Life and letters of Robert Edward Lee, soldier and man

Front matter

Class Book

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

[As President of Washington CollegeJ

CHAPTER I. Lineage and Boyhood

* Lineage — "Light Horse Harry'' — Genl. Lee's own account of his lineage — Birth at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, the land of great men — Anne, the mother of Lee — Boyhood — His early teachers, Mr. Leary and Mr- Hallowell — "Both son and daughter" to his widowed mother — The boy's quiet rebuke to an old man 13

CHAPTER II. The West Point Cadet and the Young Army Officer

The West Point Cadet — Graduated second in his class without ever having received a demerit — The young engineer officer — His courtship and marriage to Mary Custis — Arlington and the Washington relics — His children — Stationed at St. Louis — Letters to his family — Letter to Jos. E. Johnston — At Fort Hamilton, and the services he rendered in constructing the defenses of New York Harbor — Letters to his sons. ... 28

CHAPTER III. The Mexican War

His rapid promotion — General Scott's compliments in his official reports — General Hunt's incident concerning Lee's conduct at the Pedrigal — Gen. C. M. Wilcox on his career in Mexico — Lee's letters to his wife and others — Letter to his brother in which he disclaims the honors heaped on himself, and warmly defends his commander, General Scott — Letter to his brother on his return to Arlington 43

CHAPTER IV. From the Mexican War to the War Between the States

Capt. Robt. E. Lee's Recollections of his Father — At Baltimore — Description of his person — Family letters — Superintendent at West Point — Lieutenant-Colonel of the famous Second Cavalry — Service on the frontier — Family letters — Death of Mr. Custis and his return to Arlington to settle up his estate — Letters to his two sons in the Army — His connection with the "John Brown Raid" — Return to Texas — Letters to his sons — His comment on the promotion of Jos. E. Johnston over him — His expressions concerning the state of the country — An ardent Union man, yet deprecating "a Union maintained by swords and bayonets" g

CHAPTER V. - - The First Year of the War Between the States

Breaking out of the war — Ordered to "report to the Commander-in- Chief at Washington" — Not a secessionist, but an ardent Virginian — The supreme command of the United States Army in the field tendered him, and his refusal — Statement of Mr. Blair — Scott's opinion of Lee — Statement of Hon. Simon Cameron, Mr. Lincoln's first Secretary of War— General Lee's letter on the subject to Senator Reverdy Johnson — The struggle it cost him to leave the United States Army — His letter to General Scott, and his letter of resignation — Letters to his sister and to his brother, Captain Lee of the Navy— He goes to Richmond and accepts the command of the Virginia forces— Letters to Mrs. Lee—Letters from Hon. Wm. C. Reves and Bishop Meade— Labor of organizing the raw recruits— General McDowell's kind letter to Mrs. Lee— Lee's West

8 CONTENTS

Virginia campaign — His letters at the period — Capt. Robert E. Lee's recollections — The failure of the West Virginia campaign — "Newspaper generals" — His service on the South Carolina and Georgia coast, and able preparation for the defense of Charleston and Savannah — Familyletters 123

CHAPTER VI. The Second Year of the War

"Military adviser of the President" — Question of rank, in which Lee took no part — The Confederate disasters of the spring of 1862 — The situation at Richmond — The Merrhnac {Virginia) and the Monitor — Jackson's Valley campaign and its results — Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) — Jos. E. Johnston wounded and Lee put in command of the Army — The situation at Richmond — Lee's strategy — Seven days' battles around Richmond and their results — Letters to his family — Second Manassas campaign — Battle of Cedar Run — Pope's orders — General Lee's letters — A description of his war-horse "Traveler" — The battle of second Manassas — Capture of Harper's Ferry — Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) — Death of his daughter Anne, and how he bore it — Family letters — Removal of General McClellan — Battle of Fredericksburg — Family letters — General Long's incidents — Capt. Robert E. Lee's recollections — General orders — Letter from an English officer 163

CHAPTER VII. The Third Year of the War

Resignation of General Burnside and appointment of General Hooker — Mr. Lincoln's letter — General Lee's letters to his family — Kelley's ford — The campaign and battle of Chancellorsville — Death of Stonewall Jackson — Affectionate friendship between Lee and Jackson — Their last meeting and who suggested the flank movement — Lee's order announc : ng Jackson's death — His letters — His order announcing the victory — The cavalry battle of Fleetwood — Family letters — The Gettysburg campaign and battle — Accounts of this battle by Gen. Fitz Lee, General Long, Col. W. H. Taylor — Colonel Henderson of the British Army and Gen. R. Taylor — Family letters — General Lee's letter proposing to resign his command and President Davis's reply — Letters — His refusal of the gift of a house from the city of Richmond — In camp along the Rapidan — Letters to his sons, his wife, and others — The great revival in the Army — Family and other letters 222

CHAPTER VIII. The Last Year of the War

The last year of the war — Relative numbers and resources — Battle of the Wilderness — Spottsylvania Court House — Sheridan's raid and the death of Stuart — Hanover Junction — Cold Harbor — Fearful slaughter of 13,500 Federals to only 750 Confederates — Failure to carry Petersburg by assault — Failure of Hunter to capture Lynchburg — Defeat of Sheridan at Trevillian's Depot by Hampton and Fitz Lee — Hunter driven from Lynchburg and Early advancing on Washington — Grant besieging Richmond and Petersburg — Summary of the campaign — The siege of Petersburg and many brilliant affairs — Early's Valley campaign — In winter quarters — Lee's bold plan to unite with Johnston, and strike Sherman defeated by the weather, the roads, and the weakness of his starved horses — Capture of Fort Steadman — Letters showing Lee's feelings, hopes, and fears — Opening of the campaign — The immense odds of numbers and resources which Grant opposed to Lee —

CONTENTS 9

Confederate disaster at Five Forks — Lee's lines broken in several places at Petersburg — Evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg — Retreat — Great disaster at Sailor's Creek — The true story of Appomattox as told by General Lee himself — The story of Grant and Lee meeting under an apple tree and Grant returning Lee's sword refuted — General Lee's farewell address to his army — The magnanimous treatment of Lee and his army by Grant and his troops — Lee's agony of mind but calm deportment — Capt. Robert E. Lee's recollections 309

CHAPTER IX. After the War — Promoting Peace

In Richmond — Removal to Powhatan County — Indicted for "treason" in Judge Underwood's court — His letter to General Grant and application for amnesty — General Grant's letter to General Lee, and magnanimous course — General Lee's letters to his old soldiers and others, urging them to be law-abiding citizens — His refusal to become Governor of Virginia — He did not believe in "military statesmen or political generals" — His want of bitterness toward the North illustrated — His quiet rebuke of a distinguished clergyman and of other friends 382

CHAPTER X. The College President

Circumstances of his election — The condition of Washington College — Its history and associations — General Lee's feelings and purposes — His letter of acceptance — His simple arrival in Lexington and inauguration as president — His reforms and improvements in the College — His system of discipline — His thorough knowledge of the class standing and deportment of each student — His efforts for the religious welfare of the students — His great influence in that direction — Letter to the pastors — Conference with them and active cooperation — Prof. Edward S- Joynes on Lee as college president — Letters 405

CHAPTER XI. Analysis of his Character

Devotion to duty the keynote of his life — This illustrated by an anecdote given by Gen. John B. Magruder — Incident given by Ex-President Davis — Bishop Wilmer's interview with him — What he wrote on loose sheets found in his army satchel — Modest humility, simplicity, and gentleness of Lee illustrated by incidents and his own letters — His temperate habits and efforts to promote temperance in others — His refusals to accept gifts — Illustrations — His lack of nepotism illustrated — His social character illustrated — Wonderful memory of names and faces — Genial conversation, quiet wit or broad humor illustrated by anecdotes and letters — His domestic life further illustrated — Letter to Mr. Davis on his release from prison — His love for children illustrated — His Christian character illustrated by incidents, letters and extracts from his orders and dispatches — A man of prayer and a devout Bible student — A "son of consolation" to the afflicted 436

CHAPTER XII. - His Death and Funeral Service and the World's Tribute to his Memory

Causes of his sickness — From a vestry meeting to his death-bed — His last moments — His funeral — The world's tribute to his fame 474

Preface

It is not my purpose in this book to treat of the great war between the States, its causes, its conduct, or its results. Nor can I treat fully, in the space I shall use, of Lee the soldier, or Lee the man. But as it was my proud privilege to know General Lee in war and in peace, and to enjoy some peculiar facilities for studying his life and character, I think I may, without improper egotism, claim some qualifications for writing of him as he really was.

In the Army I came in somewhat frequent contact with him, but when he was President of Washington College from October, 1865, to October, 1870, 1 was one of his chaplains, and came into almost daily association with him, making it my business, as it was my great pleasure, to study those noble traits which made him grander in peace than in war. I was one of that band of loving hands who bore him to the tomb, when two continents mourned his death, and I had the honor of being selected by Mrs. Lee and the faculty of the College to edit the "Lee Memorial Volume" which it was proposed to publish soon after his death. When the publication of that book was abandoned I was encouraged and authorized to publish, with their full approval, my "Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of R. E. Lee." At that time I was given free access to General Lee's private letters and papers, and from that day I have carefully studied and preserved everything concerning him that has been published, or which I have been able to procure.

I come, then, to my present task with full knowledge of my subject and with warm and loving heart, desiring to present Lee to the world as I knew, and honored, and loved him myself.

XII PREFACE

I should be unworthy of the great man of whom I write if I should allow to creep into this book any of "the bitter memories of a stormy past," any partisan expression, anything which could reasonably offend the most sensitive of any section of our common country.

In the preparation of this volume I have consulted and, as occasion offered, used Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's "Life of Robert E. Lee," Gen. A. L. Long's Memoirs, Col. Walter H. Taylor's "Four Years with Lee," and Capt. Robert E. Lee's "Recollections of my Father," and many magazine and newspaper articles which I have preserved; and I have freely used my own "Personal Reminiscences." But it will be found that my treatment of the subject is fresh, and that a large proportion of the incidents and letters have never been published.

I send forth this book with the earnest prayer and confident hope that it may be acceptable to all lovers of true Christian manhood, and that it may prove useful, especially to the youth of our busy, bustling, progressive country, just entering upon the new century.

J. W. J.

Richmond, Va., June 5, 1906.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT E. LEE

SOLDIER AND MAN

Chapter I

Lineage— "Light Horse Harry" — Genl. Lee's own account of his lineage — Birth at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, the land of great men — Anne, the mother of Lee — Boyhood — His early teachers, Mr. Leary and Mr. Hallowell — ''Both son and daughter" to his widowed mother — The boy's quiet rebuke to an old man.

We naturally desire to know about the ancestry of great men ; for while it is far more important that men are something themselves than that their ancestors were great or good, yet it is true that "blood will tell," and that the lives of men are greatly influenced by the characteristics of those from whom the}" are descended.

Robert Edward Lee came of a long line of illustrious ancestors whose names were conspicuous both in England and America. Indeed, it may be justly claimed that he was the product of the highest type of our Anglo-Saxon manhood.

While we may insist that he was in himself a very king of men, and needs no royal lineage to add luster to his fame, yet jit is gratifying to his admirers to know that his ancestry can be (traced back to that noble Chief — Robert the Bruce.

The Lee family, which has given so many great men to America, is of ancient and honorable descent. As early as the year 1333 we are informed by an old manuscript that Johes de Lee, a soldier, received lands from one Hugo de Hinton. The son of this Jones de Lee was Robertus de la Lee and he married Margarita, daughter and heiress of Thomas Astley, of Nordley, about the year 1400. Later still, we find the name Thomas Lee, of Cotton, in King's Nordley, in the Parish of Alvely, who was the son of Johannes Lee. Later still, in the reign of Charles I, of England, the Lee family were located in the county of Shropshire, and were of the Cavalier stock. One of these, Richard Lee, a gentleman of good position and many accomplishments, determined to emigrate to the New World, concerning which such marvelous tales were being told. 'Brs-riep-Meajde of Virginia says of him, "He was a man of good stature, comely visage, enterprising genius, a sound head, a vigorous spirit, and generous nature. When he got to Virginia, which at that time was not much cultivated, he was so pleased with the country that he made large settlements there with the servants he carried over."

Richard Lee came to the Colony as secretary and member of the King's Privy Council. He made several voyages back to England, and finally settled in that part of Virginia lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, known as the Northern Neck. He was for a long time the Secretary of the Colony, under Sir William Berkeley, and exercised a marked influence upon the course which it pursued in the great revolution which made Cromwell master of England. Lee was a thorough royalist, and, together with the Governor, held the Colony firm in its allegiance to "Charlie over the water," He was prominent in negotiating the treaty between Virginia and the Commonwealth of England, which was so honorable to the Colony, and which recognized it as a free and independent State, and on the death of Cromwell he induced Governor Berkeley to have Charles II proclaimed "King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia" two years before the Restoration. In consequence of this step, the ancient motto of Virginia was En dat Virginia quintain, changed after the union of England and Scotland to En dat Virginia quartam.

Richard Lee died and was buried in Virginia. He left two sons, John and Richard. John was educated at Oxford, and was so accomplished that he was offered a fine opening in the church, with the prospect of advancement, but the offer was declined, as it was his father's wish that he should settle in Virginia. He died before his father. Richard Lee, the son, was a man of great learning. He passed his life in study, writing his notes habitually in Greek, Hebrew, or Latin. Some of these are now preserved in Virginia. He was a member of the Council, and held other posts of honor and emolument. He married a Miss Corbin, of England, and died about the year 1690, leaving five sons, Richard, Philip, Francis, Thomas, Henry, and one daughter who married William Fitzhugh, of Eagle's Nest, King George County, Virginia.

Of the sons, Richard, the eldest, went to England as a Virginia merchant, and became a partner of his maternal uncle, Thomas Corbin. He married in England and had three children, one son and two daughters, who came back to Virginia. Philip Lee, the second son, settled in Maryland and left a numerous progeny. Francis, the third son, died a bachelor. Thomas, the fourth son, married Miss Hannah Ludwell, a lady of fine family. The fifth son, Henry Lee, will be noticed farther on.

Thomas Lee, the fourth son of Richard Lee, was in many respects a remarkable man. By his marriag'e he allied himself with the Ludwells and Grymeses, two wealthy and influential families. He was a man of great learning, the greater part of which he taught himself, and eventually, though a younger son, became possessed of a large fortune. He soon acquired a leading position in the Colony, and was made President of the Council, which post he held many years, until his death. He became impressed at an early day with the idea that the western part of the Colony would be settled at some future time by a thriving community, and employed an engineer of note to explore the lands in that section, especially those bordering the Ohio River.

While President of the Council he declared to a friend that the Colonies would, of necessity, eventually be independent of Great Britain, and predicted that "the seat of Government would be located near the Little Falls of the Potomac River," where he soon after acquired large tracts of land, which were, within the present century, the property of his descendants.

He, resided at Stratford, but his mansion was destroyed by fire. He at once set about rebuilding it, and so greatly was he esteemed in the Colony and in England, that the Government and merchants alike, and, it is said, even Queen Caroline, contributed to defray the cost of the structure. Of this edifice Mr. Lossing says, "There is no structure in our country to compare with it. The walls of the first story are two and a half feet thick, and the second story two feet, composed of brick imported from England. It originally contained about one hundred rooms. Besides the main building, there are four offices, one at each corner, containing fifteen rooms. The stables are capable of accommodating one hundred horses. Its cost was about $80,000."

Thomas Lee died in 1750, and left six sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Philip Ludwell Lee, married a Miss Steptoe, and by her he had two daughters, of whom Matilda, the elder, married her second cousin, Col. Henry Lee (the father of Gen. R. E. Lee).

The second son of Thomas Lee was Thomas Ludwell Lee. The third son was Richard Henry Lee, the great champion of American independence. He was born on the 21st of January, 1732, and died June 19, 1794.

Richard Henry Lee it was who, by direction of the Virginia Convention on the 7th of June, 1776, offered in the Continental Congress the famous resolution, "That the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

The fourth son of Thomas Lee was Francis Lightfoot Lee, born October 14, 1734, died in April, 1797. He was, like his brother, Richard Henry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The fifth son was William Lee, who settled in London. The sixth son was Arthur Lee, who, says Bishop Meade, "As a scholar, a writer, a philosopher, a politician, and a diplomatist was surpassed by none, and equalled by few, of his contemporaries. The services rendered by him to his country, as her minister at foreign courts, were most valuable."

We must now return to Henry Lee, the fifth son of Richard Lee, the ancestor of the subject of this memoir. He married a Miss Bland and had several children. His third son, Henry, married a Miss Grymes, and by her had five sons and three daughters, viz : Henry, the famous soldier of the Revolution ; Charles, Richard Bland, Theodoric, and Edmund, and Mary, Lucy and Anne.

Henry Lee, the eldest son, was born January 29, 1756. He was educated at first by a private tutor at home, and then sent to Princeton College, then under charge of Dr. Witherspoon, where he graduated in 1774. In 1776 Patrick Henry nominated him to the command of a cavalry company raised in Virginia for service in the Continental Army, under the general command of Colonel Bland.

In 1777 Lee's corps was placed under Washington's immediate control, and under the energetic leadership of its young captain acquired a high reputation for discipline and efficiency. Lee was made a major and his legion performed many daring exploits.

In July, 1779, he captured a British fort at Paulus Hook (Jersey City), for which he received from Congress the thanks of that body and a gold medal. In November, 1780, he was made lieutenant-colonel, and early in 1781 joined General Greene in the Carolinas, where he increased his already brilliant renown. About the beginning of 1782, after the battle of Eutaw Springs, Colonel Lee returned to Virginia, and married his first wife, Matilda, daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq., of Stratford, where he resided with his father-in-law and inherited this historic old place. In 1786 he was elected to a seat in Congress. In 1791 he was chosen Governor of Virginia. In 1794 he was appointed by Washington, his warm friend and admirer, to command the troops sent to quell the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania.

In 1799 he was again a member of Congress, and was chosen by that body to pronounce a funeral oration on the death of Washington, in the House of Representatives. He prepared the oration, but being imperatively called away, it was delivered by his friend Judge Marshall. It was in this oration on the "Father of his Country" that General Lee used the famous and often-quoted eulogy, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens."

Having been greatly distinguished as a soldier, General Lee became famous as an orator, and his "Memoirs of the War of '76" gave him wide reputation as a writer, and is still considered a standard, so far at least as operations in the Southern Department are described.

Two editions of this book having been exhausted, Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1869 brought out a third, which contains a charming biography of "Light Horse Harry" written by his still more illustrious son, who neglected his proposed history of his own campaigns that he might pay this loving tribute to his distinguished father.

Gen. Henry Lee stood in the Virginia Convention with James Madison, John Marshall, Edmund Randolph, and others in favor of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States adopted by the Convention of 1787. He was one of the ablest debaters in meeting the opposition led by such men as Patrick Henry — "the forest-born Demosthenes," George Mason, Benjamin Harrison, and William Grayson.

But while heartily favoring the Federal Union, he was an ardent States' Rights man, and favored the famous Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99, and said in that debate,

"Virginia is my country; her will I obey, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me." In a letter to Mr. Madison in January, 1792, General Lee said, "No consideration on earth could induce me to act a part, however gratifying to me, which could be construed into disregard of, or faithlessness to, this commonwealth." It was in this school that his son Robert Edward was reared.

Gen. Henry Lee had moved to Alexandria for the purpose of educating his children, and was living there when the war of 1 81 2 broke out, and he was offered and had accepted a commission as major-general in the United States Army. On a visit to Baltimore, however, while defending a friend whose house was being attacked by an angry mob, he received injuries which prevented him from serving in the Army, and ultimately resulted in his death.

Ill health caused by these injuries impelled him to go to the West Indies, where he remained for nearly five years, when abandoning all hope of recovery he started for home. He grew so much worse, however, as the schooner on which he sailed neared the south Georgia coast that he begged to be landed on Cumberland Island, where at "Dungeness," the estate of his old Revolutionary commander, Gen. Nathaniel Greene, he found a safe asylum and careful nursing from the daughter of General Greene, Mrs. James Shaw.

But all was in vain. He lingered in great suffering for two months after he landed, and on March 25, 1818, the gallant and gifted soldier answered his "last roll call," and was buried at the home of his old commander and loved friend, General Greene.

Just before the breaking out of the great war between the States, the legislature of Virginia passed resolutions looking to the removal of his remains to Richmond and the erection of a monument to his memory, but the war and the sad days which followed prevented the carrying out of this purpose, and "Light Horse Harry" still sleeps at beautiful "Dungeness."

General Lee's second wife was Anne Hill Carter, daughter of Charles Hill Carter of Shirley, one of those famous old places on the James River.

The four children by his first wife all died early. His children by his second marriage were Algeron Sydney, Charles Carter, Sydney Smith, Robert Edward, Anne, and Mildred.

The eldest boy died in infancy.

The second, Charles Carter Lee, was educated at Cambridge, studied law, and was widely known and sought after for his literary tastes, ability as a speaker and writer, and high social qualities. His songs and stories, wit and humor made him the life of every circle in which he moved, and the idol of his immediate friends and relatives.

The third son, Sydney Smith Lee, entered the United States Navy, served his country in that branch of the service for 34 years with great ability and high distinction, "went with his State" when Virginia seceded from the Union, and served with zeal, gallantry, and skill in the Confederate Navy so far as opportunity offered. His oldest son was Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, the distinguished Confederate cavalryman who rode with "Jeb" Stuart and Wade Hampton, and so ably commanded the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia at the close of the war ; who was one of the best and most popular Governors Virginia ever had ; who won wide reputation for his ability, conservatism, and firmness as Consul General at Havana prior to the war between the United States and Spain; who was major-general of Volunteers in that war, and commanded a Department of Cuba since; who was made brigadier-general in the Regular Army of the United States, and was then placed on the retired list. His death, which occurred last year, caused wide-spread sorrow North and South. He was popular with all sections and all classes, and added new luster to the honored name he bore.

Gen. Henry Lee's oldest daughter married Mr. William Marshall of Baltimore, who remained a Union man during the war, and it was to this sister that Gen. R. E. Lee wrote his famous letter on resigning from the United States Army. The other daughter, Mildred, married Mr. Edward Vernon Childe of Massachusetts, and afterwards lived in Paris, where she died. Edward Lee Childe, their oldest son, wrote in French a very popular life of Robert E. Lee, which was translated into English, and had considerable sale in England and in this country.

Robert Edward Lcc, the fourth son of Gen. Henry Lee, was born at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 19, 1807.

Is there another State in America which has given birth to as many illustrious sons as "the old Dominion" ? Is there another county that has produced greater men than Westmoreland? Pope's Creek, where George Washington was born, is in the same county, only a short distance from Stratford, and within an hour's ride are the birthplaces of President Madison, President James Monroe, Charles Lee, Washington's Attorney- General ; and Arthur Lee, the accomplished diplomat who negotiated the treaty between France and the Colonies in 1777. And is there a house in America where there were born so many illustrious men as Stratford, where in the same room were born Richard Henry Lee, the mover of the Declaration of Independence, and "the Cicero of the American Revolution" ; Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the signers of the Declaration, Sydney Smith Lee, one of the brightest ornaments of the American Navy; and Robert Edward Lee, the great soldier and model man of America?

Anne Carter, the mother of Robert E. Lee, was of equally illustrious ancestry as his father, since she was of one of the noblest families in Virginia and in England. Her grandmother was a daughter of Alexander Spottswood, who fought with Marlborough at Blenheim, was Governor of Virginia in 1770, led across the mountains to the beautiful Valley of Virginialtot ' gallant band of gentlemen whom he dubbed as "Knights of the golden horseshoe," and whose own descent has been traced in a direct line back to King Robert the Bruce of Scotland.