The renewal of our acquaintance soon satisfied me that the experience of life had strengthened and developed all that was good and noble and manly in the young student.  The same warmth and cordiality which had endeared him to his classmates won the regard and affection of his associates here.  The same general ability and rotundity of character which had made him prominent in the little world of college life made him useful and influential in various lines of duty in the wide field of Congressional legislation.

During the intervening years the manly bearing, the physical superiority, the nobility of spirit which had characterized him in the earlier days had made him a leader among men when the storm of war raged over the land.  Brief as were the days of the unacknowledged Southern Confederacy, his name was enrolled in bright letters upon the pages of its history, and his brave deeds will in future days be chronicled in song and story by those who admire true courage and recognize all that was gallant and noble and heroic in the lives of all those who fought on both sides of our great struggle as worthy of preservation and commemoration.

When LEE first left college his military duties, as has been already stated, carried him to the far West, and he there saw some rough service.  The Utah expedition was a training school for soldiers and generals, and many who afterwards gained renown and fame, under the different standards were there associated together in a common duty.  Besides the leader and commander, Col.  Johnston, were Robert E. Lee, Hardee, Thomas, Kirby Smith, Palmer, Stoneman, Fitz Lee, and Hood.  When the Army first entered upon this service there was a small cloud of war in the horizon, but it soon cleared away, and the company to which LEE was attached was assigned to a dull and monotonous routine of garrison life.  This possessed no attractions for the young lieutenant, and there were other influences drawing him towards his native State.  He resigned his commission, returned to Virginia, and settled at the White House, in New Kent County, where George Washington had married the widow Custis.

The plantation had descended to her son, George Washington Parke Custis, and from him through LEE’s mother to the grandson.  He soon established his cousin, Miss Wickham, as queen of this historic home, and he was here with his little family amid these surroundings, with everything to make life attractive, when Virginia and her sister States of the South passed their ordinances of secession and sent delegates to Montgomery to unite in the attempt to form a Southern Confederacy.  LEE never doubted that allegiance was due first to his State, and when war followed he drew his sword in defense of Virginia.

As long as the strife continued he avoided no danger, he shunned no peril, he feared no adversary.