LEE, ROBERT E. 



431 



that Lee was forced, against his written 

 i, to advunoe upon Washington. How- 



.iis may bo, the conduct of the campaign 



ta 1 1 10 greatest lustre upon Lee and IUM 



: nints. 



I |) to the defeat of Pope, and the crushing 

 of the Army of Northern Virginia, brilliant 

 success hud attended the legions of Lee. Boon, 

 however, Leo met at Antietam a repulse hardly 



lisastrous than the whole series he had 

 indicted upon the Northern army. General 

 Mct'lellan, with the remnants of his old army, 

 and recruits hastily summoned to the field, 

 jn.-t the combined Confederate armies, flushed 

 tvith continuous triumphs from the James to 

 the Potomac, and drove them back. 



( >u the 29th of January, 1803, General Burn- 

 sidc, who had succeeded MoClellan, attacked 

 Lee's position at Fredericksburg. The slaughter 

 was frightful, and Lee had merely to hold his 

 o\vu to gain the victory a victory, however, 

 which was more the result of unfavorable 

 weather and inefficiency among Burnside's 

 subordinates than of the skill or bravery of 

 General Lee's army. After this action, Lee's 

 army was greatly depleted by the detachment 

 of Generals Longstreet and Hill's corps, sent 

 to aid the armies in Southern Virginia and 

 North Carolina. 



Early in the spring Lee prepared for a new 

 invasion of the North, and, after, by skilful 

 strategy, defeating Hooker at Chancellorsville, 

 and throwing him off 'his guard for a time, he 

 marched northward in several columns, crossed 

 the Potomac, at Harper's Ferry, Williamsport, 

 Edward's Ferry, etc., and invaded Chambers- 

 burg, York, and other towns in Pennsylvania. 

 Meade succeeding Hooker, rapidly formed his 

 combinations, and while Lee, with his usual 

 laxity, made trivial diversions with his cavalry, 

 the Federal army hastened toward Gettys- 

 burg, and presented a formidable front when 

 Lee had concentrated his veteran troops there. 

 The story of Gettysburg is too well known to 

 need repetition here. By a singular combi- 

 nation of chances, or skilful generalship, the 

 fragments of the army retreated successfully 

 over a long line held by an enemy, and almost 

 unmolested reached its impregnable position 

 on the Rappahannock. Here the peculiar 

 genius of Lee again came into play, and from 

 the remnants of his old army and the raw 

 material of new levies he mobilized an army 

 that held Grant in check through the almost 

 daily battling of an entire twelve months. lie 

 met Grant in the Wilderness with an army 

 of at first not over 60,000 men (though soon 

 reSnforced to somewhat more than 80,000), 

 and so skilfully conceived were his movements, 

 and so admirable his positions, that the second 

 day's fight closed with little more than the re- 

 sults of a drawn battle. Then followed in rapid 

 succession the struggles through the Wilderness, 

 the change of front to Cold Harbor, the cross- 

 ing of the James, and the siege of Petersburg. 

 Through this campaign Lee shone with the most 



conspicuous lustre. Outnumbered at all points, 

 he kept in chock a greatly superior army, and 

 with one arm heldGrunt, while with the pther 

 ho preserved his capital. None were more 

 cordial in attestation of the ability and skill 

 exhibited by Lee in the conduct of this groat 

 campaign, than his able and eventually success- 

 ful antagonist. While manoeuvring his own 

 battalions in the Wilderness and on the Chicka- 

 hominy, General Leo still kept a vigilant eye 

 on the approaches to Richmond, and by his 

 direction General Beauregard was summoned 

 from South Carolina to confront Butler on the 

 Appomattox. Keeping Grant's army constant- 

 ly on the move and fighting all the time, Lee 

 reached Richmond and was secure, for a time 

 at least, to reorganize and fill up his fearfully- 

 diminished ranks. Little time was gained, 

 however. Grant struck vigorously for the 

 southern defences of Richmond. He moved 

 with celerity for Petersburg, but Lee was ahead 

 and held the town with a handful of men till 

 his favorite corps reached the place. The siege 

 of Petersburg is an historical picture, whose 

 details cannot be retouched without weakening. 

 Surrounded on all sides, the beleaguered Con- 

 federacy, through Lee, put forth every effort. 

 The struggle at the mine, the death-grip at 

 Fort Steadman, showed the lingering life of a 

 hopeless cause. Lee, hoping against hope, or- 

 dered the attack on that last fatal day, and 

 failed utterly. On the 2d of April, 1865, his 

 line was broken at all points, and his army, 

 scattered and broken, laid down its arms to 

 General Grant at Appomattox Court-House, 

 Virginia, on the 9th, General Lee consum- 

 mating the capitulation in the following note 

 in answer to the proposition of General Grant : 



HEADQUARTERS ABMY or NORTHERN VIRGINIA, ) 

 April 9, 1865. j 



GENERAL : I have received your letter of this date, 

 containing the terms of the surrender of the Army 

 of Northern Virginia, as proposed by you. As they 

 are substantially the same as those expressed in your 

 letter of the 8th inst., they are accepted. I proceed 

 to designate the proper officers to carry the stipula- 

 tions into effect. B. E. LEE, General. 



Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant. 



The next day General Lee took formal leave 

 of his army in the following address : 



HEADQUABTEBS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, ) 

 April 10, 1865. f 



After four years of arduous service, marked by un- 

 surpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of North- 

 ern Virginia haa been compelled to yield to over- 

 whelming numbers and resources. 



I need not tell the survivors of so many hard- 

 fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the 

 last, that I have consented to this result from no dis- 

 trust of them, but, feeling that valor and devotion 

 could accomplish nothing that could compensate for 

 the loss that would have attended the continuation 

 of the contest, I have determined to avoid the use- 

 less sacrifice of those whose past services have en- 

 deared them to their countrymen. 



By the terms of agreement, officers and men can 

 return to their homes, and remain there until ex- 

 changed. You will take with you the satisfaction 

 that proceeds from consciousness of duty faithfully 

 performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God 

 will extend to you Ilia blessing and protection. With 



