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LEE NUMBER mn.il T U C* d n * U-IBRARYJ JMjjISSzEArW, g& - - VOLUME ONE. ATT ANTA C* A TANTTARY 17 1 QA7 M TWO DOLLARS A YEAH. NO. FORTY- EIGHT. £ll JL/\IN 1' Vx/X., JZTINUrkIXI A/, 17V/. FIVE CENTS A COPY. 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 ■'■' i . " ’ t J ■ r ■' ‘ • ■ i ■ ' .. * ■ I■ • ■ r ■ S yfv' ~ i ■■ '■ < ' V" s , ?. ‘W ’FWJS /'fc ' ’/f 1 —■— nmii- - — 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. e .: ■' v Os , ‘ > :** i , fi •* *1 - j-’-a i »«m» riot I j 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