Lieut.  LEE resigned, married, and settled on his farm, the White House, on the Pamunkey.  With the prattle of little children around his knees and pastoral scenes before him, his prospects were those of domestic tranquillity and joy.

What a rush was there to the standards when war broke out in 1861!  Americans acted like Americans.  They divided in conviction.  They did not differ as to the method of dealing with conviction.  To divide was the propulsion of conditions, to fight the law of blood.  Not one of the Lees had provoked war, but not one stood back.  The whole family of Lees became representative soldiers of their people; Gen. Robert E. Lee commanded the greatest of the Southern armies and his brother became an admiral of the Southern navy.  His sons and nephews were soldiers and sailors.

The nephew of Northern identity kept place with the North.  The more numerous class of Southern identity kept place with the South; the boy, a private in the ranks or cadet on shipboard, the young men leading companies and regiments and winning brigades and divisions, the sire and chief commanding all.  Their names are interwoven with war’s dread story and splendid deed.  Not one had any reproach; not one struck a blow below the belt.  The woman, the child, the captive found a fortress in the hand of Lee, the foeman met his peer.  The history of two continents and many centuries was written over again on fields of blood.

WILLIAM H.F.  LEE raised a company of cavalry at the beginning of the war and surrendered as a major-general of cavalry at Appomattox.  He fought his way to his rank and suffered all of war’s vicissitudes save death.  His men believed in him and followed him.  He was wounded; he was twice a prisoner; he was held as a hostage in solitary confinement with death impending.  His wife and his children died while he lay wounded and in prison.  Whatever man may suffer he suffered to the uttermost.  Amongst his first acts when he emerged from prison was to visit, shake hands with and congratulate the Federal officer for whom he had been held as hostage.  He was a representative Christian, void of vindictiveness and uncomplaining; he made no outcry of pain; he sealed his lips to reproach.

I knew him well, respected him profoundly, and loved him dearly.  I have often heard him speak at gatherings of old soldiers and on a variety of occasions; sometimes those of turbulence.  I have marveled at his self-poise and reserved power.  Never once did I hear him say ill of any man, nor allude to his own sufferings or deeds, nor utter words of bitterness.  He took his lot as it came to him, as a man who does the best he can and leaves the rest to the Disposer of events.  His conscience and his human sympathy, like his soldiership, were instincts, and his Christian creed was the sum of his intuitions.  Gen. LEE was a representative of the times in which he lived, eccentric in no opinion, even-tempered, wise, cautious, prudent, steadfast, and gentle; he sought to be useful rather than to shine.  He took deep and active interest in all that concerned his State.