Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-29

| crate general. and Gen. Jack" Hayes, U.
8. A. retired, was a trumpeter of the troop.
In such distinguished company. which even eve
| tary service, Fitzhugh Lee had his first ex-
perience as campaigner. His four years
Of service on the plains were of the hardest
sort His regiment had much scouting duty
to perform and parts of 1t were continually
being selected as guard for immigrant trains
that were bound through Texas for the Cal
ifornia gold fields.
After four strenuous years on the plains
Gen. Lee was assigned to duty at West
Point as an instructor in cavalry tactics.
He received promotion to the grade of first
lieutenant while there and resigned from
the army May 81. 1861, after the firing on
Fort Sumter. in order to offer his services
to the confederacy.
In Confederate Army.
His career in the confederate army is IA
| miliar to almost every school child. How
well he upheld the traditions of his family
| and performed his duty, as he saw it. as a
gallant soldier and courageous leader. is
shown by the fact that he entered the
army with the rank of lieutenant colonel,
and before two years had passed a
major general in command of a division of
cavalry. He served for time on the staff
of Gen. X. s. Ewell before receiving a regu-
lar assignment to the line. In September,
1861, he became lieutenant colonel of the
LIST Virginia Cavalry. He succeeded to the
COiOHelcy III April OF the 1OliOWlnS year,
and became of the favorite officers of
Stuarts great cavalry division. After the
battles about Richmond he made a
brigadier general and commanded one of
Stuart's brigades. In 1863 Stuart formed
his command into a cavalry corps and as
signed Fitzhugh Lee to the command of
one of the divisions. Wade Hampton COM
manded the other. As a division command
err Lee gave an excellent account of him.
self. His command idolized him, and would
follow wherever he led.
Anecdotes of his service in the confed-
crate army fill volumes. He gave the con-
federacy valuable service wherever he was
placed. and when the war was ended and
his uncle had surrendered to Grant he was
one of the first to accept the situation
gracefully and turn his efforts toward the
feuniting of the two sections. In these
efforts General Lee has never for moment
relaxed From the time he gave up the
sword for the plowshare and returned to
his home in Stafford county, Va. he has
persistently and earnestly worked for the
reconciliation of the two sections of the
country. and it is probable that he has &C
complished more in this direction than any
other SOutherner. certainly than any other
confederate soldier. In 1871 General Lee
was married in Alexandria, Va, to Miss
Ellen Bernard Fowle. of the bellies of
northern Virginia, and a member of one Of
the oldest and most distinguished families
in the state. He remained quietly at his
home from the close of the war until 1885,
when he was elected governor of Virginia.
At the inauguration of President Cleveland,
March 4, 1855, General Lee was the COM
mander of the division of southern troops
in the parade. and received an ovation along
the line of march.
Four years later, at the celebration of
the centennial of the inauguration of Wash
| ington in New York he also received an
ovation as he rode at the head of the south
ern delegation in the parade.
General Lee while governor of Virginia
became Intimately acquainted with Presi-
dent Cleveland, and when in 1896 the
trouble in Cuba reached acute stage and
it became necessary to send to Havana a
man in whom the highest confidence could
be placed. Gen. Lee was selected. He went
to Havana, and his term of service there
is a matter of recent history. How he up
held the dignity and prestige of the United
States and fought with Weyler and Blanco
for the proper recognition of the rights of
American citizens is well known, and when
President Mckinley came into the executive
office in 1897 he could find no man to take
Lees place. General Lee remained at Ha-
vana until just before the outbreak of the
with Spain, carrying the delicate
business of this government with the au-
thorities of Cuba in a manner that stamped
the man past master Of the art of diplo-
macy.
His return to the United States was in
the nature of a triumphant journey. He
| landed at Tampa, to be received by the en-
| tire populace and the military organizations
| in full uniform. His progress from Tampa
to Washington was a continued ovation.
At Richmond there were fully 10000 people,
headed by Governor Tyler, waiting for the
| train. When the general arrived in Wash
| ingtOn he was met at the station by such
a concourse of citizens as is seldom seen
on the streets of the capital, and was es-
Corted from the 9th street station to the
Shoreham Hotel by thousands of people.
| of his room at the Shoreham on that even
ing.