Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-08-29

The South may claim with pardon
able pride that it furnished not only
the President of each of the divided
sections in the struggle for the es-
tablishment of separate Confede-
raoy, but the great central figure OF
the civil war for the North as we'll as
for the South. History will accord
that Abraham Lincoln was the one
conspicuous figure on the side of the
Union, and for the South none will
challenge that claim for Lee. They
were, moreover, representatives of
the widely divergent classes of our
section, the plebeian and the patri-
clan. The story of Lincoln might as
we'll be classed with
1.-THE short and simple annals of the
poor"
while Lee came straight from the
cavaliers and their descendants, the
wealthy cultured aristocracy of Vir.
ginia.
His father, Richard Henry Lee,
better known asI"Light Horse Harry"
the beau sabreur of the American
army, was conspicuous figure in the
first Continental Congress. 1t was
he who, on June Z, l776, moved the
resolution "that these united Colo
nies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States; that
they are absolved from all allegi-
ance to thet etBritish Crown, and that
all political connection between them
and the States of Great Britain is,
and ought to be, totally dissolved"
He and his brother were signers of
the Declaration of Independence,
and it was this same Lee who pro-
claimed George Washington as
"First in war, first in peace and first
in the hearts of his countrymen."
Upon his mothers side he claimed
the lineage of tho Carriers of Shirley.
Born on January 10, 1907, his child
hood and youth were passed in the
cultivated circles of the tidewater
region of Virginia. At the age of
Is he entered West Point and COM
pleting the course of study without
single mark of demerit he gradu.
ated second in class of forty. six. /.
For several years he served in the
Engineer Corps constructing coast
defenses, and for part of this time
in charge of the astronomical de-
partment of the government. In
1882 he married the daughter of
George w. Parke Custis, the adopted
son of Gen. Washington, and later
was made captain on the staff in the
Mexican War.
Of all the brilliant regulations
among the younger group of officers
which were won in that campaign,
Lees was the most conspicuous.
Upon him the Commander-in-C Chief
leaned as upon no other. At Cerro
Gordo he was brevetted Major for
exceptional gallantry. AT Contreras
and Cherubusco he was officially pro-
claimed for meritorius conduct, and
on account of wound received in
an assault on Chapultepec, Septem-
ber 13, 1847, he received his promo
tion to Lieutenant. Colonel 1t was
here at Contreras, when the army
was baffled, that the quick eye of
Lee discovered, by daring recon-
naissance, line of approach hidden
from the enemy by which the posi-
tion might be taken. This the Com
mander-in- Chief of the army char
acterized as "the greatest feat of
physical and moral courage per-
formed by any individual during the
entire campaign"
In his official report Gen. Scott
said: 81 am compelled to make spe-
cial mention of Capt. r. E. Lee,
engineer. He greatly distinguished
himself at the seige of Vera Cruz,
was indefatigable during these ope-