The Opelousas courier., 1886-10-02
GENERAL LEE.
sCentury' "reminiscences OF
the Confederate Leader.
/ Reminder of His Days Of oourtship
and an Incident After Ths War.

In the Century Major J. Horace Lacy
ives some of his "reminiscences Of Gen.
zee. From his article we quote as fol-
ows: Ascending the heights, I soon
cached what was called the headquar-
ers battery of General Lee. Altar across
he valley and river in the gray light OF
he early morning could be seen the
White porches of my home, Chatham,
made historic by Federal army correspon-
Tents, as the Lacy House. The porches
we're filed with officers and gayly
dressed women, and from half a score of
! BRASS bands rang out across the valley
! Yankee Doodle and Hail Columbiap
rhe. commanding officer Of the battery
sked me if / would permit him to scat
er the unbidden guests at my home. At
lis request I asked General Lee to author
re the fire of the heavy guns which
would have laid Chatham in the dust.
With q smile, he refused and asking me
20 walk with him, we withdrew a short
distance. He then motioned me to sit
Town by him on the trunk of a large
Tee. -.
Choking across at Chatham through
his feld-glass, he said: Major, I never
permit the unnecessary effusion of blood.
War is terrible enough, at its best, to a
Christian man. I hope yet to see you and
FOUR dear family happy in your old
lome. Do you know I love Chatham
better than any place in the world, ex-
.ept Arlingtoni I courted and won my
lear wife under the shade of those trees.
By the way, not long since ] was riding
ut with my staff, and, observing how
rour grand old trees had been cut down
~ those people, / saw that o magnificent
sulip popular at the head of the r~avine,
lorth of the house, was still standing,
md, with somewhat of your rhetoric, I
laid to Venable and Taylor: ''There is
nothing in vegetable nature so grand as
tree. Graphing with its roots the
granite foundations of the everlasting
aills, it reaches its sturdy and gnarled
trunk ON high, spreads its branches to
;he heavens, casts its shadow on the
,ward, and the birds build their nests
and sing amid its outrageous foli-
age! Behold the monarch stripped
IF attendants and guards awes the van
ial by the simple majesty of his sublime
ISOLATION" Pocketing my feld.glass,
and riding on, I heard mingled with
laughter a request from the young gentle
man that I would bring my glass to bear
once more ON the monarch of the forest.
I looked, and even while I had been
talking the axe of the vaadal was laid tc
the root, and the monarch had fallen.
"Then, moved by emotion unusual te
his calm and equable nature, he con
tinued, 81 had three hundred acres o.
woodland at Arlington. Serving th'
United States Government for many
l years on the frontier, / marked with m.
own hand each tree that was to be uset
for timber or fuel. They tell me all m,
trees are gone-yours are all gone; thel
rising from the log with a fire and pas
sion rarely witnessed in him, and will
/ all the majesty of his sublime presence
he said : "Major, they have our trees
they shall never have the land!"
'sThree years after the close of the wa
I was a visitor at the home of Genera
Lee, then president of Washington ant
Lee University. After dinner the Genera
] retired, and ] was invited to sec Mrs
Lee in her chamber. She was q gres
> sufferer and confirmed invalid, incapabl
of motion save in a roller-chair, which i
was the chief delight. of him who had 6
long directed armies to move from room
to room, bending over her with the gres;
of Sidney and the devotion of a you'll,
ful lover. I told Mrs. Lee the sto~
which I have SO imperfcctly attempta
, to reproduce. Need I tell any woma
who reads these pages that teal
/ streamed down that patient, burrows
face, or that a light and joy fror
beyond the stars beamed through thes
tears, as she knew that the thoughts {
) her great husband wandered far ava
a from the clash of arms TO the memorie