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 THE LIFE OF 
 
 General Robert E. Lee 
 
 By G. MERCER ADAM 
 
 THE LIFE-CAREER AND MILITARY 
 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE GREAT 
 SOUTHERN GENERAL, WITH A 
 RECORD OF THE CAMPAIGNS OF 
 THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, * * 
 j* PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
 
 COPYRIGHT 1905 
 
 BY A. L. BURT COMPANY 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT E. 
 By G. Mercer Adam
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAOE 
 
 I. Introductory 1 
 
 II. Birth, Youthhood, and Early Career 17 
 
 III. In the Mexican War 27 
 
 IV. The Interval between the Mexican War and the 
 
 War forthe Union 44 
 
 V. The Opposing Forces Preparing for Conflict 60 
 
 VI. The DramaOpens 73 
 
 VII. The Campaign against Pope in Northern Vir- 
 ginia, and the Second Battle of Bull Run 95 
 
 VIII. The Maryland Campaign 104 
 
 IX. The Fredericksburg Campaign (Oct.-Dec., 1862) 
 
 and the Edict of Emancipation 119 
 
 X. The Chancellors ville Campaign and Battle 129 
 
 XL The Second Invasion of the North, and the 
 
 Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) 148 
 
 XII. Lee Retreats to Virginia and Winters behind the 
 
 Rapidan 166 
 
 XIII. The Wilderness Campaign 175 
 
 XIV. Operations on the South Side of the James River, 
 
 and the Siege of Petersburg 191 
 
 XV. The Autumn of 1864, and the Winter of 1864-65. . 212 
 XVI. Operations in Georgia, Tennessee, and the Caro- 
 
 linas in the Winter of 1864-65. ,,,.., 239 
 
 iii
 
 iy CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGK 
 
 XVH. The Close of the Long Struggle 249 
 
 TVTII. The Retirement from Petersburg and Richmond. 266 
 XIX. Grant's Peace Overtures to Lee, and the Surren- 
 der at Appomattox 276 
 
 yy. General Lee installed as President of Washington 
 
 College, Lexington, Va 298 
 
 XXl. Evening Shadows, and Death 811
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THOUGH more than a generation has now 
 elapsed since General Robert E. Lee passed from 
 the scenes of his illustrious deeds, public interest 
 in the great soldier and his career is still active, 
 and turns with increasing curiosity to any attrac- 
 tive recital of the incidents in his eventful life 
 many as are the biographies that have already 
 been published of him. Nor is this perennial 
 interest in the loved hero of " a Lost Cause " to be 
 wondered at, when we recall not only the histori- 
 cal importance of the long struggle in which he 
 so nobly fought, and against such heavy odds ; but 
 the remarkable military ability and eminently 
 high character of the man whose career is identi- 
 fied with the great conflict, and whose life-story 
 is throughout so attractive and inspiring. 
 
 The era is now passed when, in the North, Con- 
 federates and their sympathizers were hotly stig- 
 matized as " rebels, "and when their attitude and 
 their cause were aspersed as hateful as well as 
 treasonable. To-day, the drama of the Civil War 
 
 iii
 
 J v PREFACE. 
 
 has gone into the limbo of history, and can now 
 be written about dispassionately and, even on the 
 Southern side, with admiring Northern curiosity 
 and interest. This is one of the manifest advant- 
 ages the modern-day writer has in dealing with the 
 events of the distracting and calamitous period, 
 and in reviewing the whole story with calm delib- 
 eration and historic impartiality. Another and 
 special advantage has the narrator of the era's 
 annals, when, as is the present case, he is writing 
 biography as well as history, and has so entranc- 
 ing a theme to deal with as the life-career and 
 achievements of so distinguished and revered an 
 actor in the tragedy of the Civil War as General 
 Robert E. Lee. For the latter and his estimable 
 character the present writer has always had the 
 highest regard, and even veneration ; and though 
 this perhaps may not shield him from criticism 
 should there be found shortcomings in the within 
 work, it ought at least to placate the reader 
 towards the author of it, if he is also an admirer 
 of Lee, and lead him to be at once indulgent and 
 friendly. 
 
 G.M. A.
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 IN attempting to write a record of the Life and 
 Career of General Robert E. Lee, the great com- 
 mander of the Southern Army in the Civil War, 
 the author undertakes the work with some diffi- 
 dence and misgiving. This is occasioned, in part, 
 by a sense of responsibility in undertaking so im- 
 portant a task a task that had already been so 
 well achieved by other and prominent biographers 
 of " the hero of a Lost Cause " ; and in part also, 
 by a doubt in the present writer's mind of being 
 able to do adequate justice to so eminent an actor 
 in the drama of his time, who was, moreover, one 
 of the greatest soldiers and most clever military 
 tacticians of the past century, and, withal, a 
 splendid type of Christian manhood. Here, how- 
 ever, the writer's hesitation ends, and the im- 
 pelling motive finally becomes admiration long 
 
 1
 
 2 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 and heartily entertained for the noble theme of 
 this volume, and the ambition to add another, 
 and it is hoped a not unworthy tribute, to the/, 
 fame of the illustrious General, who was person- 
 ally not only greatly beloved and highly esteemed 
 in his day, but whose professional eminence 
 among the renowned commanders of the war is 
 conceded by every critic and writer of distinction 
 who has dealt with its tragic annals. 
 
 But great as is the niche filled by the grand old 
 soldier in the history of the Southern side of 
 the Civil War contest, we must remember that 
 this is not all we have to deal with in relating the 
 life and military exploits of the man, since long 
 before the outbreak of the War of the Eebellion 
 and his espousal of the interests of his native 
 State in that dire struggle, Lee had had a length- 
 ened, varied, and honorable career of service in 
 the Army of the United States. In that service, 
 not only had he won distinction as chief engineer 
 officer and active combatant in the War with 
 Mexico, where he rendered heroic and conspicuous 
 service at the siege of Vera Cruz, and was 
 wounded in the assault ; but was, moreover, of 
 invaluable service to the commander of the ex- 
 pedition, General Winfield Scott, in his council 
 of officers, as well as in important reconnoissances,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 in planting batteries, in conducting columns 
 from point to point under fire during the assault 
 upon the place, and taking part in the onerous and 
 often perilous operations of the siege. For this 
 highly efficient work he was repeatedly mentioned 
 in the General's despatches ; while from the cam- 
 paign as a whole he issued, as it has been said, 
 1 1 crowned with honors and covered with brevets 
 for gallant and meritorious conduct." After this 
 we find Lee engaged in the important duty of con- 
 structing defensive works at various points for the 
 Washington government ; and during the year 
 1852-55, he acted as commandant of the Military 
 Academy at West Point, of which he was himself 
 a distinguished graduate. Later on, Colonel Lee 
 was transferred from the Engineers to the Cavalry 
 branch of the service, when he held for a time 
 responsible posts in Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, 
 and Texas, and was at Harper's Ferry, West Vir- 
 ginia, at the era of the John Brown raid. When 
 Civil War loomed upon the scene, Lee, as we 
 shall ere long see, had reached his fifty-fourth 
 year, and had thirty-two years of honorable serv- 
 ice to his credit in the national army. Moreover, 
 so conspicuous had been his career, and so highly 
 esteemed was he as an officer and a gentleman, 
 that, had he remained in the service of the Union,
 
 4 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 his name, it is well known, was designed to be 
 brought before the military authorities of the 
 nation and that favorably, as the successor in the 
 chief command of the army to the then aged 
 warrior, General Winfield Scott. Nor, at the 
 crisis that then fell upon the country, was Lee 
 actuated by caprice or mere partisanship in tak- 
 ing sides with the South in the calamitous war that 
 was about to ensue and drench the land in fratri- 
 cidal blood. His attitude was far otherwise ; for 
 at first we know that he regarded Secession as 
 anarchical, if not treasonable, and looked with 
 grave apprehension upon the threatened rupture 
 of the Union, and was ill at ease at the prospect 
 of the disseverance of his own relations with the 
 North and the breaking of the ties, professional 
 and social, that had hitherto connected him with 
 its military service. The slavery question did not 
 appeal to him as a cause of sectional strife, his 
 chief concern being the attitude of his native 
 State in the unhappy prospect of war, for to his 
 loved Commonwealth of Virginia he was chival- 
 rously loyal, and if strife was to come he felt that 
 he could not draw his sword against her and her 
 interests. This was his answer to his friend and 
 superior officer, General Winfield Scott, as well 
 as to the Hon. Montgomery Blair, son of the then
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 Postmaster-General of Washington, who was au- 
 thorized to offer Lee command of the Federal 
 army if he would remain stanch in his fidelity 
 to the Union. In deserting the Northern cause, 
 he asserted that he could not consult his own feel- 
 ings entirely, so strong was his allegiance to his 
 own section of the country as well as faithful his 
 attachment to his own State. " Save in defense 
 of my State," he feelingly wrote in the Spring of 
 1861 to General Scott, in asking to be relieved of 
 his command, "I never desire again to draw my 
 sword." After resigning his commission in the 
 Federal service, his own State having by this 
 time prepared to withdraw from the Union and 
 make the call upon her many brave sons to rally 
 to her standard and espouse the Southern side in 
 the pending struggle, Lee repaired to his Virginia 
 home as a private citizen, while deprecating war 
 and trusting that sectional strife would not break 
 out, but that a peaceful solution would yet be 
 formed of the grave problems that were then 
 a menace to the nation. Unhappily, war, and not 
 peace, was to be the issue of the distracting times, 
 for already seven States, in accordance with con- 
 vention ordinances, had taken themselves out of 
 the Union, and at Montgomery, Alabama, had 
 organized a separate government under the desig-
 
 6 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 nation of the Confederate States of America. 
 A little later on, the other sister States of the 
 South joined the new Confederacy, whose capital 
 was Richmond, Va. ; while its president, provis- 
 ionally, became Jefferson Davis, formerly a mem- 
 ber of the U. S. House of Representatives and 
 national senator, who arrived at Richmond, May 
 29th (1861), and was duly installed in office. 
 Meanwhile, Virginia had declared for Secession 
 and joined the Confederacy, and Lee, having been 
 nominated by the Governor of his own State as a 
 delegate to the Virginia Convention, he now re- 
 paired to Richmond, where he was enthusiasti- 
 cally intrusted with the chief command of the 
 Virginia forces and confirmed in the rank of 
 major-general, which high office had been con- 
 ferred upon him by the Governor of his State, 
 under the authority of the Legislature. 
 
 In what estimation General Lee was held, even 
 at this time in the South, may be seen from the 
 reception accorded him by the Convention at 
 Richmond, on the occasion of his presentation to 
 the body to receive its president's address of wel- 
 come, be formally installed in the office of com- 
 mander-in-chief of the military and naval force 
 of the State, and accept his instructions to mobilize 
 and put in the field an army for its defense and
 
 INTRODUCTORY. f 
 
 protection. The appointment, we need hardly 
 say, had come unsought by him, and was con- 
 firmed by the unanimous vote of the Convention, 
 the fullest confidence of the body (handsomely 
 vouched for by the president) being felt in his 
 ability, integrity, and trusty honor, as well as in 
 the high historic traditions of his family, by which 
 General Lee, like his illustrious forebears, had 
 always been influenced and guided, and had ever 
 scrupulously respected with pardonable pride and 
 becoming dignity. After a brief, modest reply 
 in acknowledgment of the Convention's reposeful 
 trust in him and assignment of duty, the Com- 
 mander-in-chief entered vigorously upon his task 
 of organizing and equipping the State forces, which 
 were subsequently merged with those of the Con- 
 federacy as a whole ; while Lee became one of the 
 able group of general officers of the regular army 
 of the Confederate States, still retaining, however, 
 his chief command of the army of Virginia. 
 
 When these momentous events were taking 
 place in the South, with the formation of a Confed- 
 erate Government, based on the claim of their 
 leaders to State Rights, and in opposition to North- 
 ern sentiment adverse to the peculiar institutions 
 of the South, menaced as it was thought by the 
 success of the Republican party in the election of
 
 g LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, the North at last awoke to a 
 sense of the reality of the situation, quickened by 
 the levying of war by the seceded States, the de- 
 parture of their representatives and senators from 
 Congress, and the seizure of the forts and Federal 
 property in the border States. The call of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln for 75,000 militia had been issued, 
 and the North roused itself to action, in virtue of 
 the powers vested in the Executive head by the 
 Constitution and laws of the nation. The response 
 to the Northern summons of troops was immediate 
 and gratifying ; and following it came the blockade 
 of the ports of the seceding States, the rallying of 
 forces to the defense of Washington, with prepara- 
 tions for the invasion of Virginia and the contem- 
 plated raid southward with the design of capturing 
 and occupying Richmond, the seat of the " rebel " 
 government. 
 
 But before proceeding with the narrative of 
 events embraced in the era of the Civil War, in 
 which General Lee, during the four protracted 
 years of the great conflict, bore so conspicuous and 
 brilliant a part, let us relate the early personal 
 history of the intrepid soldier and valiant captain- 
 general of the Southern army in the War of the 
 Rebellion, and fill in the details of his remarkable 
 career from his birth and up-bringing, with some
 
 INTRODUCTORY. . 9 
 
 account of his family and the traditions of his his- 
 toric ancestry and their genealogical belongings. 
 In what remains of this chapter, let us first glance 
 at the lineage and advent of our hero. 
 
 Robert Edward Lee belonged to the old Colonial 
 family of the Lees of Virginia, which has given 
 not a few distinguished statesmen and soldiers to 
 the service of his country. The first of the family 
 we learn of, Colonel Richard Lee, came to Virginia 
 in Charles the First's era from the old home of the 
 Lees in Stafford Langton, Essex, England, other 
 branches of the family being resident of the coun- 
 ties of Bucks, Oxford, and Shrops. The home of 
 the Lees in the latter shire was at Morton Regis, 
 a representative of which family branch also em- 
 igrated to the New World in early Colonial times 
 and settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia. 
 Colonel Richard Lee, being a sturdy adherent of 
 the reigning Stuarts and the scion of an influ- 
 ential English family, when he arrived in Virginia, 
 naturally became a firm ally of Sir William 
 Berkeley, governor of the colony, who warmly 
 welcomed the newcomer as a member of the 
 King's Privy Council and the monarch's nominee 
 for the post of the Colonial State-secretaryship. 
 Stanch royalist as he was, Lee, with Berkeley's 
 assistance, kept the colony true in its allegiance
 
 1Q LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 to the Stuart cause, so long at least as the un- 
 fortunate Charles I. lived ; and when Cromwell's 
 Commonwealth was created he was instrumental 
 in negotiating a treaty between it and the colony, 
 recognizing the latter as an independent State, 
 until the Restoration gave the lordship of the 
 Virginia colony back to the Stuart House, Charles 
 II. being persuaded to proclaim himself King of 
 Virginia, as well as of France and the separate 
 kingdoms of Britain. Colonel Eichard Lee at 
 length died and found a grave in Virginia, where 
 he had settled with his family. One son, a name- 
 sake, survived him, and as a man of fine parts 
 became a member of the Colonial council. He 
 married an English lady, a Miss Corbin, by whom, 
 besides a daughter, who subsequently married in 
 Virginia, he had five sons, all of whom rose to be 
 influential men in the Colony, and by their mar- 
 riages allying themselves with many well-known 
 Virginia families. Of these sons, two became 
 notable in the later annals of the Lee family : 
 these were Thomas and Henry, the fourth and 
 fifth sons, respectively, of Richard Lee, who died 
 about the year 1690. Of Henry Lee we shall 
 write later on. The fourth son, Thomas, who 
 resided at Stratford, Va., and there erected a 
 magnificent manor-house long a marvel among
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 the colonial homes of the Old Dominion, allied 
 himself with an influential family in the colony, 
 the progeny including two daughters and six 
 sons. The eldest of the latter, Philip Ludwell 
 Lee, in turn married and had two daughters, the 
 elder of whom, Matilda, became the wife of her 
 second cousin, Colonel Henry Lee, known in 
 history as " Light-Horse Harry," and the father 
 (though by a second wife) of the subject of this 
 memoir General Robert E. Lee. The third son 
 of Thomas Lee, Governor of Virginia, Eichard 
 Henry Lee (1732-179i), was the noted champion 
 of American Independence, the patriot orator 
 who, in the Continental Congress, in June, 1776, 
 offered the now famous resolution that " these 
 United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free 
 and independent States." In making this free, 
 bold speech the sturdy statesman of his day took 
 unflinchingly the side of popular rights against 
 the encroachment of the mother country, as he 
 previously showed in opposing the Stamp Act, and 
 in a brilliant, impressive speech now advocated 
 the Declaration of Independence. It was by the 
 same Congress, in July, 1775, that the historic 
 "Address of the Twelve Colonies to the Inhab- 
 itants ot Great Britain " was adopted and trans- 
 mitted to the motherland. In the closing years
 
 12 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 of the Revolutionary War, Richard Henry Lee 
 took part against England in the field at the head 
 of the militia of Westmoreland County, Va. ; from 
 ' 1789 to 1792, he sat in the United States Senate, 
 and though not a Federalist he warmly supported 
 the Washington administration. As an orator, 
 he was by his contemporaries called " the Amer- 
 ican Cicero " and was an impressive and distin- 
 guished public speaker. He was, moreover, "a 
 man of amiable and noble character, of com- 
 manding presence, excellent abilities, and self- 
 sacrificing patriotism." In these respects, his 
 virtues were conspicuously reflected in his 
 famous son. 
 
 We now turn back to trace the pedigree of 
 Henry, fifth son of Richard Lee, the early and 
 direct ancestor of General Robert E. Lee; a 
 distant relation of R. H. Lee, the Revolutionary 
 statesman ; and the grandfather of the distin- 
 guished commander of " Lee's Legion," commonly 
 known as "Light-Horse Harry." This Henry 
 Lee married a Miss Bland, by whom he had 
 several children, one of whom, Henry, took a 
 Miss Grymes to wife, and by her had issue three 
 daughters and five sons. Of the latter, the third 
 son, a Henry also (1756-1818), became the famous 
 soldier of the Revolution and the father of the
 
 INTRODUCTOKY. 13 
 
 subject of the present Memoir. After graduating 
 at Princeton, this distinguished member of the 
 notable Lee family, as the present writer has else- 
 where narrated, entered the Continental army, 
 and at the battle of Gerinantown (Oct. 4, 1777) his 
 cavalry troop was selected by General Washington 
 as his personal body-guard. In January, 1778, 
 when occupying a small stone house with a body 
 of ten men, the remainder of his command being 
 absent on a foraging expedition, the building was 
 surrounded by 200 British cavalry, who attempted 
 to take Lee prisoner, but were met with so spirited 
 a resistance that they were compelled to retreat. 
 Soon after this, Henry Lee was advanced to the 
 rank of major, with the command of three com- 
 panies of cavalry. While holding this rank he 
 planned and executed the brilliant assault on the 
 British post at Paulus Hook, their headquarters 
 opposite the city of New York. Lee surprised 
 and took the garrison under the eyes of the 
 British army and navy, and safely conducted his 
 prisoners within the American lines, many miles 
 distant from the captured post. Than this there 
 are few enterprises to be found on military record 
 equal in hazard and difficulty, or are known to 
 have been conducted with more boldness, skill, 
 and daring activity. It was, moreover, accom-
 
 14. LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 plished without loss, while it filled the enemy's 
 camp with confusion and astonishment, and shed 
 an unfading luster on American arms. In 1780, 
 Lee was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel 
 commandant of a separate legionary corps, known 
 as " Lee's Legion " of light horse, and was sent to 
 the Southern Department of the United States, to 
 join the army under General Greene, where he 
 remained until the close of the war. Lee entered 
 Congress in 1787, and was governor of Virginia 
 between the years 1792 and 1795, during which 
 he commanded the expedition against the "Whis- 
 key insurgents in Western Pennsylvania. He 
 sat again in Congress at the period of Washing- 
 ton's death, in 1799, and, being appointed by that 
 body to deliver an oration upon the character of 
 the deceased first President, statesman, and war- 
 rior, Lee extolled him in the terms of the since- 
 famous eulogy, "First in war, first in peace, and 
 first in the hearts of his countrymen." 
 
 Henry Lee's virtues and character have been 
 extolled by many writers, for he possessed many 
 of those admirable qualities of head and heart 
 which, as we shall see later on, were manifested 
 by his eminent son. His children had a great 
 veneration, as well as affection, for him, for he 
 was an excellent and kind father, a most exem-
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 plary and, considering his time, a highly moral 
 man, and an ideal type of a self-sacrificing, 
 patriotic citizen. He was twice married, first to 
 Matilda Lee (his second cousin), daughter of 
 Philip Ludwell Lee of Stratford, Va., and when 
 that lady died he was united to Anne, daughter of 
 Charles H. Carter of Shirley, on the James Kiver, 
 'U lady who proved a devoted wife and mother, 
 and who exercised a beneficent influence upon 
 her children. The latter were six in number, 
 namely two daughters and four sons ; several of 
 the sons, especially Robert Edward, and Sydney 
 Smith Lee, afterwards attaining eminence and 
 distinction, the one in the army, and the other in 
 the navy of, the Southern Confederacy. The 
 father, Henry Lee, died in 1818, aged 63, his life 
 having been shortened by injuries received in 
 suppressing a political riot in Baltimore in 1814, 
 when the house in which he was at the time 
 staying, that of a Federalist editor and journalist, 
 was attacked by an angry mob. The next four 
 years he spent in the West Indies in the search 
 for health. A biography of him, by his distin- 
 guished son, General Robert E Lee, was prefixed 
 to an edition of his " Memoirs of the (Revolu- 
 tionary) War in the Southern Department of the 
 United States." The work has an interest and
 
 16 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 value even to-day, since it is an outspoken and 
 impartial record of events, based on the personal 
 experience and observation of a contemporary 
 narrator those of "Light-Horse Harry."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BIRTH, YOUTHHOOD, AND EARLY CAREER. 
 
 HAVING in our opening chapter introduced the 
 subject of this Memoir and glanced at his ancestry 
 and lineage, let us now record his birth and early 
 upbringing, together with such facts as are known 
 of his professional education as a military cadet 
 and of the characteristics of the youth as he ap- 
 peared at the threshold of his bright and prom- 
 ising career. The era of Robert E. Lee's birth, 
 which occurred at the family home at Stratford, 
 Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 19, 
 1807, was a troubled one, even for a neutral nation 
 in the New World that had cut itself adrift from 
 the Old, for at the period the two great world po- 
 wers of Europe, France and Britain, were engaged 
 in an armed and deadly struggle for political mas- 
 tery and commercial dominance. At the same era, 
 Denmark, Spain, Russia, and Prussia were for a 
 period drawn into the vortex; while bombard- 
 ment, invasion, and pillage were the national 
 sport and burning dread of the time. At this 
 grave juncture of international affairs, Napo- 
 * 17
 
 18 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 leon was, or aimed to be, supreme on the European 
 continent, while his chief adversary and check- 
 mate were the British, who held undisputed sway 
 on the high seas. Against each other, in the 
 hotly-embraced interest of commerce, France fired 
 at England her heavy-shafted bolt of the Berlin 
 Decrees, which declared the British islands to be 
 " in a state of blockade " ; while her wary though 
 inveterate enemy retorted with the British Orders 
 in Council, closing to neutral commerce the ports 
 of the continent and authorizing the seizure of 
 any neutral vessel on a voyage to any of the pro- 
 hibited French ports unless such vessel had first 
 touched at a British port. France rejoined by 
 authorizing, in the Milan Decree, the seizure of 
 any vessel that had entered a British port. In 
 this furious international strife, America soon be- 
 came a sufferer, since the prohibitory decrees and 
 hostile attitude of France and England struck a 
 heavy blow at her carrying trade, and led to the 
 enactment of Jefferson's Embargo Policy, for- 
 bidding the importation of goods from Britain and 
 her colonies and banning intercourse. Another 
 result of European ferment was to revive the 
 partly slumbering animosities between America 
 and the old motherland, the result of the irritating 
 and humiliating right of search on board Ameri-
 
 BIRTH, YOUTHHOOD, AND EARLY CAREER, 19 
 
 can vessels on the high seas and the arrest or im- 
 pressment of sailors, naturalized citizens of the 
 United States who had renounced their allegiance 
 to Britain. The ill-feeling and strained relations 
 of the two nations, once mother and child, soon 
 bore fruit in the unhappy second War with Eng- 
 landthat of 1812-14. 
 
 It was at this era that the child Robert E. Lee 
 was born, an era of unhappy friction between the 
 United States and the disowned mother country, 
 rendered more so as the result of fruitless inter- 
 national diplomacy, irritating retaliatory legisla- 
 tion, and a clashing of commercial interests which 
 brought about a period of non-intercourse, and, 
 finally, a state of war. Within the country, 
 nevertheless, it was an era of strenuous political, 
 industrial, and social effort, in the building up, 
 by its sturdy nation-makers, of the youthful 
 American Republic. The war, costly as it was to 
 the young nation and a heavy drain upon its yet 
 slender financial resources, had its compensations, 
 not only in withdrawing the Republic from the 
 complications of Old World politics, but in impart- 
 ing to it a larger measure of self-reliance and in- 
 dependence, with a feeling of increased pride in 
 the successes, on land and lake, of her militia and 
 marine service. It also quickened the spirit of
 
 20 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 enterprise over the country, which followed the 
 close of the struggle, and did much to cement the 
 Union and implant in the heart of the nation love 
 for its grand heritage and faith in its future 
 mighty destiny. 
 
 Unfortunately for the still youthful scion of the 
 Lee family, he early lost the fostering care of his 
 father, who, when the boy was but six years old, 
 had to betake himself to the West Indies in the 
 endeavor to restore his shattered health. A 
 father's interest in and love for the lad were more 
 than compensated, however, by the devotion and 
 attachment of his wise, tender mother, whose in- 
 fluence upon him was great, and to his lasting 
 good. It was she who instilled in his youthful 
 mind those high moral principles and that in- 
 tegrity and rectitude of conduct which in after- 
 years were marked traits in the character of her 
 eminent son. On the latter's part, there was a 
 strong reciprocal attachment and fine filial feeling, 
 which showed itself in a loving care and dutiful 
 regard and solicitude. The need for this was the 
 more urgent, as the self-sacrificing mother was at 
 this period much alone, her husband being in the 
 tropics, and her other sons were absent at College ; 
 while of the two daughters one was as yet quite 
 young and the other was in indifferent health.
 
 BIRTH, YOUTHHOOD, AND EARLY CAREER. 21 
 
 Hence Robert was the one child to whom the noble 
 mother looked for those attentions and that com- 
 panionship which were a comfort to her, while she 
 watched with earnest solicitude his careful home- 
 training and strove to embue his mind with sound 
 religious principles and inspire him with high 
 ideals and lofty purposes in life. 
 * Previous to this, or, more precisely, when Robert 
 E. Lee was but four years old, the Lee family had 
 removed from the old homestead at Stratford, in 
 Westmoreland County (near the birthplace and 
 early home of George Washington), and settled 
 higher up the Potomac at Alexandria, six miles 
 South of the Federal capital. The city at this 
 period had, like the city of Washington itself, for 
 a time fallen into the hands of the British ; and 
 here, near by, at Arlington, young Lee had also 
 associations with the home of President Washing- 
 ton)rwhose relative, the daughter of George Wash- 
 ington Parke Custis, he was afterwards to be 
 allied with in marriage. ^ At Alexandria Academy 
 young Robert received his early education, after- 
 wards passing to a more advanced institution kept 
 by a Quaker, named Hallowell, who has left on 
 record his high opinion of his pupil as a zealous 
 student, most exemplary in his conduct and habits. 
 Throughout his school career he gave the utmost
 
 OQ LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ma 
 
 satisfaction to his several masters, while he wa* 
 popular among his fellows, being manly in his 
 bearing and attractive in his mannersy 
 ~ In the Spring of 1818, his father, General 
 Henry Lee, when returning from the West Indies, 
 had to be put ashore on the coast of Georgia as 
 his death was imminent. He died at " Dunge- 
 ness," the home of a daughter of his old friend, 
 General Nathanael Greene, while his son Kobert 
 was but in his twelfth year. The death of 
 "Light-Horse Harry," as he was familiarly 
 called, was much and widely lamented, and at his 
 funeral in Georgia military and naval honors 
 were paid to his remains as they were interred 
 beneath "the magnolias, cedars, and myrtles of 
 beautiful Dungeness." As his son Robert grew 
 up and the time came when he must make choice 
 of a profession, naturally he sought to follow a 
 militar} 7 career, like his distinguished father, the 
 General. His brother, Sydney Smith Lee, had 
 taken to the navy, and was already beginning to 
 carve out his own career in that profession (later 
 on, he was known as Commodore Lee of the 
 Confederate service and father of General Fitz- 
 hugh Lee, the famous cavalry commander). Ere 
 long Robert^succeeded in his application for admit- 
 tance to the United States Military Academy, and
 
 BIRTH, YOUTHHOOD, AND EARLY CAREER. 23 
 
 that famous training college for military cadets 
 at West Point, he entered in 1825, and at once ap- 
 plied himself to a four years' course of drill and 
 hard study, taking special interest in engineering 
 science, with its accompanying lectures in 
 strategy and tactics, varied by guard-mounting 
 and cavalry exercises.- Here his excellent char- 
 acter, scrupulous honor, and amenability to dis- 
 cipline, coupled with his studious habits and 
 ambition to stand high in his class, won him the 
 respect of his instructors and the esteem and love 
 of his fellow-cadets, with the honor-post of adju- 
 tant of his corps. His whole course at West Point 
 was that of a talented and ambitious youth who 
 had high aims and an earnest purpose in life, and 
 who sought to attain his objects by a preliminary 
 career which should be marked by proficiency in 
 his studies and an attention to them, as well as 
 assiduity in the performance of his duties, which 
 would win the commendation of those to whom 
 he was indebted for efficient training and well- 
 directed instruction and counsel. Throughout 
 his four years' course, it is said, that he never 
 had a demerit mark placed against his name ; 
 while he graduated second in a class of forty-six, 
 and at once received a commission as second lieu- 
 tenant in the corps of engineers.
 
 24; LIFE OF GENERAL LEE, 
 
 With a highly creditable standing as a " West- 
 Pointer," Robert E. Lee, after a brief furlough, 
 entered actively on his professional career, find- 
 ing employment for several years in duties, en- 
 thusiastically performed, in connection with the 
 coast defenses of the United States at Hampton 
 Roads and elsewhere. Society at that era, as 
 well as now, was exceedingly attractive in the 
 city of Washington and its vicinity ; and to the 
 handsome young lieutenant of engineers it had 
 its charms, for he was well fitted to shine among 
 the elite of the capital, and that not alone for his 
 good looks, but also by reason of his superior 
 education and fine prospects in the army, not to 
 speak of his high birth and the fair repute and 
 heroic traditions of his family. With the young 
 matrons and belles of the capital and its adjoining 
 city of Alexandria, his own home, Lieutenant Lee 
 was much made of ; while he was popular among 
 his own sex, and especially among the knots of 
 military men always to be found at the salons 
 of Society people at Washington and at the 
 manor-houses in the neighborhood. At Arlington, 
 the home of the Custis family, the young en- 
 gineer lieutenant was at the period particularly 
 welcome, for he had long known and admired the 
 beautiful daughter of the house, Mary Custis,
 
 BIRTH, YOUTHHOOD, AND EARLY CAREER. 25 
 
 the granddaughter of Martha Washington ; and 
 already more than a liking for each other had 
 come about, which was soon now to bring both 
 within Hymen's silken bonds. Only two years 
 had passed since Lee had graduated at West 
 Point and received his commission in the army ; 
 but while only in his twenty-fifth year he fell into 
 Cupid's snares and succumbed to the irresistible 
 attractions of his affianced Mary Custis. Their 
 marriage speedily followed, the ceremony taking 
 place within the stately mansion of Arlington 
 House, replete as it was with historic interest and 
 attractive by its traditions of Washington and his 
 fellow-patriots of Revolutionary days. Through 
 his marriage, which was solemnized June 30, 1831, 
 Lee with his wife subsequently became owners 
 of Arlington, as well as of another property 
 belonging to the Custis family on the Pamun- 
 key River, where Washington, in 1Y59, married 
 ' the widow Custis ' a property that was ruth- 
 lessly given to the flames by the Federal troops in 
 the Civil War. 
 
 After a brief honeymoon, Lee returned to his 
 army duties at Hamptcn Roads, but ere long was 
 transferred to Washington, where he became 
 assistant to the chief government engineer, and 
 was consequently near to his bride and her pater-
 
 26 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 nal home at Arlington. Promotion here came to 
 him, first to a full lieutenancy and afterwards to 
 a captaincy in the corps of engineers. After this, 
 he acted for a time as astronomer to a commis- 
 sion appointed to define the boundary between 
 the States of Ohio and Michigan ; and then was 
 despatched to St. Louis to engage actively in pro- 
 fessional work in connection with the channel of 
 the Mississippi River, so as to obviate its over- 
 flowing its bounds on the side opposite St. Louis, 
 as well as to recover waste lands on its borders 
 which at periods had been subject to inundation. 
 Indefatigable as well as professionally successful 
 in his work. Lee rendered admirable service in 
 improving the legitimate bed of the great 
 river and in artificially confining " the Father of 
 Waters" to its natural and desirable course. 
 When this important task had been accomplished, 
 he was despatched to New York to strengthen 
 the defenses of Fort Hamilton, which protects the 
 entrance to the spacious harbor of the city ; while 
 recognition of his merits otherwise came to him 
 in being elected a member of the Board of Visi- 
 tors at West Point and appointed one of the 
 Board of Engineers, at his professional alma 
 mater.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 AT this period of his career, when he was ap- 
 proaching his fortieth year, the War with Mexico 
 broke out, precipitated by the independence of 
 Texas, and its subsequent admission as a State 
 of the Union. Besides the local attitude of Texas, 
 matters between Mexico and the United States 
 were complicated by the Washington adminis- 
 tration insisting that the Southwestern boundary 
 of Texas should be the Rio Grande. This was in 
 the year 1846, when the War Department of the 
 United States appointed General Winfield Scott 
 to the supreme command of an expedition de- 
 signed to operate in Mexican territory, and, if 
 deemed expedient, invest and lay siege to Vera 
 Cruz, thus opening the way for an advance upon 
 the city of Mexico. Previous to this, General 
 Zachary Taylor, with an American force, had 
 appeared at Corpus Christi, Texas, and there, 
 having increased his army, he was ordered to 
 advance to the Rio Grande, which he did and 
 
 27
 
 28 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 erected a fort on the river opposite Matamoros, 
 with his base of supplies twenty-five miles east- 
 ward at Point Isabel. Here the Mexican general 
 (Ampudia) ordered Taylor to withdraw beyond 
 the Neuces river, as he and his American troops 
 were then on Mexican territory. This Taylor 
 refused to do, but proceeded with his operations 
 in the region, when the battles of Palo Alta and 
 Resaca de la Palma were fought and won ; while, 
 later on, Monterey, after some resistance, capitu- 
 lated. General S. W. Kearny, meanwhile, at 
 the head of the Army of the West, had advanced 
 from Fort Leavenworth and made conquest of 
 the province of New Mexico, and at Santa Fe, in 
 August, 1846, he established a provisional Ameri- 
 can government, subsequently proceeding to 
 California. The latter country, by this time, had 
 practically been annexed, partly by means of the 
 exploring expedition of Colonel Fremont, and 
 partly by the joint operations of Commodores 
 Sloat and Stockton. In 1848, peaceful cession of 
 the territory came about, aided by the influx of 
 myriads of gold-seekers, known as the " forty- 
 niners ; " and California, in 1850, was lost to 
 Mexico and gained as a State of the American 
 Union. 
 But Jet us now return to General Winfield
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAB. 29 
 
 Scott and the chief command that had been given 
 him to conduct an expedition to invade Mexico, by 
 way of the Gulf, effecting a landing at or near 
 Vera Cruz. This inroad directly upon the enemy, 
 with the design of assaulting and capturing the 
 chief Mexican towns, including the capital, was 
 undertaken with the view of bringing Santa 
 Anna's Administration and the Republic of the 
 Mexican States to terms, after precipitating war 
 upon American arms, as it was construed by 
 President Folk's government, though history 
 views the matter more in the light of an unjusti- 
 fiable aggression upon a weak sister nation of 
 the continent. Be this as it may or may not, 
 General Scott had been given his orders, which 
 were to proceed to Vera Cruz, where with his own 
 forces and part of those under General Kearny 
 he was to invest the town, take it, and proceed to 
 the interior to reduce the Mexicans to submission. 
 Here was now to become the real, as it was to be 
 the chief, seat of war ; and for its successful ex- 
 ploitation General Scott had brought with him a 
 strong contingent of engineers and artillery, in 
 addition to his cavalry and foot-soldiers. The 
 divisional commands of the invading army were 
 intrusted, under the Commander-in-chief, to Gen- 
 erals Twiggs, Worth, and Quitman ; while several
 
 30 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 able engineer officers directed the assaulting opera- 
 tions, among whom were Colonel Totten, Lieu- 
 tenant Beauregard, and our hero, Captain Robert 
 E. Lee, who had the honor of being placed on the 
 Commander-in-chief's personal staff. 
 
 When General Scott had been assigned the task 
 of taking a leading part in the war, and before 
 the landing of his forces, by means of surf boats, a 
 little to the south of Vera Cruz. Captain Lee ap- 
 pears to have been for a time attached to General J. 
 E. Wool's command, which had penetrated Mexico 
 from San Antonia, across the Eio Grande, as far 
 as Saltillo, to the West of Tampico. This seems 
 to have been the case, for we find him writing to 
 his wife from Rio Grande early in October, 1846, 
 and to two of his boys from Saltillo on the day 
 before Christmas. Presumably, therefore, he 
 was with Wool's; contingent .at the battle of 
 Buena Vista (Feb. 22, 1847) at the critical period 
 in that hot but successful engagement with the 
 Mexicans when Wool was joined by the force 
 under General Zachary Taylor ("Old Rough and 
 Ready " as the latter was familiarly called). 
 Later on we know, however, he was summoned 
 by General Scott to Vera Cruz, where he became 
 one of the Commander in-chief's war council, and, 
 as we have already related, a member of his per-
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 31 
 
 sonal staff. There, at Vera Cruz, lie was joined 
 for a time by his brother, Sydney, a lieutenant 
 in the United States navy, then serving on the 
 "Mississippi," one of the cruiser convoys of the 
 invading force under Winfield Scott. We know 
 also that this brother was with Captain R. E. Lee, 
 for we find him serving one of the guns directed 
 against the defenses of Vera Cruz from a battery 
 his brother Robert had constructed to play upon 
 the town preparatory to assaulting it. The period 
 was about the 22nd of March, 1847, for on that 
 day the bombardment commenced and continued 
 for five days, when, after a spirited defense, the 
 city and the fortified Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, 
 in the harbor of Vera Cruz, capitulated. Lee 
 rendered admirable service in the investment 
 and assault upon the place, and was specially 
 mentioned for distinguished acts in General 
 Scott's despatches to Washington recounting the 
 operations and successful issue of the siege. 
 
 At this period of American invasion, Mexico, 
 both politically and socially, was in a distracted 
 and unsettled condition. Before and after the era 
 of her independence of Spain, which she secured 
 in 1820, it had been given up, more or less, to 
 chronic revolution. At present, the Creole gen- 
 eral, Santa Anna, who had wrecked the military
 
 32 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 empire of Iturbide, was the dictator of the amal- 
 i gam of States which now represented the once 
 1 mighty empire of Montezuma and what remained 
 /of the historic Spanish Conquest. The country 
 ' was in a parlous state, with disorganization and 
 conflict going on in almost every section of the 
 Republic. It had, however, purged itself of the 
 taint of slavery by decrees issued in 1827, and 
 again and finally, in 1837. Against American in- 
 vasion it was naturally opposed, believing that the 
 United States had no righteous claim to the terri- 
 tory in Texas lying to the south of the deuces, 
 and therefore it resisted Zachary Taylor's taking 
 possession of the region for the American Govern- 
 ment southward to the Rio Grande. As we have 
 seen, the Mexican troops under Arista were re- 
 peatedly defeated in opposing Taylor's aggression, 
 and had also been worsted on her own unques- 
 tioned side of the Rio. The Mexicans had now 
 fallen back successively, but still sought to main- 
 tain resistance to American arms. Of General 
 Scott's campaign, so far as undertaken, we have 
 also seen the result, in the surrender of Vera 
 Cruz, with the capitulation of its defensive force 
 and its seven thousand inhabitants. Now this 
 forward movement was about to be launched, 
 over some two hundred miles of difficult country,
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 33 
 
 to the Mexican capital. It was the middle of 
 April (1847) before the expedition was in shape to 
 proceed, and when it did, it met its first serious 
 obstacle at Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest of 
 Vera Cruz. Here Santa Anna and his Mexicans 
 had posted themselves in a strong position on " the 
 heights around a rugged mountain pass, with a 
 battery commanding every turn of the road." 
 
 To the reconnoissance of Captain Lee and Lieu- 
 tenant Beauregard, both of the Engineers corps, 
 Winfield Scott was indebted for discovering a 
 pathway, which a little engineering effort made 
 practicable, for a flank attack upon the enemy. 
 Over this route light batteries were hauled and 
 placed in position for effective work ; while Gen- 
 eral Twiggs' division, led by Captain Lee, ad- 
 vanced and opened a fusilade which drove the 
 outposts of the Mexicans from the ravine back 
 upon the hill slopes of Cerro Gordo. This prelim- 
 inary achievement was effected over night, and 
 in the early morning of the 18th of April the 
 batteries opened a destructive fire, and three col- 
 umns of American troops gallantly advanced, 
 while the fighting divisions of Generals Twiggs 
 and Worth stormed the heights in front, and, in 
 spite of a stout resistance, finally carried them, 
 though at the cost of much bloodshed. Lee, per-
 
 34 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 sonally leading a column of men, now stole off 
 to turn the enemy's left, which he at length suc- 
 ceeded in doing, the Mexicans taking to flight 
 down the Jalapa road, leaving behind them not 
 only their dead, but much of their ammunition, 
 small arms, and cannon. Our troops continued 
 to press the enemy back, to Jalapa, making an 
 ascent above the valley road during the day of 
 over 4,000 feet, meanwhile capturing many of 
 Santa Anna's men. 
 
 For Lee's share in the successes of the day, 
 General Scott paid suitable and hearty acknowl- 
 edgment, besides raising him to the brevet rank 
 of major. His skill as an engineer enabled him 
 to be of much and varied service to the Com- 
 mander-in-chief during the progress of the cam- 
 paign ; while he was also highly useful in expe- 
 rienced scouting work, in which his bravery and 
 venturesomeness at times led him into no little 
 personal peril. This was the case shortly after the 
 victory at Cerro Gordo, when on a reconnoissance 
 in advance of the army he escaped Mexican 
 vigilance only by concealing himself all one after- 
 noon under a fallen tree, until nightfall enabled 
 him to issue from his hiding-place and regain 
 the outposts of the invading force. A like hero- 
 ism and disregard of himself characterized Major
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 35 
 
 Lee at both Churubusco and Contreras, where, 
 for his distinguished services he received a further 
 step in the line of promotion, this time to the 
 brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. Almost con- 
 stantly in the saddle, he was not only actively 
 occupied in his own important duties as an en- 
 gineer officer and counsellor to his Commander- 
 in-chief in the difficulties that lay in the path of 
 the advance, but he was also of much service, 
 when a battle was on, in carrying General Scott's 
 orders to sections of his command, even at much 
 peril to himself. In the interesting Memoir of 
 Lee by his nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, the renowned 
 cavalry commander, Major Lee's distinguished 
 services in this Mexican campaign are thus at- 
 tested : " His deeds of personal daring, his 
 scientific counsels, his coup d 'ceil of the battle- 
 field, his close personal reconnoissances under 
 the scorching rays of a tropical sun, amid the 
 lighting's flash or thunder's roar, did much tc 
 fashion the key which unlocked the gates of the 
 Golden City. The reports of his commander are 
 filled with commendations of his bravery : ' That 
 he was as famous for felicitous execution as for 
 science and daring ' ; that at ' Chapultepec Captain 
 Lee was constantly conspicuous, bearing import- 
 ait orders ' from him, * till he fainted from a
 
 36 LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 wound and the loss of two nights' sleep at the 
 batteries.' This veteran general," Fitzhugh 
 Lee adds, "in referring afterward to this cam- 
 paign, was heard to say that his ' success in Mex- 
 ico was largely due to the skill, valor, and un- 
 daunted courage of Robert E. Lee,' and that he 
 was ' the greatest military genius in America, the 
 best soldier that he ever saw in the field, and that, 
 if opportunity offered, he would show himself the 
 foremost captain of his time.' ' 
 
 We are, however, anticipating, for there is 
 considerable yet to be told of the incidents of the 
 campaign ere the Mexican capital was taken and 
 the unhappy war brought to a close. When the 
 Mexicans fell back on Jalapa, Scott's command 
 followed the enemy up, drove them out of the 
 place, and pushed on and occupied Puebla. Here 
 a halt of two months took place, to enable the 
 American force, exhausted by the rapid advance 
 during the hottest months of the year, to pull it- 
 self together, await reinforcements from the 
 coast, drill and make them efficient when they ar- 
 rived. On August 7th, the forward movement 
 again began, and by the 19th and 20th of the 
 month three stubbornly fought battles took place, 
 parts of one general encounter with the enemy, 
 namely those of Contreras, Churubusco, and Sa^
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 37 
 
 Antonio. The issue of each engagement was the 
 same the rout of the Mexicans, and their rear- 
 ward flight even to the gates of the capital. At 
 this juncture, an armistice was mutually agreed 
 upon, to permit the negotiations of the American 
 commissioner, Nicholas P. Trist, who was in- 
 structed to offer the Mexicans peace upon certain 
 conditions before further blood was shed in the 
 alternative assault upon the City of Mexico. The 
 armistice, however, came to nought, and tacti- 
 cally was a maladroit proposal : it lasted from 
 August 23rd to September 7th. On the latter 
 day the fighting was resumed, Molino del Rey 
 being then attacked and carried by assault, while 
 Santa Anna and his troops fled from the place. 
 By the 12th of the month, the struggle was re- 
 newed by the American batteries opening fire 
 upon the stronghold of Chapultepec, and by an 
 assault upon the place by Scott's combined force, 
 which met with a desperate and bloody resist- 
 ance. Finally, the place was stormed by a plucky 
 dash, when the Mexicans became panic-stricken, 
 abandoned their defensive works, and fled in con- 
 fusion. 
 
 It was here, at Chapultepec, that Lee was 
 wounded, though fortunately not very seriously. 
 In the campaign, other of his Southern brother-
 
 3g LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 officers suffered also from casualties in the field 
 among them being Joseph E. Johnston (later OD 
 the renowned Confederate commander), Long- 
 street, Magruder, General Shields, Captain Mason, 
 and others. The Mexican war, indeed, was an 
 excellent active training-school to numbers of 
 men who, in the War of the Rebellion, were to 
 become distinguished under both the Federal and 
 the Confederate flag. Of these, besides Robert 
 E. Lee, the following were among the Mexican 
 campaigners : Ulysses S. Grant, Albert Sidney 
 Johnston, Joseph Hooker, Braxton Bragg, Jubal 
 Early, George Gordon Meade, George B. Mo 
 Clellan, Irvin McDowell, George H. Thomas, 
 Gideon J. Pillow, Ambrose P. Hill, T. J. ("Stone- 
 wall ") Jackson. " Their swords, then drawn for 
 victory against a common foe," as Fitzhugh Lee 
 admirably puts it, were, fourteen years later, 
 " to be pointed against each other's breast, and 
 those who slept beneath the same blanket, drank 
 from the same canteen, and formed those ties 
 of steel which are strongest when pledged amid 
 common dangers around a common mess-table, 
 were to be marshalled under the banners of 
 opposing armies. 
 
 What the common dangers in the Mexican 
 war then were, Lee himself relates with pathos
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 39 
 
 and fine humane feeling, in letters sent at this 
 time to his home, either to his loved wife or 
 to their little sons, in safe-keeping at Arlington. 
 In these we see something of the man's tender, 
 yet stout, courageous heart, when thoughts of 
 the dear ones he has left behind him come recur- 
 ringly to his mind. Of these epistles his relative 
 biographer gives us some touching excerpts from a 
 letter written to his young son, Custis Lee, after 
 the battle of Cerro Gordo : " I thought of you," 
 writes the father, " on the 18th, in the battle, 
 and wondered, when the musket-balls and grape- 
 shot were whistling over my head in a perfect 
 shower, where I could put you, if with me, to be 
 safe. I was truly thankful that you were at 
 school, I hope learning to be good and wise. 
 You have no idea what a horrible sight a battle- 
 field is." The writer then describes to him 
 the battle of Cerro Gordo, and tells him about 
 the dead and dying Mexicans ; how he had them 
 carried to a house by the roadside, where they 
 were attended by Mexican surgeons ; of his find- 
 ing by the side of a hut a little Mexican boy who 
 had been a bugler or a drummer, with his arm 
 terribly shattered, and how a big Mexican sol- 
 dier, in the last agonies of death, had fallen on 
 him ; how he was attracted $o the sceiae by the
 
 40 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 grief of a little girl ; how he had the dying Mexi- 
 can taken off the boy, and how grateful the little 
 girl was. * ' Her large black eyes, " he said, * * were 
 streaming with tears, her hands crossed over her 
 breast ; her hair in one long plait behind reached 
 her waist, her shoulders and arms bare, and with- 
 out stockings or shoes. Her plaintive tone of 
 'Mille gracias, Signor,' as I had the dying man 
 lifted off the boy and both carried to the hospital, 
 still lingers in my ear. After I had broken 
 away through the chaparral and turned to- 
 ward Cerro Gordo I mounted Creole, who stepped 
 over the dead men with such care as if she feared 
 to hurt them ; but when I started with the 
 dragoons in the pursuit, she was as fierce as pos- 
 sible, and I could hardly hold her." 
 
 Nor was Robert E. Lee less courageous than 
 tender and humane, as we learn from General 
 Winfield Scott's own account in his despatches 
 to Washington, or in after-reminiscences of the 
 war by some of his contemporary staff officers in 
 the campaign. One of the latter recounts Lee's 
 daring in an action preceding the battle of Con- 
 treras, " when General Scott's troops had become 
 separated on the field of Pedrigal, and it was nec- 
 essary to communicate instructions to those on the 
 other side of the barrier of rockg and lava." At
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR 41 
 
 this crisis, General Scott, as set forth in .his re- 
 port, states that he had sent seven officers after 
 sundown to give them their instructions, but all 
 returned without getting through, save the gal- 
 lant and indefatigable Captain Lee of the Engi- 
 neers, who has been constantly with the operating 
 forces. . . Subsequently Scott (to quote again 
 from his biographer), while giving testimony be- 
 fore a court of inquiry said : " Captain Lee 
 came to me from Contreras with a message from 
 Brigadier-General Smith. I think about the 
 same time (midnight) he, having passed over the 
 difficult ground by daylight, found it just possible 
 to return on foot and alone to St. Augustine in 
 the dark, the greatest feat of physical and moral 
 courage performed by any individual to my 
 knowledge during the campaign." 
 
 The successful close of the war was hailed by 
 all with feelings of relief : this was especially the 
 case with Colonel Lee, and indeed with the entire 
 command under General Scott and his divisional 
 commanders. After the brilliant assault on Cha- 
 pultepec and the overpowering of the enemy at the 
 gates of the capital, the City of Mexico was en- 
 tered and taken possession of. Before its official 
 surrender, Santa Anna and the chief civic au- 
 thorities had fled from the place ; but represents.-
 
 42 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 lives of the Eepublic were there, with whom the 
 American Commissioner arranged the terms upon 
 which the war was to close and the country be 
 relieved of its conquering invaders. After some 
 haggling, peace was finally declared, and the 
 American troops, in due course, withdrew, the 
 military power of Mexico having in the war 
 been broken as well as humiliated. By the Peace 
 Treaty, which was negotiated at Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1848, subsequently ratified by 
 both sides, the United States secured the rights 
 contended for to the southwestern territory of 
 Texas as far as the Kio Grande. The Treaty, 
 moreover, added New Mexico and California to 
 the national domain ; though a monetary com- 
 pensation therefor was to be paid to Mexico, of 
 fifteen million dollars, while the United States 
 assumed the claims of her citizens against the Ee- 
 public, who had suffered in the war, to the ex- 
 tent of three and a half millions more. 
 
 It was toward the end of May (1848) before 
 Colonel Lee was free to leave the City of Mexico 
 to return homeward, though a month later he was 
 rejoiced once more to be at Arlington and in the 
 bosom of his family. Public recognition of his ser- 
 vices in Mexico came later, in 1852, when, after the 
 resumption of his professional work on the Gov-
 
 IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 43 
 
 eminent defenses at Baltimore, he was appointed 
 superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy at 
 West Point. General Winfield Scott, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, an attached and ad miring friend 
 of Lee, was, on the other hand, somewhat scurvily 
 treated by the War Department. Owing to some 
 difficulty with a subordinate general officer in 
 Mexico, he had to submit to the annoyance of a 
 General Court of Inquiry. Congress, meanwhile, 
 applied a solatium to the wounded feelings of the 
 old veteran by awarding him a gold medal and 
 the thanks of the Legislature. Later, the authori- 
 ties made amends to the old warrior by raising 
 him to the rank of Lieutenant-General, the first 
 creation of that high titular office in the United 
 States army. General Zachary Taylor, the hero 
 of Buena Vista and of a long list of earlier 
 triumphs, fared better, having on his return from 
 the Valley of the Rio Grande received the thanks 
 of Congress, accompanied by a gold medal ; while 
 his popularity in the nation gained him the nom- 
 ination, on the Whig ticket, of the Presidency. 
 His inauguration to that elevated office took place 
 Mar. 4, 1849, though his death unhappily occurred 
 July 9th in the following year.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE MEXICAN WAR AND 
 THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 
 
 COLONEL LEE, in 1852, entered actively on his 
 duties as head of the U. S. Military Academy at 
 West Point, from which he had himself so credit- 
 ably graduated in 1829. At this period, his eldest 
 son, G. W. Custis Lee, was a pupil of the institu- 
 tion, and, like his father before him, stood high 
 in his class and graduated two years later as 
 cadet-adjutant, also following the paternal bent, 
 of choosing to serve in the Engineers. Colonel 
 Lee's administration of the Academy lasted for 
 three years, and, like everything he did, it was 
 characterized by efficiency and ability. He had 
 ever a high sense of duty, and was assiduous in 
 inculating it not only in his sons, but in all who 
 were at any time subordinate to him. On his re- 
 tirement from the superintendency of the Acad- 
 emy, Lee was assigned to the Cavalry branch of 
 the U. S. military service, two new Cavalry regi- 
 ments having just then been raised for duty in the
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 45 
 
 West, to give increased military protection in 
 that section, where settlement was fast making 
 inroads, and where, in Kansas and Texas espe- 
 cially, there was at the time considerable men- 
 ace from marauding bands of Indians under the 
 Comanche chief Catumseh. Though hitherto 
 an Engineer officer of eminence, he took kindly to 
 the Cavalry service ; nevertheless, he withdrew 
 from his own particular branch of the profession 
 of arms, in which he had greatly distinguished 
 himself, with regret. Moreover, he was fond of 
 horses and much accustomed to be in the saddle ; 
 while many from his own State and section of the 
 country were entering the Cavalry service, after- 
 wards to gain distinction in it as Confederate 
 commanders. One of these was Albert Sidney 
 Johnston, who was given the colonelcy of the 
 second Cavalry corps, while Colonel Lee was ap- 
 pointed Lieutenant-Colonel. The destination of the 
 corps was Western Texas ; and thither the regi- 
 ment went, after Colonel Johnston had established 
 his headquarters at Louisville, Ky., where Lt.-Col. 
 Lee joined it, proceeding later to Jefferson Bar- 
 racks, Missouri, thence to active duty in Texas. 
 
 Before reaching Texas, Lt.-Col. Lee was detailed 
 for service on a court-martial in Kansas, the 
 occasion being the trial of an assistant army
 
 46 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 surgeon who had left his station during the prev- 
 alence of an alarming epidemic. On rejoining 
 the regiment in Texas, the latter became broken 
 into detachments, ordered for duty over a far- 
 reaching area. This was rendered necessary by 
 the wide stretch of frontier the regiment had 
 then to guard, there being as yet few towns and 
 no railways in the Territory. Parts of it were 
 scattered over the region from the Rio Grande 
 far to the north-westward, Lee himself doing duty 
 at one time at Ringgold Barracks, at another at 
 Camp Cooper, on one of the forks of the Brazos 
 Eiver, and at still another at Fort Brown. His life 
 at this time could not have been much to his liking, 
 for the region was still in the rough, and regiment- 
 al officers of Lee's standing and eminence, cut off 
 to a large extent as they were from the comforts 
 and elegancies they had at home been accustomed 
 to, could find little to compensate, and less to 
 interest, them in a country yet in the wild state ; 
 where the United States mails had to be trans- 
 ported from post to post by armed soldiers on 
 mules, often over long strips of dreary, unin- 
 habited country. Nor was there any active duty 
 worthy of their prowess. All there was consisted, 
 for the most part, of scouting duty, performed 
 amid much discomfort and frequent sickness, when
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 47 
 
 the stations were unhealthy, and occasionally in 
 no little peril from the poisoned arrows of 
 treacherous Indians shot at them from ambush. 
 
 The life was now and then varied by visits to 
 dirty Indian camps, for a parley with their chiefs, 
 who it was often found, however, were fine 
 specimens of nature's children and magnificent 
 horsemen, their nomadic life making them 
 " active, vigilant, and a foe not to be despised." 
 
 While Lee was in the West, he naturally main- 
 tained a regular and affectionate correspondence 
 with his family at Arlington, and longed often 
 to be back to them and to civilization. At this 
 period, the autumn of 1857, the death of his 
 father-in-law, Mr. Custis, recalled him for a time 
 to his home. The latter's wife had predeceased 
 him ; and now with his own death the Arlington 
 House estate came into the possession of Colonel 
 Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee, together with the 
 Arlington heirlooms and family plate. Unfor- 
 tunately, the fine historic property was ere long 
 now to be lost to the Lees, in the calamitous out- 
 break of the civil war, while the family slaves 
 were given their freedom by the good-will and 
 humanity of their fond master and mistress. 
 That the sectional struggle, now about to ensue, 
 was foreseen by Lee and by all thoughtful observ-
 
 48 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ers need hardly be said. Though Lee personally 
 took no part in politics, he could not be, nor was 
 he, ignorant of the sectional strife by which it was 
 preceded ; still less was he indifferent to the out- 
 break of the calamity, dreadful as it was sure to 
 be to the antagonists on either side. 
 
 Already the Federal tie which had bound the 
 States in one family since the Revolution was 
 loosening, owing to the growing abolition senti- 
 ment in the North, which, on conscientious moral 
 grounds, as well as from the fact that she was an 
 industrial and commercial community, was op- 
 posed to slavery in the South (an agricultural and 
 cotton-growing section) and to its extension in the 
 new states and territories of the Union. The 
 anti-slavery sentiment was resented by the South 
 as an intolerable interference with its natural, 
 though peculiar, institution, which not only had 
 imposed restrictions on its extension in the new 
 and fast-settling regions of the country, but 
 sought to proscribe and eliminate it in the South. 
 This resistance speedily showed itself in the new 
 theories which had now become prevalent in the 
 Southern half of the Union as to state-sovereignty 
 and the so-called state-rights in the cotton- 
 growing section and along the border States. The 
 first practical step taken towards secession was
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 49 
 
 manifested by South Carolina, which was the 
 earliest to take action among the irreconcilable 
 sisterhood in the South. This step she took Dec. 
 20th, 1860, then declaring the Union dissolved, as 
 far as she was concerned, and setting forth the 
 reasons for her course with regard to repeal and 
 the erection of an independent State government. 
 The chief reason assigned was the threatened 
 Federal interference with slavery, following upon 
 Mr. Lincoln's election to the Presidency of the 
 United States. A like attitude was taken by 
 other of her sister States, which ere long (before 
 the inauguration of Lincoln, March 4th, 1861) 
 joined her in revolt : these were Mississippi, Lou- 
 isiana, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. 
 These States not only seceded from the Union, 
 but seized the military posts and national prop- 
 erty within their several State jurisdictions. 
 The motive of secession was the same in all, 
 namely, unmistakable jealousy of their favored in- 
 stitution of slavery, and the desire to perpetuate it 
 within the area of the seceding States. The prin- 
 ciple which governed their joint action was that 
 embodied in the constitutional theories held and 
 propounded by Calhoun, viz., that each State was 
 in its own right sovereign and an independent 
 entity, an interpretation of the Constitution
 
 50 LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 radically at variance with the views held by the 
 people and their leading statesmen in the North, 
 who maintained that the United States was a 
 nation, one o,nd indivisible, and by their moral 
 sense opposed, at least, to the extension of slavery, 
 and dedicated, in so far as practicable, to free 
 labor. This was the opinion held and expressed 
 by Mr. Lincoln in his first Inaugural, but more 
 decidedly affirmed in his message to Congress of 
 July 4r, 1861, where he insisted that the individual 
 States had no other legal status in the national 
 commonwealth than that of the Union, and that 
 none of them had a Constitution independent of 
 the Union ; and hence, if it is broken, or if any of 
 them dissevered themselves from it, they did so 
 against law and only by revolutionary process. 
 In justice, it must be said, that not all the aboli- 
 tionists of the North viewed Secession in this ex- 
 treme and disputed light. Many, on the contrary, 
 deemed the view of a centralized government as 
 a national compact between all the States not to 
 be broken or dissevered as an autocratic and ag- 
 gressive one, fraught with peril to the stability 
 and perpetuation of the Union. Among those who 
 took the more cautious and reasonable side in the 
 distracting controversies of the time were men 
 like Daniel Webster, who, with Clay and Calhoun
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 51 
 
 of the South, protested against the aggressions 
 and heedlessness of abolitionism ; while men, like 
 Horace Greeley and Henry Ward Beecher, were 
 opposed to coercion and took action with the Border 
 States as peacemakers, by desiring that the South, 
 if she wished it, should withdraw in peace. As to 
 the legal right of any State under the Constitution 
 to secede, there were others again who took one or 
 the other side of the controversy, and by their 
 contentions added to the ferment and disquiet of 
 the time. On this fiercely-debated question not a 
 few of the best minds of the era were at issue with 
 each other ; while there were those who, without 
 rashly committing themselves to either side, took 
 the ground, like Secretary Seward, that there was 
 a "Higher Law," above the Constitution, whose 
 moral dictates were worthy of being imperatively 
 heard, and which, as in Mr. Seward's case, con- 
 demned slavery out and out, and incited the North 
 to ban it by force from the nation. 
 
 As we calmly look back now on the distracting 
 period, with the knowledge we historically have of 
 the issues of the contest the result largely of the 
 rabid and inflammatory appeals addressed to the 
 North by the abolitionists we can see that there 
 was much reason for a more sane and restrained 
 judgment, and for less of the extravagant and
 
 52 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 melodramatic censure of negro slavery and the 
 fugitive slave law, to which the period was 
 , recklessly treated in public speeches and in parti- 
 san appeals through the medium of fiction such 
 as that of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Even eman- 
 cipation, had it been brought about slowly and 
 dispassionately, was a most difficult problem, 
 especially in the absence in the negro of adequate 
 preliminary training for freedom, and of due 
 precautionary measures for the self-interest and 
 safety alike of slave and of master. Slavery 
 might be a curse and a blight to the South and 
 doubtless it was, as it has been, wherever it has 
 existed but the fact that it was this hardly 
 justified intemperate and vituperative denuncia- 
 tion of those who treated the slave well, as it was 
 the economic interest of the master, as well as 
 creditable to his humanity, to do ; while it led, as 
 it did, to the most untoward event in the annals 
 of the nation disunion and its frightful con- 
 sequences to both sides in the prolonged and 
 calamitous Civil War. 
 
 But it is time to return to Colonel Lee and the 
 theme proper of our biography. In the distract- 
 ing controversies of the period we have been 
 dealing with, he, as we have already indicated, 
 took no personal, and still less a public, part. The
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 53 
 
 shadows of the time were however about him, as 
 they were about all patriots and true lovers of 
 their country. On the subject of slavery ana 
 slave-emancipation, he, moreover, held pro- 
 nounced, though moderately expressed, opinions. 
 His letters of the era indicate that, and not only 
 those written to members of his own family, but 
 those forwarded to his close personal friends. In 
 these we see that the controversies of the time 
 were much in his thoughts, though he relied, as a 
 Christian man was bound to do, on a benign Provi- 
 dence to overrule human affairs for the best, and 
 that in God's own good time. The evils, politi- 
 cal and moral, of slavery he explicitly admits, 
 though he deemed them evils no less to the white 
 race than to the black. Towards the blacks, he 
 tells us, his feelings are strongly enlisted, though 
 he considered them immeasurably better off in this 
 country than in Africa, and that not only as far as 
 their physical condition went, but morally and 
 socially as well. The discipline they are under- 
 going here, even where it is painful, he deemed 
 necessary for their further instruction as a race, 
 while he hoped it would prepare them for better 
 things. Their emancipation, he, however, af- 
 firmed, would sooner result from the mild and 
 melting influences of Christianity, than from the
 
 54 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 storms and tempests of fiery controversy. " While 
 we see the course of the final abolition of human 
 slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our 
 prayers, and all justifiable means in our power, 
 we must," he adds, " leave the progress as well as 
 the result in His hands who sees the end, who 
 chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom 
 a thousand years are but as a single day." At 
 the same time, he termed Secession nothing but 
 revolution, and dreaded no greater calamity for 
 the country than a dissolution of the Union. 
 " The framers of our Constitution," he writes, in 
 January, 1861, in a letter to his son, "never ex- 
 hausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance 
 in its formation, and surrounded it with so many 
 guards and securities, if it was intended to be 
 broken by every member of the Confederacy at 
 will. . . . Still," he is careful to add, " a Union 
 that can only be maintained by swords and 
 bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to 
 take the place of brotherly 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 disrupted," he concludes, "I shall 
 return to my native State and share the miseries 
 of my people, and, save in defense, will draw my
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 55 
 
 sword on none." Elsewhere he patriotically 
 declared, that " if he owned all the negroes in the 
 South he would gladly yield them up for the pres- 
 ervation of the Union." These are brave and in- 
 spiring words to come from one who was soon now 
 to be termed by the North "rebel "and chief 
 among rebels ; but whose whole past testified to 
 the fidelity of a loyal and true gentleman, alike to 
 the Union and to the Constitution, as they were 
 founded and established by the Fathers. 
 
 Meanwhile matters political were fast ap- 
 proaching a crisis in the country, for the John 
 Brown raid upon Harper's Ferry had taken place, 
 and a wild scheme was formed by this hero-fana- 
 tic and his nineteen followers to free the slaves 
 of the South, though it bore on its face the de- 
 sign, if not the intent, of inciting a servile war. 
 When it occurred and the U. S. arsenal had been 
 seized by Brown and his meager band, Lee was 
 on furlough at Arlington to settle his deceased 
 father-in-law's affairs. Being on the spot, the 
 Secretary of War summoned him to proceed to 
 Harper's Ferry with some marines and four com- 
 panies of soldiers from Fort Monroe to quell 
 the trouble ; which Lee promptly did, Brown 
 and a portion of his fanatical following being 
 captured in a hiding-place in which they had
 
 56 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 sought refuge and were turned over to the civil 
 authorities. John Brown, as all know, was sub- 
 sequently tried on a charge of treason and con- 
 spiracy, found guilty, sentenced, and executed ; 
 while Colonel Lee returned to Washington, and 
 from Arlington he once more proceeded to his 
 command in Texas. Here, in garrison at San 
 Antonio, Lee spent his last year of service under 
 the United States flag, for on February 13, 1861, 
 when Texas had withdrawn from the Union, 
 he delivered over his authority at Fort Mason 
 and repaired to the national capital, at the sum- 
 mons of the Secretary of War. 
 
 On his return to Washington, Lee was con- 
 fronted with an embarrassing and painful situ- 
 ation. Not only had seven of the States of the 
 South passed ordinances of secession and seized 
 United States forts within their State juris- 
 dictions, but his own loved commonwealth of 
 Virginia was on the brink of withdrawing from 
 the Union. This action was followed ere long 
 by other States, while the Southern Confederacy 
 was formally inaugurated if we may not say 
 legalized by the installation of Jefferson Davis 
 as its president. As president of the Union 
 Government, Abraham Lincoln was installed in 
 office, and presently mad his call for 75,000
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 57 
 
 troops to suppress insurrectionary violence and 
 oppose the secession of the slave-holding States. 
 The period was obviously one of intense excite- 
 ment, for coercion on the part of the United 
 States government over the disaffected States 
 that had arrayed themselves against Federal 
 authority and taken themselves out of the Union, 
 was an unusual, as it was an extreme, course, 
 and naturally affected the attitude of most of 
 the Southern officers who were then serving in 
 the Union army. To Colonel Lee, the struggle 
 between his sense of duty and attachment to his 
 native State, in conflict with loyalty in his own 
 breast to the country he had so long and faith- 
 fully served, was a distressing and painful one. 
 Especially was it this when he realized what co- 
 ercion meant, and that coercion would be the 
 penalty to be paid by his own State of Virginia 
 when, as presently happened, she joined the 
 sisterhood of States embraced in the Southern 
 Confederacy. Against his own State he could 
 not, of course, draw his sword, still less could he 
 stand idly by when she was menaced and at- 
 tacked by the Federal power as a commonwealth 
 in revolt from Union authority. In his mind 
 there was nothing of sectional enmity or hatred, 
 only love for his native State, and sorrow over
 
 58 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the dire conditions that had arisen to compel her 
 to withdraw from the North and join her forces 
 with those of the Confederacy. 
 
 Into the vortex of war the two sections of the 
 Republic soon now drifted, and with Lincoln's 
 call for troops and the War Department's prep- 
 arations to invade the South, Colonel Lee's men- 
 tal struggle as to what he should do came to an 
 end. His devotion to the Union had hitherto 
 delayed his action and made infirm his will ; 
 while it brought him overtures from the authori- 
 ties to take command of the proposed army of 
 invasion, which, of course, was repugnant to him, 
 and, in declining, he at the same time handed in 
 his resignation as an officer of the United States 
 army. His period of sore trial was, happily, now 
 soon over, though it cost him much to quit the 
 service with which he had been so long and hon- 
 orably connected and separate himself from his 
 old comrades in the Union army and his friends 
 and associates in the North. To General Win- 
 field Scott, who loved him as a son and pleaded 
 with him against resigning, he wrote a kindly 
 letter of regret at parting with him, while ac- 
 knowledging his appreciation of a long and cor- 
 dial friendship. His resignation was accepted 
 April 20th (1861), and three days later the Legis-
 
 BEFORE THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 59 
 
 lature of Virginia authorized the Governor of the 
 State to offer Lee command of the military forces 
 of the State, with the rank of Major-General. 
 This changed the course of his career, and for 
 the future identified himself with the cause of 
 the South, in which he played so conspicuous and 
 strenuous a part, shedding glory upon its arms, 
 despite the final issue of the long and bloody 
 conflict. Taking leave once more of Arlington 
 and its loved inmates, Lee repaired to Richmond, 
 Va., and to his new duties as commander-in-chief 
 of the army of Virginia.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE OPPOSING FORCES PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 
 
 THE two sections of the riven Union, when 
 Major-General Lee hetook himself to Richmond, 
 were speedily now to come together in the clash 
 of arms. Already, the weakly-garrisoned and 
 badly-provisioned Federal Fort Sumter, in Charles- 
 ton harbor, had been the object of Southern attack 
 and occupation by a Confederate force under Gen- 
 eral Beauregard. Major Anderson and his slender 
 Northern command evacuated the Fort on April 
 14th (1861) with the honors of war, the Confed- 
 erates permitting its temporary defenders to board 
 the Federal Steamship Baltic, lying on the 
 bar, and convey them to New York. Contem- 
 porary with the fall of Fort Sumter, sympathy 
 with Secession showed itself in rioting in Balti- 
 more, a street mob there, being exasperated over 
 the passing through the city of a body of Massa- 
 chusetts and Pennsylvania troops bound for 
 Washington, assailed them with stones and other 
 missiles. The troops, resenting the insult paid 
 
 00
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 61 
 
 them, fired upon the mob, and several deaths and 
 many serious casualties occurred on both sides. 
 When Federal authority was re-established in Bal- 
 timore, the Secession fever subsided, and the city 
 and the State of Maryland were preserved to the 
 Union ; though both became for a time the seats 
 of disaffection and the hiding-place of not a little 
 covert treason. Nor, at the outset of the war, 
 was the seriousness of the situation less grave to 
 the North when the South made haste to possess 
 itself, garrison, and occupy Federal forts, arsenals, 
 and even navy-yards, at outlying points of the 
 coast, or within reach of the seceded States. 
 Among these posts early pounced upon by the 
 Confederate forces were Harper's Ferry, with its 
 arsenal, and the Gosport Navy Yard, adjoining 
 Norfolk, which, though set on fire and abandoned 
 by its Northern garrison, was seized by the 
 Virginians, its flames subdued, and many of its 
 valuable military stores, with several pieces of 
 serviceable artillery, were recovered for use by 
 the South. Alike grave was the aspect of things 
 revealed in the unpreparedness of the North to 
 meet the emergency of the time, and its inability 
 for some months to confront the enemy in the field 
 with any force more adequate than raw, untrained 
 militia, This accounts for the successive defeats
 
 62 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 to the North early in the war, such as those at 
 Big Bethel, near Yorktown, and at Kich Moun- 
 tain and Laurel Ridge, in the valley of Virginia, 
 followed by the more important victory for the 
 South at Bull Run, with its humiliating and 
 disastrous rout of the Northern troops backward 
 upon Washington. 
 
 Still darker for the North was the prospect when, 
 besides the secession of the seven Southern States, 
 came the breaking away from the Union of 
 Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ar- 
 kansas, together with the subsequent recognition 
 by Great Britain and France of the Confederate 
 Government and their according it belligerent 
 rights, following upon the Northern proclamation 
 of a blockade of the Southern ports. In these 
 fateful times, the North, though slow to realize 
 the rift within the Union lute, and hardly dreaming 
 that the Southerners were serious in their estrange- 
 ment from their Northern brethren, was mean- 
 while full of unrequisitioned resource, alike in men 
 and in money ; while her people, when they awoke 
 from their lethargy, were ardently bent on, as well 
 as patriotically zealous for, the prosecution of the 
 war. The firing upon and capture of Fort Sumter, 
 however incredibly the report of its occurring was 
 at first received, aroused and made indignant the
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 63 
 
 North ; while it brought her people to face the 
 reality and braced them to the point of armed 
 coercion. Here and there, dissent from the latter 
 was heard, and doubt cast upon the prospect of an 
 "irrepressible conflict." In these quarters, hope 
 of reconciliation was still clung to, and much was 
 made of the sentimentally viewed spectacle of 
 " brother shedding brother's blood." The day of 
 peace, however, had gone by, and hope of arresting 
 civil war before it had passed the appeals of argu- 
 ment and the bounds of reason was now seen to 
 be futile. In the South, on the other hand, there 
 was more inflexibility as well as unity ; while, 
 at first, its government was better prepared for a 
 conflict, and it knew, moreover, that the North 
 was not. Subjugation by the North was, as yet, 
 hardly dreamed of ; while Southern invasion of 
 the North and the capture of Washington were 
 widely entertained ideas as well as hopefully 
 deemed projects. Had Maryland, Kentucky, and 
 Missouri joined the Confederacy, as at one time 
 seemed probable, the scenes of the coming conflict 
 would more likely have been the North rather 
 than the South, and possibly with another than 
 the after historical result. Aside from this, and 
 from the constitutional argument involved in the 
 question of the right of Secession, the North had
 
 (J4 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the advantage of possessing a moral motive, with 
 the prestige it naturally gave it, in the conflict ; 
 while the South fatally handicapped itself by 
 fighting, in the main, for the preservation of 
 its favored institution. The doctrine of human 
 chattelhood, to an enlightened and religious 
 world, was the South's moral condemnation, and 
 as fanatical was its adherence to and preaching 
 of this as were fanatical the extreme views and 
 the hysterical incitement to aggression on the 
 part of Northern abolitionists. The better minds 
 of the South obviously saw and admitted this, 
 though they could ill brook the sectional intoler- 
 ance cf the North, and so took the stand they did, 
 further influenced by the local claims of the region 
 and the ties of family connection and tradition 
 in the South. With them, Disunion was not so 
 much their motive indeed, by many it was dis- 
 tinctly disavowed as the believed right they had 
 of separation, coupled, as in the case of Major- 
 General Lee, with an ardent affection for their 
 native State, loyalty to its interests, and the claim 
 each section had to its sons' allegiance and succor 
 when in jeopardy, or when it had become the 
 object of menace and aggression by the govern- 
 ment of what was deemed "a sectional and 
 minority President."
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 65 
 
 To the North, it was unfortunate that the crisis 
 that had come upon the country had found it un- 
 prepared for the pending conflict, and that, when 
 it was launched, it was at once paralyzed as well 
 as dismayed at the immediate result. The effect 
 of this on the South was naturally encouraging, 
 while the Confederates were more united and in 
 greater earnest, and possessed, moreover, the 
 abler army leaders, in such experienced generals 
 and clever tacticians as Lee, Johnston, Long- 
 street, and Stonewall Jackson. It was, on the 
 other hand, at a disadvantage in having little 
 of a navy, and was consequently unable to cope 
 with the sea-power resources of the North in 
 blockading and investing Southern ports, with 
 the fine fighting qualities and admirable sea- 
 manship manifested by men like Farragut, Foote, 
 and Porter. In command of the sinews of war, 
 the South was also at a disadvantage compared 
 with the North, though the drain even upon the 
 latter became, as we know, unprecedentedly great 
 and most embarrassing to its financial backers 
 at home and abroad, as well as to the distracted 
 Administration at Washington. This was espe- 
 cially the case in the later stages in the war, when 
 the national currency had greatly depreciated, 
 and when the North was staggering under its
 
 6(5 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 burdensome load of laxatiou, with a national debt 
 which had risen from about $80,000,000 in 1860 
 to over $2,800.000,000 in the autumn of 1865. In 
 this respect, the South had its own perplexities 
 and troubles, in spite of heavy levies in the way 
 of taxation, its risky, surreptitious sales of cotton 
 and the greatly-needed provisions it obtained for 
 this, when it succeeded in passing the vigilant 
 blockade and paying loot to the army of private 
 speculators. With all in its favor, or could pro- 
 cure by hook or by crook, the Southern army 
 was often in sore straits for daily rations, having 
 often to rely almost solely on corn meal ; while it 
 was usually sadly deficient in tents for shelter, as 
 well as in shoes, clothing, and blankets. The 
 facilities for caring for the sick and wounded were 
 also often lamentably indifferent ; while the pri- 
 vations endured by even the strong and the well 
 on the march, or when being transported in close 
 box-cars from place to place, were at times too 
 harrowing for words. 
 
 The curtain of war was now, however, rung up, 
 and from the general aspects of the struggle as it 
 affected both combatants we pass to describe, in 
 some reasonable detail, the chief incidents in the 
 eventful drama. The Federal Administration we 
 have seen, had received Lincoln as its presiding
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 67 
 
 head, and he was judicious in the selection of a Cab- 
 inet, which was composed, as a whole, of experi- 
 enced as well as able Northern statesmen. The 
 Vice-President was Hannibal Hamlin, who, in 1864, 
 when Lincoln was elected for another term of 
 office, was replaced by Andrew Johnson in the 
 subordinate post, and who became his successor. 
 The more prominent of Mr. Lincoln's advisers 
 were Seward, Chase, and Cameron, all of whom 
 had been influential in the political circles of the 
 capital. To these were entrusted the secretary- 
 ships, respectively, of the State Department, 
 the Treasury, and the War Office. Secretary 
 Seward remained during the war at the head of 
 the State Department, though Chase, in 1864, 
 when he was created chief-justice of the Supreme 
 Court, gave place at the head of the Treasury to 
 Fessenden, and later on to MacCulloch ; while 
 Cameron, in 1862, gave way to E. M. Stanton in 
 the control of the War Department. To Gideon 
 Wells fell the post of Secretary of the Navy ; 
 Montgomery Blair became Postmaster-General ; 
 Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior ; and 
 Edward Bates was appointed Attorney-General. 
 
 The representative department heads of the 
 Southern cause, who had been officially installed 
 at Montgomery, Ala., under Jefferson Davis (of
 
 flg LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Miss.) as President of the Confederate Govern- 
 ment, with A. H. Stephens (of Ga.) as Vice- 
 President, were : Kobert Toombs (of Ga.), Secre- 
 tary of State; C. G. Memminger (of S. C.), 
 Secretary of the Treasury ; and L. P. Walker 
 (of Ala.), Secretary of War. To these were later 
 appointed S. R. Mallory (of Fla.), Secretary of 
 the Navy ; and J. H. Eeagan (of Texas), Post- 
 master-General. The chief change in the above 
 posts was that which gave to Judah Philip Ben- 
 jamin, in 1861, the Secretaryship of War, and from 
 February 1862, to the collapse of the Confeder- 
 acy, the Secretaryship of State. Later on, the 
 headquarters of the Confederate Government was 
 transferred from Montgomery, Ala., to Rich- 
 mond, Va., and thither, after his withdrawal 
 from the military service of the Union, did Major- 
 General Lee, as we have related, proceed. Here 
 the distinguished son of Virginia met with a 
 hearty, vociferous welcome, and that alike from 
 the Richmond populace and from the Virginia 
 convention, then in session, and before which, on 
 his coming to the capital, he had been invited to 
 appear. Governor Letcher had already nomin- 
 ated him to the chief commaad of the military 
 forces of the State, with the rank of major-gen- 
 eral, and as such the convention, together with
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 69 
 
 a large and interested audience, warmly greeted 
 him. To the assembled body, Lee was formally 
 presented in an elaborate and eulogistic address, 
 the major-general being introduced as the State's 
 trusted commander-in-chief. To the address and 
 greeting, the recipient of the honor made the 
 following brief, but characteristically modest, 
 reply : "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Con- 
 vention : Profoundly impressed with the solem- 
 nity of the occasion, for which I must say I was 
 not prepared, I accept the position assigned me by 
 your partiality. I would have much preferred 
 had your choice fallen upon an abler man. 
 Trusting in Almighty God, an approving con- 
 science, 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." 
 The demonstration, and the honor paid the 
 general in the high appointment which had been 
 given him, was not only well deserved, but was 
 sure to be rewarded by able and gallant, as well 
 as by most efficient, service. He had sacrificed not 
 a little in resigning his cavalry command under 
 the Union flag ; but this, as we have seen, was 
 due to his preferred allegiance to his native State, 
 no less than to his refusal to fight against her 
 when it had withdrawn from the North and
 
 70 LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 joined her fortunes with those of the Confed- 
 eracy. For this act of loyalty to the Common- 
 wealth of Virginia, he had to abandon his loved 
 Arlington, while he, with his dear wife and at- 
 tached family, had become homeless, save for 
 the temporary domicile in the White House, at 
 Pamunkey, in which his wife and children had 
 meanwhile found safety and shelter. But with 
 all the patriotic sacrifice he had been called upon 
 to make, Lee was not one to repine over duty 
 conscientiously performed. His attitude amid 
 the distractions and perils of the time is well 
 shown at this juncture in a letter to his wife 
 from Richmond (under date May 8, 1861). He 
 there says : " I grieve at the anxiety th&t drives 
 you from your home. I can appreciate your 
 feelings on the occasion, and pray that you may 
 receive comfort and strength in the difficulties 
 that surround you. When I reflect upon the 
 calamity pending over the country," he bravely 
 and resignedly adds, "my own sorrows sink into v 
 insignificance." Very touching at this time is the 
 spirit shown by Lee's noble wife, in a letter she 
 addressed to her husband's admiring friend, the 
 aged General Scott, giving him an account of her 
 worthy husband's welcome by the Virginia Con- 
 vention. Writing from Arlington (May 5, 1861)
 
 PREPARING FOR CONFLICT. 71 
 
 before quitting her ancestral home, she thus 
 addresses the veteran soldier : " My dear Gen- 
 eral: Hearing that you desire to see the account 
 of my husband's reception in Richmond, I have 
 sent it to you. No honors can reconcile us to 
 this fratricidal war which we would have laid 
 down our lives to avert. Whatever may happen, 
 I feel that I may expect from your kindness all 
 the protection you can in honor afford. Nothing 
 can ever make me forget your kind appreciation 
 of Mr. Lee. If you knew all you would not think 
 so hardly of me. Were it not that I would not 
 add one feather to his load of care, nothing would 
 induce me to abandon my home. Oh, that you 
 could command peace to our distracted country ! 
 Yours in sadness and sorrow, M. C. LEE." Less 
 than three weeks from the date of this epistle, 
 the paternal home of the Lee family had to be 
 abandoned, on the approach of an outpost of the 
 Federal army, which made Arlington its head- 
 quarters, while taking possession of the heights 
 of "Washington and the region of the Potomac's 
 banks as far as Alexandria,
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 
 
 WHEN the Civil War was launched, the South, 
 though confident and bold even to audacity, was 
 in numbers weak, as compared with the North 
 and the North- Western region, that threw in its 
 lot with the Union. Of the thirty-one millions 
 representing the population of the United States 
 according to the Census of 1860, only some twelve 
 millions dwelt in the Slave States, and but nine 
 millions could be counted among the States of 
 the South that actually seceded, since the Slave 
 States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, 
 Kentucky, and Missouri, did not unite with the 
 Confederacy. Of these nine millions, it has to be 
 remember, moreover, that about three and a half 
 millions were slaves ; so that the entire strength 
 of the Confederate States, in freemen, that broke 
 away from and defied the Union, was only some 
 five and a half millions, of which, in round 
 numbers, two and a half millions were, women,
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 73 
 
 leaving but three millions of a possible fighting 
 strength to be opposed, roughly speaking, to three 
 times the number in the North. The disparity in 
 wealth and resources was also great, the prepon- 
 derance being vastly on the side of the Union. On 
 the other hand, the South was at the outset better 
 prepared for conflict, and had proportionately a 
 larger number of expert soldiers, used to arms, 
 among them being many able officers who had 
 seen considerable service in the Union army, and 
 had a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge 
 of and genius for war. The South, moreover, 
 was from the first in deadly earnest, and fought, 
 in the main, on the defensive and on its own soil, 
 and that not only for what it conceived to be its 
 rights in the institution of slavery, but for the 
 inherent right of Secession, especially when its 
 interests and free, independent action were in 
 peril from Northern coercion and the clamor of 
 what was deemed incendiary abolition dictation 
 and fanaticism. In the view it took with regard 
 to these rights and sectional claims, it looked at 
 the outset for a division of sentiment in its favor 
 in the North and West, as well as for recognition 
 by, if not practical aid from, the European 
 nations whose industry and commerce were depen- 
 dent upon "King Cotton," In the indulging of
 
 74. LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 these hopes it was largely disappointed, for the 
 West remained loyal to the Union ; while the 
 effectiveness of the Northern blockade of the 
 Southern ports, and the absence of a Confederate 
 navy, proved futile to Southern expectation of 
 European interference and aid. Nor was it finan- 
 cially in a position to enter upon a prolonged 
 struggle, as was ere long seen in the collapse of 
 the Confederate Government's credit, depending, 
 in the main, as it did upon issues of paper money 
 which so depreciated in value that towards the 
 close of the struggle it took $500 of Confederate 
 money to buy a pair of trooper's boots. 
 
 Another matter that favored the South through- 
 out the course of the struggle, was the unity of its 
 army organization, in the main, under a single 
 directing mind, one who knew his men well, and 
 that not only in units but in masses, and whom 
 his men knew and trusted in a remarkable degree. 
 In General Lee, moreover, the Southern cause 
 had a commander capable of fighting a battle on 
 a large scale, and who, as an engineer officer of 
 great experience and astuteness, possessed a 
 trained eye for adequate preliminary reconnais- 
 sance, and for every coign of vantage in the field ; 
 and at the same time had phenomenal personal 
 qualities that gave him pre-eminence among the
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 75 
 
 leaders of the South, while they removed him far 
 above self-seeking, petty jealousy, and fretfulness 
 as to his rank-status or right to be where he was 
 and remained throughout the war. In contrast 
 with these things, the North, especially at the out- 
 set of the war, had no such single commander to 
 lead with confidence and unerring judgment and 
 purpose its arms, or who could bring on the field 
 masses of trained men, enured to fighting, rather 
 than fresh, hastily mobilized units, without stay- 
 ing power in a hot encounter, and who had all the 
 inefficiency and timorousness of raw recruits. The 
 North, we know, did better later on in the strug- 
 gle, after it had got over its early chastening time 
 of defeat and bafflement, and had fully roused 
 itself to bring its greater strength of men and 
 resources to bear upon the " rebels " and prosecute 
 the war with effect and vigor to its final and 
 successful issue. It did better, moreover, when 
 such leaders of its armies as Grant, Sherman, 
 Sheridan, Rosecrans, Pope, and Thomas came 
 to the front and replaced or overshadowed men 
 of the lesser stamp like McClellan, Hancock, 
 McDowell, Buell, Burnside, and Meade ; though, 
 at the best, if we except Grant, whose bull-dog 
 tenacity and sledge-hammer though sanguinary 
 work told in the issues of the conflict, with the
 
 76 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 brilliant achievements of Sheridan and Sherman, 
 the North had no such array of fighting generals, 
 skilful tacticians, and strong, sagacious leaders 
 as the South had in Lee, J. E. and A. S. Johnston, 
 " Stonewall " Jackson, Beauregard, Bragg, Hood, 
 and Early, who proved themselves foes it was folly 
 to underrate. Besides this disadvantage, the North 
 at the outset, moreover, made the palpable mistake 
 of belittling its Union adversaries, and was even 
 sceptical as to the imminence of war ; though the 
 firing on Fort Sumter, the affair at Big Bethel, 
 and discomfiture at Bull Run, with the flight of 
 Union forces back upon the capital, speedily unde- 
 ceived her ; and yet not to a greater or more 
 adequate extent than led President Lincoln, some 
 months before, to summon to the Nation's aid a 
 defensive and aggressive force no heavier than 
 that of Y5,000 men, to serve for a period of only 
 three months ! 
 
 Meanwhile, as we know, the South was strain- 
 ing every nerve not only to strengthen the assail- 
 able sections of her frontier and vast coast line, 
 put Richmond, now the Confederate capital, in an 
 adequate state of defense, and watch the ap- 
 proaches to Virginia's borders, but even meditated 
 a menacing raid upon Washington, to assail the 
 North in its then ill-defended capital. Already
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 77 
 
 Lee, who by his own Virginian Commonwealth, 
 had been given command of her military forces and 
 was at work erecting fortifications and batteries 
 round the State's sea-front and river mouths, 
 was by this time called to the councils of the 
 Confederacy at Richmond, under Jefferson 
 Davis, its President and nominal commanding- 
 general, thence was despatched to the mountains 
 of Western Virginia in command of a body of 
 troops to make reconnaissances and maintain an 
 oversight of the situation. All here he succeeded, 
 meantime, in doing, was to watch and, as far as 
 possible, nullify the operations, on land and sea, of 
 invading Northern forces in the region, until the 
 early spring of 1862, when he was recalled to 
 Richmond and there given command of the Army 
 of Northern Virginia, with the special object of 
 concentrating forces for the protection of the 
 Confederate capital, then threatened by a North- 
 ern army under McClellan. Entrusted with 
 this important and responsible task, General Lee 
 entered with his wonted vigor upon his new 
 duties. The cry in the North just then was, 
 "On to Richmond!" for since McClellan had 
 been given the chief command of the Northern 
 forces he had as yet done nothing actively in the 
 field, his extreme caution holding his hand ; while
 
 78 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 his attention to the details of organization 
 occupied him fully, in spite of Northern impatience 
 with his tardiness. At length, however, he pro- 
 posed to put his command in motion, with the view 
 of meeting the Union clamor for the capture of 
 Richmond, though the Washington Administra- 
 tion insisted that in the move against the Con- 
 federate capital the safety of the Union capital 
 should be amply provided for and secured. Mc- 
 Clellan's project in advancing upon Richmond 
 was not to move in force upon the Confederate 
 entrenchments at Manassas and try the hazard of 
 battle there with General J. E. Johnston, but to 
 transport his army by water to the lower Chesa- 
 peake to the Peninsula formed by the James and 
 York rivers and, with his base resting upon 
 Fortress Monroe, advance upon Richmond from 
 that quarter. 
 
 Before the Peninsular campaign was entered 
 upon, in April, 1862, it had been going ill with 
 the fortunes of the South in the West. There, 
 thanks to the aid afforded by the Northern fleet, 
 under Commodore Foote, Ulysses Grant, earlier in 
 the year, had made his way up the Tennessee 
 River and captured Fort Henry, following that 
 by an attack upon Fort Donelson, on the Cumber- 
 land River, which, after two days' severe fighting
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. T9 
 
 surrendered to him, with a loss of nearly 15,000 
 men. A little later than these Southern defeats, 
 came other Northern successes, in the capture of 
 Island Number Ten, on the Mississippi, and the 
 fall of New Orleans to Admirals Farragut and 
 Porter ; while the fiercely-contested battle of 
 Shiloh, between A. S. Johnston and Buell and 
 Grant, had been fought, the losses on both sides 
 amounting to over 20,000 men, besides the killing 
 of the Confederate commander (Johnston), whose 
 command was taken over by Beauregard. These 
 losses, together with the earlier Northern vic- 
 tories under Thomas at Mill Spring, and under 
 Curtis at Pea Ridge, with the later surrender of 
 Memphis to Commodore Davis, were irretrievable 
 disasters to the South, not to speak of its having 
 to abandon the control of the Mississippi. For 
 the time, the Southern heart, on the other 
 hand, was cheered by the doings of the armor-clad 
 Merrimac, in Hampton Roads, where the trans- 
 mogrified craft rammed and sank the Northern 
 frigate Cumberland, burned the Congress and 
 forced the Minnesota to seek safety in shoal water. 
 After this, came the encounter with an equally 
 formidable adversary, the Ericsson revolving tur- 
 ret ship Monitor (March, 1862), and the with- 
 drawal of both Monitor and Merrimac after a
 
 gO LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 lavish waste of shot on both sides ; though the pres- 
 ence of and reputation gained by the Monitor re- 
 lieved the Northern mind from dread of Southern 
 attack on Eastern harbors by the Confederate ram. 
 Nor were the complications of the era between the 
 United States Government and Great Britain, in 
 the Trent affair, without a ray of hope to the 
 South, as being likely to lead to trouble between 
 the two nations, and so be advantageous to the 
 Confederate cause. The threatening aspect of 
 affairs, as we know, however, speedily blew over, 
 the Washington authorities having the good sense 
 to recognize that Captain Wilkes' seizure of 
 Messrs. Slidell and Mason on board the Trent 
 was not only a violation of neutrality, but con- 
 trary to American contention and tradition. 
 
 While these events were happening, General 
 McClellan, tardily meeting the Northern clamor 
 for an advance upon Richmond, pursued his object 
 of proceeding with his Army of the Potomac to 
 Fortress Monroe, there to initiate his movement 
 against the Confederate capital. Before setting 
 out with his Peninsular army of invasion, the 
 North had at Washington a fighting force of about 
 170,000 men ; yet, with this large body of troops 
 at his command, McClellan was, as we have 
 seen, timidly afraid of marching upon Richmond
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 81 
 
 through Johnston's defensive lines at Manassas. 
 He preferred, as we have related, to operate from 
 ^he lower Chesapeake, where he hoped to have had 
 the aid of the Northern gunboats to protect the 
 flanks of his army. In this he was, however, 
 disappointed, since the Union gunboats were at 
 the time fully occupied in keeping watch over the 
 terrible ironclad, the Merrimac. He was further 
 disappointed in having to leave behind him, for 
 the defense of Washington, about 40,000, instead 
 of 20,000 men, the Lincoln Administration insist- 
 ing that McDowell's army corps should be retained, 
 in addition to the 20,000 troops, which were all 
 McClellan had designed to leave at the capital. 
 As it was, he had with him a force well nigh 
 130,000 strong, to pit against the Southern armies, 
 all told, of less than half that number in Virginia, 
 to protect Richmond, and guard the coast line and 
 other approaches to the Southern capital. Of the 
 latter force, the Southern general, Magruder, had 
 under him, to confront McClellan when he reached 
 the Peninsula, a body of but 11,000 troops, which 
 were extended behind defensive lines, some twelve 
 miles in length, from Yorktown, where his left 
 rested, along the Warwick River to Mulberry 
 Island, to his right flank on the James. On Mc- 
 Clellan's failure to meet Johnston at Manassas
 
 82 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 and proceeding to the Chesapeake, the latter met 
 the movement by withdrawing from the region of 
 Bull Run, and took up a new position on the 
 Rappahannock, where he could better oppose 
 McClellan. Meanwhile, Magruder's front was 
 reinforced by the divisions of Jubal Early, D. R. 
 Jones, and D. H. Hill, increasing the Southern 
 defensive array to oppose the Federal advance to 
 53,000 men, the chief command of all being now 
 assumed (April 17, 1862) by General J. E. John- 
 ston, who had also the general charge of the De- 
 partment of Norfolk. 
 
 It took the remainder of the month of April 
 for McClellan to make his reconnaissances in the 
 region and ascertain the strength of the forces 
 opposed to him ; and when this was done he pro- 
 ceeded to erect batteries commanding Yorktown 
 and to prepare for a general assault. While 
 thus engaged, a council of war had been held at 
 Richmond, in which General Lee took a leading 
 directing part, and which favored the withdrawal 
 of the Southern defensive line and concentrate it 
 nearer to the Confederate capital. This decision 
 having been come to, Yorktown was abandoned, 
 the retreat upon Williamsburg being for a time 
 adroitly concealed by a furious cannonade from 
 the batteries of the place. The movement was
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 83 
 
 one of chagrin to McClellan, for he had hoped 
 to take Yorktown by siege and assault, having 
 expended weeks in preparing for it, and was, 
 moreover, confident of success. All he had for 
 his pains was the occupying of the evacuated 
 Confederate works, and the pursuit of the retreat- 
 ing Southern defenders of the post. In the retreat 
 towards Richmond, an effective stand was made 
 at Williamsburg by the troops under Longstreet 
 and D. H. Hill, who fought the pursuing Northern 
 force under Hooker and Hancock, General Sumner 
 being in chief command ; while a division under 
 Kearny later came on the field. Battle had been 
 given at Williamsburg, so as to check Federal 
 pursuit and allow time for Johnston to get the 
 mass of his army and its equipment well on the 
 road to Richmond. As it was, the Northerners, 
 were hotly repulsed, suffering a heavy loss of over 
 2,000 men in killed and wounded, in addition to 
 some pieces of artillery captured by " the rebels." 
 The battle lasted throughout the day of May 5th, 
 when the Confederates fell back towards the 
 Chickahominy, at the same time withdrawing the 
 garrison under Huger, from Norfolk, Va. In 
 spite of defeat McClellan continued the advance 
 upon Richmond, having for his new base the 
 White House, on the Pamunkey. By this time
 
 g4 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 he had been relieved 'of the chief command of the 
 Northern forces by General Halleck at Washing- 
 ton, and was now solely responsible for the Fed- 
 eral operations in the Peninsula, though in 
 conducting these he looked for support from 
 McDowell's division, which was now advanced 
 from the neighborhood of Manassas to Fredericks- 
 burg. Here it was, however, detained by instruc- 
 tions from Washington, much to McClellan's 
 annoyance, owing to continued fear of a Southern 
 advance upon the Union capital by Jackson's 
 alertly-moving command, which was operating 
 menacingly in the Valley of Virginia. It was to 
 Jackson, at this juncture, that Richmond, now in 
 real dread of McClellan, was saved from assault 
 and possible occupation by the Army of the 
 Potomac. To his active, adroit, and tactical 
 movements in the Valley, which alarmed Wash- 
 ington, and kept McDowell from joining McClel- 
 lan, the South owed the deliverance of its capital 
 seat ; while it gave Johnston the opportunity to 
 give his attention to the Federal forces now 
 massing on the Chickahominy. 
 
 McClellan's advance upon Richmond was for a 
 time balked by difficulties in getting across the 
 latter stream (the Chickahominy), the retreating 
 Confederates having destroyed its bridges in fall-
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 85 
 
 ing back upon the capital ; while the wet season 
 had swollen the river greatly and rendered very 
 swampy its banks. One of the Northern army 
 wings was, however, got across the stream, by 
 means of pontoons, in the neighborhood of Bot- 
 tom Bridge, and the corps composing it those 
 of Keyes, Franklin, and Heintzelman Johnston 
 now proceeded to attack. The engagement that 
 ensued that at Seven Pines or Fair Oaks took 
 place on the last day of May and the first of June 
 (1862), and was stubbornly fought by J. E. John- 
 ston and his next ranking officer, G. W. Smith. 
 In the battle, the Federals met with a severe re- 
 buff, and were repeatedly driven back on the 
 Chickahominy, the timely arrival of Sumner's 
 corps only saving them from annihilation or utter 
 rout. At the close of the first day's fighting, 
 t General Johnston was unfortunate enough to be 
 severely wounded, and this disabled him from 
 taking part in, or even directing, the morrow's 
 operations. The incidents of the second day's 
 battle were unimportant in results on either side, 
 both armies remaining on the ground at the close 
 of the fighting and protecting themselves by 
 entrenchments. Johnston's disablement for the 
 time from active service brought General Lee 
 upon the scene, however, President Davis per-
 
 86 LIFE OF GENERAL LER. 
 
 mitting him at length to take the field, while he 
 appointed him Commander-in-chief. 
 
 With Lee's return to active duty in the field, 
 McClellan's designs upon the Confederate capital 
 were signally balked ; while the presence and 
 superb leadership of the great Southern soldier 
 were great gains to the South in the crisis of 
 invasion. This was presently seen by the vig- 
 orous campaign he now entered upon at the head 
 of the Northern Army of Virginia, and by its 
 operations during the critical era of the Seven 
 Days' Battles in front of Richmond. The troops 
 under him, or within call from Richmond, did 
 not, all told, exceed 60,000 men ; against which 
 McClellan, at this time, had an army double in 
 number, without reckoning the corps under 
 McDowell, Fremont, and Banks, which were 
 nigh at hand. At this period, Jackson, once 
 more, was of great service to Lee and the 
 Southern cause in continuing his daring oper- 
 ations in the Virginia Valley, where he was now 
 joined by E well's division, and with whose co- 
 operation he fell first upon Fremont, whom he 
 drove back upon Western Virginia, and then 
 attacked and routed Banks, who fled across the 
 Potomac. These Northern repulses foiled any 
 hope of McDowell's joining McClellan, and com-
 
 THE DRA.MA OPENS. 87 
 
 pelled the latter to rely upon his own already 
 large resources. The situation of the South at 
 this time was, moreover, brightened ; while Lee 
 and his army, still holding McClellan in check 
 on the Chickahominy, was encouraged, by the 
 brilliant reconnaissance ride of General Stuart 
 and his Southern cavalry command round the 
 whole of the widely-extended lines of the Federal 
 position, during which Stuart and his men did 
 much serviceable work in learning of the strength 
 and weakness of McClellan's lines, as well as in 
 harassing the outposts of the enemy. 
 
 At this juncture in the South's affairs, General 
 Lee had a heavy and responsible duty to face, 
 having in front of him, within only five or six 
 miles of Richmond, a Northern army, eleven 
 divisions strong, with but five divisions, at most, 
 under him, to pit against this unequal force. 
 Disposing his command which consisted of the 
 divisions under Huger, Longstreet, Magruder, 
 A. P. Hill, and D. H. Hill to the best advan- 
 tage, Lee saw that his best tactics lay in attack- 
 ing one or other of the enemy's flanks. The right 
 flank was the one he chose to operate against, 
 the topographical features of the country on 
 McClellan's right and rear being favorable to 
 assault from that quarter. Moreover, the in-
 
 85 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE, 
 
 formation which General Stuart had gleaned for 
 him, in his daring ride round McClellan's lines, 
 confirmed Lee in his decision to attack the enemy 
 on the right. In thus deciding, he was also in- 
 fluenced by the brilliant movements of " Stone- 
 wall " Jackson in the Virginia Valley, and the 
 distractions caused McClellan by these exploits, 
 which brought "Stonewall" in rear of the Fed- 
 eral right, and in a position to aid Lee in the 
 vigorous onslaught he was about to undertake. 
 Now was launched the famous Seven Days' con- 
 flict (June 2 6- July 2), which brought conster- 
 nation to the Federal commander, and not only 
 foiled him in his anticipated capture of the 
 " rebel " capital, but caused his entire plans to 
 miscarry, and actually drove him and his in- 
 vading army from the Peninsula. The vigor 
 and daring, as well as the brilliance, of Lee's 
 operations, which resulted in this signal discom- 
 fiture of his boastful Northern adversary, were 
 conspicuous throughout the Seven Days' battles ; 
 while their success caused renewed despair at 
 Washington, and correspondingly elated the 
 whole South. They, moreover, infused fresh 
 ardor into all ranks of the Confederate armies, 
 and increasingly stiffened the back of rebellion. 
 Nor was McClellan's failure in the Peninsular
 
 THE DRA.MA OPENS. 89 
 
 campaign simply a defeat, or rather a series of 
 defeats ; it came near involving the destruction 
 or surrender of the entire army of the Potomac, 
 and that in spite of the stubborn fightings which 
 marked almost the whole course of the retreat 
 from the Chickahominy to the James River, 
 and the skill shown by the Federal commander 
 in extricating himself and his forces from the 
 region, which Nature had further rendered a 
 toilsome and difficult one to penetrate. Amply, 
 however, was Lee rewarded by the success he 
 achieved, splendidly aided as he was by the 
 loyal support and active, determined work of his 
 ably co-operating generals. 
 
 Of the latter generals, Lee received perhaps the 
 greatest assistance from Stonewall Jackson, who, 
 as we have seen, was operating in the Virginia 
 Valley, and had just defeated Fremont at Cross 
 Keys and Shields at Port Republic (June 8-9). 
 From the Valley Lee had asked Jackson to come 
 secretly to his aid, leaving in the region only such 
 portions of his command as were necessary to 
 keep watch over the Northern corps he had been 
 fighting, and concealing from the enemy the 
 suggested junction with General Lee. To replace 
 Jackson's own personal command, Lee had 
 directed Brigadier- Generals Lawton and Whiting,
 
 90 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 with their respective corps, to join "Stonewall* 1 
 and aid him in crushing the Northerners in the 
 Valley, and then, with his main body, including 
 EwelPs division and Lawton and Whiting's con- 
 tingents, move rapidly to Ashland, thence sweep 
 down between the Chickahominy and the Pamun- 
 key, where it was hinted Jackson could cut the 
 enemy's communications while Lee was to attack 
 McClellan in front. For a time, McClellan was in 
 the dark about this understanding between Lee 
 and Jackson, which was arranged more in detail 
 at a personal conference between the two Confed- 
 erate leaders on a flying visit to Richmond. 
 McClellan, moreover, was purposely misled not 
 only as to this co-operating movement, but also as 
 to the strength of the Southern forces to be brought 
 against him, which he seems to have reckoned at 
 the preposterously extravagant number of 200,000 
 men. The truth is, the Confederate strength 
 under Lee at this time was not over 81,000, to pit 
 against which the Union had a fighting force of 
 105,000 effective men. 
 
 At last McClellan gained a knowledge of the 
 movement against his right flank on the north 
 bank of the Chickahominy, in which, besides 
 Jackson's command, the two Hills, Longstreet, 
 and Branch, were to take part ; while Lee left
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 91 
 
 Holmes, Magruder, and Huger, to make a 
 counter-demonstration upon the Federal front. 
 In beginning to carry out the movement, Jackson 
 and Branch, guided by Stuart's cavalry, reached 
 Ashland on June 25, after which the combined 
 columns pressed on towards Cold Harbor. On the 
 following day, D. H. Hill rather unexpectedly 
 gave battle to Fitz-John Porter at Mechanicsville, 
 and after a stiff fight he pressed the latter's com- 
 mand back to Beaver Dam Creek and Games' Mill. 
 At New Cold Harbor, the fighting became general, 
 Lee having ordered a combined assault in force 
 against Porter, in which the corps of Jackson, 
 Ewell, Longstreet, Whiting, and the two Hills, 
 took an active and at times a daring part. For a 
 time the rebel attack was met chiefly by Porter's 
 artillery ; though, as the assault was pressed, the 
 Northern commander continued to fall back, a 
 movement which, as a whole, was now decided 
 upon by McClellan, who sought to reach the 
 James River, about twenty-five miles distant, 
 through the intricacies of the White Oak Swamp. 
 The federal position was now one of extreme peril, 
 and much depended upon Porter's tactics of 
 defense, so as to allow time for the withdrawal of 
 the mass of McClellan's army and prevent Jack- 
 son, at Lee's bidding, from getting in rear of him
 
 92 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 and cutting off his retreat. As Hill pressed the 
 Federals at this juncture, in the face of a furious 
 fire, he discovered the strength of Porter's position ; 
 but he nevertheless continued gallantly to assail 
 them, aided, at Lee's instructions, by Longstreet's 
 division, and later by those of Ewell and Whiting. 
 Still later, Hill was cheered by the approach of 
 the indomitable Jackson's division, when the 
 Federals fell back from Beaver Dam Creek in con- 
 fusion ; though they saved themselves from fur- 
 ther disaster by the coming on of night, as well as 
 by the nature of the region, which made it difficult 
 for effective pursuit in the darkness. The losses 
 on both sides were heavy from the day's opera- 
 tions, and nightfall was consequently hailed with 
 gladness, especially by the Northerners, who fell 
 back on the Powhite Creek. 
 
 Meanwhile, the main Federal army had with- 
 drawn from its base at the White House, on the 
 Pamunkey, and the line of the York River rail- 
 road, taking with it such of its equipment and 
 baggage as could be carried off in retreat, and des- 
 troying the remainder a large amount of Federal 
 property besides burning the bridge, on the way 
 back to the James. At Savage Station and the 
 neighborhood there were several hot brushes with 
 the retreating Federals, in which many of the
 
 THE DRAMA OPENS. 93 
 
 latter were taken prisoners ; while for a time a 
 determined stand was made at Frazier's Farm by 
 the commands under Sumner and Heintzelman. 
 Here, on June 30, the Southern columns were 
 held stiffly in check, in spite of the vigorous as- 
 saults of the forces under Jackson, Longstreet, 
 and A. P. Hill ; while another battle was fought 
 at Malvern Bridge, and simultaneous fighting 
 went on along all the swampy country over which 
 the Federals were retreating, back as far as West- 
 over, which McClellan reached on July 4, and 
 where he eagerly sought the safety of the strong 
 Federal defensive works there, protected by the 
 Northern gunboats in the river. 
 
 With McClellan's retreat, Lee had been able 
 not only to bring relief to the Confederate capital, 
 but to unite the entire forces of his varied com- 
 mand on the south side of the Chickahominy and 
 deliver the many offensive attacks which marked 
 the period of the Seven Days' battles. From 
 these almost continuous assaults McClellan nar- 
 rowly escaped destruction or enforced surrender, 
 mainly owing to the inferior numbers of the 
 Southern fighting armies and to the difficult 
 country through which the Federal commander- 
 in-chief had cleverly conducted his retreat. Even 
 at Westover, where he had strong entrenchments
 
 94- LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 to take shelter in and the Union gunboats in the 
 James to protect him, McClellan barely saved 
 his force from the strategy of Major-General 
 Stuart, who, with great sagacity, seized, and 
 against stout Federal opposition pluckily held for 
 a time, Evelington Heights, an eminence overlook- 
 ing Westover that commanded the entire position 
 occupied by the Northern army after its retreat. 
 In the Seven Days' fighting the losses on each side 
 exceeded fifteen thousand men, the casualties 
 naturally falling more heavily on the Southern 
 side, as the offensive one throughout the repulse. 
 In addition, the Northerners lost many guns, as 
 well as captured men and equipment ; while they 
 also burned in their retreat very considerable 
 military shores, tents, baggage, and other camp- 
 appurtenances. To Lee, the successes of the period 
 were not all he had hoped for and had brilliantly 
 sought to achieve ; but he made few mistakes, 
 and had much to felicitate himself upon, with a 
 heightened record for coolness, reliance, and sa- 
 gacity, and increased reputation for superb skill 
 in planning, and great force and effectiveness in 
 executing, his operations.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST POPE IN NORTHERN VIR- 
 GINIA, AND THE SECOND BATTLE OP BULL RUN. 
 
 THE failure of McClellan's operations in the 
 Virginia Peninsula was naturally disconcerting to 
 the Federal Administration at Washington and 
 led to further alarm over the safety of the capital, 
 as well as to a call (July 2) for 300,000 volunteers, 
 for a term of service of three years. The War 
 Department, a week later, moreover, appointed 
 Major-General Halleck commander-in-chief, and 
 about the same time gave the command of the 
 Army of Virginia, for the protection of the Fed- 
 eral capital, to Major- General John Pope, one of 
 Halleck's divisional commanders in the West, who 
 had gained some reputation by the capture, in 
 February, 1862, of Island No. 8, in the Mississippi. 
 These appointments, as it turned out, however, 
 were mere makeshifts, resorted to in the dilemma 
 the Washington authorities found themselves in, 
 with such masterly Southern fighters actively in 
 
 the field as Lee and Stonewall Jackson. They 
 
 95
 
 96 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 were also made in consequence of the shaking of 
 Northern confidence in McClellan, who was now 
 ordered by Halleck to withdraw his army from 
 jthe James River and place it under the direction 
 of Pope, in front of Washington. This was what 
 Lee most desired, as it not only removed the 
 menace involved in the presence of 100,000 Fed- 
 eral troops within striking distance of Rich- 
 mond, but freed the great Southern chieftain and 
 his army to test Pope's metal in operations north 
 of the Rappahannock. The measure of Pope's 
 ability was presently now to be taken and put to 
 the test ; already, by his boastful General Order 
 on assuming the chief command, he had discred- 
 ited his sagacity as a general officer and gained for 
 himself the jeers of friend and foe alike. Nor 
 did his proclamations in regard to unarmed 
 citizens and private property, in the section of 
 Northern Virginia where his command was, man- 
 ifest either tact or humanity. Otherwise, he 
 acted wisely in collecting together under him the 
 scattered brigades of McDowell, Fremont, and 
 Banks, amounting to close upon 60,000 men, and 
 advancing them across the Rappahannock, menac- 
 ingly near to both Gordonsville and Charlottes- 
 ville, important intersecting points in Northern 
 Virginia.
 
 CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 97 
 
 To oppose this movement of Pope, General 
 Lee once more relied upon his sturdy lieutenant 
 in arms, General Stonewall Jackson, whom he 
 directed to move, with E well's command, to 
 Gordonsville, where he arrived on July 19. A 
 week later, Jackson's army was strengthened by 
 the junction with it of A. P. Hill's division a 
 combined force of about 19,000 men, against which 
 it had more than double that number so far op- 
 posed to it under Pope. On being apprised of Jack- 
 son's presence at Gordonsville, the new Federal 
 Commander-in-chief directed General Banks to ad- 
 vance with his force of 28,000 from Cedar Run to 
 join him. In obeying this command of his 
 superior, Banks got as far as Culpeper Court 
 House, near which Jackson's advance came across 
 him and gave him battle, aided by the brigades 
 under Ewell and Early. At a crisis in the con- 
 test that ensued, " Stonewall " himself was im- 
 pelled to take the field, at the head of his own 
 brigade, and with the timely help of a portion of 
 A. P. Hill's division, that had come up at the junc- 
 ture when it was going ill with the Confederate 
 forces, the Federal attacks were repulsed, and 
 Banks and his army were driven in rout from 
 the field, leaving upon it his Northern dead and 
 wounded. Af t*i* the victory known as the battle
 
 98 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 of Cedar Kun Jackson, on the following day 
 (Aug. 10), learning that Banks was being heavily 
 reinforced, recrossed the Rapidan and returned 
 to Gordonsville. His object in this was to await 
 developments in a stronger position, when Pope or 
 Banks was ready to resume fighting, and also to 
 enable him the better to keep in touch with 
 General Lee. 
 
 At length, to General Lee's relief, who feared, 
 when McClellan's army joined Pope, that a con- 
 centrated movement upon Richmond directly 
 from the North would ensue, McClellan betook 
 himself from the James, his army being returned 
 to Washington by sea from Harrison's Landing, 
 close to Westover, where his camp for some time 
 had been. Already Pope had advanced his bat- 
 teries to the north bank of the Rapidan ; and 
 thither, on the south bank, Lee began to remove 
 his army, with the design of proceeding north to 
 the Rappahannock to execute a purpose which he 
 in concert with Jackson and Longstreet, had con- 
 ceived, of getting in rear of Pope's left flank, and 
 with another portion of his army to get round the 
 Federal right and cut the Northern army's com- 
 munications with Washington. From August 
 25th to the 27th, saw the initial movements of this 
 daring design put in execution, by way of
 
 CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 9$ 
 
 Thoroughfare Gap, the narrow pass iu Bull Run 
 mountain close to Manassas. To strengthen his 
 forces for the accomplishment of this clever 
 piece of tactics, Lee had ordered up from Rich- 
 mond the divisions under D. H. Hill, Wilkes, and 
 McLaws, which, on their arrival, gave Lee a com- 
 bined force of nearly 60,000 men, to pit against 
 Pope's total, of close upon 92,000 ; for the latter 
 had summoned Burnside's and King's commands 
 from Fredericksburg to join him. To add to 
 the Federal hosts, McClellan's advance corps, to- 
 gether with those of Porter, Sumner, and Heint- 
 zelman, were now pouring in from Fredericks- 
 burg and Alexandria. In spite of his greater 
 strength, Pope was nevertheless in much bewilder- 
 ment as to the possible quarters from which the 
 Confederate generals would launch their attacks 
 upon him ; while, at the same time, he was anx- 
 ious to meet successively their commands in ac- 
 tion rather than have to fight a united Southern 
 army in the field. Especially did he seek to pre- 
 vent the junction of Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson, 
 or any two of them, until he himself had had some 
 measure of success, and had tried his luck with 
 one or other of them separately. He was soon 
 now to obtain what he desired, and indeed more 
 than he cared to grapple with, and with disastrous
 
 100 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 results to his reputation and tragic consequences 
 to his Northern army. While in the midst of 
 these anxieties, Jackson's 20,000 men were res- 
 olutely pressing forward to Manassas Junction ; 
 while Longstreet took up a position at Orleans, 
 leaving Lee, meanwhile, to keep watch on the 
 river at Waterloo and send a supporting corps to 
 Jackson and Longstreet. By August 27th, the 
 latter had covered the fifteen miles between 
 Orleans and White Plains, thence to his junction 
 with " Stonewall " at the eastern end of Thorough- 
 fare Gap, seven miles further on. Hither Lee him- 
 self came to overlook the ground and confer with 
 his veteran generals, some of whose corps were 
 now grappling with the enemy and falling on the 
 Federal flank. In the region, Jackson, with the 
 aid of Stuart's and Trimble's cavalry contingent, 
 had come upon the Federal rear with such sur- 
 prise that they fell upon Pope's immense army 
 supplies, and had for once a day's high carnival 
 on the bounties furnished by the Northern com- 
 missariat. To Jackson's indifferently garbed, ill 
 foot-shod, and poorly-fed men, operating in a 
 country largely overrun by an enemy, the falling 
 upon the Federal army stores was at the period a 
 God-send, though little beyond the most pressing 
 necessities of the command, with a day's good and
 
 CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 101 
 
 appetizing rations, could be made use of ; while 
 the great bulk of them, as the spoils of war, had 
 to be destroyed or given to the flames, it having 
 been impossible just then to transport them to 
 the "rebel" lines. 
 
 By the 28th of August, Jackson and his eager, 
 alert command, with shotted guns, reached Grove- 
 ton, adjoining Warrenton, close by the old battle- 
 ground of Bull Run. Meanwhile, several corps 
 of the enemy were converging upon Centreville, 
 Pope's headquarters, where some of "Stone- 
 wall's " brigades engaged a column under King, 
 of McDowell's command, and forced it to retreat. 
 Next day (the 29th) Jackson (20,000 strong) was 
 again in hot conflict with the Federals between 
 Groveton and Sudley. Here, on Jackson's left, 
 the enemy, about 35,000 in number, under Sigel, 
 supported later in the day by Reno and Heintz- 
 elman, were making a tremendous onslaught 
 on the "rebel" veterans. These Federal onsets 
 were repeated half a dozen times during the day, 
 the final assault being made about 5 p. m. by 
 the divisions of Kearney and Stevens, though 
 Jackson's men had hardly ammunition left, after 
 the long day's expenditure of it, to repel the last 
 attack. All the Federal assaults were success- 
 fully beaten off by Stonewall's invincible com-
 
 102 ^FE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 mand. During the day, General Lee, though 
 unknown to Pope, was a keen and watchful 
 onlooker of the tactful operations of his able and 
 resourceful lieutenant, his army being drawn up 
 across the Warrenton turnpike, and alongside the 
 brigades under Longstreet ; while Pope was 
 strengthened by the coming of Porter and Mc- 
 Dowell and their commands from Manassas. The 
 conflict was renewed on the morrow (Aug. 30th), 
 by the advance of Porter's army, flanked by the 
 divisions of King and Reynolds, on Jackson's left 
 center. The delivery of these assaults was vig- 
 orously met by Jackson's "Ironsides" under 
 Starke and Lawton ; while the Confederate bat- 
 teries were unerringly directed under the eye of 
 Lee and A. P. Hill. Later in the day, the play 
 of these guns, with their enfilading fire, wrought 
 dire havoc among the Federal masses, follow- 
 ing which came a splendid charge of Longstreet's 
 brigade that broke the Federal lines and drove 
 the Unionist troops into a confused stampede. 
 Nightfall saw fugitive masses rushing across the 
 Bull Run, Pope himself seeking safety in his 
 headquarters at Centre ville. The following day 
 (Sunday, the 31st), the pursuit of the Federals 
 was pressed by Lee, when Pope ordered a retreat 
 to Fairfax, Jackson's command taking up the
 
 CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 1Q3 
 
 pursuit on Monday in a rainstorm so furious as 
 to render firearms useless, save for the bayonet, 
 which came effectually and fatally into play. 
 Thus was Pope driven in dismay from the Vir- 
 ginia borders, and for the time being the weary, 
 footsore Southern forces had a brief spell of well- 
 earned rest.
 
 CHAPTEE VIH. 
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE Federal rout at the second battle of Bull 
 Run was reported to President Davis by General 
 Lee, in his usual modest and restrained manner, 
 from his temporary resting-place at Chantilly, 
 on the 3rd of September. The effect upon the 
 North of the entire failure of the campaign in 
 Virginia was extremely depressing, and roused 
 much impatient criticism of the War Department 
 and its luckless commanders. A further effect 
 of the Federal disasters was to revive national 
 fears for the safety of the capital, besides dread 
 of invasion by the South of the border States 
 which had remained loyal to the Union. Lee in- 
 formed President Davis that the two days' con- 
 flict at Bull Run cost the enemy a loss of 8,000 
 men in killed and wounded, among the former 
 being the Union General Kearny, who was left. 
 dead on the field ; while the Confederates lost 
 five colonels killed and six general officers wound- 
 ed, among the latter being Generals Ewell and 
 
 104
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. 1Q5 
 
 Trimble. He further reported that about 7,000 
 prisoners had been taken and parolled ; while 
 thirty pieces of cannon, many thousand stand 
 of small arms, and a large number of wagons, 
 ambulances, and other stores, were captured, in 
 addition to the large amount of Federal property 
 destroyed by the Union forces in retreat. At this 
 period, General Lee himself suffered an accidental 
 injury to his left hand, which for a short while 
 kept him out of the saddle. He was, neverthe- 
 less, anxious to press discomfiture further home 
 upon the North, by crossing the Potomac and 
 invading Maryland, where, doubtless, the South 
 had many sympathizers, though they were nat- 
 urally under more or less Federal pressure and 
 restraint. His army was at this period, however, 
 indifferently equipped for invasion, lacking sup- 
 plies of all kinds, alike in the commissary's and in 
 the quartermaster's departments, and in need of 
 rest as well as of refreshment. For some months 
 back, it had endured almost continued privation ; 
 while the stress of the campaign had been severe 
 on its now greatly depleted ranks. In spite of 
 all this, and of the lack of adequate ammunition, 
 with an inefficient transport service, Lee was 
 eager to prosecute the war across the Potomac ; 
 and this he set out to do, leading his immediate
 
 106 k J FE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 command in the direction of Frederick, Md. On 
 arriving there (Sept. 8), followed by the brigades 
 under Jackson, D. H. Hill, and Longstreet, with 
 a scouting force under the vigilant Stuart, Lee 
 issued a proclamation to the people of Maryland, 
 in the nature of a greeting to a sister State, al- 
 lied to the South by traditional, social and politi- 
 cal ties, and assuring them of protection, and, 
 if they desired it, aid in freeing the State from 
 "the condition of a conquered province." The 
 proclamation was discreetly as well as temperately 
 worded ; but those to whom it was addressed 
 seemed loath at present to assert sovereign inde- 
 peridence for their State, and, by throwing in their 
 lot with the South, bring upon themselves Fed- 
 eral vengeance. Hence Lee did not get the sup- 
 port he expected in the State, and that chiefly be- 
 cause his hoped-for allies were in Southern and 
 Eastern Maryland, between whom and himself 
 lay a strong force of the Federal army under 
 McClellan, who had once more been given the 
 chief Unionist command. The Southern leader 
 lost no time, however, in vain regret, but pre- 
 sently turned his attention to rid the region to the 
 west of him and the Virginia Valley of Union 
 troops, and get up from Winchester the much- 
 needed supplies for his army.
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. 107 
 
 While McClellan was in search of Lee to bring 
 him again to battle, the great Southern leader 
 desired to keep his old adversary and his freshly- 
 organized army of nearly 90,000 men away from 
 his base of supplies. With this intent, he now 
 withdrew from Frederick, arid moved northward 
 via Boonsboro' towards Hagerstown. But Lee 
 had another purpose in view in making this move- 
 ment, which was the daring one of capturing the 
 Federal garrisons and occupying Martinsburg and 
 Harper's Ferry. These posts, General Halleck 
 had ordered still to be held, in spite of McClellan's 
 suggestion that they should be vacated, while 
 Maryland was invaded by Lee and his army. To 
 secure them, cut off their garrisons' retreat down 
 the Potomac, and capture the well-stored arsenal, 
 with its munitions of war, of Harper's Ferry, 
 while clearing the Virginia Valley from all possi- 
 ble interference with his communications, Lee 
 entrusted Jackson and Ewell with the task, giv- 
 ing them the assistance also of Hill's division, 
 with those of McLaws, Anderson, and Walker. 
 The execution of the project was unexpectedly 
 but gratifyingly successful ; for on the approach 
 of Hill's command the Martinsburg garrison evac- 
 uated the place and withdrew to Harper's Ferry ; 
 while the latter, after a stiff fight for the com-
 
 108 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 manding Federal positions on Maryland and Boli- 
 var Heights, overlooking the post, and a hot bom- 
 bardment, hoisted the white flag of surrender to 
 Jackson . and Hill. With the fall of Harper's 
 Ferry (Sept. 14), the Confederates captured 11,000 
 Federal troops, over TO pieces of artillery, 13,000 
 stand of arms, besides 200 wagons and a large 
 amount of army stores. Leaving Hill to receive 
 the surrender and look after the captured treas- 
 ure, Jackson hastened back by forced marches 
 with his command to Sharpsburg, in answer to 
 an urgent call from Lee, whose army was sud- 
 denly confronted by that of McClellan, the Fed- 
 eral commander having obtained possession of a 
 confidential memorandum of Lee to D. H. Hill, 
 outlining the plan of his projected campaign. 
 The possession of this communication, however 
 obtained, was of great value to McClellan, and 
 for once the latter took instant advantage of it, 
 and urged forward his army to checkmate the 
 Southern chieftain, who was in ignorance of the 
 miscarriage of the memorandum of instructions 
 and of his adversary's knowledge of his designs 
 and the outlined disposition of his forces. 
 
 The appearance of the Federal main body so 
 unexpectedly at Boonsboro' was at first an em- 
 barrassment, not to say a perplexity, to Lee, as
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. 109 
 
 well as an alarming menace, considering how his 
 army had been broken up and weakened by the 
 despatch of portions of it on detached expeditions. 
 He, however, summoned Longstreet's command 
 from Hagerstown to the support of Hill, who by 
 this time was keeping at bay at Fox's Gap a strong 
 Federal force under Eeno, and at Turner's Gap 
 was also fighting off a furious onset by Hooker, 
 both defensive actions being gallantly maintained 
 through the entire day of Sept. 14. Southward 
 from Turner's Gap, at another pass in the moun- 
 tain ridge in the vicinity of Boonsboro', McLaws' 
 small contingent was on the same day driven from 
 the Gap (Crampton's) he sought pluckily to defend 
 against a force of 8,000 belonging to Franklins' 
 command. The prospect was hence far from 
 cheering to General Lee, who had himself to give 
 way before the advance of McClellan's main body 
 and retire upon Sharpsburg, to which place he 
 directed McLaws also to retreat with his shattered 
 corps. Here, at Sharpsburg, on the early morn- 
 ing of the 15th, Lee made what disposition of his 
 forces was possible to him under the strained cir- 
 cumstances ; though by noon his great heart was 
 relieved by news of Jackson's success at Harper's 
 Ferry, and his now rapid approach. Gladdened 
 by the news, Lee at once decided to give Me-
 
 HO LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Clellan battle at Sharpsburg, though he had, as 
 yet, only a mere handful of men (not over 12,000) 
 to oppose to the advance column (about 60,000 
 strong) of the Unionist army. The enemy, more- 
 over, was inspirited by their successes and by the 
 losses (close upon 3,000) they had inflicted on 
 the commands of Hill, Longstreet, and McLaws ; 
 while their own losses were much smaller, though 
 the Federal General Eeno had fallen, and they 
 had captured many prisoners. But the fighting 
 in the region of South Mountain was but the pre- 
 liminaries of a general engagement, which was 
 now to be fought in the neighborhood of Antie- 
 tam Creek, in front of Sharpsburg, where General 
 Lee had taken up position. 
 
 Here, at Sharpsburg, on the 16th of September, 
 the Federal army came up in strong force, when 
 McClellan at once formed his lines of attack, with 
 Porter in the center, Burnside on his left flank, 
 and Hooker, Franklin, and Sumner on his right. 
 Jackson by this time had arrived with his com- 
 mand, and was assigned to a position on the Ha- 
 .gerstown road, extending towards the Potomac, 
 supported on his left rear by Hood and Stuart, 
 while on his right were the depleted divisions of 
 Hill, Longstreet, and Walker. On the 17th, 
 Hooker's command, supported by Mansfield
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. HI 
 
 (18,000 strong), which had crossed the Antietam, 
 now advanced, covered by a furious cannonade, 
 and sought to get possession of the Hagerstown 
 road. Jackson quickly divined the Federal move- 
 ment and its purpose, and endeavored to oppose 
 it with his own division, and Swell's, under Law- 
 ton, a combined force of but 4,000 men. Lee's 
 entire army was now still under 35,000 ; but, in 
 spite of the great disparity in numbers, the Con- 
 federates once more exhibited their superiority as 
 a fighting force by repulsing, throughout a long 
 day's sanguinary encounter, every attack of the 
 whole army of the enemy, extending along its 
 entire front for fully four miles. 
 
 The chief incidents of the battle, perhaps the 
 most bloody so far of the war, were the des- 
 perate defense of the Confederate left line, which 
 brought it a grim harvest of death from the en- 
 filading fire of a Federal battery, commandingly 
 placed, though it was vigorously replied to by the 
 guns under Stuart and S. D. Lee ; the falling 
 back of Jackson's command, on the advance of 
 Sumner, after having heroically repelled both 
 Hooker's and Mansfield's corps, and exhausted 
 its ammunition ; and the murderous fire that had 
 fallen on Hayes' and Walker's brigades from the 
 overwhelming Federal onset. Luckily for the
 
 112 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Confederates, Lee was able, at a crisis in the 
 day's unequal contest, to strengthen Jackson 
 with two brigades from Longstreet's right, and 
 so save "Stonewall" from rout by or surrender 
 to the fresh forces Sumner had brought up after 
 he had practically driven Hooker and Mansfield 
 from the field. This timely intervention turned 
 the scale in the " rebel " favor, and foiled McClel- 
 lan's game of turning Lee's left. Signal also was 
 the deliverance during the day from Burnside's 
 repeated attempts to force a passage across the 
 Stone Bridge over the Antietam Creek, with the 
 design of capturing Sharpsburg, and so cutting 
 off Lee from his communications at Shepherds- 
 town. To defend the Bridge and protect Lee's 
 center during the conflict on the Confederate left, 
 the single division of General D. E. Jones, of 
 Longstreet's command, and the small brigade of 
 General Toombs (only 400 strong) was all that 
 could be spared to keep Burnside's large force in 
 eheck. Late in the afternoon, the latter at length 
 forced his way across the Creek and beat back 
 both Toombs and Jones, when A. P. Hill's 2,000 
 men from Harper's Ferry appeared on the scene, 
 and, by Lee's orders, rushed to Jones's assistance, 
 stemmed the retreat, and finally drove Burnside 
 back to the shelter of the Federal batteries across
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. H3 
 
 the Antietam. Most opportune was the arrival 
 and prompt, daring service of Hill and his com- 
 <mand at the juncture, for serious would have been 
 the result to the Southern army had Burnside 
 succeeded in his attempt, in spite even of the suc- 
 cess met with on the Confederate left and in other 
 parts of the bloody field. As it was, dire had been 
 the day's carnage, and pitiful were the masses of 
 dead, of both armies, which strewed the battle- 
 field when night drew its pall of darkness over the 
 scene. Stubborn, nevertheless, was Lee's deter- 
 mination to renew the struggle on the morrow, 
 but in this he was indifferently supported by his 
 chief lieutenants, after a council of war, called 
 by Lee at the close of the day's fighting, for 
 almost entire commands had been annihilated, 
 and the day's havoc might well make the stoutest 
 heart quail. In spite of this adverse counsel, and 
 the suggestion thrown out by most of his generals 
 to withdraw across the Potomac, Lee held to his 
 decision to renew the fighting with the dawn of 
 a new day. He was led to take this stand from 
 a knowledge of the punishment the Federals had 
 had, and the dread of still more disastrous conse- 
 quences to "the boys in blue" if the fighting 
 was renewed. He was also encouraged by the 
 accession he had gained during the day in A. P.
 
 LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Hill's command from Harper's Ferry, and by the 
 return to their respective corps of several thou- 
 sands who had been left behind to recruit their 
 strength and provide themselves with new out- 
 fits at the period when Lee's army had entered 
 Maryland. 
 
 With the battle of Sharpsburg, or Antietam, as 
 it is also called, the invasion of Maryland came, 
 however, to a close ; for though Lee remained in 
 possession of the well-contested battlefield during 
 the day of Sept. 18, awaiting a renewal of the 
 fighting, McClellau did not venture again to 
 attack him, but spent the day in reorganizing his 
 shattered army and strengthening it by further 
 reinforcements from Washington. On the night 
 of the 18th, as the Southern army was badly in 
 need of every necessary want, Lee therefore 
 deemed it wiser to fall in with his generals' 
 suggestion to withdraw across the Potomac and 
 seek rest and refreshment for his wearied and 
 comfortless forces on the Virginia shore. The 
 crossing was effected near Shepherdstown, every- 
 thing of value, including the spoils of Harper's 
 Ferry, being withdrawn, save his unburied dead ; 
 a rear force being left to guard the ford over 
 which the Confederates retreated and foil any 
 attempt by the enemy in pursuit. The bulk of
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. H5 
 
 the army then proceeded to Winchester to await 
 the coming of fresh troops from Richmond, with 
 the return of those who had been left to recruit 
 their strength on the Virginia side of the river, 
 before Maryland had been invaded. On learning 
 of the withdrawal of the Southern army, McClellan 
 despatched Porter's corps in pursuit, only to be 
 stopped at the ford by Pendleton's artillery and a 
 small rear-protecting body of infantry. Here, on 
 the night of the 19th, Porter, however, managed 
 to get his command across the Potomac, aided in 
 this by the fire of his own guns from the Mary- 
 land shore. When this became known to Lee, he 
 directed a part of Hill's division to return to the 
 river and drive Porter's force across it. This was 
 so effectively accomplished that masses of Porter's 
 men were either captured or driven into the river 
 and drowned an exploit that so alarmed McClel- 
 lan that no further pursuit of the Confederates 
 was for the time attempted, and they were thus 
 left to a season of restful quiet at Winchester. 
 How greatly needed was this period of rest may 
 be realized when we recall that the Southern 
 army had within the space of three brief months 
 marched fully 300 miles, for the most part bare- 
 footed and in tattered regimentals, with no ade- 
 quate sustenance ; while it had fought in and
 
 116 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 won a dozen engagements, captured many thou- 
 sand prisoners, besides 150 cannon, many thou- 
 sand stand of arms, and a large amount of valuable 
 army stores and material of war. It had also in- 
 flicted a loss upon the enemy of nearly 70,000 men, 
 a sixth of whom had fallen at Antietam ; while 
 its own loss in the latter was over 8,000, out of a 
 total of 35,000 the entire strength of the Con- 
 federate army when it withdrew to Winchester. 
 While quartered there, General Lee, with his 
 usual thoughtfulness, issued the following Gen- 
 eral Order (dated Headquarters of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, Oct. 2, 1862), reviewing the 
 incidents of the campaign and commending his 
 army for its valiant achievements : 
 
 " In reviewing the achievements of the army 
 during the present campaign, the Commanding 
 General cannot withhold the expression of his 
 admiration of the indomitable courage it has dis- 
 played in battle, and its cheerful endurance of 
 privation and hardship on the march. 
 
 " Since your great victories around Richmond, 
 you have defeated the enemy at Cedar Mountain, 
 expelled him from the Rappahannock, and after 
 a conflict of three days, utterly repulsed him on 
 the Plains of Manassas, and forced him to take 
 shelter within the fortifications around his cap-
 
 THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN. H7 
 
 ital. Without halting for repose, you crossed the 
 Potomac, stormed the heights of Harpers Ferry, 
 made prisoners of more than 11,000 men, and cap- 
 tured upwards of 70 pieces of artillery, all their 
 small arms, and other munitions of war. While 
 one corps of the army was thus engaged, the 
 other ensured its success by arresting, at Boons- 
 boro', the combined armies of the enemy, advanc- 
 ing under their favorite General to the relief of 
 their beleaguered comrades. 
 
 " On the field of Sharpsburg, with less than one- 
 third his numbers, you resisted, from daylight till 
 dark, the whole army of the enemy, and repulsed 
 every attack along his entire front, of more than 
 four miles in extent. The whole of the following 
 day you stood prepared to resume the conflict on 
 the same ground, and retired next morning, with- 
 out molestation, across the Potomac. Two at- 
 tempts, subsequently made by the enemy, to follow 
 you across the river, have resulted in his complete 
 discomfiture, each being driven back with loss. 
 
 "Achievements such as these demanded much 
 valor and patriotism. History records few ex- 
 amples of greater fortitude and endurance than 
 this army has exhibited ; and I am commissioned 
 by the President to thank you in the name of the 
 Confederate States for the undying fame you
 
 118 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 have won for their arms. Much as you have 
 done, much more remains to be accomplished. 
 The enemy again threatens us with invasion, and 
 to your tried valor and patriotism the country 
 looks with confidence for deliverance and safety. 
 Your past exploits give assurance that this con- 
 fidence is not misplaced. 
 
 R. E. LEE, General Commanding.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN (OCT. -DEC., 1862) ; 
 AND THE EDICT OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 AFTER issuing the appreciative General Order 
 to his army, given at the close of the last chapter, 
 General Lee, having received some 5,000 addi- 
 tional troops, cast about him to see how he could 
 best pursue the struggle and continue success- 
 fully to meet his adversary, " the little Napoleon." 
 One thing was now clear to him, that, with his 
 small army, he could not hope again to take the 
 offensive ; all he could well do was to keep fur- 
 ther watch on the Federal approaches to Rich- 
 mond, harass the outposts of the enemy, and by 
 daring raids interfere with its communications 
 with Washington, and learn what he could of Mc- 
 Clellan's future movements. In the two latter 
 designs, he had in the gallant Stuart and his 
 cavalry command a highly efficient, as well as 
 valiant and trusted, aid. On the 8th of Oct., Lee 
 directed Stuart to make a reconnaissance across the 
 
 Potomac, with portions of several mounted brig- 
 
 119
 
 120 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ades (some 600 in number), with four guns. The 
 crossing was effected above Williamsport, whence 
 the column moved swiftly through Maryland, 
 passing by the right of McClellan, and even entered 
 Pennsylvania as far as Chambersburg. Here, 
 and en route, Stuart picked up fresh horses for his 
 troopers, destroyed a considerable amount of 
 Federal stores and public property, and returned 
 by McClellan's left flank, ascertaining his position 
 and strength, and all within so brief a time as to 
 surprise and elude the Northern army he had cir- 
 cled round, besides sending a thrill of fear, by his 
 boldness and celerity of movement, into the bosoms 
 of the authorities at Washington. The results of 
 the reconnaissance were, as usual, of high value to 
 Lee ; while the dashing raid roused the Federal 
 Government to renewed urgency in insisting upon 
 their tardy, deliberately moving Commander-in- 
 chief making a further demonstration against 
 Richmond and the Confederate line interposed to 
 protect it. Towards the close of October found 
 McClellan once more crossing the Potomac, this 
 time near Berlin, Va., below Harper's Ferry, 
 which before this had been reoccupied by a 
 Northern garrison, followed by a leisurely advance 
 in the direction of Warrenton and the line of the 
 Upper Rappahannock. To meet the movement,
 
 THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 121 
 
 Lee directed Longstreet to hasten with his com- 
 mand across the Blue Ridge Mountain, which he 
 promptly did, taking up a position under Lee's 
 eye at Culpeper Court House. 
 
 At this juncture, McClellan, who, by his pro- 
 crastinations, had lost the confidence of his Wash- 
 ington superiors, was relieved of his command, 
 which was now given to General Ambrose E. 
 Burnside, an officer who had much less of the 
 genius for fighting than had McClellan, whom, 
 moreover, the Northern army loved, in spite of his 
 over-cautiousness and want of success. Burnside's 
 plan of campaign had for its objective Richmond, 
 though he first sought to concentrate his various 
 divisions, under Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin, 
 on the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg. 
 On learning this, Lee tactically met the movement 
 by ordering Longstreet to move thither, to con- 
 front Burnside ; while, a little later, he brought 
 on the scene the redoubtable Jackson, who by 
 this time was at Orange Court House, to unite 
 with Longstreet at Fredericksburg. Here, on the 
 Stafford Heights, overlooking the town and the 
 Rappahannock's waters, the Union army, 116,000 
 strong, was massed towards the close of November, 
 the Federal artillery being in a position to sweep 
 the two miles plain intervening between the river
 
 122 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 and the bluffs of the Spottsylvania Hills, where 
 were marshalled " Lee's Legions," now recruited 
 to a total strength of about 78,000. A couplo of 
 weeks were consumed by the Federals in getting 
 ready their pontoons and bridge-erecting construc- 
 tion to enable them to cross the river, which they 
 contrived to do in large force on the day and 
 night of December 12th. On the morning of 
 the 13th, the battle began by a vigorous attack 
 of French's division against the Confederate 
 right, 30,000 strong, under Jackson, at Hamil- 
 ton's Crossing, an onslaught which was finally 
 repulsed ; while, on the Federal right, the forces 
 under Sumner and Hooker moved out of Fred- 
 ericksburg Town and attempted to storm the 
 Confederate position on Marye's Hill, but had first 
 to cross the intervening plain, where the advanc- 
 ing Northern forces were successively withered by 
 the enfilading fire of the Confederate artillery and 
 sharpshooters. In spite of this destruction, fresh 
 troops were again and again brought forward to 
 the assault, but with the same result practical 
 annihilation until nightfall brought the bloody 
 conflict to a close. Fortunately for his command, 
 Burnside wisely desisted in his design of renewing 
 the battle, and two days later he recrossed the 
 Bappahannock with his dispirited troops, having
 
 THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 123 
 
 suffered a loss of over 12,600 in killed, wounded, 
 and missing. The Confederate loss in the battle 
 was close upon 5,400, but the rejoicings of " the 
 boys in gray " were great at the victory. After 
 " the horror of Fredericksburg," the two armies 
 spent the next four (winter) months in quiet on 
 either side of the Rappahannock, though towards 
 the middle of January (1863) the rash Buruside 
 was dismissed and the chief command of the 
 Army of the Potomac was given to " Fighting 
 Joe" General J. E. Hooker. 
 
 The year we now enter upon saw the promul- 
 gation (Jan. 1, 1863) of the far-seeing and hu- 
 mane Edict of Emancipation, which marked 
 the Lincoln Administration's executive at this 
 period, and put slavery forever under legal and 
 moral ban in the States and Territories of the 
 Union. Emancipation, it is true, was resorted to 
 as "a war measure" in the thick of the deadly 
 contest between the two sections of the riven 
 Nation ; but with Lincoln, long before the era of 
 the decree and the amendment to the Constitution 
 which abolished slavery forever from the country, 
 the traffic, as we have elsewhere observed, had 
 always been held in abhorrence, and deep in his 
 mind had lain the thought of abolishing it or 
 seeing it abolished. The immediate effect of the
 
 124: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 measure, as we know, was to drive the South 
 well-nigh to the verge of desperation ; while at 
 the North it was only partially accepted, and for 
 a time it aroused even bitter animadversion. 
 Happily, however, a change of sentiment came 
 ere long, when it was seen what freedom meant 
 to the slave, and how telling were the conse- 
 quences of emancipation in the issues of the war. 
 The act, almost entirely, was Lincoln's own, and 
 its consummation did surpassing honor to him, 
 as well as to his Administration, and, at large, to 
 the people who endorsed and applauded it. 
 
 Before resuming the narration of the incidents 
 connected with the operations of the two hostile 
 armies on the Rappahannock, let us glance for 
 a little at the operations in the West (chiefly 
 Federal successes), in the latter half of the past 
 year. These Western operations, it is true, had 
 nothing to do with General Lee, or he with them ; 
 but they form part of the great internecine strug- 
 gle of the time, and, hence, should find some 
 chronicle, however brief, of their happenings in 
 this historical Memoir^ In our earlier notice 
 of the operations in the Mississippi region, we 
 indicated the motive of Federal exploitation on 
 the great highway, as one inspired not only by 
 the purpose of getting possession of the river and
 
 THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 125 
 
 the important towns on its banks, but also by 
 the intent of cutting the Confederacy in twain, 
 and so limiting the area of sympathy with, if 
 not of actual aid in, Secession. The dual pur- 
 pose was what instigated the Federal attack on 
 Island No. X., in the Mississippi, and the move- 
 ments of General Grant, after capturing Forts 
 Henry and Donelson, up the Tennessee River in 
 the direction of Corinth. Of the operations in 
 the region, the most notable was the battle of 
 Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing (April 6, 1862), 
 when Grant was driven back by the Confederate 
 general, who lost his life in the engagement, 
 Albert Sidney Johnston, and but for the timely 
 arrival of Buell and his command would have 
 been routed by the Confederate leader, Beau- 
 regard, who, later on, fell back upon Corinth 
 and after a siege evacuated it (May 30). Other 
 Confederate operations in the West include those 
 of General Bragg, who took A. S. Johnston's 
 command, and with 35,000 men proceeded by rail 
 to Mobile, thence northward, where he seized 
 Chattanooga, and with Kirby Smith invaded 
 Kentucky. Here Bragg sought to head off Buell 
 in a race to Louisville, Ky., but on October 8th he 
 was defeated at Perryville, and fell back on Chat- 
 tanooga. Hither Buell, for some reason, did
 
 126 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 not pursue Bragg, but went into camp at Nash- 
 ville, on the CumberlaDd River. Emboldened by 
 Buell's failure to follow him, Bragg now set out 
 for Nashville, advancing northward as far as 
 Murfreesboro, where he encountered the Federal 
 forces under Rosecrans on their way south to 
 Chattanooga. Here, at Stone River, on the last 
 day of the year, 1862, a serious battle was fought, 
 as bloody in its issue as were those of Shiloh and 
 Antietam. The engagement opened badly for the 
 Northerners, two of whose divisions were routed 
 on the right, by Rosecrans's tactical neglect 
 in placing them in a weak position, which threw 
 the Union army on the defensive. It, however, 
 was saved by the brilliant charges of Sheridan 
 and Thomas, and the battle ended in " a draw," 
 after 23,000 men on either side had been put 
 hors de combat. Two days' later, when Rose- 
 crans advanced upon "the Rebs," Bragg, after a 
 brief resistance, retired once more upon Chat- 
 tanooga. Meanwhile, the Southern commanders 
 Price and Yan Dorn, who had been operating 
 in the region, in the hope of driving Grant down 
 the Tennessee River, sought to execute their 
 assigned parts of the Confederate campaign, gave 
 battle to the Union armies at luka (Sept. 19), and 
 at Corinth (Oct. 3 and 4). In both battles, the
 
 THE FBEDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 127 
 
 Southern forces were repulsed (at Corinth, dis- 
 astrously so), by the portion of Grant's army 
 under Rosecrans, though the fightings prevented 
 for a time the sending of reinforcements to Buell. 
 The latter, soon after this, was relieved of his 
 command, and was replaced by General Rose- 
 crans. 
 
 But it is time to return to the region of the 
 Rappahannock, where we left the Union and the 
 Confederate armies in winter quarters during a 
 severe and inclement season. So intensely cold 
 was it that some of the Federal pickets were 
 frozen to death at their posts ; while the South- 
 erners suffered greatly from want of adequate 
 provisions and the warm clothing and comfort- 
 able footwear which the Confederate Commissary- 
 and Quartermaster-Generals unfeelingly failed to 
 provide. The morale of " the rebel " army was 
 nevertheless maintained, thanks to General Lee's 
 constant and unwearied efforts in its behalf, and 
 his ready, considerate sharing in the privations 
 of his men. Meanwhile, Burnside was restlessly 
 anxious to do something to advance his own mod- 
 est attainments and reputation in the chief North- 
 ern command. By the 19th of January (1863), 
 he had planned to cross the Rappahannock, in 
 force, at Bank's Ford, some six miles above Fred-
 
 128 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ericksburg, to assail the Confederate army and 
 drive it from the strong position it held near by, 
 and, if possible, cut off Lee's communications with 
 Richmond. The carrying out of this design was 
 entrusted to the divisions of Hooker and Franklin, 
 aided by Sigel's corps, which was left to guard 
 the Federal camp and its approaches, while 
 Couch's corps was to make a feint in another 
 direction, down the river, all being protected by 
 strong batteries of Northern artillery. The whole 
 movement, however, miscarried, in consequence 
 of a series of violent rainstorms coming on just 
 as the project was about to be launched, which 
 made havoc of the roads, besides swelling the 
 river to unusual proportions. The failure of the 
 expedition was naturally disconcerting to Burn- 
 side, who, in a fit of rage and jealousy, sought 
 to dismiss a number of his generals, but this was 
 promptly negatived at Washington, when Burn- 
 side had no alternative left him but to resign, 
 which he at once did, and was replaced in the chief 
 command, as we have already indicated, by Gen- 
 eral Hooker.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE. 
 
 THE remainder of the winter Lee occupied in 
 preparing for the Spring campaign, of 1863, and 
 in further efforts to protect his army from the 
 early anticipated attack of the enemy under its new 
 commander-in- chief. He still had to importune 
 the Richmond War Office not only for more reg- 
 ular and adequate supplies for his men, but also 
 for more artillery and better ammunition, as well 
 as for additional troops, for by this time his army 
 had been weakened by the withdrawal of Long- 
 street's division, in February 1863, which had 
 been sent so uth of the James River, near Suffolk, 
 to check a threatened demonstration of the enemy 
 in that section, as well as to collect and forward 
 supplies. Lee had also recently suffered heavily in 
 the loss from death or wounds on the field of 
 many of his capable general officers ; while in- 
 creased vigilance was required of him and his 
 staff, now that greater activity in the enemy's 
 
 ranks began to show itself under the Hooker 
 
 129
 
 130 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 regime. He was furthermore at a decided dis- 
 advantage in having now opposed to him a 
 largely-strengthened and freshly-recruited army, 
 over 133,000 strong, in fine fighting condition, 
 including a greatly increased cavalry equipment 
 (of 12,000 troopers), and 400 pieces of artillery. 
 This large force gave the Union command a 
 numerical superiority over Lee's entire army of 
 almost 80,000 men. Unfortunately for the 
 North, with all the advantages it had in pos- 
 sessing a force in the field twice the size of Lee's, 
 and all the resources of a mighty nation behind 
 it, Hooker's army was to suffer at Chancellors- 
 ville a most disastrous and humiliating defeat ; 
 while its leader was to prove himself as great 
 a failure as any of his many predecessors. 
 
 Hooker was early informed that Longstreet's 
 command had been detached from Lee's strength 
 and despatched to the James River, and this fact 
 made the Union general confident of success, and 
 even boastful. He even went so far as to affirm 
 that "certain destruction" awaited Lee, and 
 that "the Rebel army is now the legitimate 
 property of the Army of the Potomac ! " The 
 Southern leader, on the contrary, was more 
 modest and tactful (flippant he could never be), 
 as well as more reverential, but hopeful ; while,
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 131 
 
 as usual, he took pains personally to see over 
 every defensive site in the region, and omitted no 
 precaution to ensure the safety and wellbeing of 
 his men, and, if Heaven willed it, the triumph of 
 his command. His intuition, coupled with his 
 experience as a great military tactician, more- 
 over, enabled Lee at once to divine Hooker's prob- 
 able plan of attack, despite the Northern com- 
 mander's successive feints, in the hope of mislead- 
 ing him or throwing him off the true scent. Nor, 
 aside from this, was he lacking in the precautions 
 usually taken by the leader of an army when 
 about to go into action, in availing himself of all 
 that can be learned from watchful outpost com- 
 manders, and, by utilizing to the full his intelli- 
 gent scouting and reconnaissance force. Hence, 
 when the middle of March came (a month even 
 before the battle of Chancellorsville occurred), 
 Lee was able to make such disposition of his 
 army as sound generalship suggested, and was 
 also in a position to direct his right arm, 
 General Stuart, the Confederate cavalry watch- 
 dog, to look to the crossings of the Upper Rap- 
 pahannock, and, with the assistance of Fitzhugh 
 Lee's brigade, checkmate the passage of a Fed- 
 eral column, under General Averill at Kelly's 
 Ford, some 25 miles above Fredericksburg. On
 
 132 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 this occasion, the watchfulness was rewarded, for 
 though Averill forced the passage of the river 
 and captured the picket-guard, his cavalry contin- 
 gent was met by that of Fitzhugh Lee, and, after 
 a hot engagement of many hours' duration, was 
 driven back, having suffered a serious loss. The 
 encounter at Kelly's Ford is spoken of as " the 
 best cavalry fight in the War," and in it the 
 first blood was spilled on both sides in the Chan- 
 cellorsville campaign, the Southerners losing on 
 their side the gallant young Pelham, Stuart's 
 chief of horse artillery, who was known as the 
 pride of Alabama for his superb courage and 
 dash. 
 
 Over a month later, or, more precisely, on the 
 closing days of April (1863), when the Spring 
 floods had somewhat abated, Hooker's army began 
 to cross the Rappahannock in force, with the 
 intent of bagging, as it thought, the entire 
 Army of Northern Virginia. The movement was 
 a menacing one to Lee, for its design was not only 
 to turn the Confederate left flank and get in its 
 rear, by way of the fords on the Upper Rappahan- 
 nock, or rather the Rapidan River ; but to make 
 a strong demonstration, by way of the United 
 States Ford, in front of the bend in the Rappahan- 
 nock, near the Mine Run Road, thence to take up
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 133 
 
 a position around Chancel lorsville ; while Sedg- 
 wick, with a large force, was to cross by way of 
 Bank's Ford, or lower down the river, and con- 
 centrate between the latter and the plain of 
 Fredericksburg. Besides these various environing 
 masses of Union soldiery, Hooker had ordered his 
 chief cavalry commander, Stoneman, to make a 
 wide detour, as Fitzhugh Lee relates, "well 
 around the Southern left and rear, throw 10,000 
 sabres between Lee and Richmond, breaking up 
 his communications, stopping his supplies, and be 
 in a position to obstruct the Confederate retreat 
 until Hooker could deliver a final blow." Though 
 Hooker's braggadocio little affected Lee, Stone- 
 man, however, succeeded in reaching Culpeper, 
 in a movement against G-ordonsville ; but in the 
 region he had the ever-alert Stuart to deal with, 
 in spite of the flanking column which Hooker 
 had intervened between Lee and his Confeder- 
 ate cavalry. Stuart was, nevertheless, directed 
 to be watchful of all movements, and especially 
 to keep an eye on, and seek to resist, the advance 
 of a Federal column which was known to be 
 crossing the Rapidan at the Germanna Ford. 
 Stuart, on his part, while maintaining a hot skir- 
 mishing fire on the vanguard of the Germanna col- 
 umn, ordered W. H. P. Lee with a couple of regi-
 
 134: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ments to oppose Stoneman's operations at Gor- 
 donsville, and himself joined Lee, on the 30th of 
 April, after cutting his way through the Federal 
 cavalry and riding on by way of Ford's Tavern 
 Hooker's army had meantime massed itself at 
 Chancellorsville, 50, 000 strong, and got his 12,000 
 horse in rear of Lee, threatening the latter's com- 
 munications. On Lee's right, Sedgwick's com- 
 mand of 40,000, had, moreover, crossed the Rap- 
 pahannock below Fredericksburg and menaced the 
 Confederate right wing. Here, however, Early's 
 division of Jackson's command, with the corps of 
 Anderson and McLaws, looked after Sedgwick ; 
 while they also prepared to co-operate against 
 Hooker, who, with Sykes's, Sickles', and Slocum's 
 brigades had taken up a fortified position extend- 
 ing between the Plank Road and the Old Turn- 
 pike Road, surrounded by a dense forest, with a 
 tangled mass of under-growth. At this time, 
 Hooker had quite 75,000 men in the vicinity of 
 Chancellorsville ; but both Lee and Jackson werei 
 now fast concerting a movement to surprise "the 
 Feds," which was presently executed by "Stone- 
 wall," with his accustomed vigor and daring. This 
 was a movement across Hooker's front to get 
 upon his right flank, and there fall on Howard's 
 llth Federal corps ; while Lee was to mask the
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 135 
 
 operation by a fierce onslaught on Hooker's center 
 and left. Jacksoir s furtive march was, however, 
 discovered by the Union general, Sickles, as it 
 filed past the Wellford furnace, but before it 
 could be seen what design " Stonewall " had in 
 making it. The cry was at once mistakenly raised 
 by the Federal army, that Lee's entire command 
 was attempting a retreat towards Richmond. 
 Taking advantage of the false inference and the 
 Federal pursuit of Jackson, Lee directed Ander- 
 son's guns to face about and open fire upon 
 Sickles and prepared an onslaught upon Hooker's 
 right ; while the latter's center went astray in 
 the wilderness in its effort to pursue Jackson, the 
 purpose of whose movement the Federal army 
 had entirely misconceived. 
 
 The day before Jackson made his move upon 
 Hooker's left (May 2), a spirited dash was made 
 by Hooker to secure and occupy an elevated plat- 
 eau, held at this time by a weak corps under 
 the Confederate general, Anderson, which com- 
 manded the Federal position at Chancellorsville. 
 This ridge Lee was most anxious to retain, but 
 it was captured by a portion of Hooker's army. 
 Just as it was taken from Anderson's command, 
 Jackson arrived with portions of several brigades, 
 and, seeing the Confederate commander's plight
 
 136 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 in having to abandon it, he daringly pressed for- 
 ward and retook it ; while Hooker, now aware 
 that Lee's army was not in retreat, recalled his 
 force and fell back upon his main position around 
 Chancellorsville, where he rapidly set to work to 
 fortify himself. Here, on his right and left, the 
 Confederates partly enveloped him ; while Sedg- 
 wick, off at Fredericksburg, had Early's divisions 
 to look after him, in front of the city, and between 
 it and the bend of the Kappahannock at Bank's 
 Ford. On May 2nd, Lee now began to maneuver 
 with a varied play of attack upon Hooker's center, 
 to draw his attention from Jackson's movement 
 directed against the Federal left, and especially 
 upon Howard's llth corps, which formerly had 
 been Sigel's. It was six o'clock in the evening 
 when the first shots were fired on Hooker's left 
 flank, and, two hours later, Jackson had succeeded 
 in driving the llth corps back upon the 12th, 
 which formed the center of Hooker's position. 
 
 The incidents of this achievement of Jackson 
 are of so thrilling a character, and, unhappily, 
 so calamitous in their consequences personally to 
 the redoubtable "Stonewall," as well as to the 
 Southern cause in general, that we are here 
 tempted to give a fuller record of them from a 
 contemporary narrative, that of Mr, James D.
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 137 
 
 McCabe, jr., in his interesting work on the "Life 
 and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee." 
 " General Jackson," writes Mr. McCabe, " led his 
 troops in person. Those who saw him declare 
 that he seemed carried away by the excitement 
 of the moment. He leaned forward on his horse, 
 extending his arm far in front, as though he 
 wished to push the men forward, and his voice 
 was heard exclaiming : ' Press forward ! press 
 forward ! ' every few minutes during the entire 
 attack. When not thus mastered by the ardor of 
 battle, his right hand was raised aloft with that 
 gesture now familiar to his men, as though he were 
 praying to the God of battles for victory. . . . 
 " By eight o'clock the advance had been pressed 
 to within half a mile of Hooker's headquarters, 
 when, in the darkness, the Southern line became 
 entangled in the heavy abatis of felled trees 
 with which Hooker had fringed the works around 
 Chancellorsville. Rodes' and Colston's men be- 
 came mingled in the greatest confusion, so that 
 it was impossible for either officer to distinguish 
 his command. To remedy this the troops were 
 halted, Rodes was directed to fall back and reform 
 his men, and A. P. Hill's division was placed in 
 front in the room of the troops thus withdrawn. 
 As the line halted, the Federal batteries opened
 
 138 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 from the cleared ground around Chancelldrsville, 
 which about this time presented a scene of the 
 wildest confusion. 
 
 " The panic-stricken soldiers of the llth corps 
 rushed back upon their center as Jackson's infantry 
 swept down them. As the terror spread, men, 
 horses, cannon, wagons, and ambulances became 
 mingled in one frightful mass, which sped across 
 the clearing around Chancellorsville with the 
 force of a whirlwind all aiming straight for the 
 Rappahannock. Officers tried in vain, by threats, 
 entreaties and blows, to stay the fugitives- 
 They were deaf to everything. For a moment it 
 seemed that the career of Hooker's army was 
 ended, but just at this time the Southern advance 
 was checked by the accident I have mentioned. 
 But for this, Jackson would have slept that night 
 at Chancellorsville, and his valuable life would 
 have been spared to the country. 
 
 " Hooker was quick to take advantage of the 
 pause. Opening with every gun he could collect 
 at the moment, twenty-two in all, upon the woods 
 held by the Confederates, he endeavored to form 
 his troops to resist the attack. Leading his old 
 division forward in person, he became for the 
 moment once more the impetuous soldier that had 
 won such admiration even from his enemies. He
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 139 
 
 posted this division at the edge of the clearing, 
 directly in Jackson's front, and awaited a renewal 
 of the attack. Fresh artillery was brought up, 
 and fifty pieces were soon sweeping the woods 
 with an iron hail. 
 
 "It was ten o'clock, and the moon had risen, 
 lighting up the woods with a ghostly glimmer 
 which paled before the fierce glare of the can- 
 nonade. Late as it was, Jackson determined to 
 renew the attack and get possession of the road 
 to the United States Ford. As his troops were 
 forming for the assault, he became so anxious to 
 ascertain the exact state of affairs in his front, 
 that he rode forward to reconnoiter, giving orders 
 to his men not to fire, unless cavalry approached 
 from the direction of the enemy. He was accom- 
 panied by two of his staff, about half a dozen 
 couriers, and two men of the signal corps. 
 
 " Unfortunately, although the enemy were 
 scarcely more than two hundred yards distant, 
 no pickets had been established, and General 
 Jackson found himself considerably beyond his 
 lines, with nothing between him and the enemy. 
 Had this important duty been performed, the 
 sad results of this reconnaissance would have 
 been avoided. 
 
 " As he finished his inspection, General Jack-
 
 140 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 son directed one of his staff to go back and order 
 General A. P. Hill to advance. As he rode back 
 to his lines, without giving any warning to his 
 men, who had been ordered to look out for 
 Federal cavalry, he was fired upon by a brigade 
 of his own troops, and severely wounded, twice 
 in the left arm, and once in the right hand. His 
 whole escort, with the exception of two persons, 
 were killed, wounded, or dismounted. 
 
 "The scene which ensued was agonizing be- 
 yond description. General Jackson was assisted 
 from his horse by the survivors of the fatal 
 volley, almost too weak from loss of blood to 
 stand, and tenderly laid in the shelter of the trees 
 by the roadside. A messenger was dispatched 
 for a surgeon and an ambulance, but before these 
 arrived General Hill, who had also been exposed 
 to the fire, came up, having succeeded in check- 
 ing it. He was made acquainted with the cal- 
 amity that had befallen the army, and instructed 
 to assume the command of the corps. In a few 
 minutes General Hill repaired to his post, and 
 shortly afterwards it was reported that the enemy 
 were advancing, and were within only one hun- 
 dred yards of the spot where the wounded Gen- 
 eral lay. An effort was now made to assist him 
 back to his lines, and, supported by two of his
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN 
 
 officers, one of whom had just come up, he 
 walked slowly back, under a fearful fire of artil- 
 lery, which was suddenly opened from the enemy's 
 batteries. On the way he passed his troops, who 
 were in motion to check the advance of the 
 enemy, and every effort was made to prevent 
 the men from learning who he was. His escort 
 of officers, however, excited the curiosity of the 
 troops, who repeatedly asked who was wounded. 
 The answer was, invariably, a Confederate officer, 
 but one of his old veterans recognized him, as he 
 walked bareheaded in the moonlight, and, with 
 a cry of anguish, exclaimed : ' Great God ; that is 
 General Jackson 1 ' 
 
 " During this time Jackson had not been able 
 to drag himself twenty steps. He was so ex- 
 hausted that his officers procured a litter for him, 
 but had not gone far before their path was swept 
 by a shower of grape and canister from the Fed- 
 eral batteries. One of the litter-bearers was shot 
 through both arms, and the litter was placed 
 on the ground. For several minutes the firing 
 was terrific, forcing the entire party to throw 
 themselves down on the ground for safety. As 
 soon as the fire of canister veered around, another 
 effort was made to convey the General to a place 
 of safety, and at last he was placed in an am-
 
 142 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 bulance and conveyed to Melzi Chancellor's house, 
 where he received surgical attention. 
 
 " The firing to which General Jackson had been 
 exposed did great execution in the Southern ranks, 
 wounding, among others, General A. P. Hill, who 
 was compelled to relinquish the command of the 
 corps to General Stuart, who was called away 
 from his cavalry for this purpose. Nothing fur- 
 ther occurred during the night, which was passed 
 by both armies in preparing for a renewal of the 
 battle the next day." 
 
 Lee was apprised of Jackson's victory and of 
 the severe wounds he had received at the same 
 instant, and his comment on both was to the effect 
 that " any victory is a dear one that deprives us 
 of the services of Jackson, even for a short time." 
 Writing personally to his able and loved lieuten- 
 ant, the Southern commander-in-chief congratu- 
 lates him on the skill and energy that had won 
 another triumph for the army and their common 
 country. On the occasion, he feelingly adds that, 
 " could I have directed events, I should have 
 chosen, for the good of the country, to have been 
 disabled in your stead." Jackson's wounds, un- 
 happily as it turned out, were so grievous that his 
 left arm had to be amputated, and the operation, 
 though borne with his accustomed hardihood,
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 143 
 
 as well as with his wonted Christian resignation, 
 presently proved fatal, his noble life ending a 
 week later, on the afternoon of Sunday, May the 
 10th. News of Jackson's death brought woe and 
 lamentation to all ranks of the Confederate army, 
 but no one felt the sorrowful tidings more keenly 
 than did his closest friend and affectionate com- 
 mander-in-chief, K. E. Lee, who best knew not 
 only the high military genius of his comrade- 
 in-arms, but his great moral worth. Sore, indeed, 
 was the blow to him, for he knew there was no 
 one that could replace Jackson, as, alas ! he was 
 soon ruefully to find on the next great battlefield 
 of the war that of Gettysburg. 
 
 Aroused to more than his usual combativeness 
 by what had happened to Jackson, Lee was early 
 astir on the morning of May 3rd, with the pur- 
 pose of renewing the attack on Hooker's lines 
 around Chancellorsville. The Federal commander 
 had succeeded during the night in restoring his 
 command to some condition of order and fighting 
 strength, and thus was able to resist Lee's furious 
 attack on him for some hours ; but by ten o'clock 
 the Federals once more became restive and uneasy 
 at the repeated Confederate onslaught, and part 
 of them began to yield and finally to retreat along 
 the road leading towards the Rappahannock and
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the United States ford across it. Meanwhile, 
 conflict broke out on another section of the field, 
 that around Early's command in front of Fred- 
 ericksburg, which was hemming in Sedgwick's 
 Federal divisions in that quarter. Hooker, in his 
 plight, had instructed his subordinate to attack 
 and press Early vigorously and then come to 
 his assistance at Chancellors ville. This Sedgwick 
 was able to do, in consequence of Early's command 
 having been weakened on the previous day by the 
 withdrawal from him of McLaws' and Anderson's 
 corps. Early was attacked in force on Marye's 
 Height, and compelled to fall back, and Lee, 
 hearing of this, ordered Wilcox, who was at 
 Bank's Ford, watching the crossings of the Rappa- 
 hannock, to intercept and retard Sedgwick's ad- 
 vance until he could send McLaws and Anderson 
 to his assistance. This was done, and the Federal 
 advance upon Chancellorsville was stayed and in 
 time repulsed. On the following day (May 4), the 
 battle was renewed and hotly fought all day, 
 finally going against Sedgwick, who saved him- 
 self and his command by flight across the Rappa- 
 hannock over night. On the 5th, the coup de 
 grace was now about to be given to the force it 
 was believed Hooker still had behind his defenses 
 at Chancellorsville ; but when Lee moved to
 
 THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN. 145 
 
 attack him it was discovered that the enemy had 
 fled, under cover of a dark and stormy night, cross- 
 ing the Rappahannock at the United States Ford, 
 and thus leaving the hard-won field in the posses- 
 sion of the Confederates. The Federal casualties 
 at Chancellorsville, in killed, wounded, and cap- 
 tured, amounted to 17,197 ; while the entire Con- 
 federate loss was some four thousand less. The 
 latter's loss, however, consisted of the flower of 
 Lee's fast-depleting army, including General Pax- 
 ton, of the "Stonewall" brigade, and its great 
 chieftain, the valiant Christian soldier. General 
 T. J. Jackson. The enemy had left on the field, be- 
 sides his many dead, 20,000 stand of arms, 30,000 
 knapsacks, together with over a dozen heavy guns, 
 which became welcome Southern spoiL
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SECOND INVASION OP THE NORTH, AND THE 
 BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (JULY 1-3, 1863). 
 
 To the South, several objects were to be gained 
 by the crossing of the Potomac and once more 
 assuming the offensive by the Army of Northern 
 Virginia. Its late successes, in spite of shrunken 
 ranks, warranted a new and aggressive move- 
 ment, which would relieve Northern Virginia of 
 the presence of the enemy, always within striking 
 distance of Richmond ; while it would enable it 
 to ease the pressure just then of the Northern 
 forces upon Confederate arms in the West ; and 
 at the same time obtain for Lee's army the 
 greatly needed supplies for his men and horses, 
 which it was thought could be gathered plen- 
 tifully by a spirited and menacing raid as far 
 North as Pennsylvania. The feeling of dejection 
 at the North at the seeming impossibility of find- 
 ing a Union general capable of beating Lee on 
 the field favored the projected renewed invasion, 
 
 especially as Hooker's army was, besides being 
 
 146
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 147 
 
 worsted, greatly depleted by recent casualties and 
 by desertions from its ranks ; while Lee's, on the 
 other hand, after the period of rest it had had, 
 was in fine fettle for a raid across the Potomac, 
 with the prospect before it of unlimited loot in the 
 North, and the consciousness of striking terror 
 throughout the region the army was likely to 
 invade. There was, of course, no little risk in- 
 volved in Lee's transferring hostilities to North- 
 ern regions ; and there was at first some diffi- 
 culty in obtaining the consent of the Confederate 
 Government to the proposal, as, just then, the 
 Kichrnond authorities wanted part of Lee's army 
 to aid the contest going on in Tennessee, as well 
 as to afford succor to Vicksburg, at the period 
 being besieged by General Grant. Lee, however, 
 as we have seen, was not usually deterred by risks 
 to be run, and, as a matter of sound tactics, was 
 given to the striking of decisive blows, when his 
 judgment suggested them ; hence, he had his 
 way, and at once prepared his array for the North- 
 ern incursion. Latent in his mind, probably at 
 this time, was also the hope that, by some further 
 and signal victory, he might terminate the 
 struggle, with its direful tale of bloodshed, and 
 dictate in the North a treaty which would end the 
 war, and give both sections of the country peace,
 
 148 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 if not unity. Some such idea in Lee's mind was 
 at this period not improbable, especially as he 
 tnew that importunate voices were now being 
 heard in the North calling for an end to the con- 
 flict, on the basis of separation. Lee was, more- 
 over, confirmed in his purpose of making a new 
 foray in the North by the improved strength and 
 enthusiasm of his army, which was now aug- 
 mented not only by the return of Longstreet's com- 
 mand from Suffolk, but also by the return to the 
 ranks of the recovered wounded who had been 
 on temporary furlough, with other absentees, as 
 well as by some fresh levies forwarded from the 
 Confederate capital. 
 
 Lee's present army was now about 68,000 
 strong, of which close upon 10,000 consisted of 
 cavalry and artillery. The whole force he 
 divided anew into three corps, of three divisions 
 each, viz., those under Longstreet, Ewell (who 
 succeeded to the command of the late General 
 Jackson's corps), and A. P. Hill ; while the caval- 
 ry was commanded, as before, by General Stuart, 
 and the artillery (composed of 200 guns) by Gen- 
 eral Pendleton. On June 3rd, a month after the 
 battle of Chancellorsville, the Northern movement 
 began by the despatch of General Longstreet to 
 Culpeper, followed by Ewell ; while Hill was for
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 14.9 
 
 the time left in front of Fredericksburg to keep 
 watch on Hooker; and prevent any advance upon 
 Richmond, as well as to conceal from Hooker 
 Lee's departure. At Culpeper, on June 9th, Lee 
 reports to his Government at Richmond that a 
 portion of Hooker's army, including a large force 
 of cavalry and artillery, had early that morning 
 crossed the Rappahannock on a reconnaissance ex- 
 pedition, after previously making a demonstration 
 against Hill on the Rapidan. The object of the 
 expedition, which crossed the river at Kelly's and 
 Beverley's Fords, east of the Culpeper Court 
 House, was manifestly to get on General Stuart's 
 track, and if possible learn of the designs of his 
 column in the region and of his later advance upon 
 Brandy Station. At this time, Lee's advance 
 northward had not fully transpired, and Stuart's 
 object in being where he was was to mask from 
 Hooker Lee's movement in the direction of Mary- 
 land, and at the same time to guard the Southern 
 army's flank in its march northward. 
 
 From the two fords, came the Federal columns 
 under Buford and Gregg, forcing back the Con- 
 federate pickets, and delivering a determined 
 attack. This was at first resisted by the Southern 
 brigade under General Jones, but on being heavily 
 pressed Stuart sent back W. H. F. Lee, Wade
 
 150 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Hampton, and Robertson, with their several 
 brigades, to withstand the onslaught, which now 
 developed into almost the proportions of a bat- 
 tle, and lasted throughout the day. Finally, 
 the Northerners were repulsed at all points and 
 compelled to recross the river, leaving in the 
 Confederate hands, besides their dead on the field, 
 about 500 prisoners, with three pieces of artillery 
 and several regimental colors. In the day's en- 
 counter near Brandy Station, said to have been 
 one of the stiffest cavalry contests of the whole 
 war, Lee's second son, Brigadier-General W. H. 
 F. Lee, was wounded. Of this mishap to a 
 member of his family, following soon after the 
 death of a loved daughter, Anne, General Lee 
 wrote to his wife two days afterwards (June 
 llth) : "My supplications continue to ascend for 
 you, my children, and my country. When I last 
 wrote I did not suppose that Fitzhugh (his son) 
 would so soon be sent to the rear disabled, and I 
 hope it will be but for a short time. I saw him 
 the night after the battle indeed, met him on 
 the field as they were bringing him from the 
 front. He is young and healthy, and I trust will 
 soon be up again. He seemed to be more con- 
 cerned about his brave men and officers who had 
 fallen in the battle than about himself."
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 151 
 
 On the following day (June 10th), Lee sent 
 Ewell northward from Culpeper into the Shen- 
 andoah Valley, with the design of reaching Win- 
 chester, then held by 6,000 Federal troops under 
 General Milroy, with a small force occupying 
 Martinsburg. At Winchester, which the Federals 
 had strongly fortified, Ewell directed Rodes's divi- 
 sion to move upon Martinsburg, capture the Union 
 garrison, and dispose of his force so as cut off the 
 enemy's retreat in falling back from Winchester 
 to the Potomac. Ewell then prepared to assault 
 Milroy, having invested the town on the 13th, 
 and having with him the divisions of Johnson 
 and Early. The next day, the latter, after a 
 furious cannonade, stormed Milroy 's defenses, 
 carried them, and made prisoners of the greater 
 part of the garrison. The remainder, with Milroy, 
 fled from Winchester, during the night, but the 
 majority of the Federal command fell into John- 
 son's hands and were captured, though Milroy, 
 with a small following, eluding the Southern 
 leader, escaped to Harper's Ferry. Berryville and 
 Martinsburg were also surprised and their garri- 
 son taken, while the Valley was throughout freed 
 from the enemy. The spoils of the two days' 
 hard-won victories included 4,000 prisoners cap- 
 tured, 29 pieces of artillery, 270 wagons and
 
 152 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ambulances taken, and a mass of various stores. 
 News of the mishap reached Hooker speedily at 
 Fredericksburg and opened his eyes as to the 
 character and design of Lee's operations in the 
 North. He therefore gave his army orders to 
 quit the Rappahannock and move in the direction 
 of Manassas, meantime confining his attention to 
 the Blue Ridge mountains and the Southern move- 
 ment in that quarter, and taking care to keep his 
 army between the line of the Confederate advance 
 and Washington. When Hooker moved north- 
 ward, Hill, in compliance with Lee's orders, took 
 the road to the Shenandoah Valley, thence to 
 Winchester ; while Ewell directed the steps of his 
 command towards Pennsylvania, Lee following 
 him at supporting distance. As the advance 
 northward was made, Lee bore eastward in the 
 direction of Washington, now in alarm over this 
 new Confederate foray ; but Hooker by this time 
 had come north and interposed a barrier between 
 the capital and the Confederate columns, on the 
 east side of the Bull Run Range. Lee was thus 
 balked in making any demonstration against the 
 Federal seat of government, though his presence 
 in the region brought on a series of conflicts be- 
 tween Stuart's command and the Union cavalry. 
 Leaving Stuart to guard the passes of the Blue
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 153 
 
 Ridge, Lee pressed on with Longstreet's and 
 Hill's corps to Chambersburg, Pa., already occu- 
 pied by Ewell, who now advanced to Carlisle and 
 York, and even threatened Harrisburg. At this 
 juncture, Hooker now sought to move against 
 Lee's rear with Slocum's command, and to do so 
 effectively he asked permission from Halleck at 
 Washington to take the garrison of Harper's 
 Ferry (10,000 strong) to assist him in the oper- 
 ation. This Halleck, however, refused to allow, 
 and Hooker warmly remonstrated with the Com- 
 mander-in-chief, telling him that, if he was not 
 permitted to conduct the campaign in his own 
 way, he preferred to resign the command of 
 the Army of the Potomac. Thus matters were 
 brought to a deadlock, the way out of which was 
 speedily taken by relieving Hooker of his post 
 and replacing him by Major-General G. G. Meade, 
 of the Federal Fifth corps, who now took the chief 
 command (June 28, 1863). 
 
 Meade, though not an officer of great bril- 
 liance, was an able and sagacious commander, 
 and had seen a good deal of service. Though 
 called upon suddenly to assume the chief Federal 
 command, and knowing little of Hooker's plan 
 of campaign, he at once set himself to rally and 
 concentrate the scattered Union forces in Mary-
 
 154: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 land and Pennsylvania, with the design of giving 
 Lee battle and cutting off his retreat southward. 
 Up to this time, Lee had accomplished not a little 
 in gathering supplies in the enemy's country, 
 and in spreading alarm throughout the North 
 by his invasion of Pennsylvania. He was, how- 
 ever, greatly handicapped by a lack of cavalry, 
 especially for scouting purposes, and in enabling 
 him to learn of the whereabouts and projected 
 movements of the Federal army. He, neverthe- 
 less, was aware that his rear communications 
 were in serious danger, and the better to protect 
 them and strengthen himself for anticipated 
 attack, he directed Longstreet and Hill to move 
 from Chambersburg to Gettysburg, while he re- 
 called Ewell from York and Carlisle to the same 
 rallying point. 
 
 The great historic battle of Gettysburg was 
 fought through its three entire days' course (July 
 1-3, 1863) by detached masses of the two contend- 
 ing armies, as they successively came upon the 
 now renowned field, on which was at length 
 grouped close upon 150,000 men, about equally 
 divided between the Union and the Confederate 
 forces. The town lies in the valley of the Cumber- 
 land, in one of the southern counties of Penn- 
 sylvania, 36 miles southwest of Harrisburg, the
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 155 
 
 State capital. Through the valley run roads lead- 
 ing to the different towns of the adjoining coun- 
 ties, most of them centering in Gettysburg. To 
 the west of the town is situate Seminary Ridge, 
 three miles in length, on which stands a theolog- 
 ical school ; while southward is a series of ridges 
 and hills, intersected by ravines and gullies. 
 "The point of these hills farthest west is a lit- 
 tle to the north of the general trend, and, with 
 its connecting ridges, forms a curve or outward 
 bend. Joining this curved part is a long line of 
 hills, which end in two prominences, and finally 
 in open country. The extreme western point of 
 the curve is known as Gulp's Hill, the two prom- 
 inences as Little and Big Round Top, and the 
 long connecting ridge as Cemetery Hill, the local 
 burial-ground. Between Little Round Top and 
 Cemetery Hill, filling a gap in the long line, is a 
 ridge, which stands out in the valley, and is 
 known as Peach Orchard. Near Big Round Top 
 is Devil's Den, a small knoll, and Rock Creek. 
 These hills and ridges are wooded, and in some 
 portions are very steep and rocky." 
 
 The closing day of June found the Confederate 
 forces pressing through Cashtown, on the road 
 from Chambersburg to Gettysburg, Hill having 
 sent the divisions of Heth and Fender on in
 
 156 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 advance to ascertain Meade's whereabouts. Stuart 
 at this time, to whom the reconnaissance duty 
 would doubtless have been assigned, was off at 
 Carlisle, and, besides having Kilpatrick's squad- 
 rons to fight, had Meade's army, for most of his 
 return march, between him and Lee: Longstreet 
 was still west of the South Mountain at Green- 
 wood, with Pickett guarding the supply trains 
 at Chambersburg. Of Swell's corps, Johnson's 
 division was near Longstreet ; the divisions of 
 Kodes and Early were in the vicinity of Heid- 
 lersberg, though now on the way from the Sus- 
 quehanna to Cashtown. Early in the morning 
 of the 1st of July, Heth and Fender, of Hill's 
 corps, on their approach to Gettysburg, found 
 themselves confronted by Buford's command, 
 with a strong J^ederal contingQnt-at- Willoughby 
 Run, a force which the Confederates drove back, 
 the noise of the firing bringing both Hill and 
 Ewell on the field, when battle between the 
 two armies was precipitated near McPherson's 
 Ridge, on the Cashtown or Chambersburg road, 
 just west of Gettysburg. To Buford's assistance, 
 after the opening cavalry skirmish, came up tho 
 Federal First corps under Reynolds, and the 
 Second corps under Howard. Reynolds posted 
 his men along the Seminary Ridge, from which
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 157 
 
 he saw the hot engagement between Heth and 
 Buford, and at once rushed down the slope with 
 his command to take part in it. In the action 
 that ensued, and which for a time bore heavily 
 against the Confederates, Reynolds was himself 
 unhappily slain ; while Fender, now taking part 
 in. the fray, was able to aid Heth in holding 
 the First corps at bay. By noon, the Federal 
 Eleventh corps came up, under Howard, who 
 took command, now that Reynolds had fallen ; 
 while Ewell appeared on the field from Heid- 
 lersburg, and with Rodes, Early, and Hill, they 
 together fell upon Howard's front and flank, and, 
 by four o'clock in the afternoon, they forced his 
 shattered brigades through Gettysburg back upon 
 the Union batteries on Cemetery Hill. As Hill 
 bore heavily down upon the retreating Federals, 
 several thousands of them were taken prisoners, 
 and other masses of them had fallen before the 
 attack of cold steel. Lee at this juncture came 
 up, and on looking over the scene he at once sent 
 an order to Ewell to press on after the broken 
 Federals and secure the hill, if possible. The 
 elevation was found, however, practically unas- 
 sailable, with the present Confederate force at 
 Ewell's disposal, and the Federal guns now belch- 
 iug from it. Ewell, therefore, wisely deferred
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the assault, especially as new arrivals of Federal 
 troops were coming into Gettysburg, including 
 Hancock's and Slocum's corps, which at once oc- 
 cupied Gulp's Hill, as well as part of the Ceme- 
 tery Ridge. The day's fighting ended amid Con- 
 federate exultation, and with a conference of Lee 
 and his generals as to the plan of attack on the 
 morrow. The losses of the day on both sides 
 were heavy. 
 
 The early part of the second day's fighting at 
 Gettysburg was occupied in placing in advantage- 
 ous positions the contingents of both armies that 
 had arrived during the night, with a redisposi- 
 tion of part of those that had been engaged on the 
 previous day. Of the arrivals on the Union side 
 were the Second, Third, Fifth, and Twelfth corps, 
 commanded respectively by Hancock, Sickles, 
 Sykes, and Slocum ; while later on in the day 
 came the Sixth corps, under Sedgwick. On the 
 Confederate side, Stuart's cavalry corps had not 
 yet arrived, nor did he reach the field until the 
 afternoon of the following day. Longstreet, how- 
 ever, had early joined Lee, though portions of his 
 command, those under Hood, Kershaw, and Mo 
 Laws, had not as yet come up. Lee was anxious 
 for their arrival, and for the coming of Anderson's 
 division of Hill's corps, as he wished Longstreet to
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 159 
 
 open the day's operations with an attack on the 
 Federal lines along the Emmittsburg road. To 
 this design of the Confederate commander-in- 
 chief, Longstreet entered a protest, as the latter 
 preferred to attack Meade first on the left. This 
 lack of acquiescence lost Lee most part of the day, 
 when it was important to attack the enemy before 
 they had taken up their assigned positions and 
 strengthened their lines of defense. Longstreet's 
 attitude was naturally embarrassing to Lee, and 
 the latter doubtless wished that morning to have 
 had on the field his old war-horse, the redoubtable 
 and eager Jackson, who, with his unshaken con- 
 fidence in his chief and promptitude in obeying 
 orders, would have readily thrown his command 
 against the enemy, and more than probably have 
 disastrously routed them, and so obviated the third 
 day's fighting. As it turned out, the Confederate 
 chances of success in the day's operations were 
 lost by Longstreet's reluctance to attack as Lee 
 had directed ; and ere long the result proved that 
 Lee was right, for the Federal column (the Fifth 
 Corps), on arriving and taking up ground, at once 
 seized Little Round Top, the key of the day's 
 position, and occupied it, reinforced later in the 
 day, as the struggle around it and for its posses- 
 sion developed.
 
 160 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 The conflict of opinion between the Confederate 
 commander-in-chief and his senior general on the 
 field produced for a time an unfortunate deadlock. 
 It also delayed other action designed to have 
 been simultaneously taken along other parts of 
 the field, in conjunction with Longstreet's move- 
 ment. Already, the divisions of McLaws and 
 Hood were waiting to carry out the orders as- 
 signed them ; Hill, opposite the enemy's center, 
 was impatient to attack ; Ewell was eager to 
 storm Gulp's Hill ; while Early, on the Confeder- 
 ate left, had since two in the morning been ready 
 for the word to scale Cemetery Hill from the 
 direction of Gettysburg. Finally, by four o'clock 
 in the afternoon, Longstreet, with his 12, 000 men, 
 got into position in front of and on the left of 
 Sickles' command, the Federals being here ar- 
 rayed in strong force behind stone walls and 
 partly in the forest and among heavy boulders, 
 the position bristling with artillery. Here, Long- 
 street delivered a vigorous attack, " forcing the 
 salient at the peach orchard, and driving in the 
 successive regiments and brigades from the left 
 toward the right of the Third corps, pushing 
 them back across the wheat-field, gaining the 
 Devil's Den, and threatening to take Little Eound 
 Top." That the latter was not captured was ow-
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 161 
 
 ing to the determined efforts of General Warren, 
 'of the Federal Engineer corps, who, seeing the 
 importance of holding the eminence against 
 Longstreet and Hood, brought up in the nick of 
 time a battery of artillery and a brigade of infan- 
 try, and repulsed the Confederate attack, though 
 a hand-to-hand fight almost placed it in the 
 latter's possession. Longstreet now turned upon 
 Sickles' center and drove his command from the 
 peach orchard, and with Hood's assistance pressed 
 the Federals back upon their main position on 
 Cemetery Ridge. Meanwhile, Hill attacked 
 Sickles' right with Anderson's division, and 
 pressed its corps-commander, Humphreys, from 
 the field, Sickles himself falling in the fight. 
 Later on in the evening, an attack was made on 
 Cemetery Ridge, then stoutly held by Hancock, 
 but this was repulsed after hard fighting. 
 Simultaneously, Early, Ewell, and Johnson made 
 determined attacks on the enemy's right center, 
 on Cemetery Ridge and Gulp's Hill, assaults which 
 were only partially successful, Ewell capturing 
 part of the Federal breastworks on the extreme 
 right, though in doing so he suffered terribly 
 from the fire of the Federal artillery. The 
 approach of night brought the day's dire con- 
 flict to a close, though its gains were sufficiently
 
 162 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 encouraging to the Confederates to lead their 
 heroic chieftain to determine to renew the battle 
 on the morrow. The losses on both sides had 
 meanwhile been frightful. 
 
 The two days' battle, though it had been an 
 aggressive and partly successful one to the 
 Confederates, was by no means decisive. To both 
 combatants, it had, moreover, been a sanguinary 
 one, as the field, littered with dead, in all direc- 
 tions showed. On the Federal right, part of the 
 Union lines had been occupied over night by 
 Johnson, of E well's command, and on the morn- 
 ing of the 3rd it was designed by Lee to make 
 the position won the basis of the new day's 
 attack. In this, Lee was, however, checkmated 
 by Meade, for by daybreak Johnson was heavily 
 assaulted by the foe, and the position, after pro- 
 tracted fighting, was retaken before Confederate 
 reinforcements could be brought up to strengthen 
 it. The Union lines were then re-formed. After 
 the morning's discomfiture, Lee at once resolved 
 to break the enemy's center, and with that object 
 he first ordered his artillery, consisting of 140 guns 
 on Seminary Ridge, to open fire on the Federal 
 lines. This furious cannonade, which lasted for 
 close upon two hours, was fitfully replied to by 
 Meade's 80 cannon posted on Cemetery Hill, for
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 163 
 
 his artillery was short of ammunition. After 
 this cannoneers' combat "the most terrible 
 artillery-fire of the whole war " there followed 
 the gallant historic charge, which became the 
 culminating feature of the three days' battle, that 
 of the Virginian division, led by Major-General 
 Pickett, 13,000 strong, supported by Heth's divis- 
 ion of Hill's corps, under General Pettigrew, 
 and protected on its exposed right flank by a 
 brigade commanded by General Wilcox. The 
 charge was made in three lines across the slopes 
 of the valley intervening between the positions 
 occupied by the opposing armies, its steady, mag- 
 nificent advance, in the face of a murderous 
 artillery and infantry cross-fire, being the admira- 
 tion of friend and foe alike. 
 
 For a time, Pickett's gallant line was shielded 
 by the fire of the Confederate artillery ; but as it 
 advanced towards the salient position occupied by 
 Hancock, which Lee had given Pickett as the 
 objective point, the protecting fire was silenced, 
 so as not to harm the advancing lines. Now they 
 were thrown by Pickett into echelon order and 
 pushed on rapidly by their ardent leader, when 
 the ranks were once more thinned by the mus- 
 ketry fire of the foe, which was now directed upon 
 them. In spite of this, the Virginians continued
 
 LIFE OP GENERAL LEE. 
 
 to advance against their assailants, and the 
 struggle henceforth was one waged at close 
 quarters, until the Confederates pierced the first 
 Federal line and threw it back upon the second. 
 Pickett's brigades now found themselves far in 
 advance of their supports, and were met besides by 
 a hail of grape-shot at close range, which leveled 
 hundreds with the dust. The command still did 
 not flinch, however, though hotly opposed by 
 Gibbon's Federal defenders. Upon the Union lines 
 the advance almost recklessly threw itself, only to 
 be mowed down by the Federal fire, though, at 
 this crisis, a few of the supporting regiments came 
 up and united with Pickett's men, and both for a 
 time made a determined stand only to be anni- 
 hilated. At this juncture, the charge, it was seen, 
 was a forlorn hope, and what remained of it had 
 no alternative but to face about and retreat, or 
 submit to the shrunk-f rom choice of capture. Out 
 of 4, 800 men who had followed Pickett to the 
 point of contact with the Federal line, but 1,200 es- 
 caped ; while 3,600 fell before the murderous fire 
 to which they had been exposed. Such was the 
 tragic ending of a glorious and memorable deed 
 of arms, and practically the close of the great 
 battle of Gettysburg. 
 
 Gettysburg, it has often been said, should have
 
 THE BATTLE OP GETTYSBURG. ies 
 
 ended the war, together with the surrender of 
 Vicksburg to Grant on July 4th, the morrow of 
 the last day's fighting between Meade's and Lee's 
 forces on the bloody field of Gettysburg. But 
 this was hardly to be expected when we consider 
 the keen-edged temper of the Southern troops and 
 their confidence in their great leader, not to speak 
 of the losses that had been inflicted, in the three 
 days' engagement, upon the Army of the Potomac, 
 and in view of what the Army of Northern Vir- 
 ginia was yet capable of accomplishing in the 
 Campaign of the Wilderness that ensued, where 
 man for man the Confederates greatly out-fought 
 the Northerners. The losses on both sides at 
 Gettysburg were appalling, and what the battle 
 had cost Meade in a loss of 23,000 out of nearly 
 90,000 of the Northern forces, against a " rebel " 
 loss of 21,000 out of a total of 60,000 under Lee- 
 showed the punishment that had been received, a 
 punishment that restrained the northern general- 
 in-chief from immediately renewing the fighting.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LEE RETREATS TO VIRGINIA AND WINTERS BEHIND 
 THE RAPIDAN. 
 
 AFTER Gettysburg, a period of inactivity en- 
 sued, so far as actual strife between the forces of 
 Lee and Meade is concerned, the latter hesitating 
 to renew the attack upon Lee's command, or in 
 any effective way to frustrate the withdrawal of 
 the Army of Northern Virginia to the Potomac. 
 The inactivity is partly explained by the wet 
 season that had come on and made the roads 
 through the South Mountain range well-nigh 
 impassable ; and partly owing to Meade's caution 
 in not desiring to come so soon again to close 
 quarters with the Confederate forces, even in their 
 retreat to Virginia. The lull and the avoidance 
 of continued fighting enabled the Southern com- ' 
 mander-in-chief to withdraw his army through 
 Cashton and by the Fairfield road, via the Cum- 
 berland Valley, to the crossings of the Potomac. 
 High water at the latter river delayed his crossing 
 
 for a week, and made Lee anxious for the safety 
 
 166
 
 LEE RETREATS TO VIRGINIA. 167 
 
 of his command as well as for its maintenance, as 
 camp supplies were again getting short and am- 
 munition was also now low ; while it was known 
 that the Federals, who had moved up from Fred- 
 erick, Md., were at last close upon them, though 
 still halting in the determination to deliver an 
 attack, which had heen ordered by the "War 
 authorities at Washington. A crossing was at 
 length made by the 13th of July at Williamsport, 
 and at Falling Waters, the ever-vigilant Stuart, 
 by maneuvering in rear of the retreat, concealing 
 from Meade the withdrawal of the Confederate 
 forces to the Virginia side of the river. That Lee 
 had expected an attack by Meade at the Potomac, 
 or a check by him in conveying his army across 
 the river, is manifest by the General Order issued 
 by him to his soldiers at Hagerstown (his head- 
 quarters before crossing the Potomac) on the llth 
 of July (1863). In that spirited Address, General 
 Lee says : " After the long and trying marches, 
 endured with the fortitude that has ever char- 
 acterized the soldiers of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia, you have penetrated to the country of 
 our enemies, and recalled to the defense of their 
 own soil those who were engaged in the invasion 
 of ours. You have fought a fierce and san- 
 guinary battle, which, if not attenclecl with the
 
 168 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 success that has hitherto crowned your efforts, 
 was marked by the same heroic spirit that has 
 commanded the respect of your enemies, the 
 gratitude of your country, and the admiration of 
 mankind. 
 
 " Once more you are called upon to meet the 
 enemy, from whom you have won on so many 
 fields a name that will never die. Once more 
 the eyes of your countrymen are turned upon 
 you, and again do wives and sisters, fathers and 
 mothers, and helpless children lean for defense on 
 your strong arms and brave hearts. Let every 
 soldier remember that on his courage and fidelity 
 depends all that makes life worth having, the 
 freedom of his country, the honor of his people, 
 and the security of his home. Let each heart 
 grow strong in the remembrance of our glorious 
 past, and in the thought of the inestimable bless- 
 ings for which we contend ; and, invoking the 
 assistance of that Heavenly Power which has 
 so signally blessed our former efforts, let us go 
 forth in confidence to secure the peace and safety 
 of our country. Soldiers, your old enemy is 
 before you. Win from him honor worthy of 
 your right cause, and worthy of your comrades, 
 dead on so many illustrious fields. 
 
 R. E. LEE, General Commanding."
 
 LEE RETREATS TO VIRGINIA. 169 
 
 The anticipated Federal attack was not. how- 
 ever, realized, though Meade made a show of 
 following Lee by crossing the Potomac and ad- 
 vancing east of the Blue Kidge Mountains, with 
 the design of pursuing the Confederates, who 
 by this time, had reached Culpeper, and from 
 there had taken up a strong defensive position on 
 the south bank of the Rapidan River, Lee having 
 his headquarters at Orange Court House. Meade, 
 meanwhile, brought up his command to Culpeper 
 Court House, where he established himself for 
 the winter, having the Rapidan between him and 
 Lee. From these several positions tentative 
 movements were made by both sides during the 
 early winter months, but, if we except a demon- 
 stration in the region of the Mine Run, nothing 
 of importance came of them. Here both oppos- 
 ing armies were considerably depleted, by having 
 to send parts of their respective forces to other 
 and distant sections of the country, where serious 
 conflicts were then occurring. Meade's strength 
 was reduced by the despatch from it of a large 
 portion of his army to South Carolina, to take 
 part in the long siege of Charleston, stubbornly 
 held by the Confederates ; while another con- 
 tingent was sent to New York city to assist in 
 suppressing the Draft riots, there being at the
 
 170 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 time much difficulty in recruiting in the North. 
 Lee's force was about the same period reduced 
 by Pickett's brigade being despatched to Peters- 
 burg, where, in the following summer, "the last 
 citadel of the Confederacy," under Beauregard, 
 gallantly withstood the assaults of General Grant 
 and a long further siege until April, 1865, when 
 its stout defenders were withdrawn, just before 
 the surrender at Appomattox. Lee's army was 
 further depleted by the despatch of General Long- 
 street with two divisions to General Bragg's as- 
 sistance in holding Tennessee against Rosecrans. 
 There he took active and memorable part in the 
 battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863), 
 in which the Federals were routed and driven from 
 the field, and Kosecrans' army was saved from 
 annihilation only by the strenuous efforts and 
 gallantry of General Thomas. Of Longstreet's 
 part in the direful battle, which proved so dis- 
 astrous to the Federals, Lee, on September 25, 
 wrote thus to his old general, Longstreet : 
 
 " My whole heart and soul have been with you 
 and your brave corps in your late battle (of 
 Chickamauga). It was natural to hear of Long- 
 street and Hill (D. H.) charging side by side, and 
 pleasing to find the armies of the East and West 
 vying with each other in valor and devotion to
 
 LEE RETREATS TO VIRGINIA. 
 
 their country. . . . Finish the work before you, 
 my dear General, and return to me. I want you 
 badly, and you cannot get back too soon." 
 
 Chickamauga was consecutively followed by 
 the battle of Chattanooga (Nov. 25) ; but in this 
 famous "battle above the clouds," fought on 
 Lookout Mountain and on Missionary Ridge, 
 Bragg was badly worsted, in spite of the strong 
 natural positions he occupied. This was in the 
 main due to the good generalship of General 
 Grant, who had now come into the region, and 
 had under him, as able lieutenants, Generals 
 Hooker, Thomas, and Sherman ; while Bragg was 
 at a disadvantage in not having Longstreet with 
 him, the latter having been assigned the task of 
 besieging Knoxville, then in command of Burn- 
 side. The Federal victory at Chattanooga was 
 gained at a loss of between 5,000 and 6,000 men ; 
 though about as many Confederates were captured 
 on the field, besides 40 pieces of artillery and 
 7,000 stand of Southern small-arms. 
 
 Matters by this time were going ill for the South, 
 especially in the West. After the rout at Chat- 
 tanooga of Bragg, the latter was removed from 
 his command, and Joseph E. Johnston was for a 
 while put in his place. Meanwhile, Lee, with his 
 veterans, was putting in a wretched winter OQ
 
 172 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the Rapidan, his army being badly fed and as 
 badly clad, many of them being without shoes, 
 and without suitable accommodation in the way of 
 shelter. Much of his cavalry, moreover, had to 
 be dispersed, in search of forage for the horses ; 
 while the General-in-chief s wife and daughter, 
 and others of his personal family, had to be 
 depended upon for socks for his barefooted men, 
 and for blankets to cover them in the bitterly 
 cold nights in camp. To add to his anxieties at 
 this time, General Lee had to give paternal 
 thought to his second son, W. H. F. Lee, who in 
 the summer of 1863 had been wounded in battle 
 at Brandy Station, was captured, and held a close 
 prisoner of war by the Federals. While captive 
 in the North, his wife and child, moreover, died, 
 thus adding to General Lee's solicitude and grief. 
 At the period when these troubles were upon him, 
 the Commander-in-chief was himself untiring in 
 his attentions to the men under him, caring as 
 far as he could for their material wants and com- 
 fort, his own table being often as indifferently 
 supplied as were those of the lowest rank of his 
 command. His ordinary dinner, we are told, was 
 at this trying time nothing more bountiful or 
 appetizing than a "head of cabbage boiled in salt 
 water, with a pone of corn bread meat being
 
 LEE RETREATS TO VIRGINIA. 173 
 
 eaten not oftener than twice a week. His 
 thoughtf ulness at this junctureled him to permit 
 many of his men to go home on furlough for 
 thirty days, to such at least as were able to supply 
 temporarily an able-bodied substitute-recruit, of 
 good moral character. To both sides, in the long- 
 continued strife, recruiting was an irksome and 
 difficult business ; even in the North it was that, 
 in spite of the inducements of large bounties, 
 which it could well afford. To the South, on the 
 other hand, it had become almost impossible now 
 to strengthen the Confederate armies in the field, 
 though Lee was urgent in his call for more men, 
 and especially for additions to his cavalry equip- 
 ment, in view of the opening of a new season and 
 the operations which it would bring with it. 
 With the Spring of 186-i, the Federal force under 
 Meadeand Burnsideon the Rappahannock reached 
 a strength of 145,000 men ; while it had now for 
 its chief command and leader General Ulysses S. 
 Grant, who was given the supreme rank of lieu- 
 tenant-general of the United States army. 
 Against this large Union force, the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, as it prepared for a renewal of 
 hostilities, was under 62,000 men of all ranks ; 
 what it lacked in numbers it, however, made 
 good, under the inspiring leadership of Lee, in
 
 174 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 flan and morale. Included in the total force of 
 the Southern troops on the Rapidan was Long- 
 street's command, now returned from Tennessee, 
 though Pickett's division was still in North 
 Carolina.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE region of the conflict between North and 
 South, in the Spring of 1864, which has passed 
 into history as that of the Wilderness Campaign, 
 is the locality in Virginia south of the Rapidan, 
 thickly set with scrub oak and dense pine, grow- 
 ing on a soil composed of sand and clay unsuited to 
 agriculture, interspersed with swamps and dense 
 underbrush unfavorable to military operations. 
 The section of country was more or less known to 
 the Confederates, as here, a year or so earlier, 
 Lee had greatly harassed Hooker and subjected 
 him to defeat. Included in the actions in the 
 Wilderness are those that followed the battles in 
 the desolate region, viz., those around Spottsyl- 
 vania and on the banks of the North Anna, with the 
 second battle of Cold Harbor a month of fighting 
 that brought its pitiful tale of loss to both combat- 
 ants, but especially to the Federal troops, whose 
 casualties alone amounted to over 50,000, in 
 
 killed, wounded, and missing. To Grant, with 
 
 175
 
 176 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 his known resolute character, doggedness, and 
 military capacity of holding on and wearing 
 down his opponent's force by mere attrition, was, 
 as we have seen, given supreme command of the 
 Army of the Potomac. On his reaching Meade 
 and reorganizing the latter's army, Grant's design 
 was to cross the Rapidan and move upon the 
 Confederates at the earliest moment, his objective 
 point being the "rebel" capital, together with 
 the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia. 
 Besides General Meade, and General Burnside, 
 whose separate command, which had just been 
 organized at Annapolis, was now added to the 
 strength of the Army of the Potomac, Grant had 
 at his disposal the services of other general 
 officers of tried ability Hancock, Warren, and 
 Sedgwick, with Sheridan in command of the 
 Federal cavalry. Other contemporary move- 
 ments included the despatch of a column under 
 Major-General Ben. Butler, to ascend the James 
 River and cut the Confederate communications 
 with Richmond, and, if possible, capture Peters- 
 burg. Other simultaneous movements were 
 those under Generals Sigel and Crooks, to operate 
 in the Kenawha and Shenandoah valleys, destroy 
 the Central Railroad and the Virginia and Ten- 
 nessee R. R., and prevent rebel supplies from
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 177 
 
 reaching Lee and his army from the region 
 round Southern Virginia. Unity of action, in 
 this common scheme for the overthrow of the 
 South, included the despatch of General W. T. 
 Sherman (who had been in command of the 
 Military Division of the Mississippi), on his 
 renowned March through Georgia, where he had 
 General J. E. Johnston and J. B. Hood success- 
 ively to contend against, and where he won the 
 battles of Dalton, Kesaca, Kenesaw Mountain, 
 occupied Atlanta, and then set out on his famous 
 " march to the sea." 
 
 By this time the two great captains of the 
 North and South were to manifest their strategi- 
 cal skill and test the mettle of their respective 
 commands in the Wilderness labyrinths. The 
 movement began, on May 4th (1864), by Grant 
 throwing his right wing across the Rapidan, 
 where Lee's army was on the alert to receive him, 
 and where its chief was eager to draw him into 
 the heart of the Wilderness, and there seek to 
 bring on a general engagement. In this, Lee 
 succeeded but too well, as Grant was soon to learn, 
 when he found himself enmeshed in Nature's 
 entanglements in the region. Moving his left 
 wing forward on the road towards Chancellors- 
 ville, Grant now sought to flank Lee, and, by
 
 178 T.TTE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 gaining Gordonsville, to fall upon the Southern 
 rear. For the incidents of the fighting that 
 ensued in the Wilderness thickets, we cannot do 
 better, for the reader's information, than draw 
 upon the intelligent narrative furnished in the 
 Werner Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica " (See Vol. V., pp. 551-2, which we have 
 the Publisher's kind permission to quote). There, 
 the writer of the article on The Wilderness Cam- 
 paign " remarks that : 
 
 " Lee was fully aware of the advantages of the Wilderness 
 for defensive operations, and resolved, if possible, to bring on 
 a general engagement in the midst of the thicket. Two lines 
 of advance running nearly due east and west, and parallel to 
 each other, were open to Lee, and along these roads, on the 
 morning of the 5th (of May) , he promptly advanced, Ewell's 
 division taking the turnpike (or northerly) road, while Hill's 
 division advanced along the plank-road (the southerly thor- 
 oughfare). Longstreet's division was, during the first day's 
 battle, left at Gordonsville to cover Lee's rear, and did not 
 come up in time to take part in the first of the fighting. 
 Burnside's command in the Northern army was also too late 
 in arriving to take part in the first day's fighting, he having 
 been left on the Rappahannook to cover the rear of the Federal 
 army. When the Union forces first struck the Confederates, 
 they supposed it to be merely a rear-guard which they had 
 encountered, and that the army of Lee was in retreat. But 
 they were soon convinced that they had made a mistake, 
 and in a few moments the fighting was sharp and results
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 179 
 
 bloody. The attack was begun by the advance of Ayres's and 
 Bartlett's brigades, which were sent to the right and left of 
 the turnpike road to disperse whatever force might be found 
 there. The Confederates were driven back ; but the situation 
 was soon changed by the quick advance of Stuart's cavalry 
 brigade of Confederates, and shortly afterward by the arrival 
 of Rhodes's division, and their attack on the Federal troops. 
 
 " The effort to support Ayres and Bartlett proved abortive, 
 as the thickets were so dense that before aid could arrive 
 they had been driven back in confusion. On the whole, the 
 fighting at this point was very disastrous for the Federals, 
 McCandless's brigade alone losing two full regiments in its 
 effort to escape from its entangled position on the right of 
 the Federal advance column. So far, the Union army had 
 lost three thousand men, besides several guns, while the Con- 
 federates retained possession of the contested ground. A 
 little after one o'clock the Sixth corps, which had been sent 
 to the aid of the Fifth, was struck by Ewell. The Confeder- 
 ates were at first repulsed, but a terrific charge by Rhodes's 
 men drove the Federals back, the Confederates being after- 
 ward, in turn, forced back. When the fight for the day was 
 over, the Union troops were in possession of the disputed 
 ground. Meantime, General Grant had the conviction car- 
 ried home to him that General Lee meant to fight him in this 
 tangle of thickets, and he now began to make his preparations 
 for such a contingency. He ordered Hancock to the assist- 
 ance of Getty, who was holding the junction of the Brock 
 road, which runs at right angles with the turnpike. Soon 
 after Hancock arrived here lie was ordered to attack and 
 drive back Hill, but this he failed to do, the men fighting at 
 close quarters, and at night each army drinking from the 
 same " branch," or brooklet, so close were their positions to
 
 180 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 each other. This ended the first day's fighting in the Wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 "Early the next day the fighting was resumed, Lee com- 
 mencing the attack at about 4:30 a.m. In the meantime, 
 Burnside and Longstreet had come up to their respective 
 armies, and the lines of battle of both were now fully formed. 
 Grant's line extended over a frontage of five and a half miles 
 from Todd's tavern to Germania Ford, Sedgwick occupying 
 the right, to the left of Sedgwick, in regular succession, being 
 Warren, Burnside, and Hancock. Lee's army was disposed as 
 it was on the preceding day, with the exception that it was 
 now in three sections, Ewell being on the left, Hill in the 
 center, and Longstreet on the right. Lee began his assault 
 by attacking Sedgwick, but the Confederates were easily re- 
 pulsed, and Warren and Hancock made an attack on Hill. 
 For a time the troops of Hill gave way, but at the critical 
 moment Anderson's brigade of Hill's division was thrown 
 forward, and Longstreet's troops suddenly coming to the sup- 
 port of Hill's shattered lines, the tide of battle was turned 
 and Hancock was driven back. At the most critical juncture 
 in the fight, General Longstreet was seriously wounded by 
 his own men, and the loss of time occasioned by the change 
 of officers necessary after this occurrence was fatal to the 
 Confederate success. Before General Lee himself could reach 
 the scene and restore order, the Federals had regained all 
 they had lost by the attack which Longstreet had made. At 
 four o'clock, Lee, in person, led Hill's and Longsti-eet's men 
 to an assault against the enemy, and for a time the Union 
 left was in extreme danger. But a prompt and desperate 
 charge made by Colonel Hoffmann, according to Hancock, 
 was the turning-point of the engagement, and saved the left 
 wing from entire destruction. To add to the horror of the
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 181 
 
 situation, the woods were afire from the burning powder of 
 the guns, and many dead and wounded were consumed by 
 the flames. Nightfall did not cause the fighting to cease, for 
 just at sunset General Lee sent forward a heavy column, led 
 by General Gordon, against the right wing of the Federal 
 army, and threw it into the greatest confusion. Federal re- 
 inforcements were hurried up, however, and the total dark- 
 ness of the night put an end to the fighting of the second day, 
 in which, it was estimated, the Federals had lost at least fif- 
 teen thousand men, and the Confederates about ten thousand. 
 The total losses for the two days were about twenty thousand 
 and thirteen thousand, respectively. 
 
 " On the morning of May 7th it was apparent that General 
 Lee had determined to assume the defensive and let Grant 
 attack him. This Grant at once began by attempting a flank 
 movement, his objective point being Spottsylvania Court 
 House, 13 miles away. The column of the Federal advance 
 along the Brock road was led by Warren's division, and after 
 considerable delay, occasioned by its own cavalry, which ob- 
 structed the road, the Federal advance reached a point two 
 or three miles from the Court House. No serious fighting had 
 taken place, and the Federal commanders were elated with 
 the idea that Lee had probably been unaware of the attempt 
 made to turn his flank ; but they were again to be undeceived 
 in a terrible manner. No sooner had the head of the Federal 
 column arrived at the point indicated above than they were 
 met by a terrific fire and forced back, each successive com- 
 mand, as it came up, sharing the same fate. The attempt to 
 turn Lee's flank had failed, and Grant ordered his army to 
 strengthen its position by entrenchments. All of this and 
 the following day was spent in maneuvers, on both sides, for 
 positions, Lee always barring any southward movement oa
 
 182 L^E OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the part of Grant by throwing his men across the line of 
 march. At last, on the 10th, Grant attacked, and the battle 
 of Spottsylvania Court House took place, after which Grant 
 and Lee began their famous movement to reach Richmond, 
 the one to obtain possession of the Confederate capital, the 
 other to defend it. Lee was successful, and when Grant 
 arrived at Hanover Junction, on May 23d, he found Lee's army 
 between him and Richmond, in a strong position, already en- 
 trenched. The position of Lee's army was impregnable. 
 Grant knew it would be madness to attempt to turn his posi- 
 tion, so after a little desultory skirmishing the same tactics 
 as before were resorted to, Grant withdrawing his forces on 
 the 26th and again attempting to flank Lee. Lee followed 
 Grant's movements closely, at every turn interposing his army 
 between the Federals and the Confederate capital. Several 
 stands were made by both armies, but on no occasion was a 
 pitched battle fought, until the old battlefields of McClellan'a 
 campaign of two years before were reached. Here the Wil- 
 derness Campaign proper ends, as the battle of Cold Harbor 
 has been placed by war-historians in another category. Soon 
 after this battle, the Federal army, having described a semi- 
 circular path around the city of Richmond, was transferred 
 to the south bank of the James River, and the siege of Peters- 
 burg, the final act of the great drama, was begun. 
 
 " No characteristics of the Wilderness stand out with greater 
 prominence than do the heroism and determination exhibited 
 by both armies. Never before had Lee's ability as a tactician 
 and strategist had greater demands made upon it, and never 
 before had those demands met with a fuller response. An 
 impartial judge would find it hard to award the palm for 
 superiority to either army. On the one hand, the Federal 
 army was at a disadvantage on account of the intricate nature
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 183 
 
 of the country, and on the other, the Confederate forces were 
 largely outnumbered. But, despite all advantages or disad- 
 vantages, no men in any circumstances could have done better 
 than did both armies, and the claims of both Lee and Grant 
 to greatness, even had they no other foundation, would find 
 a solid basis in the conduct, by each, of this one campaign. 
 On the battlefields several soldiers' cemeteries have been 
 established, but thousands were unburied, and lay undis- 
 turbed amidst the thicket that once gave back the din of 
 conflict and flamed in lurid brightness with the fire of battle." 
 
 After the battles in the Wilderness, Grant, sick 
 of fighting in the tangled forest and of the de- 
 fensive contest he was obliged there to maintain, 
 ordered Meade to despatch Warren, by a night- 
 march, towards Spottsylvania Court House, with 
 the view of cutting off Lee from his communica- 
 tions with the Confederate capital, and with some 
 idea of forming a junction with Butler on the 
 James River. Ever watchful of his adversary, 
 the Southern leader cleverly anticipated the new 
 Federal movement, and ordered the corps of Ewell 
 and Anderson to proceed thither (to the Court 
 House) by the shortest route. In this, the Con- 
 federates won the race for position on the Spott- 
 sylvania Ridge, heading off Warren's command 
 by a more rapid night-march and a better knowl- 
 edge of the country. At sunrise, on the morning 
 of May 8th, Anderson managed to throw up hasty
 
 184: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 entrenchments on the Ridge and formed a line of 
 battle ready to be hurled upon Warren and the 
 advance corps of Grant's army, at this time 
 ignorant of their being forestalled by the Con- 
 federates, save, as it was thought, by some dis- 
 mounted men of Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry. Gen- 
 eral Warren, on arriving at the Ridge and pushing 
 on his advance to secure the position, was met 
 with an unexpected and withering Confederate 
 fire, which threw his command into confusion ; 
 but, on bringing up the remainder of his corps, 
 he renewed the attack, only to be met, however, 
 by a severe repulse. During the night the Con- 
 federate commands of Early and Ewell came 
 upon the scene, together with General Lee, and 
 the position taken up by Warren on the previous 
 day was strengthened against the expected re- 
 newed attack on the morrow. The 9th of May 
 brought the whole of Grant's army to the Court 
 House, when a general assault of the Confederate 
 lines was ordered, Warren, Sedgwick, Hancock, 
 and Burnside taking part in the attack. In the 
 melee that ensued, the Federals lost heavily, 
 though they fought gallantly, delivering during 
 the day no less than twelve assaults. 
 
 The day of the llth was spent by the Federals in 
 getting ready for an elaborate attack on the
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 185 
 
 right center of the Southern line, that part of the 
 Confederate position being deemed by General 
 Grant the weakest, as it proved. On the follow- 
 ing day, the assault was fiercely launched, Han- 
 cock massing his men there chiefly against the 
 command of General Edward Johnson of Swell's 
 division. After a desperate resistance by the 
 latter, his command was overpowered, and the 
 Confederate defense line was cut in two, while 
 3,000 of Johnson's men, including the General 
 himself, were taken prisoners by Hancock. The 
 consequence of this was to force Lee to withdraw 
 to interior lines, after a vain attempt had been 
 made to recapture the position that Johnson had 
 lost. The enemy were unable, however, to pene- 
 trate further the Southern position or break Lee's 
 lines at other points. It was then that Grant, in 
 his wonted dogged way, wrote to the War author- 
 ities at Washington : " I propose to fight it out 
 on this line, if it takes all summer " a threat, 
 however, which, as we shall presently see, was 
 not enforced. From the 14th to the 18th (of May) 
 desultory fighting went on ; though two deter- 
 mined assaults on the Southern lines were de- 
 livered by the Federals, which Lee was able to 
 repulse, with heavy losses to the Union troops. 
 On the 19th Lee discerned signs of the Federals
 
 186 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 giving up the attempt to carry his position and of 
 moving off, possibly with the design of marching 
 directly upon Richmond. This, however, was not 
 Grant's immediate purpose ; his motive clearly 
 was to draw Lee from his strong position, which 
 he found he could not hope to take, in spite of his 
 announced purpose "to hold on all summer." 
 Presently Grant's design, in abandoning the re- 
 gion of the Spottsylvania Court House, was to 
 take up a position on the North Anna River, one 
 of the head streams of the Pamunkey, so as to 
 get round the Confederate right, but really to 
 disengage Lee from a position which Grant 
 had spent twelve days in finding to be unas- 
 sailable. 
 
 No sooner was this Federal movement noted by 
 Lee than he sought to interfere with it. This he 
 did, first, by inflicting, through the agency of 
 Swell's corps, a heavy blow upon the retiring 
 Federals, which delayed its movements from the 
 19th to the 21st of May, and then by ordering an 
 advance of his own men, by a shorter route than 
 that taken by Grant, to the south bank of the 
 North Anna. This accomplished, he once more 
 surprised his adversary by revealing the Con- 
 federates in mass confronting him. When Grant 
 reached the river, he at once threw Warren and
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 187 
 
 Hancock's commands across it, to grapple again 
 with the foe. Only Hancock's corps was opposed 
 by Lee in crossing the stream ; after which the 
 Southern leader astutely thrust his center be- 
 tween the two wings of Grant's army and put 
 the Federals at enormous disadvantage. Being 
 thus handicapped, the Federal commander, after 
 a reconnaissance which showed the hopelessness 
 of renewed fighting in the region, recrossed the 
 North Anna, contenting himself with the small 
 game of destroying some miles of the Virginia 
 Central railroad. After this, he set out with his 
 entire army, and, after making a wide detour 
 eastward, he advanced southward along the Pam- 
 unkey in the direction of the York River and 
 the waterway into Chesapeake Bay. This new 
 movement, which was effected towards the close 
 of May, brought Grant into water-communication 
 with the sea ; while Lee met it by retiring south 
 with his army toward Richmond, and took up a 
 strong position in front of the Chickahominy, 
 the Federal forcing of which river would, as Lee 
 felt sure, bring on a great battle. 
 
 A sore struggle, indeed, here ensued, that 
 which precipitated the bloody battle of Cold 
 Harbor, near the site of that of Games' Mill, 
 which had been fought two years before, The
 
 188 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 operations in the region began on May 31 by a 
 preliminary conflict between Sheridan's cavalry 
 corps and that of Fitzhugh Lee. The army of 
 the Potomac coming up on the following day, 
 the Federals proceeded to entrench themselves 
 temporarily behind some slight earthworks, from 
 which, on the 3rd of June, they advanced to the 
 attack. Lee's success in preparing for the as 
 sault was instantly apparent in the hot repulse 
 the Federals met with, the attacking columns 
 being met with so disastrous a fire that hardly 
 any life could live before it. So dire was the 
 Confederate fire that seven colonels of Hancock's 
 attacking columns fell mortally wounded. The 
 battle was no sooner begun than it was ended ; 
 the losses to the Federals resulting from all 
 casualties in the engagements of the 1st and 3rd 
 of June reaching, it is chronicled, close upon 
 10,000 ! So incredible seems the havoc in the 
 Unionist ranks in these two days' fighting, that 
 we deem it proper to vouch for the figures from 
 an authoritative source that given in A. A. Hum- 
 phreys' narrative of "The Virginia Campaign 
 of 1864-65," where that writer affirms that "ac- 
 cording to the report of the Medical Director, 
 Surgeon McParlin, the wounded brought to the 
 hospitals frc/m the battle of the 3rd of June num-
 
 THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 189 
 
 bered 4,517. The dead were at least 1,100. The 
 wounded brought to the hospitals from the 
 battle of the 1st of June were 2,125 ; the killed 
 were not less than 500. The wounded on the 1st 
 and 3rd of June were, therefore, 6,642, and the 
 killed not less than 1,600 ; but, adopting the 
 number of killed and missing furnished General 
 Badeau from the Adjutant-General's office, 1,769 
 killed, 1,537 missing (many most, indeed of 
 them, no doubt, killed) we have 8,411 for the 
 killed and wounded, and for the total casualties, 
 9,948." The Southern losses, it may be added, 
 were, on the other hand, not more than 1,600. 
 From this it will be seen how severely Grant had 
 been beaten at Cold Harbor a beating which he 
 so far scrupled at the time to admit that he 
 hesitated for a while to send a flag of truce to 
 General Lee, asking permission to rescue his 
 wounded from the battlefield and bury his dead. 
 The battle closed with the Confederates in full 
 possession of their position and defenses ; while 
 Grant withdrew his army from the field, and, 
 crossing the James, proceeded to lay siege to 
 Petersburg. Thus ended, practically in failure to 
 Grant's designs, the Wilderness Campaign, with 
 the contests that grew out of, or followed upon 
 it. The ambition which led the Federal lieu-
 
 190 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 tenant-general so boastfully to engage in it, cost 
 the North a loss bordering upon 60,000 men ! " 
 
 Before passing to another chapter, it will, 
 perhaps, seem proper here to answer a question 
 which the readers may probably have asked him- 
 self, " What, meanwhile, had become of Lee's 
 invaluable cavalry officer, General J. E. B. 
 Stuart ? " The answer, unhappily, is a brief one, 
 viz., that he lost his gallant life in an engagement 
 on the llth of May (1864), near Richmond, when 
 repelling a raid upon the Confederate capital by 
 General Sheridan, who had been detached upon 
 that mission by General Grant after the opening 
 battles in the Wilderness. His loss was a severe 
 one to the Confederacy, as he ranked foremost 
 among the Cavalry generals of the Civil War.* 
 
 * On May 20th, General Lee, in announcing to his army the 
 death of Major-General Stuart, paid the following high tribute 
 to his memory : " Among the gallant soldiers who have fallen 
 in the war, General Stuart was second to none in valor, in 
 zeal, and in unflinching devotion to his country. His achieve- 
 ments form a conspicuous part of the history of this army, 
 with which his name and services will be forever associated. 
 To military capacity of a high order, and to the nobler virtues 
 of the soldier, he added the brighter graces of a pure life, 
 guided and sustained by the Christian's faith and hope. . . . 
 His grateful countrymen will mourn his loss and cherish his 
 memory. To his comrades-in-arms he has left the proud 
 recollections of his deeds and the inspiring influence of hia 
 example."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OPERATIONS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OP THE JAMES 
 RIVER AND THE SIEGE OP PETERSBURG. 
 
 BAULKED in his endeavor to reach Richmond 
 from the North, Grant sought now, as we have 
 related, to reach it by abandoning the line of the 
 Chickahominy, crossing the James, and, with the 
 assistance of Butler, now at Petersburg, to attempt 
 the movement from the south. This resolution of 
 Grant's was put in action on the night of the 12th 
 of June, when the Federal leader proceeded, by 
 way of White House and Wilcox's Landing, across 
 the James ; and by the 16th of the month the 
 Federal hosts were massed at Petersburg, the 
 " backdoor of Richmond," which was held by 
 General Beauregard. The same day (June 16) 
 found part of Lee's army, now numbering only 
 30,000 men, south of the James, the divisions of 
 Pickett and Field being almost at once engaged 
 in an attack upon Butler, assisted by the force? 
 under Beauregard. 
 
 While these new dispositions in the armies of 
 191
 
 192 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Grant and Lee were being made, the Federal 
 general, Hunter, was engaged in the task Gen- 
 eral Sigel had been occupied with, of raiding and 
 burning in the Valley of the Virginia, destroying 
 the railroad tracks and bridges, and committing 
 many outrages in the region, including the de- 
 vastating and burning of homesteads. By the 
 16th of June, Hunter had set himself the task of 
 attacking the town of Lyiichburg, then held by a 
 small local force of Confederates, supplemented 
 by the command of General Breckenridge. News 
 of this reaching Lee, the latter detached Early 
 from his army with 10,000 men to bring Hunter's 
 wild career to a close ; this had the desired effect, 
 for on Early's reaching Lynchburg, which had 
 already repulsed the Federal attack, he found 
 Hunter and his command in full retreat from the 
 place, passing out of the region through Western 
 Virginia. All that Early had for his pains, was 
 to get upon the rear of Hunter's retreating force, 
 when he captured a number of prisoners, besides 
 the prize of thirteen pieces of artillery. 
 
 From the middle of June, 1864, to April 3rd, 
 1865, Grant's operations before Petersburg con- 
 tinued with varying but wearying fortunes. The 
 operations, the while, had little of the character 
 of a siege ; nor, save for the protection of the
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 193 
 
 Confederate capital, whose fortunes were linked 
 with those of Petersburg, was it worth Lee's 
 while to fritter away the strength and patience 
 of his army, for nearly nine months, in front of 
 the city. But while the Army of the James re- 
 mained there, there, necessarily, must Lee and 
 his veterans remain also. Had events gone more 
 favorably for the South in other sections of the 
 country, Lee's detention so long at Petersburg 
 would not have greatly mattered ; but the turn 
 of the tide elsewhere, adverse to the Confederacy, 
 and the great and increasing preponderance in the 
 numbers of the Federal armies, were Lee's, and the 
 South's, undoing. All our hero could do was but 
 to bend his head, as he ever did, to the will of 
 Heaven, in ordering events otherwise, even to the 
 blasting of Southern hopes. 
 
 Shortly after settling down to the protracted 
 investment of Petersburg, Grant ordered elaborate 
 assaults upon the place, though results were not as 
 he anticipated ; nor did they compensate for the 
 frightful slaughter they occasioned. All that was 
 practically gained from them, or, at least, from 
 those of the 15th, IGth, and 17th of June, was the 
 carrying of portions of the Confederate exterior 
 lines, which did not effect any more important 
 purpose than to add to the area of the Federal
 
 194 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 entrenchments. It is on record that Grant's losses 
 in these assaults did not fall much short of 10,000 
 men ; while the Confederate casualties were not 
 a third of that number. Up to this time, when 
 the siege operations proper are claimed to 
 have been begun, there had been little accom- 
 plished by the Union army beyond the four day 
 assaults (June 15-18), if we exclude the general 
 raiding in the neighborhood, with the design of 
 destroying the Weldon railroad, which connects 
 Petersburg with the Confederate capital. Even 
 in that operation and other general skirmishing 
 in the vicinity, success did not altogether lie with 
 the North. This we may see from the two sub- 
 joined reports of General Lee to the Confederate 
 Secretary of War at Richmond, under the dates, 
 respectively, of June 22nd and 29th (1864). On 
 the first of these dates, Lee writes : 
 
 " Since Friday last there has been skirmishing 
 along the lines in front of Bermuda Hundreds and 
 around Petersburg. The Federal army appears 
 to be concentrated at these two places, and is 
 strongly entrenched. 
 
 " Yesterday, a movement of infantry, cavalry, 
 and artillery, was made towards the right of our 
 forces and Petersburg, in the direction of the 
 Weldon railroad. The enemy was driven back,
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 195 
 
 and his infantry is reported to have halted. His 
 cavalry have continued to advance upon the road 
 by a route further removed from our position. 
 
 "The enemy's infantry was attacked this 
 afternoon, on the west side of the Jerusalem 
 plank road, and driven from his first line of works 
 to his second on that road, by General Mahone, 
 with a part of his division. About 1,600 pris- 
 oners, 4 pieces of artillery, 8 stands of colors, and 
 a large stand of small-arms were captured." 
 
 Under date of June 29th, the Confederate 
 commander-in-chief reports to Richmond : 
 
 "General Hampton states that he attacked the 
 enemy's cavalry yesterday afternoon on their 
 return from Staunton River bridge, this side of 
 Sappony Church, and drove them beyond that 
 point. The fight continued during the night, 
 and at daylight this morning he turned their left 
 and routed them. When they reached Reame's 
 Station they were confronted by a portion of 
 Mahone's division, who attacked them in front, 
 while their left flank was turned by General 
 Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry. The enemy was com- 
 pletely routed, and several pieces of artillery, 
 with a number of prisoners, wagons, ambulances, 
 etc., were captured. The cavalry are in pursuit. 
 
 R. E. Lee, General."
 
 196 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 If Grant expected to take Petersburg by a 
 coup de main, he was grievously disappointed ; 
 his attacks on it in the middle of July, as we have 
 shown, were practically fruitless, while they 
 brought only calamitous loss of life. In the 
 North, there was at this time (gold in New York 
 was then over 2.50) a widespread feeling of dis- 
 appointment, as well as of impatience, at the 
 manner in which he had conducted the cam- 
 paign, with its ruthless waste of human life. 
 The war of invasion was in many Northern 
 journals bluntly spoken of as a tragic and costly 
 failure ; while sympathy was not even withheld 
 from the brave Lee and his ragged and ill- fed 
 veterans, who had won their admiration, and, in 
 spite of all their disadvantages, had accom- 
 plished so much. Nor, in military quarters, 
 did it escape notice that Grant's heedless and 
 unfeeling tactics in the field in marked con- 
 trast to those of the humane and considerate Lee 
 were breeding discontent in his army, and 
 giving birth to a feeling of hopelessness in the 
 ranks when ordered out on rash ventures. This 
 is specially and pointedly noted in General F. A. 
 Walker's " Life of General Hancock," when 
 referring particularly to the Second corps of 
 Grant's army, on whose services in critical
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 1<J7 
 
 undertakings Grant largely relied. The passage 
 is as follows : 
 
 " As the corps turned southward from Cold 
 Harbor to take its part in the second act of the 
 great campaign of 1864, the historian" (relates 
 General Walker) "is bound to confess that 
 something of its pristine virtue had departed 
 under the terrific blows that had been showered 
 upon it in the series of fierce encounters 
 which have been recited. Its casualties had 
 averaged more than four hundred a day for 
 the whole period since it crossed the Rapidan . . . 
 moreover, the confidence of the troops in their 
 leaders had been severely shaken. They had 
 again and again been ordered to attacks which 
 the very privates in the ranks knew to be hope- 
 less from the start ; they had seen the fatal 
 policy of ' assaults all along the line, ' persisted 
 in even after the most ghastly failures ; and 
 they had almost ceased to expect victory when 
 they went into battle. The lamentable story of 
 Petersburg " (the historian-critic adds) " cannot be 
 understood without reference to facts like these." 
 In sharp contrast to this feeling of despondency 
 and discontent in Grant's command was the 
 hopefulness manifested by all ranks of Lee's 
 army, their ready alacrity to undertake any
 
 198 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 enterprise their beloved leader asked of them, 
 and their fidelity and attachment to the person 
 of their great chieftain. To their cause a lost 
 one though it was to be they were, moreover, 
 and to the last, ever staunchly and enthusiasti- 
 cally loyal and faithful. This is well borne 
 out and attested in a passage occurring at the 
 close of the chapter, on ' The Campaign in the 
 Wilderness,' in Professor H. A. White's admi- 
 rable " Life of Robert E. Lee and the Southern 
 Confederacy" (N. Y., Putnams, 1902). "The 
 Army of Northern Virginia," observes the in- 
 teresting and well-informed writer of the biogra- 
 phy, " still retained its old elasticity and vigor. 
 Lee's losses" (in the Wilderness Campaign) 
 amounted to about 20,000. The spirit of the 
 soldiers was yet buoyant. The old yell had 
 gathered additional fierceness ; the men went 
 into battle with all their former dash and 
 impetuosity. Perhaps not one in Lee's heroic 
 band held a doubt as to the ultimate success ot 
 the Confederacy." , 
 
 At the beginning of July, when discontent was 
 rife in the North at the protracted and costly 
 campaign Grant was conducting, and when 
 Washington was but indifferently protected by 
 Federal troops, while high military officers in the
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 199 
 
 National capital were known to be engrossed in 
 petty jealousies of each other, Lee despatched his 
 trusted colleague, General Early, with a force of 
 10,000 men, across the Potomac to invade Mary- 
 land and threaten Washington. From the 
 Southern point of view, the projected raid north- 
 ward was a politic one under the circumstances ; 
 while it was most disconcerting and embarrassing 
 to the Washington authorities and created con- 
 sternation throughout the North. It moreover 
 diverted to the capital a large contingent of troops 
 organized at New Orleans, which were designed as 
 additions to Grant's army ; while, at the close of 
 the month (July, 1864), it drew from his cavalry 
 command at Petersburg the dashing Sheridan. 
 From the latter officer's "Personal Memoirs" 
 (N. Y., 1888), we extract an interesting account 
 of the expedition of Early, with its chief incidents, 
 and the efforts that were made in the North to 
 interfere with and put an end to it. " By rapid 
 marching," relates General Sheridan, " Early 
 reached Winchester on the 2nd of July, and on 
 the 4th occupied Martinsburg, driving General 
 Sigel out of that place the same day that Hunter's 
 troops, after their fatiguing retreat through the 
 mountains, reached Charlestown, West Virginia. 
 Early was thus enabled to cross the Potomac;
 
 2QO LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 without difficulty, when, moving around Harper's 
 Ferry, through the gaps of the South Mountain, 
 he found his path unobstructed till he reached the 
 Monocacy, where Rickett's division of the Sixth 
 corps, and some raw troops that had been col- 
 lected by General Lew Wallace, met and held the 
 Confederates till the other reinforcements that 
 had been ordered to the capital from Petersburg 
 could be brought up. Wallace contested the line 
 of the Monocacy with obstinacy, but had to retire 
 finally toward Baltimore. The road was then 
 open to Washington, and Early marched to the 
 outskirts and began against the capital the dem- 
 onstrations (July 11-12) which were designed to 
 divert the Army of the Potomac from its main 
 purpose in front of Petersburg. Early's audacity 
 in thus threatening Washington had caused some 
 concern to the officials in the city, but as the move- 
 ment was looked upon by General Grant as a mere 
 foray, which could have no decisive issue, the 
 Administration was not much disturbed till the 
 Confederates came in close proximity. Then was 
 repeated the alarm and consternation of two 
 years before, fears for the safety of the capital 
 being magnified by the confusion and discord 
 existing among the different generals in Wash- 
 ington and Baltimore ; and the imaginary clangers
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 201 
 
 vanished only with the appearance of General 
 Wright, who with the Sixth corps and one divi- 
 sion of the Nineteenth corps, pushed out to attack 
 Early as soon as he could get his arriving troops 
 in hand, but under circumstances that precluded 
 celerity of movement. As a consequence, the 
 Confederates escaped with little injury, retiring 
 across the Potomac to Leesburg, unharassed save 
 by some Union cavalry that had been sent out into 
 London county by Hunter, who, in the meantime, 
 had arrived at Harper's Ferry by the Baltimore 
 and Ohio railroad. 
 
 " From Leesburg Early retired through Win- 
 chester toward Strasburg, but when the head of 
 his column reached this place he found that he 
 was being followed by General Crook with the 
 combined troops of Hunter and Sigel only, Wright 
 having returned to Washington under orders to 
 rejoin Meade at Petersburg. This reduction of 
 the pursuing force tempting Early to resume the 
 offensive, he attacked Crook at Kernstown, and 
 succeeded in administering such a check as to 
 necessitate* this general's retreat to Martinsburg, 
 and finally to Harper's Ferry. Crook's with- 
 drawal restored to Early the line of the Upper 
 Potomac, so, recrossing this stream, he advanced 
 again into Maryland, and sending McCausland oij
 
 202 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 to Chambersburg, Pa., laid that town in ashes 
 [July 30], leaving 3,000 non-coinbatants without 
 shelter or food. . . . 
 
 "This second irruption of Early, and his ruth- 
 less destruction of Chambersburg, led to many 
 recommendations on the part of General Grant 
 looking to a speedy elimination of the confusion 
 then existing among the Union forces along the 
 Upper Potomac, but for a time the authorities 
 at Washington would approve none of his propo- 
 sitions. . . . Finally the maneuvers of Early 
 and the raid to Chambersburg compelled a par- 
 tial compliance, though Grant had somewhat 
 circumvented the difficulty already by deciding to 
 appoint a commander for the forces in the field 
 that were to operate against Early. On the 31st 
 of July, General Grant selected me as this com- 
 mander. . . . On the evening of August 1, 1 was 
 relieved from immediate duty with the Army of 
 the Potomac, but not from command of the 
 cavalry as a corps organization. I arrived at 
 Washington August 4, and the next day received 
 instructions from General Halleck to report to 
 General Grant at Monocacy Junction, whither 
 he had gone direct from City Point, in conse- 
 quence of a characteristic despatch from the 
 President indicating his disgust with the con-
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 203 
 
 fusion, disorder, and helplessness prevailing 
 along the Upper Potomac, and intimating that 
 Grant's presence there was necessary." 
 
 This extract, which is longer than at the out- 
 set we intended to make, sets forth the essential 
 incidents in General Early 's expedition towards 
 the national capital. It at the same time makes 
 clear, what we have already pointed out, the 
 unseemly contentions, caballings, and jealousies 
 rife among the Northern generals, and that at 
 a critical juncture of affairs, when the nation was 
 riven asunder by civil war, and when patriotism 
 and loyalty to the cause these officers professed 
 to uphold counselled concord and amity among 
 brethren in the profession of arms. How sore a 
 trial, in addition to all else he had at this era to 
 bear, these contentions were to the head of the 
 Federal nation so soon now to come to a piti- 
 ful and tragical end we can readily conceive ; 
 and well was Lincoln justified in calling upon 
 Grant at this period, as in his perplexity we see 
 that he did, to seek aid in making peace among 
 the responsible though jarring chiefs of the 
 Unionist arms. 
 
 But we once more turn our attention to our 
 narrative proper, though in the interval there 
 has been little occurring at Petersburg to record,
 
 204: LIF * OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 save the progress of Federal entrenching, and 
 the construction of what is known as Burnside's 
 Mine, to be used against the fortifications of the 
 city, and its gallant defenders within and with- 
 out its walls. The story of this Mine, it has to 
 be related, is a tragical one, with an almost 
 farcical cast, for what had taken many weeks' 
 expenditure of labor and material to prepare, 
 and launch against the foe, recoiled, and with 
 most disastrous effect, upon the Federals who 
 had prepared, and upon the sacrificed assaulting 
 columns that took part in the attack, after the 
 mine was fired (July 30th). The mine was ex- 
 cavated behind a concealed portion of the Federal 
 lines, a ravine in rear of Burnside's command, 
 and extended along a tunnel-way, over 500 feet 
 in length, to a point immediately underneath a 
 projecting angle of the Confederate defences, 
 known as Elliott's Salient, at the time occupied 
 by 300 of Elliott's Carolinian corps, together 
 with a battery of guns. Here, in this ghastly 
 subterranean passage-way, were deposited some 
 8000 pounds of blasting powder, which, when the 
 match was applied to it, was not only to blow 
 up the 300 Carolinians and the battery on the 
 angle crest, but to cause such consternation to 
 the Confederates and damage to their fortifi-
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 205 
 
 cations, that it would be easy, it was thought, 
 to assault and carry Petersburg and capture its 
 doomed defenders. 
 
 Extensive preparations had previously been 
 made by the Federals for this direful attempt to 
 capture Petersburg. A monster array of mortars 
 and heavy guns were put in position to assist in 
 the assault ; while more than half of Grant's 
 large army was drawn up, in addition to the as- 
 saulting columns, to be precipitated against the 
 breaches about to be made in the "rebel" de- 
 fences, and, when the crucial moment arrived, to 
 be thrown into, seize, and occupy the city, the 
 defenders of which, it was thought, would be so 
 paralyzed by the firing of the mine as to become 
 easy Federal prey. The time, moreover, had been 
 well chosen for the assault, for at the period Lee 
 and a large portion of his command, by a piece of 
 strategy on Grant's part, had been lured across the 
 James River, some twenty miles from the place, 
 to defend an outlying Confederate post against 
 attack by Sheridan and Hancock, whose ulterior 
 design was to march upon Richmond. The out- 
 lying post, it was found, however, was so strongly 
 protected that the expedition against it was unable 
 to effect anything, and so was recalled ; Lee and
 
 206 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 his command returning to Petersburg almost 
 simultaneously. 
 
 Meantime, all having "been made ready, the 
 mine was sprung, the explosion blowing up the 
 Confederate fort in the air, and with it its 300 
 garrison, but leaving an immense crater, over 
 30 feet deep, 140 feet in length, and 65 feet in 
 width, partly filled with a mass of loose earth, 
 impossible for the Federal troops to get over on 
 their way to the assault. Into this chasm, how- 
 ever, the Federal forlorn hope, composed of white 
 and black soldiery, were sent, only to become an 
 entangled and confused mass, upon whom, when 
 the Confederates recovered from their surprise 
 and rallied their defending forces, they poured a 
 fire of so destructive a character that no life could 
 live through it. To add to the confusion in the 
 crater, the supporting Federal columns were also 
 pushed forward, quickly losing their formation, 
 and huddling all up inextricably ; while an in- 
 describable panic seized the whole, as they were 
 mowed down by the merciless Confederate fire. 
 The place became a veritable charnel-house and 
 death-trap, though the Federals bravely sought 
 to remedy matters, and, in spite of the confusion 
 worse confounded, attempted to reach the crest of 
 the "rebel" positions; but all were driven help-
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 207 
 
 lessly back or fell victims to the withering fire 
 poured upon them. From this scene of heart- 
 rending and unresisted slaughter few returned 
 to the Federal lines ; the losses in killed, wounded, 
 and taken prisoners, amounting to no less than 
 4,500 men, falling chiefly on Ledlie's division of 
 Burnside's corps, and upon the divisions of the 
 Federal Ninth corps commanded by Wilcox and 
 Potter. The Confederate casualties, including 
 the 300 of the South Carolina infantry blown up, 
 with part of Pegram's battery, in Elliott's Salient, 
 all told, did not exceed 1000. 
 
 Thus ended the episode of the Burnside Mine, 
 an episode which in its calamitous and demoral- 
 izing results was most mortifying to General 
 Grant ; while it created such consternation in the 
 North that it sent up the depreciated United 
 States currency, always extremely susceptible to 
 Federal disasters in the field, to 2.90. Another 
 result was to cause several of the influential 
 Northern journals to renew the clamor to end 
 the war, with a suggestion, which emanated from 
 the Neiv York Herald, to despatch an embassy to 
 the Richmond administration, seeking to bring 
 about that purpose by an immediate treaty of 
 peace. Nothing, however, came of the proposal. 
 
 Later in the month of August, and after the
 
 208 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 Federal army had recovered from the effects of 
 the misdirected Burnside Mine operation, Grant 
 renewed his raiding attempts in the vicinity of 
 his extended lines, chiefly with the intent of 
 destroying the Weldon railroad. His further 
 design, no doubt, was to divert his forces from 
 the tedium of trench-construction and other 
 wearying siege duties in front of Petersburg. 
 In these raiding diversions, which were con- 
 ducted, under Grant's orders, by two infantry 
 divisions, commanded by General Hancock, as- 
 sisted by General Warren's corps, by Gregg's 
 cavalry, and by a battery of Federal guns, mis- 
 fortune, in the main, also pursued Northern 
 operations. To check these movements, as well 
 as to protect his own flanks, General Lee directed 
 General A. P. Hill, supported by Heth's and 
 Mahone's commands, Hampton's cavalry, and 
 Pegram's guns, to move along the endangered 
 railway, upon which, and upon the Danville rail- 
 road, Lee's army depended for its supplies from 
 Kichmond, with the design, if possible, of bring- 
 ing the Federals to battle. For some days there 
 was no other result than sundry skirmishings ; 
 though by the 19th of August Warren's com- 
 mand was come upon and a heavy loss was caused 
 him, including the capture of 2,500 of his men.
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 209 
 
 The Federals, meanwhile, strongly entrenched 
 themselves by the railway, and Hill found it 
 difficult to oust them or bring them to battle. 
 Thus was the Weldon road lost to the Confed- 
 erates. This, however, did not interfere with 
 Hill's efforts to dislodge the enemy, and fighting 
 continued for a time, the Federal losses, chiefly 
 falling upon Warren's corps, amounting by the 
 21st of the month to 4,450 men. By the 24th (of 
 August) Warren's command was re-enforced by 
 the divisions under Hancock, which materially 
 strengthened Warren, especially in the neighbor- 
 hood of Ream's Station on the Weldon railroad. 
 Here a severe engagement took place, most disas- 
 trous to Hancock, and disheartening in its effect 
 upon his spiritless and panic-stricken men. The 
 attack was made by General A. P. Hill, led by a 
 charge of Heth's command, and supported by 
 Hampton's cavalry and part of Pegram's battery. 
 The extent of the discomfiture which ensued is 
 told in General Lee's report to Richmond, under 
 date August 26th (two days after the encounter). 
 Here is Lee's account of the fighting : 
 
 " General A. P. Hill attacked the enemy in his 
 entrenchments at Ream's Station yesterday even- 
 ing, and at the second assault carried his entire 
 line. Cooke's and McRae's North Carolina brig-
 
 210 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ades, under General Heth, and Lane's North 
 Carolina brigade of Wilcox's division, under Gen- 
 eral Connor, with Pegrara's artillery, composed 
 the assaulting column. One line of breast-works 
 was carried by the cavalry, under General Hamp- 
 ton, with great gallantry, who contributed greatly 
 to the success of the day. Seven stands of colors, 
 two thousand prisoners, and nine pieces of artil- 
 lery are in our possession. The loss of the enemy 
 in killed and wounded is reported to be heavy ; 
 ours relatively small. Our profound gratitude is 
 due to the Giver of all victory, and our thanks to 
 the brave men and officers engaged. 
 
 K. E. LEE, General." 
 
 After the action at Reams' Station, little of mo- 
 ment for a month happened, save minor attacks 
 on the extension of Lee's position north of the 
 James Eiver. About the middle of September an 
 expedition was sent out under General Hampton 
 to attack a Federal post about twenty miles from 
 Petersburg, and, with the aid of the Confederate 
 cavalry, to capture a large drove of cattle, de- 
 signed for the uses of the Federal camp, then graz- 
 ing in Prince George county, Va. The Federal 
 post was taken by surprise, the works and camp 
 being captured, with 300 of a garrison ; while the 
 cattle were secured and driven towards the
 
 THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 211 
 
 "rebel" camp. On the way, however, Hamp- 
 ton's column was met by one under the Federal 
 general, Wilson, which sought to resist the Con- 
 federate return to Petersburg and retake the 
 captured beeves. Though Hampton lost fifty 
 men in the fight that ensued, he was able to re- 
 turn with his command to headquarters, bringing 
 with him all the cattle, which proved a timely ac- 
 quisition, for many weeks, to the ever-scantily- 
 supplied Confederate camp leaders.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE AUTUMN OF 1864, AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 
 
 
 
 As the autumn of 1864 had now come and the 
 winter of 1864-5 approached, the situation of 
 affairs in the Confederacy was extremely grave 
 and full of omen. Grant, it is true, had, so far, 
 effected little about Petersburg, and Lee and his 
 army were still in fine fettle. But elsewhere it 
 was going ill with the South, and premonitions 
 of " a lost cause " were beginning to arise in the 
 minds of friends of the Confederacy. The winter 
 months which followed proved still more ominous 
 of the coming end, the result, in the main, of 
 Sherman's achievements in the West and South 
 including the taking of Atlanta, the success which 
 attended his famous "march to the sea," his 
 later contests with Johnston and operations in 
 the Carolinas, added to Thomas' triumph over 
 Hood at Nashville, Farragut's victory at Mobile 
 Bay, and Porter's capture of Fort Fisher, closing 
 the sea to the South a succession of disasters 
 
 which boded ill for its cause, and ruin to it when 
 
 212
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 213 
 
 Sheridan defeated Early near Charlottesville, 
 won the battle of Five Forks, and captured the 
 whole of Ewell's command. All these losses 
 " broke the back of rebellion," while it gave joy 
 to the North, which by this time had re-elected 
 Lincoln and sustained his Administration, and 
 placed increasing forces at Grant's command 
 against Lee and his now fast-dwindling and 
 impoverished army at Petersburg. 
 
 Despite the depressing aspect of affairs through- 
 out the South, the heroic Lee maintained unper- 
 turbed his serene bearing and manner, and re- 
 tained even a hopeful feeling in his breast ; while 
 he infected his army with a like sense of security 
 and hopefulness, and led it ever to manifest its 
 wonted courage and buoyancy of spirits, with 
 resignation to its poorly-clad and ill-fed condition. 
 One who saw Lee at this critical era in the affairs 
 of the South gives us this description of the 
 great leader and his indifference to hardship and 
 mental depression : 
 
 "His cheeks were ruddy," writes the observer, 
 " and his eye had that clear light which indicates 
 the presence of the calm, self-poised will. But 
 his hair had grown gray, like his beard and mus- 
 tache, which were worn short and well- trimmed. 
 
 " His dress, as always, was a plain but service
 
 214: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 able gray uuiform, with no indications of rank 
 save the stars on the collar. Cavalry boots 
 reached nearly to his knees, and he seldom wore 
 any weapon. A broad brimmed, gray felt hat 
 rested low upon the forehead; and the move- 
 ments of this soldierly figure were as firm, meas- 
 ured, and imposing as ever. It was impossible 
 to discern in General Lee any evidences of im- 
 paired strength, or any trace of the wearing 
 hardships through which he had passed. He 
 seemed made of iron, and would remain in the 
 saddle all day, and then at his desk half the night, 
 without apparently feeling any fatigue." 
 
 Before the winter set in in its rigor, Grant once 
 more sought to deliver a well-prepared attack on 
 the Confederate right. That flank, which was a 
 long one, rested mainly behind strong entrench- 
 ments at Hatcher's Run, beyond what is locally 
 known as the Boydton plank road, close by the 
 South Side R.R. The attacking force, which set 
 out about the end of October, was a formidable 
 one, composed of the bulk of the best fighting 
 element in Grant's army the 5th and 9th corps, 
 commanded by Warren and Hancock, supported 
 by Gregg's cavalry. Lee met this new movement 
 with his wonted alertness and vigor, and there 
 was need of this, for the expeditionary force sent
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 215 
 
 out by the Federal lieutenant-general was over 
 30,000 strong, in addition to 3,000 cavalry. Lee's 
 defensive and offensive reliance, as usual, was 
 upon the commands of Generals A. P. Hill, Heth, 
 and Mahone, and upon the knowledge possessed 
 by the troops of the region, which was chiefly a 
 densely wooded one, full of wild underbrush, of 
 an entangling and obstructing character. The 
 details of the fighting need not detain us, for the 
 conflict was a brief one, with little room for 
 maneuvering or display of tactics. The result 
 was, nevertheless, disastrous to the Federals, the 
 " rebel " position being found too formidable for 
 hasty assault, and the expedition returned to 
 Petersburg the same night. " In the attack," as 
 we learn from General Lee's subsequent Report, 
 " General Mahone broke three lines of battle, 
 captured 700 prisoners, three stands of colors, and 
 six pieces of artillery, the enemy retiring during 
 the night, leaving his wounded and more than 250 
 dead on the field." The entire loss of the day's 
 operations to the Federals, besides the spoil taken 
 by " the Rebs," was over 1760 men. After this, 
 there were for months no further hostile expedi- 
 tions set on foot by Grant ; only the routine camp 
 duties, enlivened by occasional picket and out- 
 post firing, occupied both armies through the
 
 216 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 winter. "On the same day" (Oct. 27, 1864), as 
 Prof. H. A. White, in his Memoir of Lee, relates, 
 "Longstreet celebrated his return to the field by 
 visiting a loss of more than one thousand upon 
 Butler's brigades, who were attempting to creep 
 through the White Oak Swamp into the Rich- 
 mond defenses." 
 
 At this time, Richmond was so uncomfortably 
 menaced by the proximity of Grant's army at 
 Petersburg and his numerically strong cavalry 
 contingent, as well as by the readiness with 
 which Sheridan always manifested his disposition 
 to respond to Grant's call to lead expeditionary 
 forays in the direction of the Southerners' capital, 
 that there was serious thought in the minds of 
 the Confederate Government to retire from it, 
 and, ai Lee had suggested, to remove the machin- 
 ery of administration to Danville. Besides the 
 menace from these sources, there was soon now 
 to be dreaded the coming of Sherman to join 
 Grant's Army of the James, for nothing was 
 deemed more probable than that general, who was 
 then undertaking his vast destroying marches in 
 the South, would fall upon Richmond, now weak 
 in defensive force, and visit it with the sword and 
 the torch. That it had not been captured ere this 
 was due mainly to Lee's constant solicitude on its
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 217 
 
 account, and to his ready, practical interposition 
 when it was in serious jeopardy from the Federals. 
 Evacuation, unhappily, as it afterwards turned 
 out, came to be ultimately necessary, and an en- 
 forced measure of war at the close of the great 
 struggle, when the Confederate capital could do 
 no more for Lee little really as it had ever been 
 able to do for him who had done so much for it 
 and the South. 
 
 Just before the affair at Hatcher's Run, at the 
 close of October (1864), an end had come to 
 General Early's raid in the Valley of the She- 
 nandoah and the threatening of Washington, by 
 the return to camp at Petersburg of that officer. 
 That expedition had been sent out by Lee, not 
 only as a legitimate reprisal foray into the enemy's 
 country and to bring near to the North the peril 
 and harassments of war, in the vast game else- 
 where played with such vigor and daring over 
 great parts of the country ; but also to keep at 
 home the forces needed for the protection of the 
 Federal capital, that would otherwise be sent on 
 to the region of the James, to swell the already 
 large army of Grant before Petersburg. To op- 
 pose Early's northward expedition, Major-General 
 Sheridan had been transferred from Grant's army, 
 and in August had been given command of what
 
 218 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 was known as the Middle Military Division of 
 the United States, with a special eye upon the 
 protection of Washington and the warding off of 
 Confederate raids into Maryland, which had been 
 provoked by the devastations caused by Generals 
 Sigel and Hunter's operations in the Virginia 
 Valley. 
 
 Jubal Early had been off on his expedition since 
 the beginning of July, and had created much stir in 
 the North by his repulse of Hunter at Lynch- 
 burg and of Lew Wallace at Monocacy, as well 
 as by his despatch of a cavalry force into Penn- 
 sylvania, which burned Chambersburg in retal- 
 iation for Federal outrages in Virginia. When 
 Hunter had resigned his command and Sheridan 
 was appointed, Lee supplemented Early's force 
 by Kershaw's division of Longstreet's corps and 
 by Fitzhugh Lee's division of cavalry, both under 
 General Anderson, to cooperate with Early, who 
 was then in some jeopardy at Strasburg, and in 
 need of reinforcements. The combined forces of 
 Anderson and Early were united at Winchester, 
 where they drove the Federals from the place 
 back upon Harper's Ferry and the Maryland 
 Heights. Later on, Anderson, with Kershaw's 
 division, was ordered by Lee to Culpeper Court 
 House ; while Early, who was still at Winchester,
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 219 
 
 was directed to protect the Virginia Central 
 Railroad from attack, and to make free with the 
 harvests, then ready for the sickle, in the 
 Shenandoah Valley, at the same time to be with- 
 in call should Lee require his return to Peters- 
 burg. 
 
 At the period (now the middle of September), 
 Sheridan and his command, which was strong 
 in horse, moved from his position at Berry ville, 
 south of Harper's Ferry, and soon encountered 
 Early at Winchester. Here, the latter had a force 
 only of 11,000 or 12,000 men (8,500 muskets and 
 3,000 sabers), while Sheridan's opposing strength 
 was nearly three times as large. At Winchester, 
 in spite of the great disparity in numbers, battle 
 was given by the impetuous Early, and to his 
 grievous loss, for 2,500 of his force was captured 
 by Sheridan ; while he and his command had to 
 fall back, hotly pressed by Sheridan, to Fisher's 
 Hill, close to Strasburg. Here battle was again 
 given, this time by the Federal leader, who once 
 more defeated Early, with a loss of many guns 
 and a large part of his command ; while Early 
 was now compelled to seek safety in the lower 
 passes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sheridan 
 not only pursued his Confederate antagonist, but 
 sent a force forward to get on his rear and cut
 
 220 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 off his continued retreat. On the track of Early, 
 Sheridan advanced as far as Staunton, and with- 
 drew behind Cedar Creek, to wreck the Virginia 
 Central railroad, and ruthlessly to ravage and 
 lay waste the Shenandoah Valley. This he did 
 not only by laying hands on and appropriating 
 all animal life in the region belonging to the 
 farmers and settlers in the Valley, but by de- 
 stroying the grain and forage with which the 
 barns were at the time filled, and burning a 
 great number of mills, and a vast quantity of 
 agricultural implements. This destruction of 
 everything of value belonging to noncombatants 
 and the desolating of the entire region were acts, 
 surely, of a despicable and inhuman character, 
 which one would not expect to find committed by 
 an otherwise honored and gallant soldier. No 
 plea of acts justified by war can or ought to pardon 
 such an outrage ; and the remembrance of the 
 horrid deeds cannot fail to stain the memory 
 of the man who was guilty of them, even under 
 superior orders. 
 
 While these atrocities were being committed, 
 Early's command was reunited with Kershaw's 
 division, which partly made good the general's 
 losses, and emboldened him to renew the fight- 
 ing at Ce4ar Creek, where Sheridan's army was
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 221 
 
 posted behind strong entrenchments. The Fed- 
 eral command, for the time being, was assumed 
 by General Wright, owing to the temporary ab- 
 sence of Sheridan. Wright's chief aides were 
 Generals Ricketts, Emory, and Crook, who com- 
 manded, respectively, the U. S. 6th, 8th, and 19th 
 corps ; while the cavalry was under Averill, Ous- 
 ter, and Merritt. This was the situation on the 
 18th of October (1864), when General Early stole 
 quickly over night towards the north fork of the 
 Shenandoah, which he forced with his command, 
 and silently moved at dawn on the 19th upon the 
 Federal camp (Crook's) at Cedar Creek. Here he 
 took the enemy by surprise, captured many hun- 
 dreds of them, (besides seizing eighteen heavy 
 guns), and drove the remainder of the camp that 
 escaped, in a panic-stricken mass, down the Valley 
 Turnpike. "To rally the men in their bewilder- 
 ment was impossible," observes Mr. W. Swinton, 
 in his record of the Cedar Creek fight, in his 
 " Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac," "and 
 Crook's corps, being thoroughly broken up, fled in 
 disorder, leaving many guns in the hands of the 
 enemy. As soon as this flank attack was de- 
 veloped, Early, with his other column, emerged 
 from behind the hills west of Cedar Creek, and, 
 crossing that stream, struck directly the troops
 
 222 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 on the right of Crook. This served to complete 
 the disaster, and the whole Union left and center 
 became a confused mass, against which the Con- 
 federates directed the captured artillery, while 
 the flanking force swept forward to the main 
 turnpike. Such was the scene on which the light 
 of day dawned. The only force not yet involved 
 in the enemy's onset was the Sixth corps, which 
 by its position was somewhat in rear. With this 
 General Kicketts quickly executed a change of 
 front, throwing it forward at right angles to its 
 former position, and firmly withstood the enemy's 
 shock. Its chief service, however, was to cover 
 the general retreat which Wright now ordered, 
 as the only practicable means of reuniting his 
 force. . . . 
 
 "At the first good position between Middle- 
 town and Newtown, Wright was able to rally 
 and re-form the troops, form a compact line, and 
 prepare either to resist further attack or himself 
 assume the offensive. It was at this time, about 
 half-past ten A.M., that General Sheridan arrived 
 upon the field from Winchester, where he had 
 slept the previous night. Hearing '(at day- 
 break, twenty miles away)' the distant sounds 
 of battle rolling up from the south, Sheridan 
 rode post-haste to the front, where, arriving, his
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 223 
 
 electric manner had on the troops a very in- 
 spiriting effect. General Wright had already 
 brought order out of confusion, and made dis- 
 positions for attack. ... A counter-charge was 
 begun at three o'clock in the afternoon. . . . 
 A large part of Early's force, in the intoxication 
 of success, had abandoned their colors and taken 
 to plundering the abandoned Federal camps. 
 The refluent wave was as resistless as the Con- 
 federate surge had been. . . . The retreat soon 
 became a rout. ... In the pursuit, all the cap- 
 tured guns were retaken, and twenty- three in 
 addition. The captures included, besides, nearly 
 1,500 prisoners. . . . With this defeat of Early 
 all operations of moment in the Shenandoah 
 ended," and the bulk of the troops on either side 
 were recalled to Petersburg. 
 
 The inglorious termination of the battle of 
 Cedar Creek, by the misconduct of the men of 
 Early's command, was, naturally, most mortify- 
 ing to that general, and drew from him, three 
 days after the affair occurred, a sharp but now 
 futile reprimand. In his address to his troops, 
 General Early pointed out that all the benefits of 
 the victory gained had been lost and a serious 
 disaster incurred ; adding that had they remained 
 steadfast to their duty and their colors, the battle
 
 224 L^E OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 would have been " one of the most brilliant 
 and decisive of the war." " But," continues the 
 general in his address, " many of you, including 
 some commissioned officers, yielding to a dis- 
 graceful propensity for plunder, deserted your 
 colors to appropriate to yourselves the abandoned 
 property of the enemy, and subsequently those 
 who had previously remained at their posts, see- 
 ing their ranks thinned by the absence of the plun- 
 derers, when the enemy, late in the afternoon, 
 with his shattered columns, made but a feeble 
 effort to retrieve the fortunes of the day, yielded 
 to a needless panic and fled the field in confu- 
 sion, thereby converting a splendid victory into a 
 disaster." 
 
 The Shenandoah Valley having been made a 
 waste, most of the Confederate troops were either 
 recalled to Petersburg or transferred, asBrecken- 
 ridge's division was, to Southwestern Virginia ; 
 while Early was left at Staunton, with but the 
 remains of Wharton's division. In the Spring 
 of 1865, notwithstanding his past services, Early 
 was relieved of his command, when at Franklin 
 Court House, Va., so continued was the outcry 
 against him for the mishap in the Valley, and the 
 breach of discipline he had been so conspicuously 
 and disastrously unable to check in the men
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 225 
 
 that had composed the expedition. In taking the 
 step of relieving Early of his duties, General Lee, 
 in the letter he sent him on the occasion, was 
 most sympathetic and conciliatory, being careful 
 not to wound unnecessarily the old general's feel- 
 ings ; while he thanked him for the fidelity and 
 courage shown by him in always supporting his 
 (Lee's) efforts, and for the devotion he had ever 
 manifested in the service of the South. 
 
 Meanwhile, the North had been putting forth 
 great efforts to bring the conflict with the 
 South to a close, and that not only at Petersburg 
 but elsewhere, which she was now well able to 
 do, so vast were her resources of men and 
 material. At Petersburg, the winter months 
 had been most trying to Lee and his long-strung- 
 out, but now greatly thinned, as well as much 
 famished, army ; while Grant's forces were at 
 this time well-fed and cared for, having been re- 
 cruited up to 120,000 men, nearly three times the 
 number of serviceable troops his opponent had at 
 his command. Lee and his veterans in gray were, 
 however, still filled with the old invincible spirit 
 that had long animated them, in spite of their 
 gaunt and ill-clad condition, and the now dark 
 prospect of their lovingly espoused and warmly 
 cherished cause. Pitiful is it to read of Lee's
 
 226 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 appeals to Richmond at this period for the neces- 
 saries of life for his troops, for the requisites of 
 shelter and clothing, in an inclement season, for his 
 men, and even for forage for his horses appeals 
 that were indifferently heeded by the Commissary 
 Department at the Southern capital, and as in- 
 differently doled out. Under the circumstances, 
 need surprise be felt at the desertions that were 
 now prevalent in the ranks, and that conscription 
 resulted in practically no additions to the strength 
 of the army ; while the proposition was now rife 
 to arm the slaves, though to do so and bring 
 them to the front would be but to add more 
 stomachs to be filled or go empty, and, if the 
 latter, aggravate rather than relieve the situa- 
 tion at Petersburg. The necessity of insisting 
 upon Lee's remaining where he was, for the pro- 
 tection of Richmond and the defense of its key-po- 
 sition, Petersburg, seemed cruel, while the region 
 was so little able to feed his army, and when there 
 was urgent need of his services in other parts of 
 the menaced Confederacy, where he might, and 
 doubtless would, have turned the scale in the 
 fortune of war to greater advantage to himself 
 and the common cause. Whoever was responsi- 
 ble for this course being adhered to, the blame of 
 it does not attach to General Lee, though he
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE "WINTER OF 1864-5. 027 
 
 loyally did what he could where he was kept ; the 
 blame rather attaches to the Confederate Ad- 
 ministration, among whom, as we know, there 
 was not over much harmony at its council- 
 board and not a little want of acumen in failing 
 to see what, broadly and at large, was for the 
 best for Southern interests. 
 
 At this juncture of affairs in the South, when 
 Grant had refused to allow any more exchanges 
 of prisoners, and President Lincoln had issued his 
 call for 300,000 additional volunteers with which 
 to prosecute the war, the North encouraged the 
 Hon. Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, to open nego- 
 tiations for a conference with representatives 
 of the Confederate Government, seeking to put 
 an end to hostilities. The conference, it was 
 understood, was to be of an informal character, 
 and with the single view of discovering whether 
 it was possible to influence the South to listen to 
 overtures of peace. A meeting took place, known 
 as the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, three 
 Southern commissioners (Messrs. A. H. Stephens, 
 J. A. Campbell, and R. M. T. Hunter) being per- 
 mitted to pass the Federal lines early in Febru- 
 ary, 1865, and proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., 
 where a confab was had with Secretary of State 
 Seward, and, later, with President Lincoln, but
 
 228 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 which ended without practical results. Though 
 this was the case, it is worth while noting the sim- 
 ple and liberal conditions on which the North was 
 prepared to make peace with her " erring sister" 
 of the South. These were: 1, "The restoration 
 of the national authority throughout all the 
 States ; 2, No receding by the Executive of the 
 United States on the slavery question from the 
 position assumed thereon in the late annual Mes- 
 sage to Congress, and in preceding documents ; 
 and 3, No cessation of hostilities short of an end 
 of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile 
 to the Government." 
 
 With the failure of this conference and the 
 continued stress of a forlorn situation, together 
 with the inability of the Confederate Government 
 and Congress to do anything to improve the out- 
 look, or even provide for the sustenance of the 
 army at Petersburg, Lee's position was a clouded 
 and hopeless one, though, at the period, as it was 
 practically admitted by all, he was the only 
 general left in the field in whom the South had 
 still confidence, and to whom it might yet assur- 
 ingly look to accomplish anything. Now, how- 
 ever, it was manifestly too late for aught to be 
 done to save the Confederacy, even though our 
 hero was at this juncture given the titular com-
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 229 
 
 mand of all its armies. To give Lee now the rank 
 of lieuteiiaiit-general, with supreme command 
 over all the Southern armies in the field, indepen- 
 dent of the control of President Davis, was little 
 else than a farce, since the Kichmond Government 
 could not relieve or replace him at Petersburg ; 
 and neither did it, or could it now, increase or 
 even feed his forces there, so that he might con- 
 tinue the conflict with any semblance or hope 
 of success. Though the condition of affairs was 
 now such the Confederacy having become utter- 
 ly shattered and incapable of further effort Lee 
 accepted the proffered honor, and, late as it was, 
 he steeled his heart anew to undertake what was 
 possible under the circumstances. The one object, 
 at this crisis, he had in view, was, if practicable, 
 to effect a junction with the command of his old 
 colleague, General J. E. Johnston, who, with his 
 Army of the Tennessee, had been opposing, though 
 with ill-success, General Sherman in North Caro- 
 lina, and whom he hoped to join as he came to- 
 ward Virginia with his still considerable force. 
 
 The doings of General Johnston from the period 
 when he was assigned to the Department of the 
 Southwest, through the era of the Federal inva- 
 sion of Georgia and the operations in the Caro- 
 linas, do not, we are aware, of course, belong to
 
 230 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 the story we are here dealing with in connection 
 with General Lee. But as these operations form 
 an important part of the story of the Civil War, 
 and are in themselves replete with interest, we 
 have deemed it proper to give some brief record 
 of them in these pages, so far, at least, as they are 
 connected with the movements of Johnston, and 
 his successor Hood, in attempting to oppose those 
 of General Sherman, after the latter had launched 
 his attack upon Atlanta. With the early portions 
 of the story that preceded the Atlanta campaign 
 we have already dealt with that part, at least, 
 when, after the raising of the siege of Chat- 
 tanooga, and fighting the battle at Lookout Moun- 
 tain, the army of Bragg was routed, and its 
 commander was replaced by General J. E. John- 
 ston. About the same time, Grant was given com- 
 mand of all the armies of the Union, and proceeded 
 to the James River, to take charge with Meade of 
 the operations against Lee and Beauregard at 
 Petersburg. Some few months later (at the close 
 of June, 1864), Johnston gave battle to Sherman 
 and his lieutenants Thomas, Schofield, and Mc- 
 Pherson at Kenesaw, Ga., and won the fight, 
 inflicting a considerable loss upon the Federals. 
 In spite of this success, Johnston retired across 
 the Chattahoochee Kiver and took up a position
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 231 
 
 southward, at Peach Tree Creek, which he pro- 
 ceeded to entrench. At this period, the Confed- 
 erate Government, being dissatisfied with John- 
 ston, removed him from his command and ap- 
 pointed in his place General J. B. Hood, who had 
 fought under Lee at Gettysburg and under Bragg 
 at Chickamauga. Abandoning the defensive pol- 
 icy of his predecessor, Johnston, Hood fought 
 a desperate engagement with Hooker, but was 
 defeated with heavy loss. He then retired within 
 the lines of Atlanta City, still fighting hard, and 
 attacking whenever he could the veterans of 
 Sherman's Army of the Tennessee. The com- 
 mander of the latter (McPherson) having been 
 killed, General Howard took his place, and sought, 
 with the assistance of Schofield and Thomas, to 
 break through the investing lines of Atlanta, and 
 at the same time cut the railroad in the vicinity 
 over which Hood drew his supplies for the city's 
 garrison. The entrenchments of Atlanta, the 
 Federals found, however, were too strong for 
 them to carry, and Hood, elated at this, made 
 several sallies upon the enemy, in one of which, 
 occurring on the 28th of July, he met with 
 disaster, losing over 4,600 men. About a month 
 later, Sherman made a movement south of 
 Atlanta to Jonesboro, held by the Confederates,
 
 232 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 but not fortified, his design being not only to 
 capture the place, but to draw Hood from his 
 strongly protected works at Atlanta. In this, 
 Sherman was successful, for it enabled him, in 
 Hood's absence, to take and occupy Atlanta ; 
 while Hood, with his 40,000 of an army, took 
 up temporary quarters at Lovejoy's Station, on 
 the Savannah railroad, about 30 miles southwest 
 of the city. 
 
 Hood's evacuation of Atlanta, though it gave 
 his opponent possession of the city, yet enabled 
 him sharply to harass Sherman's long-strung- 
 out line of communications, reaching from At- 
 lanta back into Tennessee. To protect these, the 
 Federal commander, still holding on to Atlanta, 
 sent the bulk of his army north-westward ; but 
 before doing so he cleared the city of its inhabit- 
 ants, sending them off rather ruthlessly, as he 
 designed to make of Atlanta a military post 
 exclusively, to be held by General Thomas and his 
 command. This act naturally aroused loud and 
 angry protests from the city's magistrates and 
 the populace, to which, however, Sherman was 
 indifferent, though he offered to make exclusion 
 from the city as little irksome to its people 
 as was possible under the circumstances. In his 
 minct at this period, {Sherman, was engrossed
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 233 
 
 with his contemplated project of a " march to 
 the sea," so as to secure a strong base of opera- 
 tions in the east before setting out on his pro- 
 jected invasion of and lengthened expeditionary 
 raid northward, through Georgia and the 
 Carolinas, back to Virginia, there to reach Grant 
 before Petersburg and fall upon Lee's army from 
 the rear. The accomplishment of this design of 
 Sherman, as that of a born raider, took captive 
 the imagination of the North ; while it was 
 rendered comparatively easy, as well as safe, by 
 the paralysis that had now fallen upon the South, 
 which made the march through the region an 
 almost wholly unopposed one. The paralysis 
 throughout the Confederacy was increased at 
 this period not only by the breaking up of the 
 interior lines of travel and communication in 
 the South, as a consequence of Federal invasion, 
 but by the capture of Mobile by Farragut, 
 followed by that of Fort Fisher, and by the cap- 
 ture or destruction of the Confederate cruisers 
 and blockade-runners at sea, which, with the 
 depletion of the Richmond treasury, lopped off 
 all supplies from abroad, and put an end to hope 
 of interposition by the neutral Powers of Europe. 
 In such a conjunction of events adverse to the 
 South, with the terrible drain upon her resources
 
 234 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 of men and material occasioned by the long and 
 devastating war, Sherman's gay but ruthless 
 "march to the sea," and back through the once 
 rich and populous States of the now exhausted 
 Confederacy, was, as we have said, a naturally 
 unopposed one, while it led to further prostra- 
 tion and despondency throughout the South. 
 The record of the incidents in the bold expedition 
 of Sherman to found a strong base by the 
 Atlantic, in addition to the possession and occupa- 
 tion of Atlanta, need not long detain us. Leav- 
 ing General Thomas, with a force of 27,000, 
 behind to defend Atlanta and keep watch upon 
 General Hood, Sherman set out with TO, 000 men 
 in the middle of November and reached and 
 occupied Savannah before Christmas (1864) 
 Thomas, meanwhile, continued at Atlanta 
 inactive till he should be strengthened by the 
 arrival of an expected force under General James 
 H. Wilson, which, when received, raised his total 
 command to 55,000 ; while Hood at this time had 
 but 40,000, all told, to pit against Thomas, 
 exclusive of a small contingent of Georgia 
 militia. It was now Hood's intention to move 
 to the rear of Atlanta, and there to tear up the 
 railway tracks between the latter city and the 
 QhattahoQchee, and afterwards to move upon
 
 THE AUTUMN AND THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 235 
 
 Bridgeport and destroy the great bridge which 
 spans the Tennessee River at that point. Hood's 
 purpose in this was to isolate Atlanta from 
 Chattanooga and Nashville, and thus make the 
 place a barren conquest to Thomas, and his chief, 
 Sherman, as a base of supply and of future 
 operation. The details of this design of Hood are 
 interestingly given by William Jowett Tenney, 
 in his '* Military and Naval History of the Rebel- 
 lion " (New York, 1866). 
 
 " A week sufficed to complete General Hood's 
 arrangements," writes Mr. Tenney, " and by the 
 2nd of October his army was across the Chatta- 
 hoochee and on the march to Dallas, where the 
 different corps were directed to concentrate. At 
 this point he was enabled to threaten Rome and 
 Kingston, as well as the fortified places on the 
 railroad to Chattanooga ; and there remained 
 open, in case of defeat, a line of retreat south- 
 west into Alabama. From Dallas he advanced 
 east toward the railroad, and on the 4th captured 
 the insignificant stations of Big Shanty and Ack- 
 worth, effecting a thorough destruction of the 
 road between the two places. He also sent a 
 division under General French to capture the 
 Federal post at Allatoona Pass, where he had 
 ascertained that a million and a half of rations
 
 236 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 for the Federal army were stored, on which he 
 probably depended to replenish his commissariat." 
 
 Upon learning that Hood had crossed the Chat- 
 tahoochee, Sherman, resumes Mr. Tenney, "des- 
 patched General Corse with reinforcements to 
 Rome, which place he supposed the enemy were 
 aiming at. During the previous week he had 
 sent General Thomas with troops to Nashville to 
 look after Forrest. His bridges having mean- 
 while been carried away by a freshet which filled 
 the Chattahoochee, he was unable to move his 
 main body until the 4th, when three pontoons 
 were laid down, over which the armies of the 
 Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio crossed, 
 and took up their march in the direction of Mari- 
 etta, with fifteen days' rations. The 20th corps, 
 General Slocum, was left to garrison Atlanta." 
 
 Rome, as it turned out, however, was not the 
 objective point, which Hood, or rather the Con- 
 federate column of General French, was aiming 
 at, but Allatoona ; and here French appeared on 
 the 5th of October and summoned the Federal 
 commander (General Corse) to surrender. This 
 was at once refused, for General Sherman, when 
 the action began, having reached the summit 
 of Kenesaw Mountain from there signalled his 
 subordinate to "hold out to the last," and, that
 
 THE AUTUMN ANl/THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 237 
 
 he might do so, he promised to send him succor. 
 Thus assured, the Federal defender of the town re- 
 pulsed the Confederate attack, though a vigorous 
 cannonade wrecked much of the city and killed a 
 large number of Federal artillery and cavalry 
 horses, besides destroying a considerable portion 
 of the railway in the immediate neighborhood. 
 The Confederates finally withdrew, though not 
 before they had lost close upon 800 men in the 
 attack, including prisoners captured by the enemy. 
 After this, Hood's command retreated in the di- 
 rection of Dalton, Ga., and on the way northward 
 continued the destruction of the railroad, and 
 generally devastating the region. By the 14th of 
 the month, Hood reached Dalton, but, finding 
 Sherman close upon his heels, he withdrew to 
 Lafayette, thence southwesterly into Alabama, 
 in which State he halted at Gadsden, on the 
 Coosa river, where he met reinforcements under 
 General Beauregard, who by this time had been 
 appointed to the chief command of the Confederate 
 Military Division of the West. From Gadsden, 
 the Confederate double command continued the 
 retreat as far as Warrington, on the Tennessee 
 River, General Sherman pursuing the Confed- 
 erate columns as far as Gaylesville, where the 
 Federal commander halted. Whatever might
 
 238 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 have been the result of Hood's movement, Mr. 
 Tenney concludes by affirming that " it entirely 
 failed to interrupt the Federal communications 
 to a degree that would compel the evacuation of 
 Atlanta. . . In the light of subsequent events," 
 the historian-critic adds, " it would now appear 
 that General Sherman, making only a show of 
 following his adversary, deliberately lured him 
 into Northern Alabama, for the purpose of pursu- 
 ing an interrupted march with his own army 
 through the heart of Georgia. The ill-advised 
 plan of General Hood had given him the very 
 opportunity which he desired, and he prepared at 
 once to avail himself of it."
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 OPERATIONS IN GEORGIA, TENNESSEE, AND THE 
 CAROLINAS IN THE WINTER OP 1864-65. 
 
 AFTER the flight and repulse of the Confeder- 
 ates at Allatoona, we have seen that, menaced 
 by Sherman's pursuing army, Hood withdrew 
 his command first into Northern Alabama, and 
 after a junction with a small force under Beau- 
 regard crossed into Tennessee. The area of ef- 
 fective fighting left to the Confederacy was now 
 fast narrowing ; while the operations of Sherman, 
 Thomas, and other Federal commanders in the 
 Southern tier of states from the Gulf and the Mis- 
 sissippi northward and eastward also narrowed 
 the area of support, in men and supplies, to what 
 remained of the Southern fighting force in 
 Virginia, in the region of the James. Not a 
 little of the result of this was due to the success 
 of Sherman in capturing Atlanta and undertak- 
 ing his renowned "march to the sea." Other 
 
 disasters were yet to befall the South, in Tennes- 
 
 239
 
 240 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 see, in Schofield's defeat of Hood at-Franklin, and 
 the wiping out of his command by Thomas at 
 Nashville ; in North Carolina, in the repulse of 
 Hardee's corps of Johnston's command by Sher- 
 man at Averysboro ; in the fall of Fort Fisher 
 and the capture and occupation of Wilmington ; 
 and in the victory of Sherman over Johnston at 
 Bentonville ; besides the burning, in South Caro- 
 lina, of Columbia, and the enforced evacuation of 
 Charleston. Of these disasters, we shall give a 
 brief running account, to enable the reader to fol- 
 low the military history of the closing months of 
 the Confederacy, and so prepare him for the col- 
 lapse of the Southern cause in Lee's defeat by 
 Sheridan at Five Forks, Va., his retreat from 
 Petersburg, and the final end of the Civil War in 
 the surrender at Appomattox. 
 
 After the occupation of Atlanta and the fight 
 at Allatoona, when Sherman saw that the Con- 
 federate cause in Georgia and the South was an 
 empty shell, that General began to realize that 
 his purpose of founding a Federal base of sup- 
 plies and action on the seaboard at Savannah was 
 a safe and practical one, he at once prepared to 
 set forth on his now historic "inarch to the sea," 
 having previously gained General Grant's con- 
 Bent to the undertaking of the project. Divest-
 
 OPERATIONS IN THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 241 
 
 ing himself, in the middle of November (1864), of 
 all military impediments, and disencumbering 
 his command of all sick, disabled, and weak men, 
 as well as of all hangers-on and stragglers, Sher- 
 man set forth on his expedition with an army of 
 60,000 efficient and intelligent men, his objective 
 point being the port of Savannah, Georgia. At 
 the outset, the gallant leader had not intimated 
 to his army the object of their march, the General 
 Orders simply and curtly stating to his command 
 that "it is sufficient for you to know that it in- 
 volves a departure from our present base (Atlanta,) 
 and a long, difficult march to a new one." As the 
 army was expected to live on the country they were 
 to pass through, the force was to be burdened by no 
 supply-train, each brigade furnishing its own com- 
 pany to procure forage and supplies for the gen- 
 eral need. The men were cautioned against en- 
 tering private dwellings or committing trespass ; 
 while no property was to be destroyed or people 
 by the way molested, where the troops were not 
 interfered with on the march. The only encum- 
 brances permitted were the necessary ammuni- 
 tion wagons and ambulances, and one wagon 
 for food and fodder for each regiment. The 
 separate columns were to begin their march each 
 day at seven o'clock, after breakfast, and were
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 expected to make fifteen miles progress each day. 
 Only the railroads were to be destroyed by the 
 way, such at least as were used for transporting 
 men and supplies to the various sections of the 
 Southern army in the North. In the march, 
 which occupied twenty-seven days to reach Sav- 
 annah, no serious opposition was encountered, 
 though many attempts were made to harass the 
 command and impede its progress. Supplies 
 along the line of march were abundant, so 
 that the army reached the coast with its men and 
 horses in the best possible condition. Besides 
 General Sherman in the chief command, there 
 were with him, in charge of the two wings of the 
 army, Generals Howard and Slocum, the former 
 commanding the right wing, composed of the 
 15th and 17th corps, and the latter the left wing, 
 consisting of the 14th and 20th corps ; while 
 General Kilpatrick was in command of the 
 cavalry. As the expedition came to Milledge- 
 ville, where the Georgia legislature was then in 
 session, that body passed an Act to levy the pop- 
 ulation of the state en masse; this, however, 
 had no effect on the fear-stricken people of the 
 town, who fled from it, with the governor, state 
 officers, and city magistrates, on the entrance 
 into it of the Union general, his aides, and body-
 
 OPERATIONS IN THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 243 
 
 guard, to take up their night's quarters in the 
 executive mansion. 
 
 With the exception of some brushes with the 
 Georgia State troops on the way, and occa- 
 sional rearguard fights between Kilpatrick's and 
 Wheeler's cavalry commands, no other impeding 
 incidents occurred until the expedition reached 
 the Ogeechee River, which was stormed and 
 speedily taken by Hazen's division, and communi- 
 cation was at once opened with the Union Admi- 
 ral (Dahlgren) and General Foster, in command 
 at Port Royal. By the 17th of December, the 
 force reached the defenses of Savannah, when 
 Sherman summoned the Confederate commander, 
 Gen. Hardee, to surrender. The response was 
 the flight, on the night of the 20th, of the entire 
 Confederate garrison of the city, when the gallant 
 raider and his elated command entered it to en- 
 joy a well-earned rest. Two days later, General 
 Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln at Wash- 
 ington : " I beg to present you, as a Christmas 
 gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns 
 and abundance of ammunition, together with 
 about 25,000 bales of cotton ! " 
 
 Resting at Savannah for over a month, the 
 January rains preventing his moving from the 
 place earlier, Sherman set out on February 1st on
 
 244: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE, 
 
 his northward march with his army. The return 
 march, which was a more arduous one than that 
 of the advance to the coast, owing to the swampy 
 condition of the country after the season's heavy 
 rains, took Sherman designedly by way of the 
 Carolinas, so that he might more effectively 
 menace General Lee's communications with the re- 
 gion. With his columns headed in the direction of 
 Columbia, S.C., Sherman, on the iTth of February, 
 entered that capital of the State without opposition, 
 its small cavalry garrison having abandoned the 
 place on the approach of the Federal troops. Before 
 withdrawing, the Confederates had massed the 
 city's treasure of cotton and set fire to it, the blazing 
 pile, fanned by a prevailing high wind, doing much 
 damage to the city, in spite of the efforts of the 
 Federals to quench the fire and save public prop- 
 erty. When the troops succeeded in suppressing 
 the flames, the onward march was resumed, but 
 not before the city's arsenals and railway plant 
 were, by Sherman's orders, destroyed, though all 
 "harmless private property "was respected and 
 saved from destruction. The menace of Sher- 
 man's presence in the State had its effect at this 
 period upon the seaport of Charleston, and led 
 to its evacuation by the Confederates, after a
 
 OPERATIONS IN THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 245 
 
 lengthened siege and heavy bombardment by the 
 Federals. 
 
 For a time after the march north-eastward was 
 resumed, no opposition was met with, for Beau- 
 regard's cavalry command, then in the State, had 
 withdrawn to Charlotte, N. C. ; while the new 
 force, under J. E. Johnston (who had been reap- 
 pointed to command in the region), had not yet 
 been reached. Sherman's course now lay in the 
 direction of Fayetteville, whence it was his design 
 to make for the important railroad center of Golds- 
 boro, N. C., due north from Wilmington. At 
 Fayetteville, his force was joined by 10,000 men 
 of Thomas's army under Schofield, who had just 
 taken Wilmington, following up Terry's capture 
 of Fort Fisher (Jan. 13, 1865), which cost the 
 South a loss of 2,500 men in the attack on and 
 storming of the citadel. On the way to Golds- 
 boro, the Federal raiding columns had some 
 sharp fighting with Hardee's division of Confed- 
 erate cavalry, which attempted to check Sher- 
 man's advance, aided by a force of 10,000 infan- 
 try ; while Johnston's army (now about 40,000 
 strong), was within comparative reach in the 
 vicinity of Bentonsville. 
 
 On the loth of March, Hardee gave Sherman 
 battle at Averysboro, N. C., on Cape Fear river,
 
 246 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 forty miles south of Raleigh. Here Hardee had 
 entrenched his command, to oppose Sherman and 
 to allow Johnston time to concentrate his forces, 
 which he was then doing at Smithfield, so as to 
 make an obstinate stand against the advancing 
 column of Federal raiders. The affair at Averys- 
 boro lasted all day, and was a sanguinary one 
 (Sherman losing 600 in killed and wounded) ; and 
 at nightfall the Confederates withdrew behind 
 their interior lines of defense. In the morning, 
 the Federals found that the enemy had silently 
 retired from the place, and had fallen back to 
 Smithfield, all save a few men, who became Sher- 
 man's prisoners. The expedition then pursued 
 its way towards Goldsboro : but at Bentonville, 
 within seventeen miles from that center, the left 
 wing of the army, under General Slocum, en- 
 countered Johnston's command on the morning 
 of the 19th, Johnston here being tempted to attack 
 a portion of the advance expeditionary force before 
 the bulk of it reached the spot. Slocum, taken by 
 surprise, at first fell back ; but, rallying, he made 
 a stout stand and sheltered his force behind hastily 
 thrown up rifle-pits, Kilpatrick's cavalry enabling 
 him effectively to do so. As Johnston failed to dis- 
 lodge the Federals from their defensive line, and, 
 fearing the approach of Sherman's other columns,
 
 OPERATIONS IN THE WINTER OF 1864-5. 247 
 
 he, too, began to fortify his position, mean time mak- 
 ing several forceful attacks upon the foe. On the 
 morning of the 21st, Sherman's right wing came 
 upon the scene, and the day was spent in pressing 
 Johnston hard on three sides of his position and 
 close up to his works. As the day's fighting had 
 cost him heavy losses, Johnston deemed it more 
 tactical to retreat from the place, which he 
 did over night, withdrawing to Smithfield and 
 Raleigh. The Confederate losses at Bentonsville 
 were heavy, amounting to close upon 2,000 in 
 killed and wounded, besides 670 taken prisoners. 
 The Federal loss was upward of 1,650, in killed, 
 wounded, and missing. Early on the 22nd inst., 
 Sherman's columns moved on to Goldsboro, whith- 
 er Schofield's command had preceded them from 
 Fayetteville, and after that general had occupied 
 Wilmington (Feb. 22), and fought the battle of 
 Kinston, N. C. (March 8-10). Here, at Goldsboro, 
 practically ended Sherman's great march, though 
 we find him later (April 13) at Raleigh, and to- 
 wards the end of that month, after Lee's surrender 
 at Appomattox, it was Sherman who received the 
 surrender of General J. E. Johnston's army, on 
 the terms accorded to Lee by General Grant. A 
 month later, Sherman reached Washington, 
 where he was received with great tclat, and where,
 
 248 L!F E OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 after a grand review of his army, the latter was 
 disbanded ; while he himself was given command 
 of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and 
 subsequently that of Missouri, with the rank of 
 lieutenant-general.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE CLOSE OP THE LONG STRUGGLE. 
 
 THE South at this juncture of affairs was now 
 in extremis ; her chief seaports, as we have seen, 
 were either captured or closely blockaded, and 
 her cotton, the chief commodity of exchange with 
 Europe, could get no outlet ; while her financial 
 credit was gone, Confederate paper money at the 
 period being so valueless that it took $500 to pur- 
 chase a pair of army boots. Nor was the situation 
 in Virginia any less hopeless, for Lee could get no 
 substantial addition to his now dwindled com- 
 mand, or food or pay for his men ; while after 
 Johnston's defeat at Bentonville, Sherman was 
 in the main free to menace Lee's army from the 
 South. Emancipation for the slave, moreover, 
 had so altered the condition of labor in the South 
 that this became extremely irksome to the planter ; 
 while the recruiting of the negro, and his enrol- 
 ment in Northern regiments, added to the despond- 
 ency, and even despair, now manifesting itself 
 throughout the Confederacy. The sole reliance 
 
 249 '
 
 250 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 at this crisis was still in General Lee and his 
 veterans on the James, and what he was able to 
 do little as it could possibly be he, we may be 
 certain, would surely accomplish. Certain it is, 
 that our hero was the one public man whom 
 the South unqualifiedly believed in and trusted ; 
 whose abilities, of a rare and uncommon order, 
 everywhere elicited the highest commendation ; 
 whose integrity was unimpeachable ; and who, 
 moreover, despite the pall of darkness that now 
 hung over the country continued ever hopeful 
 and buoyant, as well as devotedly loyal, and 
 sincerely desirous of helping to a favorable issue 
 the cause which every leal Southerner had in his 
 inmost heart. 
 
 How earnestly Lee strove at this time to dispel 
 despondency and check desertions from the ranks, 
 as well as to give tone to public sentiment favor- 
 able to the Southern cause, may be seen from the 
 appended letter which the General, towards the 
 close of February (1865), addressed to Governor 
 Vance of North Carolina. The period is that 
 when Sherman was conducting his spirited raid 
 through the Carolinas, and this was evidently in 
 Lee's mind when he wrote, as perhaps the chief 
 inciting cause of the prevailing despondency. 
 Here is the letter :
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 251 
 
 "The state of despondency that now prevails 
 among our people is producing a bad effect upon 
 the troops. Desertions are becoming very fre- 
 quent, and there is good reason to believe that 
 they are occasioned, to a considerable extent, by 
 letters written to the soldiers by their friends at 
 home. . . I think some good can be accomplished 
 by the efforts of influential citizens to change 
 public sentiment, and cheer the hearts of the 
 people. It has been discovered that despondent 
 persons represent to their friends in the army 
 that our cause is hopeless, and that they had 
 better provide for themselves. They state that 
 the number of deserters is so large in the several 
 counties that there is no danger to be appre- 
 hended from the home-guard. The deserters 
 generally take their arms with them : the greater 
 number are from regiments from the western 
 part of the State. So far as the despondency of 
 the people occasions this sad condition of affairs, 
 I know of no other means of removing it than by 
 the counsel and exhortation of prominent citizens. 
 If they would explain to the people that the cause 
 is not hopeless, that the situation of affairs, though 
 critical, is so to the enemy as well as ourselves, 
 that he has drawn his troops from every other 
 quarter to accomplish his designs against Rich-
 
 252 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 mond, and that his defeat now would result in 
 leaving nearly our whole territory open to us ; 
 that this great result can be accomplished if all 
 will work diligently, and that his successes are far 
 less valuable in fact than in appearance, I think 
 our sorely tried people would be induced to make 
 one more effort to bear their sufferings a little 
 longer, and regain some of the spirit that marked 
 the first two years of the war." , 
 
 Alas ! this hopeful, inspiriting, and eminently 
 patriotic letter was a fruitless one, as the South- 
 ern cause was now fast becoming "a lost cause," 
 which the events of the following four or five 
 weeks were emphatically to prove. Yet, mani- 
 festly, it might have been otherwise, had all in 
 the Confederacy been as earnest and strenuous 
 in the purpose to make it a successful, rather 
 than a lost, cause, as was Kobert E. Lee ; and 
 had the Fates been less adverse in environing 
 him and his veterans on the James, as they were 
 environed, not only by the numerically superior 
 forces of Grant, but by the returning to the 
 latter's command of Sheridan and his most efficient 
 cavalry force, and by the approaching from the 
 south of Sherman's army, flush with victory, and 
 strong in the success that had attended his 
 march through the heart of the Confederacy.
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 353 
 
 In spite of the menacing aspect of affairs, Lee, 
 nevertheless, was full of the hope of yet bright- 
 ening the situation for his section of the country, 
 by, if possible, effecting a union with General 
 J.E. Johnston's command in North Carolina, and 
 there falling upon Sherman and his army on 
 their way North thus abandoning Petersburg 
 and Richmond, while the Confederate Govern- 
 ment, as Lee desired, was to remove from the 
 Virginia capital to Danville, on the southern 
 frontier of the State, and there reestablish itself 
 and the Confederate Administration. To the 
 achieving of the purpose which lay deep in the 
 heart and mind of the heroic leader, Heaven, we 
 shall presently see, was not propitious ; though 
 what was possible for Lee to do, in at least stav- 
 ing off for a while the end, which was soon now 
 to come, he bravely and untiringly sought to 
 accomplish. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lee's great adversary, Grant, was 
 alert in his attitude towards the critical South- 
 ern situation one which, he tells us in his 
 * l Personal Memoirs," was the most anxious 
 period of his experience during the Rebellion 
 as he saw that it would result in Lee's retire- 
 ment from Petersburg, and the abandonment 
 of Richmond, both of which he properly under-
 
 254 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 took to prevent, or tactically to checkmate. 
 With the approach of Spring (1865), and the 
 drying up of the roads along the thirty odd miles 
 of the offensive and defensive lines about Peters- 
 burg, each of the respective generals in chief com- 
 mand was preparing for decisive action, an account 
 of which it now becomes our duty to relate. 
 
 On the Southern side, the month of March, 
 which had by this time come, brought matters 
 to a crisis in evolving plans for the evacuation 
 of Petersburg and its defenses by Lee, and the 
 withdrawal of the remains of his army (now only 
 about 30,000 in number) to the mountain regions 
 of the South. Here, as we have already men- 
 tioned, he hoped to effect a junction with Johns- 
 ton, and thus put himself in a better position to 
 cope with Grant and the converging columns 
 under Sherman, whose combined strength, at 
 this time, would be more than 230,000 effective 
 men. Before setting out from Petersburg, Lee, 
 however, projected an assault on Grant's center 
 line, at a vulnerable position on the south side 
 of the Appomattox, protected by the Federal Fort 
 Stedman. The assault was made by the Second 
 Confederate corps, under General Gordon, 
 supported, or intended to be supported, by a 
 part of Longstreet's division and other contin-
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 255 
 
 gents of the "rebel" army. The attack began 
 at dawn on the 25th of March, and when 
 Gordon's storming party issued forth it rapidly 
 crossed the Federal entrenchments and captured 
 the Fort. Here, however, it was exposed to a 
 heavy Federal fire from the forts on either side 
 of it, which the attacking force was unable to 
 silence ; nor was it able to take them, owing to 
 the tardy coming up of the supports, which were 
 designed not only to reenforce the storming party, 
 but to move on and take a strong position held 
 by the enemy on the heights in rear of Fort Sted- 
 rnan. The tardiness in the arrival of the sup- 
 ports proved fatal to the whole movement, as 
 advantage was instantly taken of the pause that 
 ensued upon the seizure of and flight of the 
 Federals from the Fort to pour a deadly fire from 
 the ridge-crest in rear upon Gordon's assaulting 
 column. Demoralization in the latter was the 
 result, followed by a stampede of all the Con- 
 federates in the Fort and its immediate vicinity ; 
 while the Federals, having now recovered from 
 their surprise at the unexpected seizure and 
 occupation of the Fort, came back in force and 
 retook the citadel, capturing about 2,000 of the 
 assaulting columns. Besides the captured, the 
 Confederates lost in the attack nearly 1,000 iu
 
 256 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 killed and wounded ; while the Federal loss all 
 told, was close upon 2,000. A further Con- 
 federate loss, before the day's operations were 
 over, was a portion of Lee's defense line nearest 
 to the enemy. This, in the confusion that 
 followed the repulse from Fort Stedman, had 
 been snatched from the " rebel " pickets, though 
 only after a stubborn resistance. The counter- 
 attack and advance of the Federal lines was 
 done at the bidding, and with the oversight, of 
 General Meade. 
 
 Anticipating that the Confederates, after the 
 failure of the assault on Fort Stedman, would 
 abandon their lines at Petersburg and retire 
 from the place, Grant took the precaution to 
 instruct his several cavalry commands to care- 
 fully guard all roads by which Lee might seek to 
 withdraw his army ; while he was himself in- 
 creasingly watchful of every movement, or sign 
 of movement, along the enemy's far-extended 
 lines. Beyond this, Grant had formed designs 
 against the Confederate right, and that by a 
 massed movement to his own left in great force. 
 In this he was aided by Sheridan, with his cavalry 
 division, after that skilled raider's destroying 
 march through Central Virginia, and who, with 
 his command, had returned to duty at Petersburg,
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 257 
 
 or rather, near by, at Dinwiddie Court-House. 
 The Federal assault was arranged for the 29th 
 of March, when General Ord (Butler's successor), 
 who had previously been sent out, with three 
 divisions of infantry and McKenzie's cavalry, to 
 the extreme left of Grant's line, was to cooperate 
 with Generals Warren and Humphreys, with the 
 Second and Fifth Union corps, in an advance, by 
 way of Hatcher's Run, upon Five Forks. Here 
 they were instructed to seize the South Side rail- 
 road, over which Lee received his army's meager 
 supplies, and also fall upon the Danville railroad. 
 At Five Forks, Sheridan was simultaneously to 
 arrive and there take part in falling upon the 
 Confederate right. 
 
 While these designs were being carried out 
 against Lee's right flank, General Wright's 
 corps was to make a concerted assault upon the 
 weakened Confederate center. Much of the entire 
 movement was, however, delayed for several days 
 by heavy rains and the consequently bad state of 
 the roads, over which it was found extremely dif- 
 ficult to move the Federal artillery ; it was also 
 harassed by constant conflicts with the watchful 
 Confederate cavalry. Especially did Sheridan 
 suffer from the latter, as well as from the attacks 
 of the "rebel" unmounted men, by whom, in
 
 258 L 11 ^ OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 fact, he was driven from Five Forks back to Din- 
 widdie, where he called upon Grant to send him 
 assistance. The Federal leader met his request 
 by despatching Warren and his command to him, 
 but the latter was so dilatory in his movements 
 that he was relieved of his command of the Fifth 
 corps, and its control was given to Griffin. With 
 Griffin's assistance, Sheridan now renewed his 
 assault upon the Confederates, chiefly under 
 Pickett and Bushrod Johnson, at Five Forks, 
 where, on April 1st, Pickett was outflanked and 
 beaten by Sheridan. The situation was now a 
 forlorn one for Lee, who, nevertheless, stoutly 
 braced himself to cope with the difficulties of the 
 position, as well as to enhearten his troops, already 
 wearied with the burden of guarding a defense 
 line thirty miles in length, and that, for the most 
 part, on ill-filled stomachs and amid every discom- 
 fort from the raw, wet weather. 
 
 When the assault on the Confederate center (in 
 front of Petersburg) was developed, the position 
 of things became desperate, for that portion of 
 Lee's attenuated line had been greatly weakened 
 to protect his menaced right flank, which, by this 
 time, " had been torn from its position and hurled 
 back." An all-night bombardment of the South- 
 ern entrenchments and the city of Petersburg
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 259 
 
 found the Confederates, on the morning of April 
 2nd, in little condition further to hold its posi- 
 tion, far less to meet, with accustomed " rebel " 
 bravery and vigor, the general assault which was 
 now about to be made. Nevertheless, as is stated 
 in an authority (that of J. D. McCabe, in his 
 " Life and campaigns of Robert E. Lee "), " Gen- 
 eral Lee was resolved to make one more effort to 
 save the city." 
 
 From the source just named, we extract an 
 interesting account of the battle that ensued. 
 "Sunday, the 2nd of April, dawned bright and 
 clear. With the first light of morning the Fed- 
 eral columns of attack advanced upon the South- 
 ern works, and the engagement quickly spread 
 along the whole line from the Appomattox to 
 Hatcher's Run. The left of the Southern posi- 
 tion rested on the Appomattox, and was held by 
 General Gordon's corps. This weak force was at- 
 tacked by the 9th Federal corps, under General 
 Parke, and after a brief but gallant struggle the 
 Confederates gave way, and the enemy carried 
 the outer line. Gordon's troops fell back to an 
 inner cordon of works just on the city limits, 
 where they were quickly in line again. The 9th 
 corps, pressing on, attempted to carry these works 
 also, but was repulsed in all its efforts.
 
 260 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 "To the right of Gordon, A. P. Hill's com- 
 mand was in position, and against this part of the 
 Southern line the 6th Federal corps was thrown 
 in an impetuous charge. Hill's left was the 
 weakest part of the whole position, as the in- 
 fantry for its defense (McGowan's brigade) had 
 been withdrawn on the previous day, and the 
 works were held only by the artillerists, with a 
 slim picket line in front. The 6th corps drove in 
 the pickets, and, sweeping forward, captured the 
 works, the batteries, and artillerymen. 
 
 "The movements of the 9th and 6th corps were 
 simultaneous, and the success of the latter threat- 
 ened the Confederate army with the most serious 
 disaster. Wright's corps had completely broken 
 the left of Hill's line, and threatened to push right 
 through to the river, and cut the Southern force 
 in two. The danger was increased by the attack 
 of the corps, which, as soon as the 6th had carried 
 Hill's works, stormed the redoubts on Hatcher's 
 Eun, and drove the small force of Confederates 
 holding them beyond Sutherland's Station, on 
 the South Side railroad. Then, uniting with 
 the 6th and 24th corps, it completed the Federal 
 line, which, swinging round, steadily closed in 
 upon Petersburg. 
 
 " Fortunately, there were just in rear of the
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 261 
 
 redoubts captured by the 6th corps two strong 
 enclosed works, covering the ground over which 
 the enemy must advance to reach the river. 
 These works were held by only a handful of men. 
 Fort Alexander was nearer the enemy, and was 
 garrisoned by a less devoted force than the other. 
 As soon as the Federals had re-formed their line, 
 they made a heavy charge forward, and carried 
 the works with a rush, not, however, without a 
 spirited struggle on the part of the defenders. 
 
 " There remained now only the other work 
 Fort Gregg and this it was necessary to hold to 
 the last extremity, in order that General Lee 
 might have time to occupy his new position 
 around the city. If the fort fell before that was 
 accomplished, the army was lost. The garrison 
 of Fort Gregg consisted of the 4th Maryland 
 battery, with two 3- inch rifles and thirty men, a 
 body of dismounted artillery drivers Virginians 
 and Louisianians who had been armed with 
 muskets, part of Harris's Mississippi brigade, and 
 some North Carolinians in all 250 men ; the 
 whole being under the command of Captain 
 Chew of the Maryland battery. The critical 
 situation of the army was known to this little 
 band of heroes, and they silently resolved to pur- 
 chase the safety of their comrades with their lives.
 
 202 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 "As soon as Fort Alexander was captured, 
 General Ord advanced Gibbon's division to storm 
 and carry Fort Gregg, and break through to the 
 city. Gibbon's column approached in fine order, 
 and by its strength alone seemed about to envelop 
 the work. Moving on rapidly it neared the fort, 
 the Confederates suffering it to come within 
 less than fifty yards. Then, by a well-directed 
 volley, they sent the enemy reeling back across 
 the ground they had passed over. The whole 
 affair could be directly seen by both armies, and 
 the repulse of the Federals was greeted by loud 
 cheers from the Confederates in the inner line. 
 Still no aid could be sent to the brave garrison, 
 whose only hope was to die in the presence of 
 the comrades they were trying to save. Both 
 armies ceased firing at other points and every eye 
 was fixed on the fight at Fort Gregg. 
 
 "Rallying his forces, Gibbon made another 
 desperate attempt to carry the fort, but was 
 again repulsed. A third charge met with the 
 same fate, and for a while there sprang up in the 
 hearts of the gazers at the city a wild hope that 
 the fort would be held in spite of the heavy odds 
 against it. Vain hope ! At seven o'clock the 
 Federals made a last charge, and this time suc- 
 ceeded in reaching the ditch. Many clambered to
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 263 
 
 the top of the works, but were beaten back by the 
 clubbed muskets of the defenders, while the guns 
 were fired rapidly through the embrasures. The 
 pressure in front was too strong to be resisted, 
 and the enemy swarmed into the works, crushing 
 the garrison by their weight. The fort was taken, 
 but the heroic defenders had reason to be proud of 
 its defense. Out of the 250 men present when the 
 action began, but 30 survived. There were none 
 missing ; the dead and wounded made up the dire 
 list. They had inflicted a loss of between 500 and 
 600 men upon their captors, or two Federals for 
 each one of the 250 Confederates. Nor was the 
 sacrifice vain. Fort Gregg was taken at a little 
 after seven in the morning, and the two hours 
 gained by its defense enabled General Lee to 
 bring up his troops and occupy his last line around 
 Petersburg. 
 
 " The enemy did not resume their advance im- 
 mediately, but spent the next two hours in oc- 
 cupying the entire country towards the Appo- 
 mattox, throwing their cavalry out on their left 
 to the South Side railroad and the river above 
 the city. 
 
 "Towards ten o'clock, General Lee received a 
 small reinforcement. Early on the morning of the 
 2nd, General Longstreet had discovered the weak-
 
 264. LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 ness of the Federals in his front, and had marched 
 promptly with Benning's brigade of Field's divi- 
 sion, less than 300 strong. He reached the battle- 
 field just as the enemy a few minutes before ten 
 o'clock moved forward again to force an entrance 
 to the city. Longstreet instantly brought Ben- 
 ning's brigade into action, and by his bold and 
 skillful handling of it checked the enemy's ad- 
 vance until General Lee could hurry troops 
 to its assistance, when the line was occupied and 
 firmly held. 
 
 " The Confederates now occupied a short, but 
 very strong line, extending immediately around 
 Petersburg, with the right flank resting on the 
 river above, and the left on the same stream be- 
 low the city. Against this line the enemy now 
 made repeated assaults, but they were met and 
 repulsed at every point. Not only were the Fed- 
 erals everywhere thrown back in their efforts to 
 advance, but Heth's division, under the immediate 
 direction of General A. P. Hill, was ordered to 
 recover some commanding ground held by the 
 9th Federal corps on the Southern left, near the 
 river. Hill made his attack with great spirit, and 
 pressed the 9th corps so hard with his little com- 
 mand, that the Federals were forced to bring up 
 the garrison of the works at City Point to aid
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE LONG STRUGGLE. 265 
 
 them ill maintaining their ground. The enemy 
 held their position, and the Southern troops were 
 Withdrawn. Among the killed was Lieut. -General 
 A. P. Hill. He had passed with high honor 
 through the whole war up to this period, with but 
 a slight wound, and fell now a victim to the 
 chivalrous daring for which he was always dis- 
 tinguished. 
 
 " Thus the day closed, with the Confederates in 
 possession of Petersburg. But it was far from 
 General Lee's intention to attempt to hold the 
 city longer. Such a course would involve the 
 capture or destruction of his army, and all that 
 remained to him now was to abandon both Eich- 
 mond and Petersburg, and endeavor to join John- 
 ston near Danville. It was no longer possible to re- 
 treat by the south bank of the Appomattox, for all 
 the roads were in possession of the enemy, and 
 now the march must be made by the longer 
 route north of the river."
 
 THE RETIREMENT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICH- 
 MOND. 
 
 BY this time, when the outer works of Peters- 
 burg were in possession of the Federal forces, and 
 Grant was preparing for the morrow's work of 
 continuing the assault on the city, Lee had com- 
 municated the condition of affairs, and his inten- 
 tion to retire from his lines, to President Davis at 
 Richmond, suggesting that the capital should be 
 immediately evacuated and the seat of Govern- 
 ment transferred to Danville. Though it would 
 have been fatuous, after the abandonment of 
 Petersburg, to maintain Confederate control and 
 authority at Kichmond, the announcement of 
 withdrawal from it came as a crushing blow to 
 its citizens, since it meant abandoning the city to 
 Northern occupation, and possible destruction or 
 pillage. What it immediately meant, they soon 
 saw with their own eyes, viz., the blowing up of 
 the city's great warehouses, full of cotton and 
 
 tobacco, to prevent them becoming the spoil of 
 
 263
 
 RETREAT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND. 267 
 
 the enemy ; besides the destruction of the Con- 
 federate iron-clads on the James River and other 
 Government property and stores within the city's 
 precincts ; the withdrawal of General Ewell's de- 
 fensive command of 4,000 troops, and the certain 
 moving in of the Federal general, Weitzel, and 
 his besieging cohorts, as soon as Ewell and the 
 Administration moved out. The crisis ere long 
 came, with the conflagration of the tobacco ware- 
 houses, which, unhappily, extended to many 
 valuable portions of Eichmond, and the abandon- 
 ing of the city to loot by the worthless scum of 
 the population. " Thus fell the capital of the 
 Confederacy," observes the historian from whom 
 we have already quoted, " that for four years had 
 withstood all the efforts of the enemy. It went 
 down in a sea of suffering and sorrow such as 
 it had never known before." It remains only to 
 add, that Richmond, on the morning of the 3rd 
 (April, 1865), was surrendered by its mayor to the 
 Federal commander, General Weitzel, who took 
 immediate possession, and humanely ordered his 
 troops to arrest the conflagration and restore 
 order, while he sought to relieve distress among 
 the more necessitous of the citizens. 
 
 At Petersburg, when Grant became aware of 
 Lee's retreat from the place and the route he had
 
 268 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 chosen to take in withdrawing in the direction of 
 Amelia Court House, he pushed forward the 
 mass of his army (about 75,000) in pursuit. The 
 pursuing force, headed by Sheridan's cavalry, and 
 followed by the Union infantry and artillery, was 
 directed to march with all speed to the line of the 
 Richmond and Danville R. R., north of Burkes- 
 ville, there, if possible, to intercept Lee and his 
 fugitive army. Already, other points of possible 
 escape had been closed to Lee, and this he, of 
 course, knew ; but he thought that, by rapid 
 marching, he could reach Amelia Court House, 
 and from there strike south to Danville, and, if 
 practicable, effect his long-planned junction with 
 General J. E. Johnston. One object, and an im- 
 perative one, that now took him to Amelia Court 
 House, was to procure food for his half-famished 
 men, for they had eaten nothing since the retreat 
 began, save some handf uls of parched corn. Here 
 the thoughtful leader had instructed the Confed- 
 erate commissary-general to forward a provision- 
 train, for the exigencies of the calculated day of 
 arrival ; but, to the indignation of General Lee 
 and the dismay of the troops, it was found that 
 the train with the supplies had gone on to Rich- 
 mond, without stopping to unload the provisions 
 at the Court House, so that it might assist in
 
 RETREAT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND. 269 
 
 removing the Government property from the old 
 to the new, temporary capital at Danville. The 
 mishap was a terrible, as it was an irremediable, 
 one, for little local food could be had ; and such 
 as could be gathered over a wide area occasioned 
 an enforced delay, which proved, in part, fatal to 
 the retreating Confederates. 
 
 But, to return for a brief moment to events at 
 Petersburg, let us relate that, on the morning of 
 the 3rd of April, when Grant had been apprised 
 of the Confederate abandonment of the place and 
 had set his army in motion to pursue them, he 
 ordered General Humphreys, with the Second 
 Union corps and a pontoon train, and General Ord, 
 with the Sixth and Ninth corps, to renew the 
 attack on the city. At this juncture, the Federal 
 skirmishers reported that the Confederate lines 
 were deserted, and a column being sent forward, 
 and meeting with no opposition, it advanced to 
 Petersburg and took possession of it. Leaving a 
 garrison in occupancy, Grant now turned to join 
 his army in its pursuit of Lee, who, as we have 
 seen, had reached Amelia Court House, though 
 with his forces considerably scattered in search 
 of food and forage. Just before this, the re- 
 treating Confederates had been joined by the 
 division of General Mahone and the troops that
 
 270 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 had held the line south of the James, in front of 
 Bermuda Hundreds, as well as by Swell's com- 
 mand, that had been withdrawn from the lines 
 about Eichmond. The addition of these, with 
 their several baggage transports and artillery, 
 increased the unwieldiness of the mass in retreat, 
 as well as made it more difficult to provide for the 
 men and horses that had to be fed and cared for 
 on the way. Nor was this all that Lee at this 
 juncture had to contend with, for by this time 
 (the evening of the 5th of April), when the march 
 from Amelia Court House was resumed, the en- 
 emy's cavalry hung closely about his wearied 
 columns and had to be constantly fought off ; 
 while many of the impeding wagons had to be 
 burned en route, and many heavy guns buried, 
 which could not be borne along, so exhausted were 
 the horses and mules attached to them. As a 
 narrator (Francis Lawley) of the harrowing inci- 
 dent of the retreat describes : 
 
 "It is easy to see that the locomotion of an 
 army in such a plight must have been slow and 
 slower. The retreat was conducted in the follow- 
 ing fashion : About midnight the Confederates 
 slipped out of their hasty works, which they had 
 thrown up and held during the previous day, and 
 fell back until ten or eleven o'clock the next
 
 RETREAT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND. 271 
 
 morning. Then they halted, and immediately 
 threw up earthworks for their protection during 
 the day. It was not long before the wolves were 
 again on their heels, and from their earthworks 
 the Confederates exchanged a heavy fire with 
 their pursuers throughout the day. Delayed by 
 the necessity of guarding a train from thirty-five 
 to forty miles in length, enfeebled by hunger 
 and sleeplessness, the retreating army was able to 
 make only ten miles each night. This delay en- 
 abled the active Sheridan to get ahead with his 
 cavalry, and to destroy the provisions along the 
 railroad between Burkesville and Danville. Up- 
 on the 5th, many of the mules and horses ceased 
 to struggle, when it became necessary to burn 
 hundreds of wagons. Towards evening of the 
 5th, and all day long upon the 6th, hundreds of 
 men dropped from exhaustion, and thousands let 
 fall their muskets from inability to carry them any 
 farther. The scenes of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 
 were of a nature which can be apprehended in its 
 vivid reality only by men who are thoroughly fa- 
 miliar with the harrowing details of war. Behind, 
 and on either flank, were ubiquitous and increas- 
 ingly adventurous troops every mud-hole and 
 rise in the road choked with blazing wagons 
 the air filled with the deafening reports of am-
 
 272 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 munition exploding, and shells bursting when 
 touched by the flames dense columns of smoke 
 /'ascending to heaven from the burning and explod- 
 ing vehicles exhausted men, worn-out mules and 
 horses, lying down side by side gaunt famine 
 glaring hopelessly from sunken, lack-luster eyes 
 dead men, dead horses, dead mules, everywhere 
 death, many times welcomed as God's blessing in 
 disguise, who can wonder if many hearts, tried 
 in the fiery furnace of four years' unparalleled 
 suffering, and never hitherto found wanting, 
 should have quailed in presence of starvation 
 fatigue, sleeplessness, misery unintermitted for 
 five or six days, and culminating in hopeless- 
 ness ? " 
 
 This narrative of the retreat of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia is a painfully realistic, but not 
 overdrawn, one ; and, in proof of that, we need 
 but mention the fact of the dwindling numbers 
 of Lee's forces, as well as the perils by the way, 
 in its withdrawal from the late scenes of its opera- 
 tions. On the morning of the 6th, Meade having 
 joined Sheridan at Jetersville, they together 
 moved upon Amelia Court House, with the pur- 
 pose of giving Lee battle. The latter, however, 
 having been brought news of the enemy's design, 
 branched off toward Farmville, by way of Dea-
 
 RETREAT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND. 273 
 
 tonsville, and for the time gave them the slip. 
 When this happened, Grant instructed General 
 Ord to take the direct road to Farmville, and there 
 block Lee's onward path ; while Sheridan swiftly 
 pursued the Confederate columns on the road they 
 had taken, and came upon them at Sailor's Creek, 
 a minor tributary of the Appomattox. On the 
 way after the fugitives, the Federal general made 
 repeated onslaughts upon their columns, but was 
 constantly beaten off. Presently, however, he 
 found a weak spot in the retreating line, in 
 Pickett's command, which was guarding a por- 
 tion of Lee's long train ; and on this Sheridan fell 
 with three of his divisions, and captured a number 
 of the Confederates, besides taking from them 
 sixteen pieces of artillery and destroying 400 
 wagons. 
 
 In his dire extremity, and to enable him to 
 save the remainder of the column attacked, 
 Pickett summoned General Ewell to his assist- 
 ance, who at once came upon the scene with re- 
 enforcements to the number of 4, 200 men. While 
 Ewell was coming up, it was unfortunately found 
 that the rearguard, consisting of General Gordon's 
 corps, had branched off another road, so as to 
 evade trouble from Sheridan's attacks ; and this 
 escape of Gordon lessened the chances of the com-
 
 274 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 bined forces of Pickett and Ewell withstanding 
 Sheridan successfully. It was also found that, 
 while Ewell was preparing for what he saw must 
 be a stiff fight, the enemy had occupied the high 
 ground about him and cut him off from the re- 
 mainder of the retreating columns. The situa- 
 tion of the command was, hence, a desperate one, 
 but, despite the fact, Ewell resolved to give 
 battle, and sell his own and his men's lives dearly. 
 Meanwhile, heavy reinforcements came forward 
 for Sheridan, and in the conflict that ensued 
 Pickett's division was worsted and put to flight, 
 leaving Ewell and his veterans to cope alone with 
 the enemy. This they gallantly did, and for a 
 time so successfully, that the 6th Unionist corps 
 was driven back before the sharp Confederate fire. 
 The broken Federal line was presently, however, 
 rallied and re-formed, when it renewed the attack, 
 and now with such effect that Ewell's men were 
 surrounded by overpowering numbers and com- 
 pelled to throw down their arms and surrender. 
 When this disaster overtook Ewell, he had himself 
 no other recourse than to submit to be made a 
 prisoner with his command ; while three other 
 general officers, including Custis Lee, at the same 
 time fell into the hands of the enemy. 
 With the dispersion of Pickett's division, and
 
 RETREAT FROM PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND. 275 
 
 the capture or breaking up also of the commands 
 under Anderson and Bushrod Johnson, Lee'p 
 army, when it reached Farmville, was reduced tc 
 10,000 men, less than a fifth of the strength of 
 the pursuing Federals. At Farmville, the little 
 band, however, was enabled to get food ; and, 
 when it had driven off General Ord's command, 
 here engaged in destroying the bridges, it passed 
 on a few miles, and on the night of the 6th of 
 April crossed the Appomattox at High Bridge, 
 where it bivouacked ; while Lee summoned Long- 
 street, Gordon, Pendleton, and other of his chief 
 officers to a camp-fire council to consider the 
 situation.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GRANT'S PEACE-OVERTURES TO LEE, AND TELE SUR- 
 RENDER AT APPOMATTOX. 
 
 THE end of strife, obviously now, drew very 
 near ; and Lee, though he did not shirk further 
 fighting, in the cause he had so long, earnestly, 
 and bravely borne a conspicuous part, naturally 
 wished now to steal off from his environing foes 
 and reach Appomattox Court House. There he 
 expected to obtain supplies to enable him to push 
 on with his little shrunken but faithful band to 
 the Staunton River, and at that point "maintain 
 himself behind the stream until a junction could 
 be made with Johnston." On the afternoon of 
 April 8, he, however, learned that the supplies at 
 the Court House had been captured, and that 
 the enemy were in strong force about the place. 
 This was disconcerting news to Lee ; but it did 
 not cause him to hesitate in his course, which was 
 to divest himself of all impedimenta and cut his 
 way through the Federal lines, and so escape 
 
 276
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 277 
 
 from the entanglement he and his loyal followers 
 found themselves in. 
 
 The idea of surrender, which had been favored 
 at the camp-fire council with his general officers, 
 was naturally repugnant to Lee ; and, while a 
 chance of escape remained, equally opposed was 
 he to the notion of disbandment, which would 
 expose his men to almost certain capture, as well 
 as disappointment and misery in their search for 
 food. The responsibility of continuing actively 
 in the field was, of course, acutely felt by the 
 gallant leader ; and he keenly sympathized with 
 the discomforts and sufferings of his troops, 
 though he would not, as yet, bring himself to 
 resort to or justify surrender, with honor. To 
 accept the latter, when it was proposed by his 
 corps-commanders in council, instantly aroused 
 the martial spirit of the heroic general, and 
 elicited the retort : "Surrender! I have too many 
 good fighting men for that." At this crisis, his 
 anxieties were great, but chiefly for the leal and 
 true men under him, as well as for the women 
 and children of the South, of whose fate, in the 
 emergencies of the time and their issues, he had 
 constant and patriotic thought. Fits of sadness 
 could not fail to come upon him, just then, as we 
 see in his remark, when evidently thinking of
 
 278 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 exposing himself as a soldier to death on the field 
 of battle. " How easily I could get rid of this," 
 he said, "and be at rest: I have only to ride 
 along the line and all will be over. But it is our 
 duty to live ! " 
 
 On the morning of April 7th, the Confederates 
 resumed their march from High Bridge, where 
 we had left them in bivouac, towards Farmville, 
 with the design of reaching Appomattox Court 
 House ; thence, if practicable, to push on to Lynch- 
 burg. On withdrawing from High Bridge, an 
 attempt was made to fire the bridges at the place, 
 so as to impede the enemy's crossing in pursuit. 
 In this, however, the Confederates were, in part, 
 thwarted by the coming up of the Second Federal 
 corps. The latter dashed forward and saved the 
 bridges from entire destruction, while at the same 
 time it fell upon the " rebel " rearguard and the 
 remains of its wagon train, which were speedily 
 taken ; though General Gordon here turned upon 
 the enemy and drove them off, capturing about 
 200 prisoners. For the remainder of the day, the 
 retreat was unmolested, save for periodic dashes 
 of the Federal cavalry ; and late in the afternoon 
 brought Lee's wearied command to a strong de- 
 fensive position north of Farmville, covering the 
 main road to Lynchburg. Here a halt was or-
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 279 
 
 dered for a brief rest, and to hold the pursuing 
 enemy in check until night- fall, when the retreat 
 was intended to be resumed. 
 
 While in bivouac here, General Humphrey's 
 command came up to attack the position, but find- 
 ing it too strong to be carried by a direct assault 
 he sought to carry it by an attack on the flanks. 
 This movement enabled Humphreys to discover 
 that he had the whole of Lee's army here en- 
 sconced, and while sending back for reenforce- 
 ments he contented himself by an attempt on the 
 Southern left. In this, however, he was repulsed 
 with a heavy loss. As night had now come on, 
 the forced Federal fighting was discontinued, 
 while the Confederates got ready to continue the 
 retreat. Before setting out, the leader of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia received from Gen- 
 eral Grant the first of his overtures for peace, in 
 a despatch (dated April 7, 1865), which read 
 thus: 
 
 " GENERAL R. E. LEE : 
 
 " The result of the last week must convince you 
 of the hopelessness of further resistance on the 
 part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this 
 struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my 
 duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any
 
 280 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 further effusion of blood by asking of you the sur- 
 render of that portion of the Confederate States 
 army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. 
 U. S. GRANT, Lieut. -General." 
 
 General Lee at once replied to this Federal 
 missive as follows : 
 
 April Y, 1865. 
 " GENERAL : 
 
 " I have your note of this date. Though not 
 entertaining the opinion you express on the hope- 
 lessness of further resistance on the part of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your 
 desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and 
 therefore, before considering your proposition, 
 ask the terms you will offer on condition of its 
 
 surrender. 
 
 " B. E. LEE, General. 
 
 " LIEUT. GENERAL U. S. GRANT." 
 
 When the latter communication reached Grant's 
 hands, the night had been far spent, while the 
 Confederates were well on their way to Appomat- 
 tox Court House, heading for Lynchburg. On 
 the morning of the 8th (April), General Grant at 
 once, however, replied to it, and in the following 
 terms ;
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 281 
 
 April 8, 1865. 
 " GENERAL : 
 
 " Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of 
 the same date, asking the condition on which I 
 will accept the surrender of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say 
 that peace being my great desire, there is but one 
 condition I would insist upon, namely : that the 
 men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified 
 for taking up arms again against the Govern- 
 ment of the United States until properly ex- 
 changed. I will meet you, or will designate offi- 
 cers to meet any officers you may name for the 
 same purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for 
 the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon 
 which the surrender of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia will be received. 
 
 U. S. GRANT, Lieut. -General. 
 
 " GENERAL R. E. LEE." 
 
 To this, General Lee made the following re- 
 sponse : 
 
 April 8, 1865. 
 " GENERAL : 
 
 " I received, at a late hour, your note of to-day. 
 In mine of yesterday, I did not intend to propose 
 the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia,
 
 282 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be 
 frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to 
 call for the surrender of this army ; but, as the 
 restoration of peace should be the sole object of 
 all, I desired to know whether your proposals 
 would lead to that end. I cannot, therefore, 
 meet you with a view to surrender the Army of 
 Northern Virginia ; but, as far as your proposal 
 may affect the Confederate forces under my com- 
 mand, and tend to the restoration of peace, I 
 should be pleased to meet you at ten A.M. to mor- 
 row, on the old stage-road to Eichmond, between 
 the picket lines of the two armies. 
 
 " K. E. LEE, General. 
 
 " LlEUT.-GENERAL U. S. GRANT." 
 
 On the following day, General Grant sent the 
 Confederate leader the subjoined reply : 
 
 APRIL 9, 1865. 
 " GENERAL : 
 
 " Your note of yesterday is received. I have 
 no authority to treat on the subject of peace ; the 
 meeting proposed for 10 A. M. to-day could lead 
 to no good. I will state, however, General, that 
 I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and 
 the whole North entertains the same feeling. The
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 283 
 
 terms upon which peace can be had are well under- 
 stood. By the South laying down their arms 
 they will hasten that most desirable event, save 
 thousands of human lives, and hundreds of mil- 
 lions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously 
 hoping that all our difficulties may be settled 
 without the loss of another life, I subscribe my- 
 self, etc., 
 
 "U. S. GRANT, Lieut. -General. 
 
 11 GENERAL R. E. LEE." 
 
 While this correspondence was passing between 
 the two leaders of the respective armies, the re- 
 treating Confederates had reached Appomattox 
 Court House, within twenty-five miles of Lynch- 
 burg, which they had gained by the evening of 
 April 8. All day, fugitives and pursuers had 
 hardly exchanged shots ; though as the " rebel " 
 vanguard neared a narrow strip of land between 
 the Appomattox and the James rivers, the sound 
 of heavy firing was borne down from the front, 
 and the conclusion was instantly, and correctly, 
 reached that the further advance of the Confed- 
 erate columns was cut off. The firing, as it 
 quickly transpired, came from Sheridan's com- 
 mand, which, after a rapid circuitous march, 
 had reached the vanguard of the retreating force,
 
 284 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 and was then engaged in capturing a train or two 
 of cars, filled with food and supplies for Confede- 
 rate consumption from Lynchburg. With the 
 great raider's cavalry force had also come up 
 General Ord's infantry division, and both barred 
 the further advance of Lee's wearied and now 
 feeble army, and what remained of the Confede- 
 rate wagon transport. 
 
 At this new menace, when there was little will 
 or ability among the men to confront it with 
 vigor, the Confederates must have been appalled ; 
 but not so was their brave leader, who, with 
 characteristic will-power and decision, ordered that 
 a passage-way be cut on the morrow through all 
 obstacles, and this perilous task was entrusted 
 to General Gordon. 
 
 On the morning's dawn (the memorable 9th of 
 April), Gordon made ready his cutting-out force, 
 and, after a brief reconnaissance, led a smart at- 
 tack upon the Federals, whom he at first drove 
 back, but was in turn compelled to recoil from the 
 superior force brought up to defend the place and 
 hem in the Confederate army. Finding that he 
 could not force a passage-way, or even hold hi. 3 
 ground with safety, Gordon sent word back t j 
 General Lee of the straits he was in, and advis- 
 ing him of his having been effectively checkmated
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 286 
 
 by the enemy. Apprised of the situation, and 
 seeing no way out of it except at the sacrifice of 
 much life, which he was now unwilling to make, 
 the Confederate commander-in-chief concluded 
 that the time had at last come to surrender. He 
 therefore hastened forward a flag of truce k 
 General Sheridan, seeking a suspension of hostili- 
 ties with a view to surrender, and at the same 
 Ume penned and despatched the following com- 1 
 tnunication to General Grant : 
 
 APRIL 9, 1865. 
 "GENERAL: 
 
 " I received your note this morning on the 
 picket line, whither I had come to meet you and 
 ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in 
 your proposition of yesterday with reference to 
 the surrender of this army. 
 
 " I now request an interview in accordance with 
 the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for 
 that purpose. 
 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "B. E. LEE, General. 
 "To LIEUT-GENERAL GRANT, 
 " Commanding the Armies of the United States."
 
 286 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 The interview sought by General Lee was 
 promised by the Federal General, as soon as he 
 should be apprised of the desired place of meeting. 
 Notice of this was forthwith despatched to Gen- 
 eral Grant, and the now historic meeting took 
 place between the two commanders, in the village 
 at Appomattox Court House, at the house of 
 Wilmer McLean. Here, after the formal greet- 
 ing of the two Generals and their respective staffs, 
 the agreement of surrender was drawn up, signed, 
 and witnessed ; while the terms of surrender were 
 drafted and signed by the Federal Commander, 
 and formally accepted, under seal, by the Con- 
 federate General, as the subjoined document will 
 show : 
 
 " APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, VA. 
 
 April 9, 1865. 
 " GENERAL : 
 
 " In accordance with the substance of my letter 
 to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the 
 surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on 
 the following terms, to wit : Rolls of all the of- 
 ficers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy 
 to be given to an officer designated by me, and 
 the other to be retained by such officer or officers 
 as you may designate. The officers to give their
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 287 
 
 individual paroles not to take up arms against 
 the United States until properly exchanged ; and 
 each company or regimental commander to sign 
 a like parole for the men of their commands. 
 The arms, artillery, and public property to be 
 packed and stacked, and turned over to the offi- 
 cers appointed by me to receive them. This will 
 not embrace the side arms of the officers, or 
 their private horses or baggage. This done, each 
 officer and man will be allowed to return to his 
 home, not to be disturbed by United States au- 
 thority so long as they observe their paroles and 
 the laws in force where they may reside. 
 
 "U. S. GRANT, Lieut. -General. 
 " GENERAL B. E. LEE." 
 
 A formal letter, drafted and signed by General 
 Lee, was at the interview delivered to General 
 Grant, accepting the generous terms of surrender 
 and the conditions stipulated to be observed ; while, 
 on the following day, Commissioners representing 
 both causes met, drafted, and signed the append- 
 ed Agreement giving effect to the surrender. 
 The names and ranks of the Commissioners on 
 each side, it will be observed, are appended at the 
 foot of the Agreement, the details of which are 
 as follows :
 
 288 UFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 " APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, APRIL 10, 1865 
 
 Agreement entered into this day in regard to 
 the Surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
 ginia to the United States Authorities : 
 
 u 1st. The troops shall march by brigades and 
 detachments to the designated point, stack their 
 arms, deposit their flags, sabers, pistols, etc., 
 and then march to their homes under charge of 
 their officers, superintended by their respective 
 division and corps commanders, officers retaining 
 their side-arms and the authorized number of 
 private horses. 
 
 " 2nd. All public horses and public property of 
 all kinds to be turned over to staff officers, to be 
 designated by the United States authorities." 
 
 " 3rd. Such transportation as may be agreed 
 upon as necessary for the transportation of the 
 private baggage of officers will be allowed to ac- 
 company the officers, to be turned over at the end 
 of the trip to the nearest United States Quarter- 
 master, receipts being taken for the same. 
 
 "4th. Couriers and mounted men of the ar- 
 tillery and cavalry, whose horses are their own 
 private property, will be allowed to retain them. 
 
 " 5th. The surrender of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia shall be construed to include all the forces
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 289 
 
 operating with that army on the 8th instant, the 
 date of the commencement of the negotiations for 
 surrender, except such bodies of cavalry as actu- 
 ally made their escape previous to the surrender, 
 a ad except also such pieces of artillery as were 
 more than twenty miles from Appomattox Court 
 House at the time of the surrender on the 9th in- 
 stant. (Signed). 
 
 JOHN GIBBON, Maj-Gen. Vols. 
 CHARLES GRIFFIN, Bt. Maj-Gen. V. S. Vols. 
 W. MERRITT, Bt. Maj-Gen. 
 J. LONGSTREET, Lieut-Gen. 
 J. B. GORDON, Maj-Gen. 
 W. M. PENDLETON, Brig-Gen, and Chief 
 
 of Artillery." 
 
 Thus was completed and given effect to the 
 surrender of Lee and his Army of Northern Vir- 
 ginia, and thus passed into history the closing in- 
 cidents of the great Civil War. The number of 
 effective men of Lee's immediate command who, 
 on the morrow of surrender, took advantage of 
 the generous terms offered by General Grant, on 
 the part of the United States Government, did 
 not exceed 10,000 ; though, when the stragglers 
 came up and the scattered contingents were 
 gathered in, the entire number paroled reached
 
 290 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 close upon 28,000. Throughout the proceedings 
 connected with the surrender, there was nothing, 
 in tone or manner, on the part of the victors, to 
 wound the natural sensitiveness of the Confeder- 
 ates ; while no spirit of exultation was mani- 
 fested, or aught shown save the utmost kindli- 
 ness, compassion, and sympathy. This, added to 
 the considerate and politic conditions upon which 
 each individual member of the Southern army 
 was paroled and permitted to return to his home, 
 relieved surrender of all pang, and the remem- 
 brance of " a lost cause," if it then or afterwards 
 intruded itself, of a sense of disappointment and 
 sorrow. To Lee, personally, the worst, if we 
 may say it, was yet to come, in taking leave 
 of his grim but loved veterans, and in bidding 
 each of the now shrunken but heroic band fare- 
 well. 
 
 Profound was the feeling with which the little 
 army saw their beloved leader ride back to 
 his headquarters after the surrender had been 
 practically effected. Sobs and tears were the 
 signs of their emotion, as all realized that the end 
 had finally come, and the last fight for Southern 
 independence had taken place. As his men clus- 
 tered around their great Captain, seeking to 
 grasp and give a loving pressure to the hand of
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 291 
 
 their long-time chieftain, upwelling tears in the 
 hero's eyes spoke the agony of his soul, and, in 
 trembling tones, he simply said to them : " Men, 
 we have fought through the war together ; and 
 I have done the best I could for you. My heart 
 is too full to say more ! " On the morrow, how- 
 ever, he took a more formal leave of his little 
 faithful band, and in the following graciously 
 expressed and noble, pathetic words : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ARMY OP NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 
 
 April 10, 1865. 
 
 " AFTER four years of arduous service, marked 
 by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army 
 of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield 
 to overwhelming numbers and resources. 
 
 " I need not tell the survivors of so many hard- 
 fought battles, who have remained steadfast to 
 the last, that I have consented to this result from 
 no distrust of them ; but, feeling that valor and 
 devotion could accomplish nothing that could 
 compensate for the loss that would have attended 
 the continuation of the contest, I have determined 
 to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past 
 services have endeared them to their country- 
 men. 
 
 *' By the terms of agreement, officers and men
 
 292 L1FE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 can return to their homes and remain there until 
 exchanged. 
 
 "You will take with you the satisfaction that 
 proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully 
 performed ; and I earnestly pray that a merciful 
 God will extend to you His blessing and protec- 
 tion. 
 
 " With an unceasing admiration of your con- 
 stancy and devotion to your country, and a grate- 
 ful remembrance of your kind and generous con- 
 sideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate 
 farewell. 
 
 "R. E. LEE, General." 
 
 But one more act in the drama of capitulation 
 has to be related, viz., the summoning, on April 12, 
 for the last time, of the several divisions of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia, to a public place 
 near the Appomattox Court House, where the 
 different commands stacked their arms, packed 
 the artillery, deposited their accoutrements, and, 
 with a salute, parted with their field and regi- 
 mental colors. The surrender was received for 
 General Grant (who, with a fine consideration 
 for the feelings of the men of the late army, re- 
 mained at his headquarters) by Major-General 
 Gibbon. Those who had effected their escape
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 293 
 
 (chiefly 2,000 cavalry under Rosser and Fitz- 
 hugh Lee), before the closing in of Sheridan's 
 lines after hostilities were suspended, and who 
 afterwards surrendered, were partakers in the 
 terms granted to the army as a whole. All, 
 officers and men, were now paroled and dis- 
 banded, and took their several ways homewards ; 
 while General Lee, accompanied by his staff, set 
 out for Richmond and reunion with those dear 
 to them. At the late Confederate capital, the 
 hero was hailed, alike by gray and blue uni- 
 formed figures, with the heartiest enthusiasm ; 
 while by the city's officials and citizens he was 
 awarded the respect and homage due not only to 
 fidelity, but to stately courage and high moral 
 worth. 
 
 After the surrender and dispersion of Lee and 
 his army, General J E. Johnston, with whose 
 command in North Carolina Lee had with futile 
 purpose sought to form a junction, entered into 
 corespondence with General Sherman, as he 
 could now make no stand alone. This corre- 
 spondence led to the surrender of his army at 
 Durham Station on the 26th of April ; while 
 other bands of Confederate troops also yielded 
 themselves up, and the four terrible years of 
 war finally came to a close. Simultaneously,
 
 294 "LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 General Grant returned with his staff to Wash- 
 ington, where followed the hideous tragedy of 
 the assassination, on the 14th of April, of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, as he was sitting with his family 
 in a box at the theater in the capital. The 
 lamented President died on the following day. 
 The assassin was a demented Southern sympa- 
 thizer, John Wilkes Booth, who belonged to an 
 actor's family, and had become fanatically op- 
 posed to the good and wise Lincoln and to the 
 Union Administration and party. Escaping from 
 Washington after his vile deed, which struck hor- 
 ror in all breasts, and moved even the South to 
 sympathy, Booth was hunted down by a party of 
 soldiers near Fredericksburg, and, refusing to 
 surrender, he was shot in a barn where he had 
 sought refuge. 
 
 The striking down of the great Emancipator, 
 ever prone to kindliness, as he was, and possessing 
 a mind and heart always influenced by humane 
 and just motives, was a heavy blow to the whole 
 country ; and especially just then, when he was 
 about to grapple with the serious problem of Re- 
 construction. In a sense, as the present writer 
 has elsewhere said, Lincoln's calamitous end 
 came as a not unfitting sequel to, and admoni- 
 tion against, civil war ; and though it deprived
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 295 
 
 the nation 'of his wise counsels in the great work 
 that lay before it, his death and the manner of 
 it were factors of value in hushing all criti- 
 cism of the man and his career, while raising 
 grateful peans to his memory. In unity well 
 might the two sections of the country, now 
 again become one, pay ceaseless honor to him 
 who had had much to do, through the long and 
 appalling conflict, in bringing about the happy 
 issue of Union, and who, in memorable words, 
 in his immortal Second Inaugural, after be- 
 moaning the scourge of war, and yet foreseeing 
 its close, had admonished the Nation to have 
 "malice toward none," and "with charity for 
 all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us 
 to seethe right/' besought them to "finish the 
 work they were in, to bind up the Nation's 
 wounds, to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, 
 to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
 and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
 nations." 
 
 In closing our narrative of the chief incidents of 
 the war, as they connect themselves with General 
 Lee, and passing to follow the latter to the close 
 of his illustrious career, it remains but to add, 
 that a general amnesty was proclaimed by the
 
 296 LJFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 new Union President (Andrew Johnson), on the 
 29th of May, the last of the Confederate generals 
 having surrendered during the month; while Pres- 
 ident Davis of the now collapsed Confederacy, 
 then a fugitive in Georgia, was captured on May 
 10th at Irwinsville, Ga., and imprisoned for a 
 time in Fortress Monroe, but later on was liber- 
 ated on parole. 
 
 Soon after the close of the conflict the North 
 disbanded its large armies, over 800,000 having 
 been mustered out by the month of November, 
 1865. " The War for the Union," remarks an his- 
 torian authority (Edward Channing, in his " His- 
 tory of the United States") "cost the nation, 
 North and South, the lives of nearly a million 
 men : about 95,000 Northern soldiers were killed 
 on the field of battle, or were fatally wounded 
 and died in hospitals ; 180,000 more succumbed 
 to disease while on the army rolls. To these 
 figures must be added those who died from 
 accident, disappeared permanently, or died in 
 Southern prisons, or in consequence of disease or 
 wounds contracted while in the service ; the total 
 of those who perished from all these causes is not 
 far from half a million ; about as many more 
 Southerners perished from similar causes. Hun- 
 dreds of thousands more contracted disorders or
 
 OVERTURES OF PEACE AND THE SURRENDER. 297 
 
 received wounds while in the service, which did 
 not lead directly to death, but which shortened 
 life or made it wretched. The total money cost 
 of the war to the Union Government was about 
 3,500 million dollars excluding expenses incurred 
 by States and municipalities, which amounted, 
 in all probability, at least to 300 millions more. 
 Adding to this the amount paid and to be paid in 
 pensions to those who risked their lives and the 
 well-being of their families for the Union cause, 
 and the amount of private property destroyed 
 during the conflict, the War for the Union cost 
 not less than ten thousand million dollars 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GENERAL LEE INSTALLED AS PRESIDENT OF WASH- 
 INGTON COLLEGE, LEXINGTON, VA. 
 
 GENERAL LEE lived for over five years after 
 the close of the war ; and though by a section in 
 Congress he was the object, as was the South 
 and its late President also, of suspicion and 
 partizan dislike, he remained uniformly loyal to 
 the new order of things, as well as unflinching 
 in his patriotic purpose to restore the nation to 
 unity and quiet, orderly government. Recon- 
 struction, for a time, made slow progress, for 
 President Johnson's ability to smooth matters and 
 heal the sores of the nation were not such as 
 would doubtless have been his great predecessor's, 
 had he lived ; while many, like Davis and even 
 Lee, who had participated in rebellion, were ex- 
 cluded from the measure of amnesty and pardon 
 that had been proclaimed. In Lee's case, he was 
 even indicted for treason, at the instigation 
 of a Federal judge ; though his old antagonist-in- 
 arms, General Grant, whom he lived to see fill 
 
 298
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 299 
 
 the Presidential chair, pleaded the sacredness of 
 the Southern Commander's military parole, and 
 legal proceedings were consequently dropped. 
 His personal attitude during these trying years 
 was most patient and retiring, as well as consist- 
 ently dutiful, as a letter to his son, General Fitz- 
 hugh Lee, emphatically attests : " As to the 
 indictments," writes the General, " I hope you, 
 at least, may not be prosecuted. I see no more 
 reason for it than for prosecuting all who ever 
 engaged in the war. I think, however, we may 
 expect procrastination in measures of relief, de- 
 nunciatory threats, etc. ; but we must be patient 
 
 ,o 
 
 and let them take their course." G cC 
 
 - When Lee, at the close of the war, returned to ~ 
 his family at Richmond, he found the city not 
 only in much confusion, but largely destroyed ; 
 and, as his ancestral home there of Arlington 
 had in his absence been appropriated to public 
 purposes, and was now occupied by Federal officials 
 and army officers, his desire for quiet and privacy 
 led to his re-establishing himself and his family 
 in a country house on the James River in Pow- 
 hatan county. Hither came to him the an- 
 nouncement that the Board of Trustees had 
 elected him to the presidency of Washington 
 College, Lexington, Va., a compliment which, as
 
 300 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 it was alike unsought and unexpected, he greatly 
 appreciated. The offer, while a politic one on the 
 part of the Trustees, and intended as an honor 
 to the gallant old soldier, as well as a tribute 
 to his learning and high character, General Lee 
 hesitated, however, to accept, and that for two 
 reasons. These were, first, what he deemed his 
 inability, at his advanced years, to undergo the 
 labor of conducting classes in regular courses of 
 instruction though he might be equal to under- 
 take the general administration and supervision 
 of the institution ; and, second, the fact that he 
 was still, politically, under the ban of the United 
 States Government, as an unamnestied man ; 
 and, hence, did he accept the post, might draw 
 hostility upon the College to its injury, as well as 
 animadversion from certain partizan quarters. 
 These scruples and objections were, however, and 
 wisely, waived by the Board ; and the close of 
 September, 1865, found him on his way to Lex 
 ington, to be inaugurated as President of the 
 College. 
 
 The installation of the soldier-president took 
 place October 2nd ; and though at General Lee's 
 request it was quiet and simple in its exercises, 
 there was a roomful of prominent people present, 
 including the students, faculty, and trustees, to
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 3Q1 
 
 witness and do honor to the occasion. After a 
 prayer, Judge Brockenbrough, chairman of the 
 Board, made a eulogistic address, in which he con- 
 gratulated " the Board and College, and its pres- 
 ent and future students, on having obtained one 
 so loved and great and worthy to preside over the 
 institution ; " then the oath of office was admin- 
 istered and taken, and the keys were given up by 
 the Rector into the keeping of the new President. 
 After this, followed the customary introductions 
 and handshakings, etc., the whole proceedings, it 
 is stated, being at once most pleasing and im- 
 pressive. 
 
 On entering upon his academic duties, General 
 Lee removed his wife and daughters to their new 
 home ; while his eldest son was, meanwhile, called 
 to a chair in the Virginia Military Institute, 
 located also at Lexington. His management of 
 the College was productive of excellent results, 
 bringing to it numbers of students from many 
 sections of the South, while raising it to high 
 distinction as a widely approved center of intel- 
 lectual training and well-maintained discipline. 
 The incentive General Lee set himself in his ardu- 
 ous, though self-imposed, task, we find in his 
 own characteristic declaration, that " I have led 
 the young men of the South in battle ; I have
 
 302 LJFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 seen many of them fall under my standard. I 
 shall devote my life now to training young men to 
 do their duty in life." 
 
 At this time, there was much talk in Virginia 
 and elsewhere in the South of a wholesale immi- 
 gration to Mexico, in which Lee's cooperation 
 was sought : but the General, though admitting 
 the possibility that a movement of the kind might 
 conduce to prosperity, discountenanced the pro- 
 ject, deeming it better, as he said, that Southern- 
 ers should remain at home and mold, as well as 
 share in, the fortunes of their respective States, 
 
 In public office, even that of the governorship 
 of his own State, which was offered him early in 
 1867, Lee could not be induced to serve, preferring 
 a quiet, unostentatious life and the enjoyment of 
 privacy and home comforts. He was, however, 
 thoroughly alive to and interested in public affairs, 
 and in his letters to friends he shows and gives 
 expression to his thoughtful views on many im- 
 portant questions of the time. In one of these 
 letters, written in frank terms to a correspondent 
 and sympathizer, he obviously cannot resist 
 giving expression to his alarm at the dangers that 
 then threatened the nation and its republican in- 
 stitutions, as well as his regret at the many exist- 
 ing signs of aggression on the rights of his own
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 303 
 
 section of the country. In the following extract 
 from a letter written to a friend abroad at the 
 close of 1866, we see what were his views on the 
 traditional question of State Eights and the 
 aggressions of an overpowerful and autocrati- 
 cally-inclined General Government : 
 
 " While I have considered the preservation of 
 the constitutional power of the General Govern- 
 ment to be the foundation of our peace and safety 
 at home and abroad, I yet believe that the main- 
 tenance of the rights and authority reserved to 
 the States, and to the people, not only essential to 
 the adjustment and balance of the general system, 
 but the safe-guard of the continuance of a free 
 government. I consider it as the chief source of 
 stability to our political system ; whereas the con- 
 solidation of the States into one vast republic, sure 
 to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will 
 be the certain precursor of that ruin which has 
 overwhelmed all those that have preceded it." 
 
 On the important matter of self-government, 
 and the attitude of the South on the once-distract- 
 ing topic of slavery and the tendency of recent 
 laws to place the political power, sectionally, in 
 the hands of the negro race, General Lee felt 
 strongly, as we see from the following expression 
 of his views, in reply to a request for such from
 
 304: LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 General Rosecrans and other public men. Writ- 
 ing from White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., in the 
 ^summer months of 1868, Lee observes : * 
 
 "Whatever opinions may have prevailed in the 
 past with regard to African slavery or the right 
 of a State to secede from the Union, we believe 
 we express the almost unanimous judgment of 
 the Southern people when we declare that they 
 consider that these questions were decided by the 
 war, and that it is their intention, in good faith, 
 to abide by that decision. At the close of the 
 war, the Southern people laid down their arms 
 and sought to resume their former relations to 
 the Government of the United States. Through 
 their State conventions they abolished slavery and 
 annulled their ordinances of secession ; and they 
 returned to their peaceful pursuits with a sincere 
 purpose to fulfill all their duties under the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, which they had sworn 
 to support. If their action in these particulars 
 had been met in a spirit of frankness and cordial- 
 ity, we believe that, ere this, old irritations would 
 have passed away, and the wounds inflicted by the 
 
 * We are indebted for this paper, setting forth General 
 Lee's views, to Prof. H. A. White's biography of Lee, in the 
 " Heroes of the Nations " series, published by Messrs. G. Put- 
 nam's Sons, in 1902.
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, 305 
 
 war would have been, in a great measure, healed. 
 As far as we are advised, the people of the South 
 'entertain no unfriendly feeling towards the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, but they com- 
 plain that their rights under the Constitution are 
 withheld from them in the administration thereof. 
 The idea that the Southern people are hostile to 
 the negroes, and would oppress them, if it were in 
 their power to do so, is entirely unfounded. They 
 have grown up in our midst, and we have been 
 accustomed from childhood to look upon them 
 with kindness. The change in the relations of 
 the two races has wrought no change in our feel- 
 ings towards them. They still constitute an im- 
 portant part of our laboring population. With- 
 out their labor, the lands of the South would be 
 comparatively unproductive ; without the employ- 
 ment which Southern agriculture affords, they 
 would be destitute of the means of subsistence, 
 and become paupers dependent upon public bounty. 
 Self-interest, if there were no higher motive, 
 would therefore prompt the whites of the South 
 to extend to the negroes care and protection. 
 
 ' ' The important fact that the two races are, 
 under existing circumstances, necessary to each 
 other, is gradually becoming apparent to both, 
 and we believe that but for influences exerted to
 
 306 LI^ OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 stir up the passions of the negroes, the relations 
 of the two races would soon adjust themselves on 
 a basis of mutual kindness and advantage. 
 
 " It is true that the people of the South, in com- 
 mon with a large majority of the people of the 
 North and West, are, for obvious reasons, inflexi- 
 bly opposed to any system of laws that would place 
 the political power of the country in the hands of 
 the negro race. But this opposition springs from 
 no feeling of enmity, but from a deep-seated con- 
 viction that, at present, the negroes have neither 
 the intelligence nor the other qualifications which 
 are necessary to make them safe depositaries of 
 political power. They would inevitably become 
 the victims of demagogues who, for selfish pur- 
 poses, would mislead them, to the serious injury 
 of the public. 
 
 "The great want of the South is peace. The 
 people earnestly desire tranquillity and a restora- 
 tion of the Union. They deprecate disorder and ex- 
 citement as the most serious obstacle to their pros- 
 perity. They ask a restoration of their rights 
 under the Constitution. They desire relief from 
 oppressive misrule. Above all, they would appeal 
 to their countrymen for the reestablishment, in 
 the Southern States, of that which has justly been 
 regarded as the birthright of every American,
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 307 
 
 the right of self-government. Establish these on 
 a firm basis, and we can safely promise, on behalf ' 
 of the Southern people, that they will faithfully 
 obey the Constitution and laws of the United 
 States, treat the negro population with kindness 
 and humanity, and fulfill every duty incumbent 
 on peaceful citizens, loyal to the Constitution of 
 their country." 
 
 This deliverance of Lee on the political and 
 social condition of the South is, as will be seen, 
 calm and temperate, as was his testimony, given 
 at Washington, early in 1866, when summoned 
 thither to be interrogated by the Congressional 
 Committee on Reconstruction. His views in re- 
 gard to the latter were those of a sane, thought- 
 ful and loyal citizen, sincerely anxious for peace 
 and harmony in the South, as well as for the re- 
 sumption of cordial relations between the two 
 sections of the now common country. But, as we 
 have said, Lee was averse to taking part in the pub- 
 lic discussions of the time, and was most guarded 
 in everything that escaped him, that might be 
 construed as a criticism upon the Administration 
 at Washington, and its policy in restoring peace 
 and order in the late seceding States and in re- 
 moving the disabilities under which many of its 
 chief citizens still lay. Contention, public or pri-
 
 308 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 vate, was never his habit, and he ever eschewed the 
 discussion of all controverted questions that might 
 tempt him to engage in it. Besides, he was now 
 giving almost his whole thought to his academic 
 duties in College, actuated by a deep sense of his 
 responsibility as President, and his desire to bring 
 the institution to the highest possible state of 
 efficiency. In this laudable work he was signally 
 successful, especially when we consider from what 
 a low ebb in its affairs he had built up the institu- 
 tion, which, when he took hold of it, was utterly 
 broken in fortune and without resources and 
 equipment, while the war had practically closed 
 its doors. Lee's absorbing interest in his duties 
 throughout the five years his sadly shortened life 
 enabled him to give to the administration of the 
 College's affairs, is thus appreciatively vouched for 
 by his nephew and military biographer, General 
 Fitzhugh Lee (See "Life of General Lee," in the 
 Great Commanders' series). "Year by year," 
 states the narrator, " the conception of his (Pre- 
 sident Lee's) duty grew stronger, and year by 
 year, as its instrument, the College grew dearer. 
 He was no figurehead, kept in position for the 
 attraction of his name ; his energy, zeal, and 
 administrative ability surmounted all difficulties. 
 His great labors were directed to making Washing-
 
 LEE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 309 
 
 ton College the seat of science, art, and literature. 
 Far-reaching plans laid for its success were wisely 
 conceived. ... A scholastic monument was slowly 
 responding to his noble influence and wise admin- 
 istration, which would be as illustrious as his most 
 brilliant military achievements. He mastered all 
 details, observing the students, becoming person- 
 ally acquainted with them, their aspirations and 
 hopes ; his interest followed them everywhere ; and 
 their associations, dispositions, and habits, were 
 well known to him. He never grew imperious, 
 or tried to force a measure upon the faculty, but 
 modestly said he had but one vote and wished to 
 know the opinion of his colleagues, and leave the 
 decision to be determined by the whole body. 
 Sustained by the loftiest principles of virtue and 
 religion, an exalted character, and a conscientious 
 sense of duty, General Lee suffered no complaint 
 to escape his lips during the eventful years, from 
 1865 to 1870, though troubled by much that was 
 ' taking place." 
 
 Besides this testimony to General Lee's untiring 
 labors on behalf of the College, we know that his 
 wise administration of its affairs helped to im- 
 prove its finances and gain for it occasional gifts 
 and endowments, most welcome at the time to the 
 institution. He was also himself cheered by the
 
 310 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 coming to the College of many studious youth 
 who had served under him in the war ; and whose 
 education had been interrupted by the four years 
 of unhappy conflict. His influence was great upon 
 these, as well as upon all in the classes, and that 
 not only intellectually, but morally, for he ever 
 regarded religious training as an important 
 feature in the functions of the College, as well as 
 the training that would make men worthy and 
 useful citizens and high-minded, honorable gentle- 
 men, after his own exemplary and characteristic 
 type. Socially, his influence also was great, as 
 we see in the offers that were repeatedly made to 
 him of influential and often highly-remunerated 
 positions, which, however, he invariably refused, 
 so that he might give his undivided time and 
 attention to the educational and administrative 
 affairs of the College.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 
 
 As the years passed over him, General Lee, un- 
 happily, found himself in indifferent health, in 
 consequence of the return of an old ailment to 
 which his long and arduous military life had ex- 
 posed him, and now left him often a great sufferer. 
 This was an aggravated form of rheumatism, 
 which threatened the vitals and gave him almost 
 constant pain in his chest. Early in the year of 
 1870, the General's distress from this affliction in- 
 creased, and at length became so great that he 
 was reluctantly necessitated to rest from his 
 labors and undertake a trip to Georgia and other 
 parts of the South. In this expedition in searcn 
 of health, he was accompanied by his most duti- 
 ful and ever-watchful daughter, Agnes, who, 
 with her mother, also an invalid, were at this 
 time very solicitous about him. While in the 
 South, Lee's general health improved, and he 
 seemed to be benefited by the change of scene 
 
 and air, so that he returned to his college duties 
 
 311
 
 312 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 in the autumn session ; though, to the close obser- 
 ver, his appearance showed traces of the onward 
 progress of disease. His step, at this time, we are 
 told, began to lose its elasticity ; while the shoul- 
 ders began to droop and the ruddy glow disap- 
 peared from his face. There were signs soon also 
 of cerebral exhaustion and congestion of the brain, 
 which showed that the end was now not far off. 
 His nephew-biographer, Fitzhugh Lee, gives us 
 the incidents that befell the great soldier, premon- 
 itory of the approaching end. "A noble life," 
 he tells us, "was drawing to a close. The morn- 
 ing of September 28, 1870, found him faithfully 
 performing the duties of his office ; the afternoon, 
 engaged with his brother members of the vestry 
 of Grace Episcopal Church" (at Lexington) " in 
 work congenial to the true Christian, and the 
 autumn evening shadows fell upon a couch over 
 which the heavenly angels were bending. The 
 important question of rebuilding the church and 
 increasing his faithful friend and pastor's com- 
 pensation had interested him so deeply at the 
 vestry meeting, that the cold church and the out- 
 side storm were forgotten, and it was only after 
 a protracted session of over three hours, as he 
 proceeded to his house, a short distance off, that 
 weariness and weakness overtook him, and his
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 313 
 
 wavering steps indicated increasing feebleness. 
 Entering his private office, as usual, he took off 
 his hat, military cloak, and overshoes, and then 
 proceeded to join his family, who had been wait- 
 ing tea for him. Quietly he stood in his accus- 
 tomed place in the dining-room, while his family, 
 with bowed heads, waited to hear the well-known 
 grace, but no sound came from his lips. Speech- 
 less the great soldier stood ; an expression of de- 
 spair spread over his face ; and from his eyes came 
 a dreamy, far-away look, which denoted the ap- 
 proaching summons from his Creator. 
 
 " ' My husband came in,' wrote Mrs. Lee, 'and 
 I asked where he had been, remarking that he 
 had kept us waiting a long time. He did not 
 reply, but stood up as if to say grace. No word 
 proceeded from his lips, but with a sublime look 
 of resignation he sat down in his chair.' With 
 intense anxiety the family went to his assistance. 
 A bed was brought to the dining-room, in which 
 he was placed, and doctors were quickly sum- 
 moned. For two weeks, 
 
 Twixt night and morn upon the horizon's verge, 
 Between two worlds life hovered like a star.' 
 
 "Mrs. Lee tells us that his whole demeanor 
 during his sickness was that of one who had
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 taken leave of earth. He never smiled, and 
 rarely attempted to speak, except in his dreams, 
 and then, she says, ' he wandered to those dread- 
 ful battlefields.' ' You must get out and ride 
 your faithful gray,' the doctor said. He shook 
 his head and looked upward ; and once when his 
 daughter Agnes urged him to take medicine, he 
 looked at her and said, * It is no use.' Human 
 love was powerful, human aid powerless. Hope 
 and Despair were twin watchers by his bed-side. 
 At first, as his disease seemed to yield to treat- 
 ment, Hope brightened, but soon Despair alone 
 kept watch. During the afternoon and night of 
 October 10th shadowy clouds of approaching dis- 
 solution began to gather, a creeping lethargy cap- 
 tured the faculties, and the massive grandeur of 
 form and face began to contract. During the 
 succeeding day he rapidly grew worse ; his 
 thoughts wandered to the fields where he had 
 so often led his gray battalions to victory ; and 
 like the greatest of his captains, Stonewall Jack- 
 son, whose expiring utterance told 'A. P. Hill 
 to prepare for action,' he too, in death's delirium, 
 said, ' Tell Hill he must come up ; ' ' For the 
 last forty-eight hours he seemed quite insensible 
 of our presence,' Mrs. Lee states ; 'he breathed 
 more heavily, and at last gently sank to rest
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 315 
 
 with one deep-drawn sigh, and, oh, what a 
 glorious rest was in store for him ! ' ' 
 
 Death occurred on the morning of the 12th of 
 October, 1870, when the great Southern leader had 
 reached his sixty- fourth year. Two days later, 
 the College chapel received all that was mortal 
 of the deceased warrior, and on the 15th the 
 casket enclosing his remains was, after a brief 
 but impressive service, lowered into a vault in 
 rear of the College chapel, where, later on, his 
 wife and daughter Agnes also found burial. 
 
 " Tolling bells," relates the sympathetic biog- 
 rapher, from whose work we have already made 
 quotation, " first proclaimed the sad intelligence " 
 (of the death of the warrior) to the citizens of 
 Lexington, electric wires flashed it to the world. 
 Throughout the South business was suspended, 
 schools were closed, societies and associations of 
 all sorts assembled, where eulogistic speeches 
 were made, and resolutions passed laudatory of 
 General Lee's life, and lamenting his death. In 
 those adopted by the faculty of the College it 
 was declared that ' his executive ability, his en- 
 larged views of liberal culture, his extraordi- 
 nary powers in the government of men, his won. 
 derful influence over the minds of the young, 
 and his steady and earnest devotion to duty,
 
 316 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 made the College spring, as if by the touch of 
 magic, from its depression after the war to its 
 present firm condition of permanent and wide- 
 spread usefulness' ; that it was ' a deep satisfac- 
 tion to receive his remains beneath the chapel he 
 had built;' and that the 'memory of his noble < 
 life will remain as an abiding inspiration to the 
 young of the country as they gather at the last 
 scene of his labors, to emulate his virtues and to 
 follow his great example.' ' 
 
 Equally sincere and hearty were other laudatory 
 comments on the man and his career expressed by 
 prominent people and influential public bodies 
 throughout the South. At a Lee Memorial meet- 
 ing, held at Richmond on Nov 3rd, one of Lee's 
 old colleagues in the war, Major-General Gor- 
 don, thus admiringly spoke of the hero : " Of no 
 man whom it has ever been my fortune to meet can 
 it be so truthfully said as of Lee, that, grand as 
 might be your conception of the man before, he 
 rose in incomparable majesty on more familiar 
 acquaintance. This can be affirmed of few men 
 who have ever lived or died, and of no other man 
 whom it has been my fortune to approach. Like 
 Niagara, the more you gazed, the more its gran- 
 deur grew upon you, the more its majesty expand- 
 ed and filled your spirit with a full satisfaction.
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 317 
 
 that left a perfect delight without the slightest feel- 
 ing of oppression. Grandly majestic and dignified 
 in his deportment, he was as genial as the sun- 
 light of May, and not a ray of that cordial social 
 intercourse but brought warmth to the heart, as 
 it brought light to the understanding." At the 
 same meeting, the ex-President of the Confederate 
 States, the Hon. Jefferson Davis, remarked that 
 "this day we unite our words of sorrow with 
 those of the good and great throughout Christen- 
 dom, for General Lee's fame has gone far over the 
 water ; and, when the monument we shall build 
 to his memory shall have crumbled into dust, his 
 virtues will still live a high model for the imita- 
 tion of generations yet unborn." Another prom- 
 inent figure and fellow actor in the war, Lee's close 
 friend, General J. E. Johnston, wrote thus to the 
 lamenting widow, three days after her great loss : 
 
 " MY DEAR MADAM : 
 
 "Although you are receiving the strongest 
 proofs that a whole people are sharing in your 
 great sorrow, I venture to write, not merely to say 
 how I, General Lee's earliest and most devoted 
 friend, lament his death, and how sadly the event 
 will visit my memory while I stay on earth, but, 
 still more, to assure you of my deep sympathy in
 
 318 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 this greatest bereavement a human being can 
 know, and of my fervent prayers to our merciful 
 God that He may grant His help to you and your 
 children. 
 
 "Most sincerely and truly your friend, 
 
 "J. E. JOHNSTON." 
 
 Commenting on Lee's military reputation, 
 General Fitzhugh Lee truly and admiringly ob- 
 serves, that : " In strategy, it is certain Lee stands 
 in the front rank of the great warriors of the 
 world. He was a greater soldier than Sir Henry 
 Havelock, and equally devout as a Christian. . . . 
 He had the swift intuition to discern the purpose 
 of his opponent, and the power of rapid combina- 
 tion to oppose to it prompt resistance. . . . The 
 world places Lee by the side of its greatest cap- 
 tains, because, surrounded on all sides by conflict- 
 ing anxieties, interests, and the gravity of issues 
 involved, he only surrendered his battle-stained, 
 bullet-riddled banners after demonstrating that 
 all had been done that mortal could accomplish. 
 The profession of the soldier has been honored by 
 his renown, the cause of education by his virtues, 
 religion by his piety." 
 
 One more comment we must permit ourselves, 
 and that on the subject of the great soldier's per-
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 319 
 
 sonal appearance and power of impressing all who 
 came in contact with him. The extract is from 
 the narrative of a visit to General Lee, in the 
 Spring of 1870, by a Canadian cavalry officer and 
 writer on military tactics, Lt.-Col. Geo. T. Den- 
 ison, who was, moreover, a great admirer of the 
 General. Colonel Denison writes : " General 
 Lee impressed one exceedingly. I have seen some 
 men whom the world esteems great men, but I 
 have no hesitation in saying that no man ever 
 impressed me as did General Robert E. Lee. In 
 stature he was about five feet ten inches, but 
 from his splendid figure and magnificent carriage, 
 as well as from the massive appearance of his 
 head, he seemed much taller. He looked the very 
 personification of high and pure intelligence. No 
 one could fail to be at once impressed, nay, awed, 
 by the calm majesty of his intellect ; while there 
 was an almost childlike simplicity and kindness 
 of manner that irresistibly won upon you at once. 
 He was one of those men that made the ancients 
 believe in demi-gods. His defeat served but to 
 add to his greatness ; for nothing could shake his 
 equanimity. In all his reverses not a complaint 
 escaped him, not a murmur did he utter, although 
 he must have felt keenly the wrongs and suffer- 
 ings of those for whom he had fought so well."
 
 320 LIFE OF GENERAL LEE. 
 
 The calm dignity with which Lee met adversity, 
 here referred to by Colonel Denison, has been 
 *he subject of many approving remarks, and, 
 with his quiet reticence in submitting finally to 
 the inevitable, won for him Northern sympathy 
 as well as elicited Southern pride. In his long, 
 brilliant, but unequal struggle, when in command 
 of the Army of Northern Virginia, he was never 
 known to repine or manifest the slightest resent- 
 ment or bitterness. Such even was his command 
 of temper that , as has often been said, he was never 
 seen angry, and rarely had a disapproving or con- 
 demnatory word to say of any one. In this respect, 
 his self-restraint was as remarkable as was his 
 self-possession and uniform moderation. In short, 
 rarely in the annals of war is there a nobler 
 record to be met with of an army leader who com- 
 bined in his person the highest qualities of a sol- 
 dier-hero and a Christian. Nothing in his re- 
 splendent career dims the luster of his character 
 in the latter respect, or qualifies the example he 
 ever set before him of a humble and trustful 
 soldier of Jesus Christ. As a constant and con- 
 sistent follower of his divine Master, General Lee's 
 example had a beneficent influence upon all who 
 came in contact with him ; while his trustfulness 
 in a Guiding Power marked the man in all his
 
 EVENING SHADOWS, AND DEATH. 
 
 dealings, and in every difficulty or emergency he 
 had to confront. Very beautiful in this aspect 
 was his life, while most winning was his bearing 
 and manner, and grandly inspiring his influence 
 and example. 
 
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