Washington Journal., 1942-01-16

nents, though their forces mostly outnumber-
ed his and were better provisioned. Lees
campaigns included the Seven Days Battle,
June % to July l, 1861, which ended McClel-
lan's badly hampered offensive against Rich
mond; the Second Battle of Bull Run, August
80, 1862, which forced Pope to fall back on the
defences of Washington, and the Battle Of
Antietam, September IL, 1862. This fierce
engagement, however, marked the failure Of
Lees first northern invasion.
Then came the Battle of Fredericksburg,
December 13, 1862, when he defeated Burn
side. Several months later he fought the
Battle of Charlottesville, May "a, 1868,
where he defeated Hook, though with the
loss Of "Stonewall' Jackson, his best general.
Gettysburg the Beginning of the End
Lee, now acknowledged as the ablest gen
eral on the Southern side, was defeated in the
Battle Of Gettysburg, July Is, 1868, the
bloodiest of our Civil War. 1t meant the
failure Of Lees second invasion.of the North
and, coming together with the fall Of Vicks-
burg, eventually proved the worst disaster to
the Southern cause. The loss of men on both
sides was appalling. After that defeat Lee
wanted to resign his command, but Jefferson
Davis could not spare him.
Thereafter Lees dwindling troops and
supplies compelled him to remain on the de-
fensive. A steadily Tightening blockade Of
Southern ports and Of the Mississippi was
strangling the Confederacy. Lees resistance
to Grants repeatedly replenished armies in
Guided the Battles Of the Wilderness, May
90, 1864, during which time Stuart was
killed at Yellow Tavern; Spottsylvania, May
9-21, 1864, and Cold Harbor, May 81 to June
u, 1864. In February, 1865, Lee was APP
,o;p4oI No,ora1 - DL;of ~ I'll Az No-eoJ
crate armies, but their cause then was collap-
sing.
Before Lee had to surrender, he had lost
another Of his ablest generals, A. P. Hill,
while the Confederates were being driven
from Petersburg to Richmond. Lees last
supply train from the rear mistakenly went
to Richmond, where it was seized by Union
troops. This was the last straw. Lees spent
force OF some 10000 starving and ragged men
found itself surrounded by the superior
numbers Of Grant, Meade, Sheridan and Ord,
twotalling some 125,000 men. Riding from
Petersburg with despair in his heart Lee
sighed: Chow easily | could get rid of this
and be at rest. But it is our duty to live
The South was in a deplorable state. Fallen
in the field were three of its ablest generals,
who had been Lees steadiest supports-Jack-
son, Hill and Stuart. In the rear the women,
children and aged, bereft Of their negro help,
without horses or cattle wherewith to till
their plantations, were starving. The fight
ing men at the front, too, were undernourished
and insuficiently clad, most of them without
overcoats and blankets, many thousands of
them barefoot and without medical supplies.
Their horses likewise mostly went unshod,
had no blankets and got no oats, nor good
hay, having to starve on miserable makeshift
fodder.
''There is nothing left me-, said Lee to his
last council Of war after defeat at Five Forks,
April |, 1865, "but to go and see General
Grant, though | had rather die a thousand
Deaths" So he presently sent an aide-de-
camp through the lines with a message beg
ging Grant to meet him at the village Of
Appomattox Courthouse in the Mclean fam
ily's dwelling.
How Lee and Grant Met Again
Lee, true to the Southern traditions of
p~unctilio and regard to military etiquette,
which he had imbibed from old General Scott,
came to the rendezvous in f~aultless fulldress
uniform, wearing his best sword. He brought
with him only his field secretary. Grant, who
had to ride some twenty miles under difficult
circumstances, picking up Generals Sheridan
and Ord underway, came, as Lees messenger
had found him, unkempt, in a worn private's
tunlc, troopers breeches and muddy boots,
with improvised stripes to designate his rank
of Lieutenant General.
(Their only recorded previous meeting had
been a trivial occasion in 1847 at Vera Cruz
in Mexico, when Grant, as a young ~lieuten-
ant, reported at general headquarters with
his field uniform in disarray, whereupon Lee,
then a staff captain, in compliance with one of
General SCOTS orders, sent Grant back to
his quarters to change his uniform to full
dress