Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-08-04
Lee at Fredericksburg.

| In me August century, mayor j. Horace
Lacy gives some of his "reminiscences of
General Lee. From his article we quote as
follows:--
Ascending the heights, soon reached
what was called the headquarters battery
of General Lee. Afar across the valley and
river, in the gray light of the early morn
ing, could be seen the white porches of my
home, Chatham, made historic by Federal
army correspondents as the Lacy House,
The porches were filled with officers and
gayly-dressed women, and from half score
of brass bands rang out across the valley
| Yankee Doodle and Hail, Columbiav The
commanding officer Of the battery asked
me if l would permit him to scatter the un-
hidden guests at my home. At his request
[ asked Gen. Lee to authorize the fire of
the heavy guns, which would have laid
| Chatham in the dust. With smile he re-
| fused, and, asking me to walk with him,
we withdrew short distance. He then
motioned me to sit by him on the trunk of
a large tree.
"Looking across at Chatham through his
| field-glass, he said:-
Major, l never permit the unnecessary
effusion of blood. War is terrible enough,
at its best, to a Christian man; 1 hope yet
to see you and your dear family happy in
your old home. Do you know 1 love
Chatham better than any place in the world
except Arlington! I courted and won my
dear wife under the shade of those trees
By the way, not long since was riding out
with my staff, and, observing how your
grand old trees had been cut down by those
people, I saw that magnificent tulip pop
lar at the head of the ravine, North of the
house, was still standing, and, with some
what of your rhetoric, / said to Fenable
and Taylor: There is nothing in vegetable
nature so grand as q tree. Graphing with
its roots the granite foundations of the ev-
erlasting hills, it reaches its sturdy and
gnared trunk on high, spreads its branches
to the heavens, casts its shadow on the
sward, and the birds build their nests and
sing amid it's umbrageous foliage. Behold.
the monarch stripped of attendants and
guards, awes the vandal by the simple
majesty of his sublime isolation
'Pocketing my field-giass, and riding
Oh, heard mingled with laughter re-
quest from the young gentleman that
would bring my glass to bear once more on
the monarch of the forest looked, and
even while had been talking the axe of
the vandsl was laid to the root, and the
monarch had fallen
"Then, moved by emotion unusual to his
calm and equable nature, be continued
's I had three hundred acres of wood
land at Arlington. Serving the United
States Government for many years on the
tree that was to be used for timber or fuel.
They tell me all my trees are gone-yours
are all gone;' then rising from the log, with
a fire and passion rarely witnessed in him,
and with all the majesty of his sublime
presence, he said: Major, they have our
trees; they shall never have the l0ndE
''Three years after the close of the war |
was a visitor at the home of General Lee,
then President of Washington and Lee
University After dinner the General re-
tired, and was invited to see Mrs. Lee in
her chamber. She was a great sufferer and
confirmed invalid, incapable of motion save
in a roller-chair, which it was the chief de-
light of him who had so long directed great
armies to move from room to room, bend
ing over her with the grace of a Sidney and
the devotion of a youthful lover. | told
Mrs. Lee the story which have SO imper-
fectly attempted to reproduce. Need |
tell any woman who reads these pages that
tears streamed down that patient, furrowed
face, or that a light and joy from beyond
the stars beamed through those tears, as
she knew that the thoughts of her great
nuSOanu Wdnuefeu ldr away from Lne Clash
of arms to the memories of their youthful
love and courtship under the shade of her
ancestral oaks. for Chatham was originally
the property of a near relative. AS I con-
cluded the sentence, They shall never have
the land,' hearing slight noise, | turned
and saw the General, who had silently en-
tered, in dressing grown and slippers. The
great buck-shot drops slowly rolled down
that face, whose calm was never broken by
the earthquake-shook of battle. Slowly
and silently he retired, and l could but feel
the deepest compunction that words of
mine should have sent another pang through
that great heart.'