3 /Or- I lift! I 5CJ "^/w 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. 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