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Page 3 The Confederate government in May, 1861, employed his
splendid talent for organization, an advantageous employment,
indeed, but one that kept him from that command in the field for
which he was eminently qualified.
 Subsequently
the expeditions in the West Virginia campaign were attended with
such peculiar disadvantages that General Lee had the mortification
of observing a sudden and unjust waning of his reputation. Thus his
service in the field for which he was best fitted was still further
postponed, and he spent the winter of 1861 in command of the
department of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, to which he was
assigned by President Davis, giving his talents as an engineer to
organization of a system of coast defense. From these duties he was
called in March, 1862, to become the military adviser of the
President, a position in which he gave constant attention to the
movements of the enemy as well as to the Confederate means of
defense, and was in readiness to assume any duty that might be
assigned.
The severe wounding of General J. E. Johnston, at the
battle of Seven Pines, and the illness of General G. W. Smith,
next in rank, brought to him the command of the army of Northern
Virginia, which he immediately led to successive victories over
the great armies of McClellan, Pope, Burnside and Hooker,
attaining for him. self, in a few months, a fame for generalship
which spread over the world.
His subsequent career throughout the Confederate
struggle was distinguished by his regard for the humane usages
of war; his exhibition of great military skill; a spirited
personal courage, as well as that nerve of leader. ship that
impelled him to give battle whenever he saw an opportunity to
strike an effective blow; a courteous bearing toward his
officers and a tender concern for the welfare of the men in
line; an untiring attention to details and an unexcelled
devotion to duty. All these characteristics and much more were
made apparent as the war wore on to its disastrous end.
The details which establish his reputation as a military
genius are to be found in all the books which have been written
on the Confederate war. Referring to them for special
information we pass on to see him at Appomattox, nobly yielding
himself and his army when resistance was no longer possible, and
then departing for his home, to refuse offers of place that
would bring profit and high civil position, and finally turning
his glorious life into channels of beneficent influence.
With clear insight into all the merits of the cause for
which he drew his sword in 1861, he wrote on January 5, 1866:
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union as
established by our fathers should be preserved, and that the
government as originally organized should be administered in
purity and truth." Six months later he wrote: "I had no other
guide, nor had I any other object than the defense of those
principles of American liberty upon which the constitutions of
the several States were originally founded, and unless they are
strictly observed I fear there will be an end of Republican
government in this country."
He lived only a few years after the fall of the
Confederacy, and those years were nearly all spent in service as
president of the Washington-Lee college. The anxieties of his
military life had changed his hair to gray, but he was still in
vigorous health. His nearest friends alone saw that his sympathy
for the misfortunes of his people became a malady which
physicians could not remove. With sincere purpose to observe his
parole, and, after all military operations had ceased, to lend
his influence fully to peace, he carefully avoided all things
which would irritate the people in power. Rigidly preserving his
convictions, as he felt he must do, he nevertheless promoted the
restoration of harmony among the people of the whole country.
Thus his life passed until he was suddenly seized with sickness
on the 28th of September, 1870, at his home in Lexington, and on
Wednesday morning, October 12th, he died in the Christian's
faith, which he had all his life confessed. Demonstrations of
sorrow as sincere as they were imposing manifested the great
love of his own people in the South, but these exhibitions also
extended into the North, and from the European press America
learned how highly the eminent Confederate was esteemed abroad.
"The grave of this noble hero is bedewed with the most tender
and sacred tears ever shed upon a human tomb. A whole nation has
risen up in the spontaneity of its grief to render the tribute
of its love." His name will lure his countrymen to revere truth
and pay devotion to duty, and until the nation ceases to be free
the glory of his character will be cherished as priceless
national treasure.
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