The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-08-26
LEE AT FREDERICKSBURG

LII the august tSfttHTY, MAJOR j.
Horace Lacy gives some of his reminis-
cences of General Lee. From his arti-
Gle 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 grey light of the early
morning could be seen the white
porches of my home, Chatham, made
historic by Federal army correspon-
dents, as the Lacy House The porches
were filled with officers and gayly
dressed women, and from half a score
OF brass bands rang out across the val
ley Yankee Doodle and Hail Column
biar The commanding officer asked
me if | would permit him to scatter the
unbidden guests at my home. At his
request | asked General Lee to author
ize the fire of the heavy guns, which
would have laid Chatham in the dust.
With a smile he refused, and. asking
me to walk with him, we withdrew
short distance He then motioned me
to sit by him on the trunk of great
tree.
Looking across at Chatham through
his field-glass he said, Major, | never
permit the unnecessary effusion of
blood. War is terrible enough, at its
best, to a Christian man; l hope yet to
see you and your dear family happy
in your old home. Do you know / love
Chatham better than any place in the
world, except Arlington! | 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, OBJ
serving how your grand old trees had
been cut down by those people, saw
that magnificent tulip poplar at the
head of the ravine, north of the house,
was still standing, and with somewhat
of your rhetoric, | said to Venable and
Taylor: There is nothing in vegetable
nature so grand as Il tree. Graphing
with its roots the granite foundations
sturdy and gnarled trunk on high,
spreads its branches to the heavens,
casts its shadow on the sward, and the
birds build their ests and sing amid its
umbrageous foliage. Behold, the mon
arch stripped of attendants and guards
awes the vandal by the simple majesty
of his sublime isolation" Pocketing
my field-glass close and riding on, /
heard, mingled with laughter, request
from the young gentlemen that | would
bring my glass to bear once more on
the monarch of the forest. | looked,
and even while l had been talking the
AK of the Vandal was laid to the root,
and the monarch had fallen
Then moved by emotion unusual to
his calm equable nature, he continued,
1 had three hundred acres of wood
land at Arlington. Serving the United
States Government for many years on
the frontier, | marked with my own
hand each tree that was to be used for
timber or fuel They tell me my trees
are gOne-yOurs are all gomez then ris-
ing from the log, with fire and pas
sion 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 lamar
"Three years after the close of the
war l was visitor at the home of Gen
eral Lee, then president of Washington
and Lee University. After dinner the
general retired, and | was invited to
see Mrs. Lee in her chamber. She was
q great sufferer and confirmed invalid,
incapable of motion save in roller
chair, which was the chief delight of
him, who had so long directed great
armies, to move from room to room,
bending over her with the grace of
Sidney and the devotion of youthful
lover. told Mrs. Lee the story which |
have SO imperfectly attempted to repro
duce. Need | tell any woman who
reads these pages that tears screamed
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
husband wandered far away from the
clash of arms to the memories of their
youthful love and courtship under the
shade of her ancestral oaks, for Chat
ham was originally the property of a
near relative. As | concluded the SEN
tence, They shall never have the land
hearing a slight noise, / turned and
saw the general, who had silently en-
tered, in dressing-gown and slippers.
The great buck-shot drops slowly rolled
down that face, whose calm was never
broken by the earthquake shock of
battle. Slowly and silently he retired,
and l could but feel the deepest COM
junction that words of mine should
have sent another pang through that
great heart"