A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee. John Esten Cooke
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VI.—Flank Movement of General Sedgwick
VII.—Lee's Generalship and Personal Demeanor during the Campaign
VIII.—Personal Relations of Lee and Jackson
IX.—Circumstances leading to the Invasion of Pennsylvania
X.—Lee's Plans and Objects
XI.—The Cavalry-fight at Fleetwood
XII.—The March to Gettysburg
XIII.—Lee in Pennsylvania
XIV.—Concentration at Gettysburg
XV.—The First Day's Fight at Gettysburg
XVI.—The Two Armies in Position
XVII.—The Second Day
XVIII.—The Last Charge at Gettysburg
XIX.—Lee after the Charge
XX.—Lee's Retreat across the Potomac
XXI.—Across the Blue Ridge again
PART VII.
LAST CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 1863.
I.—The Cavalry of Lee's Army
II.—Lee flanks General Meade
III.—A Race between Two Armies
IV.—The Fight at Buckland
V.—The Advance to Mine Run
VI.—Lee in the Autumn and Winter of 1863
PART VIII.
LEE'S LAST CAMPAIGNS AND LAST DAYS.
I.—General Grant crosses the Rapidan
II.—The First Collision in the Wilderness
III.—The Battle of the 6th of May
IV.—The 12th of May
V.—From Spottsylvania to the Chickahominy
VI.—First Battles at Petersburg
VII.—The Siege of Richmond begun
VIII.—Lee threatens Washington
IX.—The Mine Explosion
X.—End of the Campaign of 1864
XI.—Lee in the Winter of 1864-'65
XII.—The Situation at the Beginning of 1865
XIII.—Lee attacks the Federal Centre
XIV.—The Southern Lines broken
XV.—Lee evacuates Petersburg
XVI.—The Retreat and Surrender
XVII.—Lee returns to Richmond
XVIII.—General Lee after the War
XIX.—General Lee's Last Years and Death
APPENDIX.
I.—The Funeral of General Lee
II.—Tributes to General Lee
A LIFE
OF
GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE.
PART I.
LEE'S EARLY LIFE,
I.
INTRODUCTION.
The name of Lee is beloved and respected throughout the world. Men of all parties and opinions unite in this sentiment, not only those who thought and fought with him, but those most violently opposed to his political views and career. It is natural that his own people should love and honor him as their great leader and defender in a struggle of intense bitterness—that his old enemies should share this profound regard and admiration is due solely to the character of the individual. His military genius will always be conceded, and his figure remain a conspicuous landmark in history; but this does not account for the fact that his very enemies love the man. His private character is the origin of this sentiment. The people of the North, no less than the people of the South, feel that Lee was truly great; and the harshest critic has been able to find nothing to detract from this view of him. The soldier was great, but the man himself was greater. No one was ever simpler, truer, or more honest. Those who knew him best loved him the most. Reserved and silent, with a bearing of almost austere dignity, he impressed many persons as cold and unsympathetic, and his true character was long in revealing itself to the world. To-day all men know what his friends knew during his life—that under the grave exterior of the soldier, oppressed with care and anxiety, beat a warm and kindly heart, full of an even extraordinary gentleness and sweetness; that the man himself was not cold, or stiff, or harsh, but patient, forbearing, charitable under many trials of his equanimity, and magnanimous without effort, from the native impulse of his heart. Friend and foe thus to-day regard him with much the same sentiment, as a genuinely honest man, incapable of duplicity in thought or deed, wholly good and sincere, inspired always under all temptations by that prisca fides which purifies and ennobles, and resolutely bent, in the dark hour, as in the bright, on the full performance of his duty. "Duty is the sublimest word in our language," he wrote to his son; and, if we add that other august maxim, "Human virtue should be equal to human calamity," we shall have in a few words a summary of the principles which inspired Lee.
The crowning grace of this man, who was thus not only great but good, was the humility and trust in God, which lay at the foundation of his character. Upon this point we shall quote the words of a gentleman of commanding intellect, a bitter opponent of the South in the war:
"Lee is worthy of all praise. As a man, he was fearless among men. As a soldier, he had no superior and no equal. In the course of Nature my career on earth may soon terminate. God grant that, When the day of my death shall come, I may look up to Heaven with that confidence and faith which the life and character of Robert E. Lee gave him. He died trusting in God as a good man, with a good life, and a pure conscience."
He had lived, as he died, with this supreme trust in an overruling and merciful Providence; and this sentiment, pervading his whole being, was the origin of that august calmness with which he greeted the most crushing disasters of his military career. His faith and humble trust sustained him after the war, when the woes of the South wellnigh broke his great spirit; and he calmly expired, as a weary child falls asleep, knowing that its father is near.
Of this eminent soldier and man whose character offers so great an example, a memoir is attempted in this volume. The work will necessarily be "popular" rather than full and elaborate, as the public and private correspondence of Lee are not at this time accessible. These will throw a fuller light on the subject; but sufficient material is at the disposal of the writer to enable him to present an accurate likeness of Lee, and to narrate clearly the incidents of his career. In doing so, the aim of the author is to measure out full justice to all—not to arouse old enmities, which should be allowed to slumber, but to treat his subject with the judicial moderation of the student of history.