CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF THE LEE FAMILY.-GENERAL LEE'S EARLY CAMPAIGNS.-HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE FEDERAL ARMY.

THE character of a man is always best explained and understood when one knows something of his origin. He often resumes and accumulates in his person the most remarkable qualities of his ancestors. In General Lee we shall discover more than one trait of the members of his family. The Lees of Virginia spring from an old English family, whose patrimonial estates were situated in Essex. In 1192, we find a Lionel Lee at the head of a company of gentlemen, accompanying Richard Coeur de Lion in the third crusade. He so distinguished himself at the Siege of Saint Jean d'Acre, that, on his return, King Richard created him Earl of Lichfield, and gave him the property of Ditchley, a name which subsequently was borne by one of the Lees' estates in Virginia. The armour which Lionel wore in the Holy Land can still be seen in the Tower of London.

In 1542, Richard Lee entered Scotland with the Earl of Surrey. Two members of the family were at that time Knights of the Garter, and their banners, with the Lees' arms above, are suspended in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.

Under Elizabeth, Sir Henry Lee was a Knight of the Garter. The title of Earl of Lichfield was still in the Lee family in 1674. Richard Lee, the seventh son of Sir Robert Lee, of Hullcott, and younger brother of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, came to. Virginia in the reign of Charles I. as secretary to the colony.

After an absence in England, he returned to settle for good in the country. Altogether royalist, like all his family, he did not wait for the end of the English Commonwealth to proclaim Charles II. The rest of his days were given up to the care of his vast estates, and the direction of the affairs of the colony.

Thomas Lee, grandson of Richard, was President of the Colonial Council, and Governor of Virginia, the first man of American birth named to this post by the English Government. Three of his sons played a remarkable part in the War of Independence: Richard Henry Lee, one of the best orators and debaters in the United States Congress; Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the signatories to the Act of Independence; and Arthur Lee, who represented, in France and elsewhere, the colonial insurgents.

General Henry Lee, the contemporary and friend of Washington, father of General R. E. Lee, was grandson of a brother of President Lee. He took service in 1776. After having valiantly and brilliantly fought under the eyes of Washington, he went, in 1781, with his regiment of light cavalry, become celebrated by its exploits, to join General Green's corps in the Carolinas.

There he rendered great service in the series of operations which led to the surrender of the English army under Lord Cornwallis. The memoirs left by him on his campaign are remarkable. He was a man of well-cultivated mind, as is proved by some admirable letters addressed to one of his sons, very energetic, brilliant in conversation, having in a very high degree the mens aqua in arduis. Become Governor of Virginia and member of congress, he pronounced the funeral oration of Washington. He died himself in 1818.

It was at Stratford, in the county of Westmoreland (Virginia), that Robert Edward Lee, the third son of the preceding, was born. Before passing to the accidental events of Robert Lee's public life, let us stop a moment to contemplate the old dwelling where he first saw the light, on January 19th, 1807. Those old walls,

mute and sad witnesses of the past, attract us, not only because they saw the birth of an illustrious man, but also because they recall to us a state of society which exists no longer, and of which they are one of the last remaining monuments.

Stratford House was originally built by Richard Lee, the first of the name who came to America. It was destroyed by a fire in the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the time of Thomas Lee. A member of the council-royal, Thomas Lee was much beloved; as soon as the disaster was known, contributions flowed in on all sides from persons desirous to testify to him their esteem. Queen Caroline herself wished to contribute, and wrote Lee an autograph letter. The mansion rapidly rose again; the bricks of which it was built, the wainscoting, and furniture all came from England. Goodly dwellings like this had at that time their reasonable purpose. Lost in the depths of the country, they served as a refuge and place of assembly for all the members of the family. The eldest son succeeded the father, and the representative of the family continued to reside there from generation to generation. These times exist no longer; and the love of the hearth and family recollections have disappeared with them.

Lee was deeply imbued with these sentiments of former times; he loved the old country-houses of old Virginian families, simpleminded and honourable folks, attached, like himself, to the soil of Virginia.

Stratford, the old home of the Lees, situated on a hillock which rises on the left bank of the Potomac, is a building sufficiently large. The estate is well wooded. Oaks, cedars, and maple-trees abound there. In the interior, the distribution of the rooms, the style of the wainscot and mouldings, the appearance of the halls and corridors, all remind us of the times of powdered perriwigs and silk stockings. It was here that, after the War of Independence, General Henry Lee retired to live. Three generations of Lees had lived here, leading a large-hearted and hospitable existence.

In each generation more than one distinguished man had attracted there the élite of colonial society; those ancient walls had resounded with the noise of fêtes; the great gate had never been closed, everybody was welcome, and the type of a life there existed which one looks for now in vain, but which had at least the merit of being cordial, generous, and engaging. Henry Lee, the brilliant warrior, was, like all his race, given to expense; with him the cover was ever laid, all who came were well received; whence it happened that his latter years were straitened.

It was in this abode, become silent and solitary, in the same room where several of his distinguished ancestors were born, that Robert Edward Lee first saw the day.

The first looks of his infancy were directed to those old rooms, those large paternal fields and familiar rural occupations, those oaks and poplars over which the wind brought him the murmurs of the Potomac. It was thus that there became gradually impressed on his young heart a love for the soil, for country life, for his fatherland, for his family.

Surrounded as he was by portraits, parchments, and other tokens, which recalled the already ancient origin and position of his forefathers, the child saw, in one of the rooms of the manor house, his father, sick and grey-headed, not long since the friend of Washington and Greene, writing an account of the battles in which he had drawn the sword for the defence of his country.

It was amidst such surroundings that young R. E. Lee grew up. His character was deeply affected by them, for he was at an age when the mind receives each new impression; thus to his last day he remained simple-minded, true, worthy, courteous, the type of a Virginian country gentleman. He rejoiced in a view of the fields; he loved horses, and rode admirably; rural occupations and the murmur of streams had for him many more charms than cities and crowds. In the year of his death he wrote to a friend: "My visits to Florida and the White Sulphur (mineral springs in Virginia) have not benefited me much; but it did me good to go

to the White House (an estate belonging to one of his sons), and see the mules walking round, and the corn growing."

A last and inestimable advantage which he owed to this simple and manly country life, was the robust and vigorous health which resisted all the trials of war. Strong as a forest oak, he appeared equally insensible to want of sleep, hunger, thirst, cold, and heat.

"Robert was always good," wrote his father. All his youth, all his life proved this. In 1811, his family removed to live in Alexandria, a small town situated nearly opposite Washington, which offered more conveniences for the education of the children. Robert remained there with his mother and sisters till, having decided on a military career, he was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the military school of West Point, where Virginia paid the expenses of his education. This school, situated in the village of the same name, on the Hudson River, in the state of New York, was founded in 1802, on the model of St. Cyr, and its studies were very severe. Lee left in 1829, the second in his class. He had been remarked for his studious habits and exemplary conduct. From this time his living was temperate; he drank only water, and did not smoke. Nominated as a lieutenant of engineers, he was for several years employed in fortifying the United States' boundaries. In 1832, he married Mary, daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Washington's wife, and adopted son of Washington himself, who, having no children, had adopted two of his wife's grandchildren.

Miss Custis brought the young officer a large landed fortune, of which later events in part deprived him. This marriage, in the eyes of the world, made Robert Lee the representative of the family of the founder of American liberty. In estimating his conduct at the beginning of the Civil War, it is necessary not to lose sight of this fact.

The war which broke out in 184 between the United States and Mexico, found Robert Lee arrived at the rank of captain.

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