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VOLUME ONE. ATT ANTA C* A TANTTARY 17 1 QA7 M TWO DOLLARS A YEAH.
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ROSEKT EDWARD LEE.
N approaching the momentous subject
of the influence of General Robert E.
Lee as a man and a soldier, as a Chris
tian gentleman and a loyal citizen, we
do so reverently and carefully because
we know that it is not given to us of
today to fully estimate the value of so
potent a force in our national life as
that which was generated by this brave,
I
unsullied yet decidedly complex charac
ter. Forty years ago it would have
seemed chimerical to even dimly predict
the attitude with which the entire civ
ilized world would grow to regard the
life and character of Lee; yet even then
he had begun to command recognition
because of his remarkable ability as a
soldier and his wonderful attributes as
a man. At his death, some ten years
later, there arose a wave of admiring
interest and enthusiasm which extended
from end to end of the United 'States,
which embraced the ranks of friends
and foes alike and which even spread
beyond the sea. This wave, as we ap
proach the hundredth anniversary of
Lee’s birth, has assumed overwhelming
proportions until we believe there is
scarcely a person within the range of
■civilization nor a people within reach
of the English language who can claim
ignorance of this man’s life or of his
work.
Yet, when, on January 19,1807, the
child, Robert Edward, first saw the light
within the stately walls of old Stratford
House on the banks of the picturesque
Potomac in fair Virginia, there seemed
only the unblemished record of a long
line of distinguished ancestors to war
rant the belief that this latest claimant
for distinction would bear within him
self forces which, when developed,
would move to the uttermost depths the
admiring homage of the world. At the
time mentioned the country was pros-
perous and peaceful—the South was in its renais
sance of commercial prosperity; the North was, by
reflection, equally successful in all its undertakings;
political strife, either international or internecine,
was then undreamed of and all indications pointed
to the peaceful, uneventful life of a Virginia coun
try gentleman for the youngest Lee. Culture and
scholarly attainments were the heritage of his race,
as was also an inherent military tendency which,
in this instance, was furthered by the entrance of
the young man into the Military Academy of the
United States at West Point. Even in those ear
ly days the course of training and study at the
great military school was exceedingly rigid, but
His Place in History and His Politer as Plan.
it is stated that during the entire four years’
course Robert Edward Lee was never once guilty
of a breach of discipline and never once was he
given a “demerit.”
He graduated in 1829, second in his class, and
soon thereafter he was given the rank of lieutenant
and assigned to duty in a corps of Topographical
Engineers. Already the delightful manners, the
natural gayety and chivalrous courtesy of the
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young officer had won for him friends and admir
ers, and in addition to his great personal beauty
—on which all of his biographers comment—he was
distinguished for a certain graceful and dignified
cordiality of address which he never lost, even
during the trials and perplexities of his later life.
In 1832 he married Miss Mary Custis, a daughter
of George Washington Parke Custis of Arlington,
the adopted son of General George Washington.
This marriage was a particularly happy one, and
resulted in the eventual possession of the magnifi
cent home of Arlington to which General Lee be
came much attached. His work was that usually
given to Government engineers and he saw no active
27y 5. T. Dalsheimer.
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military service until the outbreak of the Mexican
war in 1846, when he was assigned to duty as
Chief Engineer of the Central Army of Mexico.
His services during the entire conflict with Mexico
seem to have been of a distinguished character, as
he was early admitted into the most serious confer
ences and General Winfield Scott is reported to
have said that “the success in Mexico was largely
due to the skill, valor and undaunted energy of
Capt. Robert E. Lee.” At the close of
the Mexican War these services were
given due recognition and he was made
Major, and finally Colonel in the United
States Army. He returned to his work
on the topographical corps, but in 1855
was given his first command. Up toi
that time he had served only as military
engineer, astronomer and staff officer,
but when an Act of Congress directed
that two new cavalry regiments be raised
Lee was given the captaincy in one of
them—the 'Second Cavalry. Positions
of this kind were eagerly sought, and
this regiment is remarkable for the num
ber of names on its roster which after
ward became distinguished in military
annals. The commander was Albert
Sidney Johnson, while other ranking
officers were Kirby Smith, Hood, Fitz
hugh Lee Johnson, Palmer and Stone
man—men afterwards destined to hold
high positions in the support of the
separate causes which they personally
espoused.
Lee’s First “Active Service.’’
During the time that Capt. Lee held
this position he was brought into promi
nence but once—when he was called
upon to quell the “John Brown Raid,”
an incident which seemed to foreshadow
the coming storm. This incident occur
red at Harper’s Ferry, in 1859, and was
caused by an effort on the part of John
Brown and his colleagues to create an
insurrection of slaves in Virginia and
surrounding states. As is well known, Lee success
fully captured the leader and turned him and his
companions over to the authorities of Virginia.
The first note of Civil War had been struck, and
within a comparatively short time following the in
cident just mentioned, the first gun was fired from
Fort Sumter, and the erstwhile peaceful country
was suddenly plunged into all the horrors of a con
flict which is said to have no equal in the annals
of she world.
But we do not believe that during all the blood
stained time that followed there was a single bat
tle fought more bravely or which entailed more per
sonal sacrifice and struggle than that which this