To a committee of Virginians who had called on him to ascertain the truth, his reply was, that he felt bound to accept any post the duties of which his country believed him competent to perform.  After the battle of Gettysburg he tendered his resignation to President Davis, because he was apprehensive his failure, the responsibility for which he did not pretend to throw on his troops or officers, would produce distrust of his abilities and destroy his usefulness.  I am informed the President, in a beautiful and touching letter, declined to listen to such a proposition.  During the whole period of the war he steadily declined all presents, and when, on one occasion, a gentleman sent him several dozen of wine, he turned it over to the hospitals in Richmond, saying the wounded and sick needed it more than he.  He was extremely simple and unostentatious in his habits, and shared with his soldiers their privations as well as their dangers.  Toward the close of the war, meat was very scarce within the Confederate lines in the neighborhood of the contending armies.  An aide of the President, having occasion to visit General Lee en official business in the field, was invited to dinner.  The meal spread on the table consisted of corn-bread and a small piece of bacon buried in a large dish of greens.  The quick-eyed aide discovered that none of the company, which was composed of the general’s personal staff, partook of the meat, though requested to do so in the most urbane manner by the general, who presided; he, therefore, also declined, and noticed that the meat was carried off untouched.  After the meal was over, he inquired of one of the officers present what was the reason for this extraordinary conduct.  His reply was, ’We had borrowed the meat for the occasion, and promised to return it.’

“Duty alone induced this great soldier to submit to such privation, for the slightest intimation given to friends in Richmond would have filled his tent with all the luxuries that blockade-runners and speculators had introduced for the favored few able to purchase.

“This performance of duty was accompanied by no harsh manner or cynical expressions; for the man whose soul is ennobled by true heroism, possesses a heart as tender as it is firm.  His calmness under the most trying circumstances, and his uniform sweetness of manner, were almost poetical.  They manifested ’the most sustained tenderness of soul that ever caressed the chords of a lyre.’  In council he was temperate and patient, and his words fell softly and evenly as snow-flakes, like the sentences that fell from the lips of Ulysses.