The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-02-17
A. III. stephens ON General Z. r.. Lee.
From Posthumous Paper in the February Nun
her Of the Southern BiVOuac

From Posthumous Paper in the February Mum
Der OF the Southern BivOuac
The ancestors of Lee were many of them
military men, and he. born in Stafford, West
mOreand County. Va. January TO- 1907,
was, in his boyhood, almost in sight of the
raYages made by the fleet of Admiral Cock
burn along the Chesapeake during our second
war with Great Britain. His father died
when he was twelve years old and he be-
came a cadet at West Point in 1925. He is
said TO have been so studious and blameleSs
in 'depOrtment, and at the same time so cOur-
teous to all, as to have passed the four years
without demerit or reprimand and graduated
at the head of his class July 4, 1929. He was
appointed Second Lieutenant of Engineers
and soon after promoted to First. In 1882
be married Mary Gusts, granddaughter of
the wife OF Washington. and in 1888 he
helped to mark the line between Michigan
and Ohio His estate of Arlington came
later through his wife.
In 1859 he was in Washington City, and on
the night of the 18th OF October of that year
really began his first services in the cause of
the Southern States. On the 10th John
Brown, an old and notorious offender against
law in the Territories, had, at the head OF a
band of conspirators, seized the arsenal at
Harper's Ferry. with its 50,050 stand of arms,
which he proposed at once to distribute
among the slaves of Virginia. The negroes
entirely failed 10 respond and John Brown S
fortress, the engine house, was carried by
Storm after he refused the unconditional
surrender rendered him through j. f. b.
Stuart the Lieutenant of Colonel Il. T.. Lee
Mr.. Brown was tried and hanged, and what
ever progress ms soul has made in the
marching on" of which a popular song
speaks, he ended his earthly jOurneyings in
this first bloOdshed of the war, and the man
then in his way was the United States officer
and Virginia gentleman, Robert f.. Lee
10 Of qax
after the call for invading troops, General
(then Colonel Leel now command
ing his regiment, resigned, by letter, from
Arlington, Va, 10 General w. Scott. Upon
the day of my arrival in Richmond he had
been made Major General of the Virginia
army. On the day after my arrival this
rank of Major General OF the Army OF Y IT.
ginia was solemnly conferred upon him by
President John Janney of the convention in
the hall of Representatives.
As he stood there fresh and rudy as
David from the sheepfold, in the prime of his
manly beauty, and the embodiment OF line
of heroic and patriotic fathers and worthy
mothers; it was thus / first saw Robert +.
Lee. / had precopceived ideas of the rough
soldier, with no time for the graces of rife,
and by companionshIp almost compelled to
the vices of his profession. l did not know
then that he used no stimulants, was free
even from the use of tobacco, and
that he was absolutely stainless in
his private life. | did not know then. as
do now. that he had been model youth and
young man, but had before me the most
manly man and entire gentleman l ever saw.
remember seeing him in Savannah, con-
spicuous by the blue uniform which he was
the last of the Confederates to put off,
scarcely noticed among the gay uniforms OF
the new volunteers, and least likely of all
men to become the first character in the war
OF States rights.
Toward SHUTDOWN at the battle OF Seven
Pines, Virginia, on the 31st of May, 1862,
General Joseph Z. johnson fell severely
wounded and, as the command devolved for
a time on General G. w. Smith, the time OF
General Lee had come at last. His appoint
ment by Mr. Davis was very unpopular, as
the South had little confidence in him, and
even Virginians doubted their old idol.
From that time need only to call the roll
of his battles.