Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-05-28
THE GREAT SOUTHERN SOLDIER.
Recollections of Robert l.. Lee in Public
and Private Life.

virginia dcQu lftSn interest. E4S-
pecially timely. therefore, are the re-
minciscenccs which Col. William Pres
ton Johnston contributes TO BclfOrrS
Magazine.
Col. Johnston first saw Lee in 1888,
when his father, Albert Sidney Johnston
had been appointed Colonel of the Sec
Ond Cavalry, with Lee as Lieutenant
Colonel. President Pierce, or rather
Secretary Jefferson Davis was anxious
that this new organization should be a
crack regiment. and in the appoint
mentS TO it made seniority Subor-
dinate to skill aud experience.
Young Mr.. Johnston was requested
by his father 10 call upon Col. Lee and
pay his respects. lie did SO, and at the
first glance the thought flashed through
his mind: 1T was thus that Washing
ton looked" With his erich, brown
colorng. dark hair and eyes, aquiline
features .and shapely limbs" Col. Lee
appeared to Mr. Johnston one of the
handSomeSt men he had ever seen. His
dignified yet easy posture, the perfect
poiSe of his bearing" especially struck
the visitor.
Not until eight years later did Col.
Johnston, who had then become an
aide-dc-camp on Mr.. Davis staff, see
Gen. Lee. The night after the battle
of Fair Oaks, where Gen. j. +. John
StOn was severely wounded, Mr.. Davis
told him that he had determined TO put
Lee in command of the army of North
ern Virginia. because, unlike some other
Generals, he had urged prompt aggreS-
sion After IIooker'S defeat at Chan
cellorSyille. Gen. Lee went to see Mr..
Davis at Richmond. and Col. Johnston
then had some conversation with him:
Il congratulated him on the results of
battle. aud added: you have met terri
Die loss. General. in the death of Gen. Jack
son" He said, with great feeling: IAN
irreparable loss, Colonel; loss like
mans right arm. Why, sir. there is no.
body who moves like him. ! ordered Gen.
- 10 move at 3 o'clock in the morning
with a division. and Gen. Jackson at with
his corps, and at o'clock Jackson was
ahead of him"
Gen Lee. in addressing me- employed
certain popularity of pronunciation which
! often observed afterward, rs "Coronel'
He spoke very pure English. but had a few
Virginia provincialisms in pronunciation,
such as ''wounut" for walnut
What always struck Col. Johnston
was the SlowneSS of the Southern peo-
pie 10 recognize the audacity of Lees
military conceptions. This he partly
accounts for by the evenncSS and self
control Of Gen. Lees bearing and habits
Of thought. which prevented those who
came i'm contact with him. and hence
an others, from fully approaching the
energetic bOldneSS covered under his
composed demean0r.
This equanimity withheld him from do
ing and saving those startling things which
especially interest the biograpber or read
err II was not the manner with which he
did things. so much as the results which he
seemed 10 accomplish easily and almost as
a matter of course, that won him ms re
uOwn. He always appeared TO me perfect
ly poised. and to meet great and small
issues with the same careful, yet undiS-
turbed. measure of effort. In laying out Il
walk or flower bed he was as painstaking
as In mapping out the plan of campaign.
An instance of his simplicity OF man
ncr and eQuanimity was observed by Col.
Johnston after the battle of Cold Ilar-
Dor. when ne offered to take back TO
Richmond any message desired for Mr..
Davis Lee, as if half Soliloquzlng,
answered that he hardly understood
what Gen. Grant had meant by his at
tack that morning, since IL was too
heavy for fciut, and yet he could hard
have expected to break through the
Confederate lines AT that point.
said. General. / suppose Gen. Grant
will continue TO move by his left and cross
the Chickahominy: Yes, he replied;
across the Chickahomiuy and across the
James. | think You can tell the Presi-
dent / will make him cross the Chickahom-
inv as low down as l can. Bv what road
do Won return to town, COlonelf' BY any
road YOU wish. General, If ] can serve YOU
| answered. Then please 20 by the Nine
Mile Road. and tell Capt. - TO move his
battery down the ChickahOminy and open
on the enemy. which may induce him TO
cross lower down" He also indicated spe-
officially the position of the battery, the
roads 10 be taken 10 find 1t, and the new
position TO be taken by it. What struck
me I'm this DAVIS intercourse with Gen. Lee
was his entire lack of self-consclousness
and the composurc with which he met
events so momentous as those of the bloody
dav of Cold Harbor. None of US, however,
realized the slaughter of the FcderalS until
we saw the New York papers some days
| later
When Lee became President of Wash
/ iugton College. after the war, Colonel
Johnston was made Professor OF History
land Literature there. In his inter
course with the faculty General Lee was
always courteous, kind, often disposed
10 be rather playful, and he insisted on
Idcfcrring much to their opinions. Then
Iagain Col Johnston noted that zen.
I Lee never took an ungraceful posture.
NO matter how long or fatiguing fac
Unity meeting might be. he always pre-
served an attitude in which dignity, de-
corum and grace were united. lie was
| "A very well built man, with rounded
| body and limbs. and seemed, without the
slightest effort or aifectatiOn, to sit or
stand or walk just as a gentleman should.
| He was never in hurry, and all his geS-
lures were easy and significant. lie gave
minute attention TO the details OF ms
Office and liked to talk about them. l
soon perceived that he did not like to
discuss the events or incidents OF the
war" lie took great interest at that
time I'm editing the memoirs oil the
| War i'm South Carolina and Georgia,
| bv his father. Gen. Henry Lee, for which
he wrote preface. Among the many
letters he received were some very queer
ones. upon which ne commented humor-
louslv as ne turned them over to Col.
Johnston for reply. The latter'S work
me revised with freedom and with
critical skill and delicacy of touch which
inspired respect for his literary ability.
lie was an agreeable companion, not eN-
actlv witty nor verychumOrouS, yet eN-
cccdingly fond Of gayety and vivacity IN
others. even if, in young people it went
To a boistcrouS outbreak Of spirits. lie
liked To give light turn TO table talk,
taking care that anything he said should
not DE 50 cauStic aS To wound
Reading his letters, one discovers this
playful spirit in many of them, as, for In
stance. in his letter to the Spiritualists,
who asked his opinion of Won Moltke and
the French war. He wrote in reply most
courteous letter. in which he said that
the question was one about which mill
tarv critics would differ, that his own
Judgment about such matters was poor AZ
/ hest and that inasmuch as they had the
po,yer to consult Through their mediums
/ Caesar. Alexander Napoleon, Wellington,
and all of the other great captains VINO
| have ever lived he could not think oil Cd
tru9iug his opinion in such company.
u a. ~ ta1f