LfcE
1047
LEE
Horse Harry Lee of Revolutionary fame, and he was a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. Patriotism was a tradition of the family. So it was natural that he should be educated for the army. He graduated from West Point in 1829, entering the engineering branch of service. At 25 he married Mary Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and heiress of the beautiful estate of Arlington on the Potomac opposite Washington City. Fortune seemed to have marked him for its own. To birth, wealth, a cultivated mind, courtly manners, a fine physique and handsome face were added personal happiness and eminence in his profession. As chief engineer of the army in the Mexican War he won distinction; as superintendent of West Point in the fifties he introduced the best methods known in Europe. At the beginning of the Civil War he had only the rank of a colonel, but General Winfield Scott, head of the national forces, was too old to take the field, and he looked upon Lee as his most probable successor.
In 1852, in entering his own son at West Point, Lee said to him: "Duty is the sub-limest word in the language; you cannot do more than your duty; you should never wish to do less." Now the question of duty confronted Lee himself. From the very beginning of our government the question of state-sovereignty versus the Union was a matter of debate. The south had generally advocated the principle of state-sovereignty. Lee was a southerner. He felt that his fealty belonged first to Virginia. In the same crisis Admiral Farragut decided for the Federal government. In remembering Lee's decision, it must also be remembered that his interests lay with the government, where immediate promotion awaited him, with protection for his home and family within the fortifications of the capital. There is reason to believe, now, that he knew that the Union must triumph, so that he consciously led a "lost cause" from the beginning. Beautiful Arlington, his wife's birthplace, his own home for 30 years, and his children's ancestral inheritance, was lost immediately. It lay on the natural line of defense of the capital, and became the first camping ground of the northern army. His fortune was lost when he resigned his commission and offered his services to the south. In the spring of 1862 he was placed in command of the armies operating in defense of Richmond. The masterly strategy which Lee displayed in the "Seven Days' battles" around Richmond showed him to be a commander of the highest order of ability. The same may be said of his movements in opposition to General Pope a few weeks later. Lee's success against McClellan and Pope emboldened him to attempt an in-
vasion of Maryland in the fall of 1862. This campaign was terminated by the battle of Antietatn, fought on the i6th and iyth of September. Not being pursued by McClellan after this battle, Lee recrossed the Potomac unmolested and then moved up the Shenandoah valley into the valley of the Rappahannock, taking position near Culpeper Court House McClellan at length followed, but on the yth of November was superseded by General Ambrose E. Burn-side. Soon after assuming command of the army, Burnside moved up the Rappahannock, intending to cross the river at Fred-ericksburg and proceed from that point to Richmond"; but, when he reached Fredericks-burg, he found Lee in position ready to dispute his passage. After some delay Burnside succeeded in crossing the river and attacked Lee, but was defeated with considerable loss. He succeeded, however, in recrossing the river, and a few days later was relieved of his command, and General Joseph Hooker was appointed in his place. After considerable time spent in preparation Hooker moved against Lee; but was defeated and driven back at the battle of Chancellorsville, May 2—4. Lee soon gathered together all his available forces and moved northward, his campaign ending with the battle of Gettysburg, which took place on the first three days of July, 1863. On the first two days of this battle the advantage seemed to rest with Lee's army, but on the third day he staked the issue in a grand charge, which was completely repulsed, and he was compelled to order a retreat. He succeeded in recrossing the Potomac, and was again safe in Virginia.
No operations of importance were undertaken by either army during the winter of 1863-64, but early in May, 1864, Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant was called to Washington, and took the field against Lee's army in person. Grant attempted to turn Lee's right flank by a march through the densely wooded region known as the Wilderness. Here occurred two days' bloody but indecisive fighting, after which Grant again sought to turn Lee's flank by marching to Spottsylvania Court House. At this place, on the 12th of May, there was another bloody and indecisive engagement between the opposing forces. The two commanders continued to confront and manoeuvre against each other for some weeks without coming to a general engagement and without any result, save that Lee was gradually forced back toward Richmond, until he occupied very nearly the same ground that McClellan's army had occupied two years before. After making an unsuccessful attack upon Lee's position at Cold Harbor on June 3, Grant moved down the Chicka-hominy to the James and, after crossing the latter river, entered upon the siege of Petersburg, which continued till the spring of
