[Footnote 1:  This was afterward done by one of the Federal judges, but resulted in nothing.]

The incidents here related define the views and feelings of General Lee as accurately as they could be set forth in a whole volume.  The defeated commander, who could open his poor purse to “one of our old soldiers who fought on the other side,” and pray daily during the bitterest of conflicts for his enemies, must surely have trained his spirit to the perfection of Christian charity.

Of the strength and controlling character of General Lee’s religious convictions we have more than once spoken in preceding pages of this volume.  These now seemed to exert a more marked influence over his life, and indeed to shape every action and utterance of the man.  During the war he had exhibited much greater reserve upon this the most important of all subjects which can engage the attention of a human being; and, although he had been from an early period, we believe, a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he seldom discussed religious questions, or spoke of his own feelings, presenting in this a marked contrast, as we have said, to his illustrious associate General Jackson.

Even during the war, however, as the reader has seen in our notices of his character at the end of 1863, General Lee’s piety revealed itself in conversations with his chaplains and other good men; and was not concealed from the troops, as on the occasion of the prayer-meeting in the midst of the fighting at Mine Run.  On another occasion, when reviewing his army near Winchester, he was seen to raise his hat to a chaplain with the words, “I salute the Church of God;” and again, near Petersburg, was observed kneeling in prayer, a short distance from the road, as his troops marched by.  Still another incident of the period—­that of the war—­will be recorded here in the words of the Rev. J. William Jones, who relates it: 

“Not long before the evacuation of Petersburg, the writer was one day distributing tracts along the trenches, when he perceived a brilliant cavalcade approaching.  General Lee—­accompanied by General John B. Gordon, General A.P.  Hill, and other general officers, with their staffs—­was inspecting our lines and reconnoitring those of the enemy.  The keen eye of Gordon recognized, and his cordial grasp detained, the humble tract-distributor, as he warmly inquired about his work.  General Lee at once reined in his horse and joined in the conversation, the rest of the party gathered around, and the humble colporteur thus became the centre of a group of whose notice the highest princes of earth might well be proud.  General Lee asked if we ever had calls for prayer-books, and said that if we would call at his headquarters he would give us some for distribution—­’that some friend in Richmond had given him a new prayer-book, and, upon his saying that he would give his old one, that he had used ever since the Mexican War,