
 weep our blessings upon his tomb. 
 
 LEE S VINDICATION A PEOPLE IS ITS OWX JUDGE. 
 
 I pause not here to defend the course of General Lee, as that 
 defence may be drawn from the Constitution of a Republic 
 which was born in the sublime protest of its people against 
 bayonet rule, and founded on the bed-rock principle of free 
 government, that all free governments " must derive their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed." I pause not to trace 
 the history or define the grounds of that theory of constitu 
 tional construction which maintained the right of secession from 
 the Union as an element of sovereign statehood a theory which 
 has found ablest and noblest advocacy in every section of the 
 country. The tribunal is not yet formed tl iat would hearken 
 to such defence, nor is this the time or place to utter it. And 
 
35 
 
 to my mind there is for Lee and his compatriots a loftier and 
 truer vindication than any that may be deduced from codes, 
 constitutions, and conventional articles of government. A great 
 revolution need never apologize for nor explain itself. There 
 it is! the august and thrilling rise of a whole population! 
 And the fact that it; is there is the best evidence of its right to 
 he there. None but great inspirations underlie great actions. 
 None but great causes can ever produce great events. A 
 transient gust of passion may turn a crowd into a mob a tem 
 porary impulse may swell a mob into a local insurrection ; but 
 when a whole people stand to their guns before their hearth 
 stones, and as one man resist what they deem aggression ; when 
 for long years they endure poverty and starvation, and dare 
 danger and death to maintain principles which they deem sa 
 cred when they shake a continent with their heroic endeavors 
 and fill the world with the glory of their achievements, history 
 can make for them no higher vindication than to point to their 
 deeds and say " b6hold !" 
 
 A people is its own judge. Under God there can be no higher 
 judge for them to seek or court or fear. In the supreme mo 
 ments of national life, as in the lives of individuals, the actor 
 must resolve and act within himself alone. The Southern 
 States acted for themselves the Northern States for themselves 
 Virginia for herself. And when the lines of battle formed, 
 .Robert Lee took his place in the line beside his people, his 
 kindred, his children, his home. Let his defence rest on this 
 fact alone. Nature speaks it. Nothing can strengthen it. 
 Nothing can weaken it. The historian may compile ; the 
 casuist may dissect ; the statesman may expatiate ; the advocate 
 may plead ; the jurist may expound ; but, after all, there can 
 be no stronger or tenderer tie than that which binds the faith 
 ful heart to kindred and to home. And on that tie stretching 
 from the cradle to the grave, spanning the heavens, and riveted 
 through eternity to the throne of God on high, and underneath 
 in the souls of good men and true on that tie rests, stainless 
 and immortal, the fame of Kobert Lee. 
 
36 
 
 And now that war was flagrant, history delights to testify how 
 grandly General Lee bore his part. Transferred from the State 
 service to that of the Confederacy, with the rank of General, 
 we behold him at first in the field in the rugged mountains of 
 Northwest Virginia, restoring the morale lost by the early re 
 verses to our arms in that Department holding invading 
 columns in check with great disparity of force to meet them 
 bearing the censures of the impatient without a murmur, and 
 careless of fame with duty done. Later, in the fall of 1861, 
 we find him exercising his skill as an engineer in planning de 
 fences along the threatened coast of South Carolina ; and in 
 March, 1862, he is again in Virginia, charged by President 
 Davis " with the conduct of military operations in the armies 
 of the Confederacy " in brief, and in some sort, under the 
 President, Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 But now a year of war had rolled by ; no brilliant accom 
 plishment had yet satisfied the public expectation with which 
 he had been welcomed as a Southern leader ; and as the fame 
 of revolutionary Captains can only be fed with victories, it is 
 unquestionable that, at this stage of his career, the reputation 
 of Lee, as a General, had sensibly declined. 
 
 THE FALL OF GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON AND THE OPl OR- 
 T UNITY OF LEE. 
 
 Meanwhile the Army of Northern Virginia had made a 
 name in history under its famous commander, Joseph E. John 
 ston ; and I cannot speak that name without bowing the homage 
 of my heart to the illustrious soldier and noble gentleman who 
 bears it. Under his sagacious and brilliant leadership, his 
 forces had been suddenly witdrawn from Patterson s front 
 near Winchester, and united with those of General Beau regard 
 at Manassas ; and there, led by these two Generals, the joint 
 command had, on July 21st, 1861, routed the Army of the 
 Potomac in the first pitched battle of the war; had given earn 
 est of what the volunteers of the South could do in action, and 
 had crowned the new-born Confederacy with the ^lorv of 
 
37 
 
 splendid military achievement. Still later in the progress of 
 events, Johnston had exhibited again his strategic skill in hold 
 ing McClellan at bay on the lines of Yorktown, with a force 
 so small that it seemed hardihood to oppose him with it had 
 eluded his toils by a retreat up the Peninsula, so cleanly con 
 ducted, that little was lost beyond the space vacated* had 
 turned and fiercely smitten his advancing columns near the old 
 Colonial Capital of Williamsburg on May 5th, 1862, and had 
 planted his army firmly ground Richmond. Pending the siege 
 of Yorktown, a thing had happened that probably had no par 
 allel in history. The great body of General Johnston s army 
 had reorganized itself under the laws of the Confederacy, 
 while lying under the fire of the enemy s guns, the privates of 
 each company electing by ballot the officers that were to com 
 mand them. A singular exercise of suffrage was this, but 
 there was "a free ballot and a fair count," and an exhibition 
 worthy of 
 
 "That fierce Democracy that thundered over Greece 
 To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne." 
 
 an exhibition which w r ould have delighted the heart of Thomas 
 Jefferson, and which certainly put to blush the autocratic theory 
 that armies should be mere compact masses of brute force. 
 Still later, on May 31st, Johnston had sallied forth and stormed 
 
 *NoTE. The Philadelphia Times of September 4th, 1883, contained an article 
 from the pen pf Allan B. Magruder, Esq., brother of the late distinguished Con 
 federate officer, Major General John Bankhead Magruder, in which the writer 
 takes exception to this statement of my address. He says that to General Ma 
 gruder belongs the credit of the "strategic skill" which held McClellan at bay 
 on the lines of Yorktown ; that General Johnston never commanded on those 
 lines; and that the Army of Northern Virginia never tired a shot in their de 
 fence. 
 
 The high character and standing of the writer, and my great respect for the 
 memory of General Magrnder, to whom I would do all honor, induce me to 
 notice this article here. 1 do not deny that General Magruder did, before the ar 
 rival of General Johnston, defend the lines of Yorktown with wonderful address 
 and boldness, and is entitled to high praise for the ability and courage displayed 
 in so doing. Yet there can be no doubt that General Johnston did command 
 the army defending the Yorktown lines ; and that his army h red many a shot 
 in their defence. This is attested by all the official records. That there can be 
 no mistake about, it, I am myself a witness, for I marched from Centreville to 
 Richmond, and there took steamer for the " lines of Yorktown " with General 
 Johnston s forces; lay with them there in the trenches for weeks, and saw and 
 heard the tiring of many a shot from cannon, ritie, and musket in their defence. 
 And under command of General Johnston, whom I personally saw 011 the field, 
 I marched with his troops on the retreat from Yorktown, and participated in the 
 battle of Williamsburg, May 5th, 18ti2, with the advancing forces of McClellan. 
 
 The fact is Mr. Magruder has fallen into what is to me, astrange and unaccount 
 able error, as he will discover on reading any history of the events referred to. I 
 have before me McCabe s Life of Lee, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston s work, enti 
 tled "Johnston s Narrative," and they confirm the accuracy of the statements 
 upon which my remarks are based. The credit given General Johnston is due 
 him ; but it in no wise detracts from that likewise due General Magruder, for 
 his anterior exploits of a like nature. J. W. I). 
 
38 
 
 and taken the outer entrenchments and camps of McClellan s 
 army at Seven Pines, capturing ten pieces of artillery, six thou 
 sand muskets, and other spoils of war, and destroying the pres 
 tige of the second " On to Richmond" movement. 
 
 But ere the day was done victory had been checked, and 
 glory had exacted costly tribute, for Johnston himself had 
 fallen, terribly wounded. The hero, covered with ten wounds 
 received in Florida and Mexico, had been prostrated by an 
 other ; and when June 1st dawned on the confronting armies, 
 the Army of Northern Virginia was without the leader who 
 held its thorough confidence, but now lay stricken well-nigh 
 unto death. The casualty which thus deprived the army of 
 its honored commander, and closed to him the opportunity, 
 which, in large measure, his own great skill had created, 
 opened the opportunity of Lee. Fortunate the State, and great 
 the people from whom spring two such sons fortunate the 
 army that always had a leader worthy of it happy he who can 
 transmit his place to one so well qualified to fill it and happy 
 likewise he who had such predessorto prepare the way for vic 
 tory. 
 
 GENERAL LEE IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 
 RICHMOND, MANASSA8, HARPER 5 8 FERRY, SHARPSBDRG, FRED- 
 ERICK8BURG. 
 
 On the 3d of June, 1862, General Lee was assigned to com 
 mand in person the Army of Northern Virginia; and from 
 that day to April 9th, 1805, nearly three years, he was at its 
 head. And on the page of history now laid open are crowded 
 schemes of war and feats of arms as brilliant as ever thrilled 
 the soul of heroism and genius with admiration, a page of 
 history that feasted glory till pity cried, "no more." Swift 
 was Lee to plan, and swift to execute. Making a feint of 
 reinforcing Jackson in the Valley, startling the Federal author 
 ities with apprehensions of attack on the Potomac lines, and 
 practically eliminating McDowell, who, with his corps, remained 
 near Fredericksburg, he suddenly descends with Jackson on 
 the right and rear of McOlellan. and ere thirty days have 
 
passed since he assumed command, Richmond has been saved, 
 and the fields around her made immortal ; and the broken 
 ranks of McClellan are crouching for protection under the 
 heavy guns of the iron-clads at Harrison s Landing. Sixty 
 days more, and the siege of Richmond has been raised, the 
 Confederate columns are marching Northward ; Jackson in the 
 advance, has on August 9th caught up again with his old friend 
 Banks, at Slaughter s Mountain, and punished him terribly, 
 and as the day closes August 30th, Manassas has the second 
 time been the scene of a general engagement with like results 
 as the first. John Pope, who thitherto, according to his 
 pompous boast, had "seen only the backs of his enemies," has 
 had his curiosity entirely satisfied with a brief glimpse of their 
 faces; and the proud army of the Potomac is flying in hot 
 haste to find shelter in the entrenchments of Washington. In 
 
 o 
 
 early September the Confederates are in Maryland. In extreme 
 exigency, McClellan is recalled to command the Army of the 
 Potomac, but while Lee holds him in check at Boonsboro and 
 South Mountain, a series of complicated manoeuvres have 
 invested General Miles, the officer in command at Harper s 
 Ferry, and on September 15th Stonewall Jackson has there 
 received surrender of his entire army of eleven thousand men, 
 seventy-three cannon, thirteen thousand small arms, two hun 
 dred wagons, and many stores. But there is no time to rest, 
 for McClellan presses Lee at Sharpsburg, and there, September 
 17th, battle is delivered. Upon its eve Jackson has arrived 
 fresh from Harper s Ferry. McClellan s repeated assaults on 
 Lee were everywhere repulsed. He remained on the field Sep 
 tember 18th, and then recrossed the Potomac into Virginia. 
 
 The winter of 1862 comes, and Burnside, succeeding Mc 
 Clellan, assails Lee at Fredericksburg on December 13th, and 
 is repulsed with terrible slaughter. 
 
 1863 CIIANCELLORSVILLE. 
 
 With the dawn of spring in 1863, a replenished army with a 
 fresh commander, " Fighting Joe Hooker," renews the onset 
 by way of Chancellors ville, and finds Lee with two divisions of 
 
40 
 
 Longstreet s corps absent in Southeast Virginia. But slender 
 as are his numbers, Lee is ever aggressive ; and while Hooker 
 with "the finest army on the planet," as he styled it, is. con 
 fronting Lee near Chancellorsville, and Early is holding Sedg- 
 wick at bay at Fredericksburg, Jackson, who, under Lee s 
 directions, has stealthily marched around him, comes thunder 
 ing in his rear, and alas ! for " Fighting Joe," he can only illus 
 trate his pugnacious subriquet bj 7 the consoling reflection that 
 
 " He who fights and runs away, 
 May live to fight another day," 
 
 for Chancellorsville shines high on the list of Confederate vic 
 tories, and indeed was one of the grandest victories that ever 
 blazoned the annals of war. 
 
 THE FALL OF STONEWALL JACKSOX. 
 
 But alas ! too, for the victor, on May 2d, in the culminating 
 act of the drama, Jackson himself had fallen, and never more 
 is the "foot cavalry " to see again along the smoking lines that 
 calm, stern face ; never to hear again that crisp, fierce order, 
 " Give them the bayonet !" which so often heralded the tri 
 umphant charge ; never is the Southern land to be thrilled 
 again with his familiar bulletin " God blessed our arms with 
 victory." At the age of 39 at a time of life when the pow 
 ers of manhood are ordinarily scarce full-orbed, he has touched 
 the zenith, and filled the world with his fame ; and he who went 
 forth two years before from this quiet town, scarce known 
 beyond it, comes back upon the soldier s bier, renowned, 
 revered, and mourned in every clime where the heart quickens 
 in sympathy for surpassing valor, united with transcendent 
 genius and honor without a stain. There he sleeps, in yon green 
 grave, and as in life he fought, so in death he rests with Lee. 
 
 WINCHESTER AND GETTYSBURG. 
 
 But not long can the soldier pause to weep. We fire our 
 salute over the ashes of our heroic dead ; and again the bugles 
 sound " boots and saddles," and the long roll is beating. Less 
 than a month has passed, and again the Army of Northern 
 
41 
 
 Virginia is in motion, and while Hooker is groping around to 
 ascertain the whereabouts of his adversary, the next scene 
 unfolds : General Early has planned and executed a flank 
 march around Winchester, worthy of Stonewall Jackson, the 
 men of his division are mounting the parapets on June 14th, 
 and capturing Milroy s guns. General Edward Johnston s 
 division is pursuing Milroy s fugitives down the Valley pike. 
 General Rodes has captured Martinsburg, with 100 prisoners 
 and five cannon, Ewell s corps is master of the Yalley, and 
 by June 21th, the Army of Northern Virginia is in Pennsyl 
 vania, while for the third time the Army of the Potomac is 
 glad if it can interpose to prevent the fall of Washington 
 and a sixth commander has come to its head General George 
 C. Meade. 
 
 Then follows the boldest and grandest assault of modern 
 war the charge upon the Federal centre entrenched on the 
 heights of Gettysburg a charge that well-nigh ended the war 
 with " a clap of thunder," and was so characterized by brave 
 design and dauntless execution that friend and foe alike burst 
 into irrepressible praise of the great commander who directed 
 and of the valorous men who made it. It failed. But Lee,, 
 unshaken, rallies the broken lines, and the next morning stands 
 in steady array, flaunting his banners defiantly, and challenging 
 renewal of the strife. " It is all my fault," he says. JSTot so 
 thought his men. We saw him standing by the roadside with 
 his bridle rein over his arm, on the second day afterwards, as 
 the army was withdrawing. Pickett s division filed past him ; 
 every General of Brigade had fallen, and every field-officer of 
 its regiments; a few tattered battle-flags and a few hundreds 
 of men were all that was left of the magnificent body, 5,000 
 strong, who had made the famous charge. He stood with un 
 covered head, as if he reviewed a conquering host, and with 
 the conqueror s look upon him. With proud step the men 
 marched by, and as they raised their hats and cheered him 
 there was the tenderness of devoted love, mingled with the fire 
 of battle, in their eyes. 
 
 Returning to Virginia in martial trim and undismayed, and 
 
42 
 
 followed by Meade with that slow and gingerly step which is 
 self-explaining, we next behold our General displaying that 
 rare self-poise and confidence which bespeaks ever a great 
 quality firmness of mind in war. In September, while he 
 confronts Meade along the Rapidan, he detatches the entire 
 corps of Longstreet, and ere Meade is aware of this weakening 
 of his opponent s forces, Longstreet is nine hundred miles 
 away, striking a terrible blow at Chickamauga. 
 
 The year 1863 passes by without other signficant event in 
 the story of the Army of Northern Virginia. Meade indeed, 
 once in November, deployed his lines along Mine Run 
 in seeming overtures of battle, but quickly concluding that 
 " discretion was the better part of valor," he marched back 
 across the Rappahannock, content with his observations. 
 
 1864 WILDERNESS, SPOTSYLVANIA, COLD HARBOR, PETERSBURG, 
 
 LYXCHBURG. 
 
 But as the May blossoms in 1864, we hear once more the 
 wonted strain of spring, "tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are 
 marching," and Grant (who had succeeded Meade), crossing 
 the Rappahannock with 141,000 men, plunges boldly into the 
 Wilderness on May 4th, leading the sixth crusade for the re 
 duction of Richmond. But scarce had he disclosed his line of 
 march, than Lee, with 50,000 of his braves, springs upon him 
 and hurls him back, staggering and gory, through the tangled 
 chapparal of the Wilderness, atid from the fields of Spotsyl- 
 vania : and though the redoubtable Grant writes to the Govern 
 ment on May 12th, " I propose to fight it out on this line if it 
 takes all summer;" when we look over the field of Cold Har 
 bor on June 3d, we see there, stretched in swaths and piled 
 in reeking mounds 13,000 of his men, the killed and 
 wounded of his last assault "in the over-land campaign." And 
 when Grant ordered his lines to attack again the flinty front of 
 Lee, they stood immobile, in silent protest against the vain 
 attempt, and in silent eulogy of their sturdy foe. One summer 
 month had been summer time enough for Grant along that 
 impervious line; and there at Cold Harbor practically closed 
 
4:3 
 
 the sixth expedition aimed directly at the Confederate Capital 
 McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burn side, Hooker and now 
 Grant, all being disastrously repulsed by the Army of North 
 ern Virginia, and all but the first receiving their repulse by the 
 army led by Lee. But Grant in some sort, veiled his reverses 
 by immediately abandoning attack on the north side of the 
 James, which he crossed in the middle of June, attempting 
 to capture Petersburg on the south side by a coup de main. 
 But in this, after four days successive assaults which ended in 
 vain carnage, he failed again; and almost simultaneously Hun 
 ter s invasion through the Valley was intercepted and success 
 fully repelled at Lynchburg by the swift and bold movements 
 of Lee s greatest Lieutenant, the ever-to-be-counted-on Jubal 
 A. Early, who had been dispatched to meet him with a force 
 not half his equal in numbers. And when midsummer came, 
 Grant was glad to shelter his drooping banners behind en 
 trenchments; Hunter was flying to the mountains of West 
 Virginia, and detachments were hurrying from the Army of 
 the Potomac to save Washington, which was trembling at the 
 sound of Enrly s guns. In that wonderful campaign of Lee 
 from the Wilderness to Petersburg, Grant had lost not less 
 than 70,000 men in reaching a point which he might have 
 gained by river approaches without the loss of one. Every 
 man in the Army of Northern Virginia, had more than stricken 
 down a foeman ; and final demonstration had been given to 
 the fact that in field fight, Lee could not be matched in gen 
 eralship, and that the Army of Northern Virginia was invinci 
 ble. This fact the hard sense of Grant recognized; and though 
 no commander who felt himself and his men to be the equals 
 of their adversaries in manoeuvre and combat would ever come 
 down to such conclusion, it is creditable to Grant s plain, mat 
 ter-of-fact way of looking at things that he looked at them 
 just as they were. And so he resorted to sap and mine and 
 pick and spade to do the work which strategy and valor had so 
 often essayed in vain. For nine months the armies lay before 
 the muzzles of each other s guns, bumping, as it were, against 
 each other, Grant deliberately counting that he who had the 
 
4-1 
 
 most heads could butt the longest. Thus Lee stood with less 
 than 40,000 men covering a line of thirty miles, while Grant, 
 with more than three times that number, over and over again 
 at Reams S Station, at the Crater, at Hatcher s Run and other 
 points, battered the armor from which every blow recoiled. 
 So Lee stood with a half-fed and half-clothed soldiery, composed 
 largely of stripling youth and failing age, beating back his 
 three-fold foe, freshly recruited for every fresh assault, and 
 generously provided with the richest stores and most approved 
 arms and munitions of war. 
 
 Time forbids that I prolong the story ; and this imperfect 
 sketch is but a dim outline of that grand historic picture in 
 which Robert Lee will ever stand as the foremost figure, chal 
 lenging and enchaining the reverence and admiration of man 
 kind, the faint suggestion of that magnificent career which has 
 made for him a place on the heights of history as high as war 
 rior s sword has ever carved. 
 
 PREMONITIONS OF THE END THE MARCH TO APPOMATTQX. 
 
 Yain was the mighty struggle, led by the peerless Lee. 
 Genius planned, valor executed, patriotism stripped itself of 
 every treasure, and heroism fought and bled and died, and all 
 in vain! When the drear winter of 1864 came at last, there 
 came also premonotions of the end. The very seed-corn of 
 the Confederacy had been ground up," as President Davis said. 
 The people sat at naked tables and slept in sheetless beds, for 
 their apparel had been used to bind up wounds. The weeds grew 
 in fenceless fields, for the plow-horse was pulling the cannon. 
 The church-yard and the mansion fences were stripped of their 
 leaden ornaments, that the musket and the rifle might not lack 
 for bullets. The church bells, now melted into cannon, pealed 
 forth the dire notes of war. The land was drained of" its sub 
 stance, and the Army of Northern Virginia was nearly ex 
 hausted for want of food and raiment. All through the bleak 
 winter davs and nights its decimated and shivering: ranks still 
 
 */ O O 
 
 faced the dense battallions of Grant, in misery and want not 
 less than that which stained the snows of Valley Forge ; and 
 
45 
 
 the army seemed to live only on its innate, indomitable will, as 
 oftentimes we see some noble mind survive when the physical 
 powers of nature have been exhausted. Like a rock of old 
 ocean, it had received, and broken, and hurled back into tl)e 
 deep in bloody foam those swiftly succeeding waves of four 
 years of incessant battle ; but now the fock itself was wearing 
 away, and still the waves came on. 
 
 A new enemy was now approaching the sturdy devoted band. 
 In September, 1864, Atlanta fell, and through Georgia to the sea, 
 with fire and sword, swept the victorious columns of Sherman. 
 In January, 1865, the head of column had been turned north 
 ward ; and in February, Columbia and Charleston shared the 
 fate that had already befallen Savannah. Yes, a new enemy was 
 approaching the Army of Northern Virginia, and this time in 
 the rear. The homes of the soldiers of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia from the Southern States were now in ashes. Wives, 
 mothers and sisters were wanderers under the winter skies, 
 flying from the invaders who srnote and spared not in their re 
 lentless march. Is it wonder that hearts that never quailed be 
 fore bayonet or blade beat now with tremulous and irrepressi 
 ble emotion ? Is it wonder that, in the watches of the night, 
 the sentinel in the trenches, tortured to excruciation with the 
 thought that those dearest of earth to him were without an 
 arm to save, felt his soul sink in anguish and his hope perish ? 
 So it was, that with hunger and nakedness as its companions, 
 and foes in front and foes in rear, the Army of Northern Vir 
 ginia seemed bound to the rock of fate. 
 
 On April 1st the left wing of Grant s massive lines swept 
 around the right and rear of Lee. Gallantly did Pickett and 
 his men meet and resist them at Five Forks; but that com 
 manding strategic point was taken, arid the fall of Petersburg 
 and of Richmond alike became inevitable. On the next day, 
 April :id, they were evacuated. Grant was now on a shorter 
 line projected toward Danville than Lee, and the latter com 
 menced at once that memorable retreat towards Lynchburg, 
 which ended at Appomattox. 
 
46 
 
 THE BATTLE OF APPOMATTOX THE LAST CHARGE. 
 
 Over that march of desperate valor disputing fate, as over 
 the face of a hero in the throes of dissolution, I throw the 
 blood-reeking battle-flag, rent with wounds, as a veil. And I 
 hail the heroic army anji its heroic chief, as on the 9th of April 
 morn, they stand embattled in calm and stern repose, ready to 
 die with their harness on, warriors every inch, without fear, 
 without stain. Around the little hamlet of Appomattox Court 
 house is gathered the remnant of the Army of Northern Vir 
 ginia, less than 8,000 men with arms in their hands, less 
 than 27,000 all told, counting camp followers and stragglers ; 
 and around them in massive concentric lines the army of Grant, 
 flushed with success and expectation more than 80,000 strong 
 upon the field, and with each hour bringing up re-inforcements. 
 "The environed army, with a valor ail Spartan, stand ready to 
 die, not indeed in response to civic laws denying surrender, 
 but obedient to the lofty impulse of honor." Can they cut 
 through ? Does the dream of a saved Confederacy yet beckon 
 them on beyond the wall of steel and fire that girdles them ? 
 Can they find fighting ground in the Carolinas with Joseph E. 
 Johnston, who, among the first to meet the foe, proves amongst 
 the last to leave him? Can these dauntless foeman yet cleave 
 a path to the inner country, and renew the unequal strife? 
 
 Not till that hope is tested will they yield ! 
 
 As the day dawns, a remnant of the cavalry under Fitz. Lee 
 is forming, and Gordon s infantry, scarce two thousand strong, 
 are touching elbows for the last charge. Once more the thrill 
 ing rebel cheer rings through the Virginia woods, and with all 
 their wonted fierceness they fall upon Sheridan s men. Ah ! 
 yes, victory still clings to the tattered battle-flags. Yes, the 
 troopers of our gallant Fitz. are as dauntless as when they fol 
 lowed the plume of Stuart, < the flower of cavaliers." Yes, 
 the matchless infantry of "tattered uniforms and bright mus 
 kets" under Gordon, the brave, move with as swift, intrepid 
 tread as when of old Stonewall led the way. Soldiers of 
 Manassas, of Richmond, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancel- 
 lorsville, Gettysburg, of the Wilderness, of Spotsylvania, of 
 
47 
 
 Cold Harbor, of Petersburg scarred and sinewy veterans of 
 fifty fields, your glories are still about you, your manhood is 
 triumphant still. Yes, the blue lines break before them ; two 
 cannon and many prisoners are taken, and for two miles they 
 sweep the field towards Lynchburg victors still ! 
 
 But no, too late ! too late! Behind the flying sabres and 
 rifles of Sheridan rise the bayonets and frown the batteries of 
 the Army of the James, under Ord a solid phalanx stands 
 right athwart the path of Fitz. Lee s and Gordon s men. Too 
 late ! the die is cast ! The doom is sealed ! There is no escape. 
 The eagle is quarried in his eyre ; the wounded lion is haunted 
 to his lair ! 
 
 And so the guns of the last charge died away in the morn 
 ing air ; and echo, like the sob of a mighty sea, rolled up the 
 valley of the Jarnes, and all was still. The last fight of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia had been fought. The end had 
 come. The smoke vanished. The startled birds renewed their 
 songs over the stricken field; the battle smell was drowned in 
 the fragrance- of the flowering spring. And the ragged soldier 
 of the South, God bless him ! stood there facing the dread 
 reality, more terrible than death stood there to grapple with 
 and face down despair, for he had done his all, and all was lost, 
 save Honor ! 
 
 SURRENDER. 
 
 General Lee, dressed in his best uniform, rides to the front 
 to meet General Grant. For several days demands for surren 
 der had been rejected now surrender was inevitable. And 
 the two commanding officers meet at the McLean House to 
 concert its terms. The first and abiding thought of Lee was 
 the honor of his men, for he had determined to "cut his way 
 through at all hazards, if such terms were not granted as he 
 thought his army was entitled to demand." " General," said 
 Lee, addressing Grant, and opening the conversation, "I deem 
 it due to proper candor and frankness to say at the beginning 
 of this interview that 1 am not willing even to discuss any 
 terms of surrender, inconsistent with the honor of my army, 
 
48 
 
 which I am determined to maintain to the last." Grant gave 
 fitting and magnanimous response, and the honorable terms 
 demanded were agreed to. " The officers to retain their side 
 arms, private horses and baggage," and u each officer and man to 
 be allowed to return to his home," and, mark it, " not to ~be dis 
 turbed by United States authority as long as they observe their 
 parole, and the laws in force where they reside" 
 
 Thus at last was the liberty of the soldier purchased with 
 his blood. 
 
 And so the Army of Northern Virginia, never broken in 
 battle, passed from action into History ; so it perished by the 
 flashing of the guns, while victory hung charmed to its flag, 
 and threw upon its tomb the immortelles of Honor. 
 
 <k The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
 And Clod fulfills himself in many ways." 
 
 FAREWELL. 
 
 "Men^ we have fought through the war together. I have 
 done my best for you my heart is too full to say more" was 
 Lee s utterance to the ragged, battle-begrimmed boys in gray, 
 who, when the dread news of surrender spread among them, 
 gathered around him to shake his hand and testify their undy 
 ing confidence and love. In his published address he said to 
 them : " You will carry with you the satisfaction that proceeds 
 from the .consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I 
 earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his 
 blessing and protection. With an unceasing admiration of 
 your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful 
 remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of 
 myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
 As Robert Lee rode from Appomattox toward Richmond, 
 he carried with him the heart of every man that fought under 
 him linked to him with hooks of steel forever. When he 
 reached the fallen Capital of the dead Confederacy, and rode 
 through its ashes and paling fires to his home, a body of Fed 
 eral soldiers there, catching a glimpse of his noble countenance, 
 lifted their hats and cheered; and as the great actor in the 
 
49 
 
 bloody drama stepped behind the scenes, and the curtain fell 
 upon the tragic stage of the secession war, the last sounds that 
 greeted his ears were the generous salutations of respect from 
 those against whom he had wielded his knightly sword. 
 
 RETIREMENT, COUNSEL AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE SITUATION. 
 
 Had the paroled soldier of Appomattox carried to retirement 
 the vexed spirit and hollow heart of a ruined gamester, nothing 
 had remained to him but to drain the dregs of a disappointed 
 career. But there went with him that " conscionsness of duty 
 faithfully performed," which consoles every rebuff of fortune, 
 sweetens every sorrow, and tempers every calamity and now 
 it was that he proved indeed what he once expressed in lan 
 guage, that " Human fortitude should be equal to human 
 adversity." Once on the Appomattox lines agony had tortured 
 from his lips the words : " How easily I could get rid of this 
 and be at rest. I have only to ride along the lines, and all will 
 be over." But he quickly added : " It is our duty to live, for 
 what will become of the women and children of the South if 
 we are riot here to protect them ?" And as the thought of his 
 country was thus uppermost and controlling in the awful hour 
 of surrender, so it remained to the closing of his life. Ere 
 the struggle ended he had disclosed to a confidential friend, 
 General Pendleton, that " he never believed we could, against 
 the gigantic combination for our subjugation, make good our 
 independence, unless foreign powers, directly or indirectly, 
 assisted us." But said he, " We had sacred principles to main 
 tain and rights to defend, for which we were in duty bound to 
 do our best, even if we perished in the endeavor." And now 
 that tiiis belief was verified, he declared : " I did only what my 
 duty demanded. I could have taken no other course without 
 dishonor. And if all were to be done over again, I should act 
 in precisely the same manner." And when those about him 
 mourned the great disaster, he said : " Yes, that is all very sad, 
 and might be a cause of self-reproach, but that we are conscious 
 that we have humbly tried to do our duty. We may, there 
 fore, with calm satisfaction, trust in God, and leave results to 
 Him," 
 
50 
 
 Lee thoroughly understood and thoroughly accepted the 
 situation. lie realized fully that the war had settled, settled 
 forever, the peculiar issues which had embroiled it ; but he 
 knew also that only time could dissipate its rankling passions 
 and restore freedom ; and hence it was he taught that " Silence 
 and patience on the part of the South was the true course " 
 silence, because it was vain to speak when prejudice ran too 
 high for our late enemies to listen patience, because it was 
 the duty of the hour to labor for recuperation and wait for 
 reconciliation. And murmuring no vain sigh over the "might 
 have been," which now could not be conscious that our des 
 tinies were irrevocably bound up with those of the perpetual 
 Union, he lifted high over the fallen standards of war the 
 banner of the Prince of Peace, emblazoned with " Peace on 
 Earth and Good Will toward Men." 
 
 The President and Congress of the United States made con 
 ditions of pardon and absolution. They were harsh and exact 
 ing. The mass of the people affected by them, of necessity, 
 had to accept them. Therefore he would share their humilia 
 tion. Accordingly he asked amnesty. But his letter was 
 never answered. He was indicted for treason. He appeared 
 ready to answer the charge. But the government now revolted 
 from an act of treachery so base, for his parole of Appomattox 
 protected him. Thus was he reviled and harrassed, yet never 
 word of bitterness escaped him ; but, on the contrary, only 
 counsels of forbearance, patience and diligent attention to 
 works of restoration. Many sought new homes in foreign 
 lands, but not so he. "All good citizens," he said, "must 
 unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to 
 restore the blessings of peace. They must not abandon their 
 country, but go to work and build up its prosperity." " The 
 young men especially must stay at home, bearing themselves 
 in such a manner as to gain the esteem of every one, at the 
 same time that they .maintain their own respect." It should 
 be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay passion, and 
 give scope to every kindly feeling." "It is wisest not to keep 
 open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those na- 
 
51 
 
 
 
 tions who have endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil 
 strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered." 
 
 " True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly 
 contrary at one period to that which it does at another, and the 
 motive that impels them, the desire to do right, is precisely the 
 same. The circumstances which govern their actions change, 
 and their conduct must conform to the new order of things. 
 History is full of illustrations of this. Washington himself is 
 an example of this. At one time he fought against the French 
 under Braddock ; at another time he fought with the French 
 at Yorktown, under the orders of the Continental Congress of 
 America, against him. He has not been branded by the world 
 with reproach for this, but his course has been applauded." 
 These were some of the wise and temperate counsels with which 
 he pointed out the duties of the hour. 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 
 Xor was he lacking in faithful remembrance of the Presi 
 dent of the Confederacy, who for months and months after 
 surrender lay sick and in prison, and who seemed to be singled 
 out to undergo vicarious punishment for the deeds of the peo 
 ple. " Mr. Davis," truly said General Lee, " did nothing more 
 than all the citizens of the Southern States, and should not be 
 held accountable for acts performed by them, in the exercise 
 of what had been considered by them unquestionable right." 
 None are more conscious of this fact than those against whom Jef 
 ferson Davis directed the Confederate arms ; and that he yet, 
 nearly twenty years after strife has ceased, should be disfran 
 chised in a land that vaunts its freedom, for so doing, is a griev 
 ance, and a grief to every honorable Southern man. He him 
 self is honored by this significant mark of hostile memory. 
 He cannot suffer by the ignoble act. Only they who do it are 
 deeply ashamed. And that it is done, only shows the weakness 
 of representatives who have not read the very title page in the 
 book of human nature, and who, vainly conceiving that an 
 insult to one man can be fruitful of any public good, only 
 illustrate the saying of Madame do Stiiel, "that the strongest of 
 
52 
 
 all antipathies is that of second-rate minds for a first-rate one," 
 and that other maxim of Edmund Burke, that " great empires 
 and little minds go ill together." When Marc Antony, the 
 great Triumvir of Rome, who conquered Egypt, was himself 
 overthrown by Octavius Caesar, he gloried dying that he " had 
 conquered as a Roman, and was by a Roman nobly conquered." 
 If the spirit of those brave soldiers of the Union, who, while 
 the fields of battle were yet moist with blood, saluted Lee, had 
 guided the conduct of the civilians to whom their valor gave 
 the reins of State, it would have been for us Confederates who 
 achieved great victories, and were in turn cast down, to have 
 gloried likewise, that we in our time had conquered as Ameri 
 cans, and were by Americans nobly conquered. But when we 
 recall that our honored and faithful President is disfranchised 
 simply because he was our chief, and bravely, ably served our 
 cause, the iron enters our souls and represses the generous 
 emotions that well up in them. And we can only lament that 
 shallow politicians have proven unworthy of the American name, 
 and are not imbued with the great free spirit of a great free 
 people. We have not a thought or fancy or desire to undo the 
 perpetuity of the Union. For any man to pretend to think 
 otherwise is proclamation of his falsehood, or his folly. But 
 we intend to be free citizens of the Union, accepting no badge 
 of inferiority or hishonor. And by the tomb of our dead hero, 
 who was true to his chief, as to every trust, we protest to man 
 kind against this unjust thing ; an offence to our liberties and 
 to our manhood, which are not less sacred than the grave. 
 
 And we waft to him, our late Chief Magistrate, in his South 
 ern home, our greetings and our blessings ; and as the years grow 
 thick upon him, we pray that he may find in the unabated 
 confidence and affection of his people, some solace for all that 
 he has borne for them ; and in the strength that cometh from 
 on high, a staff that man cannot take from him. 
 
 MEDITATIONS OF DUTY. 
 
 While General Lee thus sustained and cheered his country 
 men, the problem soon began to press, what should he do with 
 
53 
 
 himself ? And had he been in any sense a self-seeker, the solu 
 tion had been easy, for many were the overtures and proffers 
 made to him in every form of interested solicitation, and dis 
 interested generosity. Would he seek recreation from the 
 trials which for years had strained every energy of mind and 
 body, and every emotion of his heart, the palaces of European 
 nobility, the homes of the Old World and the Xew, alike, opened 
 their doors to him as a welcome and honored guest. Would 
 he prolong his military career ? More than one potentate would 
 have been proud to receive into his service his famous sword. 
 Would he retrieve his fortunes and surround his declining years 
 with luxury and wealth? He had but to yield the sanction of 
 his name to any one of the many enterprises that commercial 
 princes commended to his favor, with every assurance of munifi 
 cent reward. And indeed, were he willing to accept, unlimited 
 means were placed at his disposal by those who would have been 
 proud to render him any service. 
 
 But it had been the principle of Lee s life to accept no 
 gratuitous offer. He had declined the gift of a home tendered 
 to him by the citizens of Richmond during the war, when 
 Arlington had been confiscated, arid the refuge of his family, 
 the "White House," had been burned, expressing the hope 
 that those who offered the gift would devote the means re 
 quired "to the relief of the families of our soldiers in the 
 field, who are more deserving of assistance, and more in want 
 of it than myself." And now when an English nobleman pre 
 sented him as a retreat a spiendid country seat in England, 
 with a handsome annuity to correspond, lie answered : "I am 
 deeply grateful, but I cannot consent to desert my native State 
 in the hour of her adversity. I must abide her fortunes and 
 share her fate." And declining also the many positions with 
 lucrative salaries which were urged upon his acceptance, it was 
 his intention to locate in one of the Southside counties of Vir 
 ginia, " upon a small farm where he might earn his daily 
 bread " in cultivating the soil, and at the same time to write a 
 history of his campaigns; " not, v as he said, "to vindicate 
 myself, and promote m^ T own reputation, but to show the world 
 
54 
 
 what our poor boys with their small numbers and scant re 
 sources had succeeded in accomplishing." 
 
 But circumstances, then to him unknown, were bringing an 
 event to pass which turned over a new and unexpected leaf in 
 his history an event which made a little scion of knowledge, 
 which had been nurtured through the storms of the Colonial 
 Revolution, a great and noble University, and which now has 
 associated in the glorious work of education, as in glorious deeds 
 of arms, the twin names of Washington and Lee. 
 
 LIBEKTY HALL ACADEMY. 
 
 It was nearly a century after the settlement at Jamestown, 
 that Governor Spotswood of Virginia, at the head of a troop 
 of horse, first explored the hitherto unknown land beyond the 
 mountains, and upon his return from the expedition, the Gov 
 ernor presented to each of his bold companions a golden horse 
 shoe, inscribed with the legend : " Sic jurat transcend&re 
 monies" as a memorial of the event; a circumstance vvhich 
 caused them to be named in history, " The Knights of the 
 Golden Horseshoe." In August, 1716, these adventurous spirits 
 first looked down from the heights of the Blue Ridge upon the 
 beautiful Valley of Virginia, a virgin land indeed, tenanted 
 only by the roving red men. Glorious must have been the 
 thrill of joy that quickened their hearts, as the tempting vision 
 lay spread before them, as their eyes ranged over the fields and 
 forests of this new land of promise in its summer sheen, a 
 land watered with many rivers, and especially with that beau 
 tiful and abounding river, " the Shenandoah," which the Indians 
 named "The Daughter of the Stars." 
 
 But prophetic as may have been the glance that saw in the 
 fruitful valley the future home of a great and thriving people, 
 slow were the footsteps that followed the pioneers and occupied 
 the hunting-grounds of the receding Indians. For in those 
 days immigration was not quickened by steam and electricity, 
 and early tradition had pictured the transmontane country as a 
 barren and gloomy waste, infested with serpents and wild beasts 
 and brutal savages. 
 
55 
 
 lut erewhile the reports of Spotswood andjiis men went for 
 and wide, and the Star of Empire beamed over the Allegha- 
 nies. And along in 1730 and 1740, we find the spray of the 
 incoming tide breaking over the mountains the sturdy Scotch- 
 Irish fftr the most part, with some Germans and Englishmen, 
 pouring into the Valley from Pennsylvania and Eastern Vir 
 ginia, and from the fatherlands over the water. Not speculative 
 adventurers were they, with the ambition of landlords, but bring 
 ing with them rifle and Bible, wife and child, and simple house 
 hold goods home-seekers and home-builders, who had heard 
 of the goodly land, and who had come to stay, and who built 
 the meeting-house and the school-house side by side when they 
 came. Rough men were they ready to hew their way to free 
 and pleasant homes but in nowise coarse men, for they were 
 filled with high purpose, and religion and knowledge they knew 
 should be hand-maids of each other. And showing their in 
 stinctive refinement, where the corn waved its tassels and the 
 wheat bowed to the wind, by their rude log huts in the wilder 
 ness there also the vine clambered, and the rose and lily bloomed. 
 
 In 1749, near Greeneville, in Augusta county and Augusta 
 county was then an empire stretching from the Blue Ridge 
 mountains to the Mississippi river in 1749 Robert Alexander, 
 a Scotch-Irish immigrant, who was a Master of Arts of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, established there The Augusta Academy "- 
 the first classical school in the Valley of Virginia. Under his 
 successor, Rev. John Brown, the academy was first moved to 
 " Old Providence, 1 and again to " New Providence church," 
 and just before the Revolution, for a third time, to Mount 
 Pleasant, near Fail-field, in the now county of Rockbridge. 
 
 In 1776, as the revolutionary fires were kindling, there came 
 to its head as principal William Graham, of worthy memory, 
 who had been a class-mate and special friend of Harry Lee at 
 Princeton College ; and at the first meeting of the trustees 
 after the battle of Lexington, while Harry Lee was donning 
 his sword for battle, they baptized it as "Liberty Hall Academy/ 
 Another removal followed, in 1777, to near the old Timber- 
 Ridge church ; but finally, in 1785, the academy rested from 
 
56 
 
 its wanderings near Lexington, the little town which too had 
 caught the flame of revolution, and was the first to take the 
 name of that early battle-ground of the great rebellion, where 
 
 " The embattled farmers stood 
 And fired the shot heard round the world." 
 
 WASHINGTON ACADEMY AND WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 
 
 Shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war, the Legis 
 lature of Virginia, in token of esteem and admiration for the 
 virtues and services of General George Washington, donated 
 him one hundred shares of stock in the old James River Com 
 pany. General Washington, in a characteristic manner, declined 
 to accept the donation save only on the condition that he be 
 permitted to appropriate it to some public purpose u in the 
 upper part of the State," such as " the education of the chil 
 dren of the poor, particularly the children of such as have fallen 
 iri defence of the country." The condition granted, President 
 Washington, in 1796 for he had then become President of 
 the New Republic dedicated the one hundred shares of stock 
 " to the use of Liberty Hall Academy in Rockbridge county." 
 Mayhap the friendship between William Graham, its principal, 
 and his old class-mate at Princeton, " Light Horse Harry Lee," 
 the friend of Washington, had something to ojo in guiding the 
 benefaction ; but be this as it may, it was given and accepted, 
 and in honor of the benefactor the academy was clothed with 
 his immortal name. 
 
 In acknowledging the thanks expressed to him by the Board 
 of Trustees, President Washington said : " To promote litera 
 ture in this rising empire and to encourage the arts has ever 
 been amongst the warmest wishes of my heart ; and if the do 
 nation which the generosity of the Legislature of the Common 
 wealth has enabled me to bestow upon Liberty Hall now by 
 your politeness called Washington Academy is likely to prove 
 a means to accomplish these ends, it will contribute to the 
 gratification of my desires." 
 
 Soon after this, the Legislature, which had already incorpo 
 rated the institution on a comprehensive basis, gave it the name 
 
57 
 
 of " The College of Washington in Virginia " a name, how 
 ever, which the trustees did not accept until 1812.* In the spirit 
 of their beloved commander, " The Cincinnati Society, com 
 posed of survivors of the Revolutionary war, on dissolving in 
 1803, donated their funds, amounting to nearly $25,000, to the 
 institution which had received his patronage and bore his name ; 
 and, thus endowed, it went forward in a career which, for nearly 
 three-score years and ten, was a period of uninterrupted useful 
 ness, prosperity and honor. 
 
 All ranks of honorable enterprise and ambition " in this rising 
 empire " felt the impress of the noble spirits who came forth 
 from its halls, trained and equipped for life s arduous tasks with 
 keenest weapons and brightest armor. What glowing names 
 are these that shine on the rolls of the alumni of this honored 
 Alma Mater! Church and State, Field and Forum, Bar and 
 Bench, Hospital and Counting-Room, Lecture-Room and Pulpit 
 what famous champions and teachers of the right, what trusty 
 workers and leaders in literature and law, and arts, and arms, 
 have they not found in her sons ! Seven Governors of States 
 amongst them Crittenden, of Kentucky, and McDowell, Letcher, 
 and Kemper, of Virginia; eleven United States Senators 
 amongst them Parker, of Virginia, Breckinridge, of Kentucky, 
 H. S. Foote, of Mississippi, and William C. Preston, of South 
 Carolina ; more than a score of Congressmen, two-score and 
 more of judges amongst them Trimble, of the United States 
 Supreme Court ; Coalter, Allen, Anderson, and Burks, of the 
 Court of Appeals of Virginia; twelve or more college presi 
 dents, and amongst them Moses Hoge and Archibald Alexan 
 der, of Hampden-Sidney, James Priestly, of Cumberland 
 College, Tennessee ; and G. A. Baxter and Henry Ruffner (who 
 presided here), and Socrates Maupin, of the University of Vir 
 ginia. These are but a few of those who here garnered the 
 learning that shed so gracious a light in the after-time on them, 
 their country, and their Alma Mater. And could I pause to 
 
 * In 1796 the Legislature of Virginia undertook to erect the Academy into a 
 College under the name of the " College of Washington." The board of trustees 
 resisted the enactment as an infringement of the rights of the corporation : and 
 their grave and forcible protest was said by the late Hugh Blair Grigsby, in an 
 address delivered in 1870, to have been the basis of the brief of Mr. Webster in 
 the great Dartmouth College case. The act was repealed in response to this re* 
 monstrance. The name of Washington College was finally adopted in 1812. 
 
speak of those who became valiant leaders of men in battle, 1 
 could name many a noble soldier whose eye greets mine to-day; 
 and, alas ! I should recall the form of many a hero who passed 
 from these halls in the flush of youthful manhood, and has long 
 slept with "the unreturning brave;" for in 1861, when the 
 calls to arms resounded, " The Liberty-Hall Volunteers " the 
 students of Washington College were among the first (and in 
 a body) to respond ; and when the quiet professor of your twin 
 institute was baptized in history as "Stonewall Jackson," their 
 blood overflowed the christening urn and reddened Manassas 
 field, and from Manassas to Appomattox, under Joseph E. 
 Johnston, and Thomas J. Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, the boys 
 and the men of Washington College proved that they were 
 worthy of their leaders, worthy of their State and country, and 
 worthy of all crood fame. 
 
 t/ O 
 
 THE FATE OF WAR. 
 
 Unsparing war spared not the shrine where breathed into the 
 arts of peace, yet lived the spirit and was perpetuated the name 
 of the Father of his Country. When in 1864 David Hunter 
 led an invading army against the State from whose blood he 
 sprung, he came not as comes the noble champion eager to strike 
 the strong, and who realizes that he meets an equal and a gen 
 erous foe. Lee had penetrated the year before to the heart of 
 Pennsylvania, and the Southern infantry had bivouacked on 
 the banks of the Susquehanna. 
 
 When he crossed the Pennsylvania line, he had announced in 
 general orders, from the headquarters of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia, that he did not come to "take vengeance;" that " we 
 make war only upon armed men," and he therefore " earnestly 
 exhorted the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from 
 unnecessary or wanton injury of private property," and " en 
 joined upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punish 
 ment all who should in any way offend against the orders on 
 the subject." He had been obeyed by his lieutenants and his 
 men. Xo charred ruins, no devastated fields, no plundered 
 homes marked the line of his march. On one occasion, to set 
 
a good example, he was seen to dismount from his horse and 
 put up a farmer s fence. In the city of York General Early 
 had in general orders prohibited the burning of buildings con 
 taining stores of war, lest fire mio;ht be communicated to neio-h- 
 
 o - O O 
 
 boring homes ; and General Gordon, in his public address, had 
 declared : "If a torch is applied to a single dwelling, or an in 
 sult offered to a female of your town by a soldier of this com 
 mand, point me out the man, and you shall have his life." The 
 battle of Gettysburg had raged around Gettysburg College, 
 but when it ended the college stood scathless, save by the acci 
 dents of war. But when David Hunter invaded Virginia, he 
 came to make war on the weak and helpless, and he was as 
 ruthless to ruin as he was swift to evade battle and to retreat. 
 He blistered the land which he should have loved and honored, 
 and a broad, black path marked his trail. From the summit 
 of those mountains where Spotswood first spied the Valley, 
 could be counted at one time the flames ascending from 118 
 burning houses. The Virginia Military Institute was burned, 
 and the very statue of Washington which adorned it was carried 
 off as a trophy. Washington College was dismantled, its scien 
 tific apparatus destroyed, its library sacked, its every apartment 
 pillaged. The hand of war indeed fell heavily here, and when 
 the Southern cause went down at Appomattox, Washington 
 College remained scarce more than a ruinous and desolate relic 
 of better days. Four professors, a handful of students, and the 
 bare buildings, were all that was left of it. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 
 
 In August, 1865, the trustees of Washington College met. 
 The situation they contemplated was deplorable and depressing. 
 Their invested funds were unproductive. Their treasury was 
 empty. The State was prostrate and bankrupt. In the sky of 
 the future there was scarcely a ray of light. But they were 
 resolved to face difficulties and to do the best they could. One 
 of the trustees, Colonel Bolivar Christian, of Staunton, sug 
 gested that General Lee be invited to accept the Presidency of 
 the Institution. There was but little anticipation that he would 
 incline to their wishes. The position could not be very remu- 
 
 \ 
 
nerative, it involved tedious and perplexing tasks, and it did 
 not seem commensurate with the abilities, nor altogether fitting 
 to the tastes of a great commander who had so long dealt with 
 the vast and active concerns of military life ; but the sugges 
 tion was unanimously adopted, and Hon. John W. Brocken- 
 brough, Rector of the Board, was appointed to apprise General 
 Lee of the fact. At first General Lee hesitated. He modestly 
 distrusted his own competency to fulfill the trust, and he feared 
 that the hostility of the Government towards him might direct 
 adverse influences against the Institution which it was proposed 
 to commit to his care. These considerations being successfully 
 combated by those who knew how high his qualifications were, 
 and how great were his attractions, General Lee accepted the 
 position tendered him, and on the 2nd of October, 1865, he 
 took the oath of office before the Rev. W. S. White the old 
 est Christian minister of Lexington and was duly installed in 
 the presence of the trustees, professors, and students, as Presi 
 dent of Washington College. On the eve of acceptance, two 
 propositions were made to General Lee : one to become Presi. 
 dent of a large corporation, with a salary of $10,000 per annum ; 
 another to take the like office in another corporation, with a 
 salary of $50,000. But he had made up his mind to come 
 here, and this is what he said to a friend who brought him the 
 last munificent offer : 
 
 "I have a self-imposed task which I must accomplish. I have 
 lead the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many 
 of them fall under my standard. I shall devote mv life now 
 to training young men to do their duty in life." 
 
 This was the high resolve that brought him here, and Robert 
 E. Lee seemed to be the great, heroic Captain when he stood 
 before the Virginia Convention with superb courage and daunt 
 less mien, and "devoted his sword to his native State," he 
 seemed informed with a spirit that gathered its strength and 
 loveliness from Heaven, when he stood here and consecrated 
 his remaining years to training up to life s duties, the sons. 
 brothers and comrades of those who had followed him in bat 
 tle. Young men of the South ! to him who thus stood by 
 
61 
 
 us, we owe a debt immeasurable, and as long as our race is upon 
 earth, let our children and our children s childen hold that debt 
 sacred. 
 
 GENERAL LEE s ADMINISTRATION AS COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 
 
 General Lee was eminently qualified for the task assumed. 
 His own education had been liberal and thorough. In his 
 youth he had been grounded by his tutors in a knowledge of 
 ancient history, and of the dead languages, the Latin and the 
 Greek, and the tastes thus early stimulated had been preserved 
 and cultivated in after years. As a cadet at West Point he 
 graduated second in a distinguished class, excellence of conduct 
 and excellence of attainment going hand in hand. Appointed 
 an officer of Engineers when he entered the army, and often 
 charged with most important works, the duties devolved upon 
 him required assiduous study and research. Still later, after he 
 returned with great distinction from Mexico, he became the 
 Superintendent and Head of the Military Academy at West 
 Point, and occupying that position for three years, he acquired 
 experience and developed capacities which singularly fitted him 
 for the sphere which he now entered the training of youth. 
 It is indicative of his comprehensive views of education, that 
 during his superintendency at West Point, the course of study 
 was extended to five years and greatly enlarged in its scope. 
 And when he entered upon his duties here, it was soon evident 
 that he possessed every qualification to direct with signal suc 
 cess, the affairs of the Institution, and to mould the characters 
 and minds of those confided to his care. 
 
 It was understood from the time of his inauguration that he 
 would not himself act as teacher of any class ; but would have 
 in charge the business and financial concerns of the College 
 its educational curriculum, and the discipline of its students ; 
 and from first to last, he devoted himself to these tasks with un 
 ceasing assiduity and success. 
 
 Everything here felt with his presence a renovating and pro 
 gressive impulse. Nothing escaped his attention, from the 
 smallest detail of business to the gravest question of educa- 
 
tional policy ; and in whatever concerned the well-being of 
 the College, its Faculty and its students, his discerning judg 
 ment and his sympathetic heart worked out the right result. 
 Under his supervision the buildings were repaired, the accom 
 modations enlarged, the chemical and philosophical apparatus 
 replaced, the library replenished and reformed. He it was who 
 selected the site of yon Chapel which now guard his mortal 
 remains his was the hand that draughted the plan, and his 
 the eye that saw its parts conjoined together. No figure-head 
 was he, but a worker, and doer, bringing things to pass as they 
 should be. 
 
 Prior to his administration, there were but five Chairs of In 
 struction, several Departments being combined under one pro 
 fessional head : 
 
 1. Mental and Moral Science, and political economy. 
 
 2. Latin Language and Literature. 
 
 3. Greek Language and Literature. 
 
 4. Mathematics and Physical Science. 
 
 5. Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. 
 
 Speedily after his accession, three new Chairs were added, 
 and Professors elected to fill them ; the Chair of Natural Phi 
 losophy, embracing, in addition to physics, Acoustics, Optics, 
 ifcc., the various subjects of Natural and Applied Mechanics; 
 the Chair of Applied Mathematics, embracing Astronomy, 
 Civil and Military Engineering ; and Chair of Modern Lan 
 guages, to which was added English Philosophy. In the 
 second year of his incumbency the Chair of History and English 
 Literature was established, and soon afterwards the department 
 of " Law and Equity," under that eminent jurist, Judge John 
 W. Brockenbrough. 
 
 Several other Chairs were included in the President s pro 
 gramme, one of the "English Language," one of "Applied 
 Chemistry," and also, " A School of Medicine," a " School of 
 
 Journalism " and a " School of Commerce " the latter beino- 
 
 ?> 
 
 designed to give special instruction and systematic training in 
 whatever pertained to business in the most enlarged sense of the 
 term. Amongst other changes introduced by General Lee was 
 
63 
 
 the substitution of the elective system instead of % a fixed curri 
 culum ; and the system of discipline which he adopted, in no 
 wise partaking of the military type, to which it might have 
 been supposed his disposition would incline was that which 
 has so long prospered at the University of Virginia ; a system 
 which ignored espionage and compulsion, and put every stu 
 dent upon a manly sense of honor a system which, especially 
 with young men not too immature to appreciate it, and which, 
 with all men who have the capacity of being gentlemen, is the 
 best calculated to develop the virtuous and independent ele 
 ments of character. Here for five years the General devoted 
 himself to the cause of education, and here under him that 
 cause nobly flourished. Here he demonstrated that compre 
 hensive grasp of every subject connected with his sphere ; and 
 the keen appehension of the demands of this progressive age, 
 and of a land entering as it were upon a new birth. His asso 
 ciates in the Faculty loved him as a father, and all who saw or 
 knew his work, with common voice proclaimed the conviction 
 expressed by one of the most distinguished of his associates, 
 that he was " the best College President that this country has 
 ever produced." 
 
 His work has been established, and though the great Chief 
 has u fallen by the way," one who bears his name, and who is 
 worthy of it, has taken up the lines that fell from his hands ; 
 and under him, with God s blessing, the good cause goes on 
 prospering and to prosper. 
 
 And so happily it has come to pass that the little school of 
 the pioneers, planted in the wilderness, is to-day a great univer 
 sity ; that the ambition of William Graham, the college mate 
 of Henry Lee, has been realized beyond its sweet*est dream ; 
 that the college which the Father of his Country lifted up 
 by his generosity from a struggling academy to educate the 
 children of those who had fallen in its defense, and which was 
 blighted to the verge of destruction, has been restored and 
 magnified by the hand of him who alone of all men, living or 
 dead, now equally shares with his illustrious prototype, the 
 eulogy pronounced by his own sire, Light Horse Harry Lee: 
 
64 
 
 " First in Peace, first in War, and first in the hearts of his 
 Countrymen.^ 
 
 LEE THE MAX HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 Thus feebly and imperfectly have I attempted to trace the 
 military achievements and services of him to whose memory 
 this day is dedicated. Lee the General, stands abreast with the 
 greatest captains of all time, and Lee the Patriot, has universal 
 homage. It is now of Lee the Man, that I would speak : 
 
 In personal appearance, General Lee was a man whom once 
 to see was ever to remember. His figure was tall, erect, well 
 proportioned, lithe and graceful. A fine head, with broad, 
 uplifted brow, and features boldly but yet delicately chiseled, 
 bore the high aspect of one born to command. The firm yet 
 mobile lips, and the thick-set jaw, were expressive of daring 
 and resolution ; and the dark scintillant eye flashed with the 
 light of a brilliant intellect and a fearless spirit. His whole 
 countenance, indeed, bespoke alike a powerful mind, and in 
 domitable will, yet beamed with charity, gentleness and benev 
 olence. In his mariners, quiet, reserve, unaffected courtesy and 
 native dignity, made manifest the character of one who can 
 only be described by the name of gentleman. And taken all 
 * in all, his presence possessed that grave and simple majesty 
 which commanded instant reverence and repressed familiarity ; 
 and yet so charmed by a certain modesty and gracious defer 
 ence, that reverence and confidence were ever ready to kindle 
 into affection. It was impossible to look upon him, and not to 
 recognize at a glance that in him, nature gave assurance of a 
 man created great and good. 
 
 Mounted in the field, and at the head of his troops, a glimpse 
 of Lee was an inspiration. His figure was as distinctive as that 
 of Napoleon. Ah ! soldiers ! who can forget it ? The black 
 slouch hat, the cavalry boots, the dark cape, the plain gray coat 
 without an ornament but the three stars on the collar, the calm, 
 victorious face, the splendid, manly figure on the gray warhorse, 
 that steps as if proudly conscious of his rider ; he looked every 
 
65 
 
 inch the true knight the grand, invincible champion of a great 
 principle. 
 
 MENTAL ATTRIBUTES AND ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 The intellectual abilities of General Lee were of the highest 
 order, and his attainments, scientific and literary, were remark 
 able for one who had devoted so many years of his life to the 
 exacting duties and details of the camp and the field. He read 
 much, digested what he read, and amplified his readings with 
 reflective power. But so modest and unpretentious was he 
 so chastened and retiring was his ambition, and his overshad 
 owing military exploits had so fixed the admiring gaze of men, 
 that when he came here few knew how rare were the accom 
 plishments, and how versatile and adaptive was the genius of 
 the gentleman who seemed by nature framed to lead the ranks 
 and grace the habiliments of war. The training, habits and 
 occupations of the soldier seldom guide his footsteps to classic 
 haunts, and when the great Captain is unhorsed and his trap 
 pings disappear, how often do we find that the soldier was a 
 soldier only, and nothing more. But when Lee the soldier 
 stepped forth in civic dress, it was soon evident to all, as it had 
 been previously to those who knew him best, that here was one 
 full panoplied to dignify and adorn any civic station ; one who 
 disclosed himself in wide converse and correspondence em 
 bracing all manner of delicate and difficult situations, to possess 
 that quality which is the consummate flower of wisdom 
 unerring judgment combined with exquisite taste. The litera 
 ture that may be found in the letters of the great, unfolds the 
 very essence of the genius of the men and of the times they 
 lived in ; and in my humble judgment it were sufficient to read 
 the letters written by General Lee, and which are collated in the 
 beautiful memorial volume* prepared by Rev. Dr. J. Wm. 
 Jones, to discern that the writer was one who profoundly com 
 prehended the topics of the day, and wielded a pen as vigorous 
 and polished as his sword. And when we contemplate in con 
 nection with his deeds the fair and lofty character that is 
 
 * Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes and Letters of General K. E. Lee," 
 by <T." Win. Jones, Secretary .Southern Historical Society. 
 
66 
 
 mirrored in them, we behold one whose strong, equitable and 
 wide-reaching mind was such that had he devoted it to juris 
 prudence, had made the name of Justice as venerable and august 
 as w T hen a Marshall enunciated the law ; who, had he been a 
 statesman, had moulded the institutions of his country, and 
 guided its political currents with as wise, firm and temperate a 
 hand as" that of Washington ; who, had he headed any of the 
 great corporate enterprises of transportation, commerce or de 
 velopment in which aggregated capital relies on scientific saga 
 city for great works, had greatly aided the solution of many 
 perplexing problems that now agitate the public mind ; who, 
 had he bent himself to literature, had produced a page filled 
 with the glory and dignity of philosophic inquiry or historic 
 truth one indeed so perfectly balanced in mind and will, so 
 nobly turned in moral worth, so just in heart, so clear in thought, 
 and so authoritative in direction that in any land where the 
 common sentiment can have spontaneous play, would, as inevi 
 tably as the sparks fly upward, and by a law scarce less fixed 
 than that which moves the planets in their course, have been 
 the leading man in whatever he undertook, and would have 
 been called by one voice to become the Chief Magistrate of the 
 people. 
 
 TRUE HEROISM THE HEROISM OF LEE. 
 
 As little things make up the sum of life, so they reveal the 
 inward nature of men and furnish keys to history. It is in the 
 office, the street, the field, the workshop, and by the fireside, 
 that men show what stuff they are made of, not less than in 
 those eventful actions which write themselves in lightnings 
 across the skies and mark the rise and fall of nations. Nay, 
 more the highest attributes of human nature are not disclosed 
 in action, but in self-restraint and repose. " Self-restraint," as 
 has been truly said by Thomas Hughes, " is the highest form 
 of self-assertion." 
 
 It is harder, as every soldier knows, to lie down and take the 
 fire of batteries without returning it, than to rise and charge to 
 the cannon s mouth. It is harder to give the soft answer that 
 turns away wrath than to retort a word with a blow. De Long, 
 
in the frozen Arctic wastes, dying alone inch by inch of cold 
 and starvation, yet intent on his work, and writing lines for 
 the benefit of others, deserved, as well as the Marshal of France 
 who received it, the name of " bravest of the brave." The 
 artless little Alabama girl, who was guiding General Forrest 
 along a dangerous path when the enemy fired a volley upon 
 him, and who instinctively spread her skirts and cried : " Get 
 behind me !" had a spirit as high as that which filled the bosom 
 of Joan of Arc or Charlotte Corday. 
 
 The little Holland boy, who, seeing the water oozing through 
 the dyke, and the town near by about to be deluged and de 
 stroyed, neither cried nor ran, but stopped, and all alone, stifled 
 the opening gap with earth, in instant peril of being swept to 
 death unhonored and unknown, showed a finer and nobler fibre 
 than that of Cambronne when he shouted -to the conquering 
 British : " The Guard dies, but never surrenders." The soldier 
 of Pompeii, buried at his post standing there, and flying not 
 from the hot waves of lava that rolled over him, tells the Roman 
 story in grander language than the ruins of the Coliseum. And 
 Ilerndon, on the deck of his ship, doing all to save his passen 
 gers, making deliberate choice of death before dishonor, and 
 going down into the great deep with brow calm and unruffled, 
 is a grander picture of true, heroic temper than that of Caesar 
 leading his legions, or of the young Corsican at the Bridge of 
 Lodi. 
 
 Amongst the quiet, nameless workers of the world in the 
 stubble field and by the forge, bending over a sick child s bed 
 or smoothing an outcast s pillow, is many a hero and heroine 
 truer, nobler than those over whose brows hang plumes and 
 laurels. 
 
 In action there is the stimulus of excited physical faculties, 
 and of the moving passions but in the composure of the cairn 
 mind that quietly devotes itself to hard life-workputting aside 
 temptations contemplating and rising superior to all surround 
 ings of adversity;- suffering, danger and death, man is revealed 
 in his highest manifestation. Then, and then alone, he seems 
 to have redeemed his fallen state, and to be recreated in God s 
 
08 
 
 image. At the bottom of all true heroism is unselfishness. 
 Its crowning expression is sacrifice. The world is suspicious 
 of vaunted heroes. They are so easily manufactured. So many 
 feet are cut and trimmed to fit Cinderella s slippers that we hes 
 itate long before we hail the Princess. But when the true 
 Hero has come, and we know that here he is, in verity, Ah ! 
 how the hearts of men leap forth to greet him how worship- 
 fully we welcome God s noblest work the strong, honest, 
 fearless, upright man. 
 
 In Robert Lee was such a hero vouchsafed to us and to man 
 kind, and whether we behold him declining command of the 
 Federal army to fight the battles and share the miseries of his 
 own people ; proclaiming on the heights in front of Gettysburg 
 that the fault of the disaster was his own ; leading charges in 
 the crisis of combat ; walking under the yoke of conquest with 
 out a murmur of complaint ; or refusing fortunes to come here 
 and train the youth of his country in the path of duty he is 
 ever the same meek, grand, self-sacrificing spirit. Here he 
 exhibited qualities not less worthy and heroic than those dis 
 played on the broad and open theatre of conflict, when the eyes 
 of nations watched his every action. Here in the calm repose 
 of civil and domestic duties, and in the trying routine of inces 
 sant tasks, he lived a life as high as when, day by day, he mar 
 shalled and led his thin and wasting lines, and slept by night 
 upon the field that was to be drenched again in blood upon 
 the morrow. 
 
 Here in these quiet walks, far removed from " war or battle s 
 sound," came into view, as when the storm o er past the moun 
 tain seems a pinnacle of light, the landscape beams with fresher 
 and tenderer beauties, and the purple, golden clouds fioat above 
 us in the azure depths like the Islands of the Blest, so came 
 into view the towering grandeur, the massive splendor and the 
 loving kindness of the character of Genera*- Lee, and the very 
 sorrows that overhung his life seemed luminous with celestial 
 hues. Here he revealed in manifold gracious kospitalities, ten 
 der charities, and patient, worthy counsels, how deep and pure 
 and inexhaustible were the fountains of his virtues. And loving 
 
69 
 
 hearts delight to recall, as loving lips will ever delight to tell, 
 the thousand little things he did which sent forth lines of light 
 to irradiate the gloom of the conquered land, and to lift up the 
 hopes and cheer the works of the people. 
 
 Was there a scheme of public improvement ? He took hearty 
 interest in promoting its success in every way he could. Was 
 there an enterprise of charity, or education, or religion, that 
 needed friendly aid ? He gave it according to his store, and 
 sent with the gift words that were deeds. Was there a poor 
 soldier in distress ? Whoever else forgot him, it was not Lee. 
 Was there a proud spirit chafing under defeat, and breaking 
 forth in angry complaints and criminations, or a wanderer who 
 had sought in other lands an unvexed retreat denied him here? 
 He it was who with mild voice conjured restraint and patience, 
 recalled the wanderer home and reared above the desolate 
 hearthstone the image of duty. And whosoever mourned the 
 loved and lost, who had died in vain for the cause now perished, 
 he it was who poured into the stricken heart the balm of sym 
 pathy and consolation. 
 
 Here, indeed, Lee, no longer the Leader, became, as it were, 
 the Priest of his people, and the young men of Washington 
 College were but a fragment of those who found in his voice 
 and his example the shining signs that never misguided their 
 footsteps. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 Many are the illustrations and incidents which show how 
 beautifully blended in his character were the sterner qualities 
 that command respect, with the gentle traits that engage affec 
 tion. And his quick apprehension of every natural beautv, 
 and keen sympathy, for all living things show the exquisite 
 sensibilities of his heart. His letters from Mexico teem with 
 expressions of the delight with which he looked upon the 
 bright-winged birds and luxuriant flowers of that sunny land, 
 and during the Confederate war, when cramped resources 
 denied bestowal of the smallest tokens of friendship, we find 
 his letters to dear ones frequently laden with the floral emblems 
 
of his constant thought and love. In one of them he says : " I 
 send you some sweet violets that I gathered for you this morn 
 ing while covered with the dense white frost whose crystals 
 glittered in the bright sun like diamonds, and formed a brooch 
 of rare beauty and sweetness which could not be fabricated by 
 the expenditure of a world of money." 
 
 And when after the war he visited Alexandria, the scene of 
 his boyhood days, one of his old neighbors found him gazing 
 over the palings of the garden where he used to play. " I am 
 looking," he said, " to see if the old snow-ball trees are still 
 here. I should be^sorry to miss them." How he loved, too, 
 these grand mountains ! Amongst them, mounted on his faith 
 ful war-horse, Traveller, lie often roamed while he spent his 
 days amongst you. And here in nature s works he found 
 refreshment from the toils of life, and looked from nature 
 up to nature s God. 
 
 His tenderness was as instinctive as his valor. A writer 
 who, on one occasion, stood in his company watching a fire in 
 the mountains, relates how, when others were wrapt in its 
 scenic grandeur, General Lee remarked : " It is beautiful ! but 
 I have been thinking of the poor animals that must perish in 
 the flames." And another tells how, when in the lines near 
 Richmond, the bolts of battle swept the point where the Gen 
 eral stood, he ordered his attendants to the rear, and while 
 himself calmly surveying the field under fire, he "Stopped to 
 pick up a fledging sparrow that had fallen from its nest, and 
 restore it to the bough overhead. 
 
 Pictures, are these, full of infinite suggestion ! 
 
 A Robespierre and a Torquemada may exhibit emotional 
 tenderness, shallow and fitful, but that of Lee was the vital 
 principle of a robust, exalted nature, which found its inspira 
 tions in the sacred heart of Charity, and diffused itself in cease 
 less acts of magnanimity and love. 
 
 So it was that while the passions of men were loosened, and 
 the fierce work of war spread havoc and desolation far and 
 wide, he who directed its tremendous forces with stern and 
 nervous hand, moved also amongst its scenes of woe a gra- 
 
71 
 
 cious and healing spirit. So it was to him a stricken foe was a 
 foe no longer that his orders to the surgeons of his army were 
 to "treat the whole field alike," and when, at Chancellorsville, 
 he in person led the tempestuous assault that won the victory, 
 and stood amongst the wounded of the blue and glay, heaped 
 around him in indiscriminate carnage his first thought and 
 care were for them, alike in their common suffering. So it was 
 that whether in Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Virginia, he 
 restrained every excess of conduct, and held the reckless and 
 the ruthless within those bounds which duty sets to action. So 
 it was that to one homeless during the days of strife, he wrote : 
 " Occupy yourself in helping those more helpless than your 
 self." So it was, that when the gallant General Phil. Kearney 
 fell at Ox Hill, he sent his sword and horse through the lines 
 to his mourning widow and that when Lincoln was struck 
 down by an assassin s hand, he denounced the deed as " a crime 
 previously unknown to the country, and one that must be dep 
 recated by every American." And so, too, when one day here, 
 a man humbly clad sought alms at his door, Lee pointed to his 
 retiring form and said : " That is one of our old soldiers who is 
 in necessitous circumstances. He fought on the other side, but 
 we must not remember that against him now." And this poor 
 soldier said of him afterwards: " He is the noblest man that 
 ever lived. He not only had a kind word for me, but he gave 
 me some money to help me on my way." Better is that praise 
 than any garland of the Poet or the Rhetorician. 
 
 THE RELATIONS BETWEEN LEE AND HIS MEN. 
 
 As we glance back through the smoke-drifts of his many 
 campaigns and battles, his kind, considerate acts towards his 
 officers and men gleam through them as brightly as their bur 
 nished weapons ; and they formed a fellowship as noble as that 
 which bound the Knights of the Round Table to Arthur, " the 
 blameless King." His principle of discipline was indicated in 
 his expression that " a true man of honor feels himself hum 
 bled when he cannot help humbling others," and never exer 
 cising stern authority except when absolutely indispensable, his 
 
influence was the more potent because it ever appealed to hon 
 orable motives and natural affections. In the dark days of the 
 Revolution, two Major-Generals conspired with a faction of the 
 Continental Congress to put Gates in the place of Washing 
 ton, denominating him a "weak General." Xever did Con 
 federate dream a disloyal thought of Lee, and the greater the 
 disaster, the more his army leaned upon him. 
 
 When Jackson fell, Lee wrote to him : " You are better off 
 than I am, for while you have lost your left arm, I have lost 
 my right arm." And Jackson said of him : " Lee is a phe 
 nomenon. He is the only man that I would follow blindfold." 
 Midway between Petersburg and Appomattox, with the ruins 
 of an Empire falling on his shoulders, and the gory remnants 
 of his army staggering under the thick blows of the advancing 
 foe, we see Lee turning aside from the column, and riding up 
 to the home of the widow of the gallant Colonel John Thorn" 
 ton, who had fallen at Sharpsburg. " I have not time to tarry," 
 he says, " but I could not pass by without stopping a moment 
 to pay my respects to the widow of my honored soldier, Colo 
 nel Thorton, and tender her my deepest sympathy in the sore 
 bereavement she sustained when the country was deprived of 
 his invaluable services." 
 
 Three of his sons were there in the army with him ; but they 
 were too noble to seek, and he too noble to bestow, honors 
 because of the tie of blood. One of them, a private in the 
 artillery, served his gun with his fellows. Another is in a hos 
 tile prison, and a Federal officer of equal rank begs that Gen 
 eral Lee will effect an exchange, the one for the other. The 
 General declined, saying, " that he will ask no favor for his 
 own son that could not be asked for the humblest private in the 
 army." On the cars, crowded with passengers, a soldier, scarce 
 noticed, struggles to draw his coat over his wounded arm. One 
 from amongst many rises and goes to his aid. It is General 
 Lee. An army surgeon relates that while the battle of the 
 Crater raged, General Lee rode to the rear of the line where 
 the wounded lay, and, dismounting, moved amongst them. 
 "Doctor, why are you not doing something for this man," he 
 
said, pointing to one sorely stricken. The Doctor raised the 
 gray jacket and pointed to the ghastly wound which made 
 life hopeless. General Lee bent tenderly over the wounded 
 man and then in a voice tremulous with emotion, exclaimed : 
 " Alas ! poor soldier ! may God make soft his dying pillow." 
 
 Such were some of the many acts that made the men love 
 Lee. And in the fight he was ever ready to be foremost. Lee 
 the Soldier, over-rode Lee the General, and when the pinch 
 and struggle came, there was he. "Lee to the rear" became 
 the soldiers battle-cry ; and oftentimes, when the long lines 
 came gleaming on, and shot and shell in tempest ripped the 
 earth, uptore the forest and filled the air with death, those sol 
 diers in their rusty rags, paused as they saw his face amongst 
 them ; and then, with manhood s imperious love, these sove 
 reigns of the field commanded, " General Lee, go back," as 
 their condition of advancing. And then forward to the death. 
 Was ever such devotion ? Yes, Lee loved his men " as a father 
 pitieth his children," and they loved him with a love that 
 "passeth the love of woman," for they saw in him the iron hero 
 who could lead the brave with front as dauntless as a warrior s 
 crest, and the gentle friend who comforted the stricken with 
 soul as tender as a mother s prayer. 
 
 FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Lee had nothing in common with the little minds that know 
 not how to forgive. His was the land that had been invaded ; 
 his the people who were cut down, ravaged and ruined ; 
 his the home that was torn away and spoliated ; his was the 
 cause that perished. He was the General discrowned of his 
 mighty place, and he the citizen disfranchised. Yet Lee for 
 gave, and counselled all to forgive and forget. 
 
 The Greek poet has said : 
 
 * The firmest mind will fail 
 
 Beneath misfortune s stroke, and stunned, depart 
 From its sage plan of action." 
 
 But the mind of Lee received the rude shock of destiny 
 without a quiver; so the genial currents of his sweet, heroic 
 
74 
 
 soul rolled on unruffled, while in their calm, pure depths were 
 reflected the light of heaven. 
 
 When a minister once denounced the North, and the indict 
 ment of General Lee for treason, the general followed him to 
 the door and said : " Doctor, there is a good old book which I 
 read, and you preach from, which says : i Love your enemies, 
 bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
 pray for them which dispitef ully use you. Do you think your 
 remarks this evening were quite in the spirit of that teaching ?" 
 And he added : " I have fought against the people of the 
 North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the 
 South her dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward 
 them bitter or vindictive feelings, and have never seen the day 
 when I did not pray for them." 
 
 Soon after the passage of those harsh acts of Congress, dis 
 franchising Confederates for participating in the war, and 
 while every Southern breast was filled with indignation, some 
 friends in General Lee s presence expressed themselves with 
 great bitterness. The General turned to the table near him, 
 where lay the manuscript of his father s life, which he was 
 then editing, and read these lines : 
 
 " Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe, 
 And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe ; 
 Free like yon rock, from base, vindictive pride, 
 Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side. 
 Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower, 
 With fruit nectarious or the balmy flower ; 
 All Nature cries aloud : shall men do less 
 Than love the smiter, and the railer bless ?" 
 
 " These lines," said he, "were written in Arabia, and by a 
 Mahomedan, the Poet of Sliiraz, the immortal Hafiz ; and 
 ought not we, who profess to be governed by the principles of 
 Christianity, to rise at least to the standard of this Mahomedan 
 poet, and learn to -forgive our enemies ?" 
 
 In the rush of this age, a character so simply meek and so 
 proudly, grandly strong, is scarce comprehensible to the eager, 
 restless competitors for wealth and place and power. And the 
 " practical man," as he is called, who ever keeps a keen eye to 
 
the main chance, and is esteemed happy just in proportion as 
 fortune favors his schemes of ambition or profit, is apt to 
 attribute weakness to one so void of selk-seeking and resent 
 ment, and so amiable and gentle in his feelings and conduct 
 towards his fellow-men. But could he have seen with what 
 patient attention to detail this ceaseless worker dispatched 
 business and brought great results from small materials with 
 what quick, strong, comprehensive grasp he solved difficulties 
 and conquered dangers what good cheer he gave the toiling ; 
 what hope he gave the despondent ; what comfort he gave the 
 afflicted. Aye ! could he have caught the glance of that eagle 
 eye, and looked on that serene, bold brow which over-awed the 
 field of battle, and then beheld the swift, stern, inspiring 
 energy which propelled its forces to deeds which seemed almost 
 impossible to man there would have been to him a new rev 
 elation. He would have beheld a character which, to one 
 unacquainted with it, would seem to have been idealized by 
 the genius of the poet rather that to have existed in the flesh, 
 and to have stepped forth from the sanctuary of romance 
 rather than to have belonged to real history. He would have 
 realized, by contact with this simple gentleman, that the true 
 greatness and true glory of man lies in those elements which 
 are superior to fortune that he is most practical who is him 
 self above it, and that happiness, if ever on earth happiness be 
 found, has fixed her temple only in the heart that is without 
 guile, and is without reproach of man or woman. 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Five years rolled by while here " the self-imposed mission " 
 of Lee was being accomplished, and now, in 1870, he had 
 reached the age of sixty-three. A robust constitution, never 
 abused by injurious habits, would doubtless have prolonged his 
 life beyond the three-score years and ten which the Psalmist 
 has ascribed as the allotted term of man ; but many causes 
 were sapping and undermining it. The exposures of two wars 
 in which he had participated, and the tremendous strain on 
 nerves and heart and brain which his vast responsibilities and 
 
76 
 
 his accumulated trials had entailed, had been silently and grad 
 ually doing their work ; and now his step had lost something 
 of its elasticity, the shoulders began to stoop as if under a 
 growing burden, and the ruddy glow of health upon his coun 
 tenance had passed into a feverish flush. Into his ears, and into 
 his heart, had been poured the afflictions of his people, and 
 while composed and self-contained and uncomplaining, who 
 could have looked upon that great face, over whose majestic 
 lineaments there stole the shade of sadness, without perceiving 
 that grief for those he loved was gnawing at the heart strings ( 
 without perceiving in the brilliant eye, which now and then had 
 a far-away, abstracted gaze, that the soul within bore a sorrow 
 " that only Heaven could heal." 
 
 What he suffered his lips have never spoken. In the beau 
 tiful language of another : " His lips were closed like the gates 
 of some majestic temple, not for concealment, but because that 
 within was holy." Yet, let us take consolation to ourselves 
 that there came to him much to give him joy. Around him 
 were those united by the closest ties of blood and relationship 
 in unremitting fidelity. Not a man of those who ever fought 
 under him aye, not one ever proved faithless in respect for 
 him ; the great mass of them gave to him every expression in 
 their power of their affection. To the noble mind, sweet is the 
 generous and genuine praise of noble men, and for Lee there 
 was full measure. He lived to see deeply laid the foundation, 
 and firmly built the pedestal, of his great glory, and to catch 
 the murmur of those voices which would rear high his image 
 and bear his name and fame to remote ages, and distant nations. 
 The brave and true of every land paid him tribute. The first 
 soldiers of foreign climes saluted him with eulogy ; the scholar 
 decorated his page with dedication to his name, the artist 
 enshrined his form and features in noblest work of brush and 
 chisel, the poet hymned the heroic pathos of his life in tender, 
 lofty strain. Enmity grew into friendship before his noble 
 bearing, and humanity itself attended him with all human 
 sympathy. And over all, " God made soft his dying pillow." 
 
DEATH. 
 
 The particular form of his mortal malady was rheumatism of 
 tke heart, originating in the exposure of his campaigns, and 
 aggravated by the circumstances of his many trying situations. 
 He traveled South in the spring of 1870, and in the summer 
 resorted to the Hot springs of Virginia ; and when September 
 came, he was here in better health and spirits, at his accustomed 
 work. On the 28th of September, he conducted, as usual, his 
 correspondence, and performed the incidental tasks of his office, 
 and after dinner he attended a meeting of the Vestry of Grace 
 Episcopal Church, of which body he was a member. A ques 
 tion as to the ministers salary coining before the Board, and 
 there being a deficiency in the amount necessary. General Lee 
 said : " I will give that sum." A sense of weariness came over 
 him before the meeting ended, and at its close he retired with 
 wan, flushed face. Returning home, he found the family cir 
 cle gathered for tea, and took his place at the board, standing 
 to say grace. The lips failed to voice the blessings prompted 
 by the heart, and without a word he took his seat with an 
 expression of sublime resignation on his face ; for well he 
 knew that the Master s call had come, and he was ready to 
 answer. 
 
 He was borne to his chamber, and skilled physicians and lov 
 ing hands did all that man could do. For nearly a fortnight 
 
 " Twixt night and morn upon the horizon s verge, 
 Between two worlds life hovered like a star." 
 
 And thus on the morning of October litth, the star of the mor 
 tal sank into the sunrise of immortality, and Kobert Lee passed 
 hence to " where beyond these voices there is peace." 
 
 " Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action," were amongst the 
 last words of Stonewall Jackson. " Tell Hill he must come 
 up," were the last words of Lee. Their brave Lieutenant, who 
 rests under the green turf of Hollywood, seems to have been 
 latest in the minds of his great commanders, while their spirits 
 yet in martial fancy, roamed again the fields of conflict, and 
 ere they passed to where the soldier dreams of battle-fields no 
 more. 
 
78 
 
 THE LESSONS OF III8 LIFE. 
 
 And did he live in vain, this brave and gentle Lee ? And 
 have his works perished with him ? I would blush to ask the 
 question save to give the answer. 
 
 A leader of armies he closed his career in complete disaster. 
 But the military scientist studies his campaigns, and finds in 
 them designs as bold and brilliant and actions as intense and 
 energetic as ever illustrated the art of war. The gallant cap 
 tain beholds in his bearing, courage as rare as ever forced a 
 desperate field, or restored a lost one. The private soldier 
 looks up at an image as benignant and commanding as ever 
 thrilled the heart with highest impulse of devotion. 
 
 The men who wrested victory from his little band, stood 
 wonder-stricken and abashed when they saw how few were 
 those who dared oppose them, and generous admiration burst 
 into spontaneous tribute to the splendid leader who bore defeat 
 with the quiet resignation of a hero. The men who fought 
 under him never revered or loved him more than on the day 
 he sheathed his sword. II ad he but said the word, they would 
 have died for honor. It was because he said the word that 
 they resolved to live for duty. 
 
 Plato congratulated himself, first, that he was born a man ; 
 second, that he had the happiness of being a Greek ; and, 
 third, that he was the contemporary of Sophocles. And in 
 this vast throng to-day, and here and there the wide world 
 over, is many an one who wore the grey, who rejoices that he 
 was born a man to do a man s part for his suffering country ; 
 that he had the glory of being a Confederate ; and who feels a 
 just, proud and glowing consciousness in his bosom when he 
 says unto himself : " I was a follower of Kobert Lee. I was a 
 soldier in the army of Northern Virginia." 
 
 DID HE WIELD PATRONAGE AND POWER i 
 
 No, he could not have appointed a friend to the smallest 
 office. He could bestow no emolument upon any of his fol 
 lowers. But an intimation of his wish amongst his own peo- 
 
79 
 
 pie carried an influence which the command of the autocrat can 
 never possess, and his approval of conduct or character was 
 deemed an honor, and was an honor, which outvied the stars 
 and crosses and titles conferred by kings. 
 
 DID HE GAIN WEALTH. 
 
 No. lie neither sought nor despised it. It thrust itself 
 upon him, but he put it away from him. He refused its com 
 panionship because its people could not have its company. He 
 gave what he had to a weak cause, and to those whose necessi 
 ties were greater than his own. And home itself he sacrificed 
 on the altar of his country. But he refuted the shallow world 
 ling s maxim that " every man has his price," and proved that 
 true manhood has none, however great. 
 
 The plunderer of India defended himself by exclaiming that 
 " when he considered his opportunities, he was astonished at his 
 own moderation." Mark Antony appeased the anger of the 
 Roman populace against the fallen tyrant by Caesar s will, 
 wherein he left them his rich and fair possessions to them 
 and their heirs forever. The Captive of St. Helena, aggran 
 dized with the tears and blood of Europe, drew his own long 
 will, dispensing millions to his favorites. Lee had opportuni 
 ties as great as any conqueror and took nothing not even that 
 which others pushed upon him. 
 
 But he has left a great, imperishable legacy to us and our 
 heirs forever. The heart of man is his perpetual kingdom. 
 There he reigns transcendent, and we exclaim : " Oh, king, 
 live forever." 
 
 Not so. Far from it. He was not even a citizen. The 
 country which gave the right of suffrage to the alien ere he 
 could speak its language, and to the African freedman ere he 
 could read or understand its laws, denied to him the privilege 
 of a ballot. He had asked amnesty. He had been refused. 
 He had not been tried, but he had been convicted. He for 
 gave, but he was unforgiven. He died a paroled prisoner of 
 
80 
 
 war, in the calm of peace, five years after war had ended died 
 the foremost and noblest man in a Republic which proclaims 
 itself " the land of the free and the home of the brave," him 
 self and his Commander-in-Chief constituting the most conspicu 
 ous of its political slaves. But as the oak, stripped of the foli 
 age by the winter blast, then, and then only, stands forth in 
 solemn and mighty majesty against the wintry sky, so Robert 
 Lee, stripped of every rank that man could give him, towered 
 above the earth and those around him, in the pure sublimity 
 and strength of that character which we can only fitly contem 
 plate when we lift our eyes from earth and see it dimmed 
 against the Heavens ! 
 
 DID HE SAVfc HIS COUNTRY FROM CONQUEST? 
 
 No. He saw his every foreboding of evil verified. He 
 came to share the miseries of his people. He shared them, 
 drinking every drop of Sorrow s cup. His cause was lost, and 
 the land for which he fought lives not amongst the nations. 
 But the voice of History echoes the poet s song : 
 
 " Ah ! realm of tombs ! but let it bear 
 
 This blazon to the last of times ; 
 No nation rose so white and fair, 
 Or fell so pure from crimes." 
 
 And he, its type, lived and died, teaching life s greatest les 
 sons, " to suffer and be strong, and that u misfortune nobly 
 borne is good fortune." 
 
 There is a rare exotic that blooms but once in a century, and 
 then it fills the light with beauty and the air with fragrance. 
 In each of the two centuries of Virginia s Statehood, there has 
 sprung from the loins of her heroic race, a son whose name and 
 deeds w r ill bloom throughout the ages. Each fought for Lib 
 erty and Independence ; each against a people of his own race ; 
 each against the forms of established power. George Wash 
 ington won against a kingdom whose seat was three thousand 
 miles away, whose soldiers had to sail in ships across the deep, 
 and he found in the boundless areas of his own land its strong- 
 
81 
 
 est fortifications. August, beyond the reach of detraction, is 
 the glory of his name. Robert Edward Lee made fiercer and 
 bloodier fight against greater odds, and at greater sacrifice, and 
 lost against the greatest nation of modern history, armed with 
 ste<im and electricity, and all the appliances of modern science; 
 a nation which mustered its hosts at the very threshold of his 
 door. But his life teaches the grandest lesson how manhood 
 can rise transcendent over Adversity, and is in itself alone, 
 under God, pre-eminent the grander lesson, because as sorrow 
 and misfortune are sooner or later the common lot even that 
 of him who is to-day the conqueror he who bears them best is 
 made of sterner stuff, and is the most useful and universal, as 
 he is the greatest and noblest exemplar. 
 
 And now he has vanished from us forever. And is this all 
 that is left of him this handful of dust beneath the marble 
 stone ? No, the Ages answer as they rise from the gulfs of 
 Time, where lay the wrecks of kingdoms and estates, holding 
 up in their hands as their only trophies, the names of those 
 who have wrought for man in the love arid fear of God, and in 
 love unf earing for their fellow-men. 
 
 C* 
 
 No ! the present answers, bending by his tomb. 
 
 No ! the future answers, as the breath of the morning fans 
 its radiant brow, and its soul drinks in sweet inspirations from 
 the lovely life of Lee. 
 
 No, methinks the very heavens echo, as melt into their 
 depths the words of reverent love that voice the hearts of men 
 to the tingling stars. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Come we then to-day in loyal love to sanctify our memories, 
 to purify our hopes, to make strong all good intent by commu 
 nion with the spirit of him, who, being dead, yet speaketh. 
 Come, child, in thy spotless innocence ; come, woman, in thy 
 purity ; come, youth, in thy prime ; come, manhood, in thy 
 strength ; come, age, in thy ripe wisdom ; come citizen, come 
 soldier, let us strew the roses and lilies of June around his 
 
tomb, for lie, like them, exhaled in his life Nature s benefi 
 cence, and the grave has consecrated that life, and given it to 
 us all ; let us crown his tomb with the oak, the emblem of his 
 strength, and with the laurel, the emblem of his glory, and let 
 these guns, whose voices he knew of old, awake the echoes of 
 the mountains that Nature herself may join in his solemn 
 requiem. 
 
 Come, for here he rests, and 
 
 " On this green bank, by this fair stream, 
 
 We set to-day a native stone, 
 That memory may his deeds redeem. 
 When, like our sires, our sons are gone." 
 
 Come, for here the genius of loftiest poesy in the artist s 
 dream, and through the sculptor s touch, has restored his form 
 and features a Valentine has lifted the marble veil and dis 
 closed him to us as we would love to look upon him lying, 
 the flower of knighthood, in "Joyous Gard." His sword 
 beside him is sheathed forever. But honor s seal is on his 
 brow, and valor s star is on his breast, and the peace that pass- 
 eth all understanding descends upon him. Here, not in the 
 hour of his grandest triumph of earth, as when mid the battle 
 roar, shouting battalions followed his trenchant sword, and 
 bleeding veterans forgot their wounds to leap between him and 
 his enemies but here in victory, supreme over earth itself, 
 and over death, its conqueror, he rests, his warfare done. 
 
 And as we seem to gaze once more on him we loved and 
 hailed as chief, in his sweet, dreamless sleep, the tranquil face is 
 clothed with heaven s light, and the mute lips seem eloquent 
 with the message that in life he spoke : 
 
 " There is a true glory and a true honor ; the glory of duty 
 done, the honor of the integrity of principle" 
 
83 
 
 After the conclusion of Major Daniel s oration, Father Ryan, 
 at the request of Gen. Early, recited his celebrated poem : 
 
 THE SWORD OF LEE. 
 
 Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright, 
 
 Flashed the sword of Lee ! 
 Far in the front of the deadly fight, 
 High o er the brave in the cause of right, 
 Its stainless sheen, like a beacon-light, 
 
 Led us to victory. 
 
 Out of its scabbard, where full long, 
 
 It slumbered peacefully 
 Boused from its rest by the battle- song, 
 Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong, 
 Guarding the right, and avenging the wrong 
 
 Gleamed the sword of Lee ! 
 
 Forth from its scabbard, high in air, 
 
 Beneath Virginia s sky 
 And they who saw it gleaming there, 
 And knew who bore it, knelt to swear 
 That where that sword led they would dare 
 
 To follow and to die. 
 
 Out of its scabbard ! Never hand 
 
 Waved sword from stain as free, 
 Nor purer sword led braver band, 
 Nor braver bled for a brighter land, 
 Nor brighter land had a cause as grand, 
 
 Nor cause, a chief like Lee ! 
 
 Forth from its scabbard ! how we prayed 
 
 That sword might victor be ! 
 And when our triumph was delayed, 
 And many a heart grew sore afraid, 
 We still hoped on, while gleamed the blade 
 
 Of noble Robert Lee ! 
 
 Forth from its scabbard ! all in vain ! 
 
 Forth flashed the sword of Lee ! 
 Tis shrouded now in its sheath again, 
 It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, 
 Defeated, yet without a stain, 
 
 Proudly and peacefully. 
 
 V 
 
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