In 1855 my father was appointed to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Second Cavalry, one of the two regiments just raised.  He left West Point to enter upon his new duties, and his family went to Arlington to live.  During the fall and winter of 1855 and ’56, the Second Cavalry was recruited and organised at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, under the direction of Colonel Lee, and in the following spring was marched to western Texas, where it was assigned the duty of protecting the settlers in that wild country.

I did not see my father again until he came to my mother at Arlington after the death of her father, G. W. P. Custis, in October, 1857.  He took charge of my mother’s estate after her father’s death, and commenced at once to put it in order—­not an easy task, as it consisted of several plantations and many negroes.  I was at a boarding-school, after the family returned to Arlington, and saw my father only during the holidays, if he happened to be at home.  He was always fond of farming, and took great interest in the improvements he immediately began at Arlington relating to the cultivation of the farm, to the buildings, roads, fences, fields, and stock, so that in a very short time the appearance of everything on the estate was improved.  He often said that he longed for the time when he could have a farm of his own, where he could end his days in quiet and peace, interested in the care and improvement of his own land.  This idea was always with him.  In a letter to his son, written in July, 1865, referring to some proposed indictments of prominent Confederates, he says: 

“...  As soon as I can ascertain their intention toward me, if not prevented, I shall endeavour to procure some humble, but quiet abode for your mother and sisters, where I hope they can be happy.  As I before said, I want to get in some grass country where the natural product of the land will do much for my subsistence, ...”

Again in a letter to his son, dated October, 1865, after he had accepted the presidency of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia: 

“I should have selected a more quiet life and a more retired abode than Lexington.  I should have preferred a small farm, where I could have earned my daily bread.”

About this time I was given a gun of my own, and was allowed to go shooting by myself.  My father, to give me an incentive, offered a reward for every crow-scalp I could bring him, and, in order that I might get to work at once, advanced a small sum with which to buy powder and shot, this sum to be returned to him out of the first scalps obtained.  My industry and zeal were great, my hopes high, and by good luck I did succeed in bagging two crows about the second time I went out.  I showed them with great pride to my father, intimating that I should shortly be able to return him his loan, and that he must be prepared to hand over to me very soon further rewards for my skill.  His eyes twinkled, and his smile showed that he had strong doubts of my making an income by killing crows, and he was right, for I never killed another, though I tried hard and long.