THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 91 



ing the cowering and trembling culprit, Washington 

 hurried on to rally the troops and give the orders 

 which turned impending defeat into victory. As he 

 rode about the field, his suspicions of foul play were 

 more and more thoroughly aroused, and presently, 

 meeting Lee again, he ordered him to the rear. The 



tion and excitement. I never saw such a countenance before. It was like 

 a thunder-cloud before the flash of lightning. Just as he reached the flank 

 of my platoon he reined up his horse a little, and raising his right hand 

 high above his head, he cried out with a loud voice, " My God ! General 

 Lee, what are you about ?" Until that moment I had not known that Gen- 

 eral Lee was near ; but on turning my head a little to the left (still stepping 

 backward on the march) I found that General Lee had ridden from the 

 head of our column along our right flank and was only a few yards distant, 

 in front of General Washington. In answer to General Washington's ex- 

 cited exclamation, " My God ! General Lee, what are you about ? " General 

 Lee began to make some explanation ; but General Washington impatiently 

 interrupted him, and with his hand still raised high above his head, waving 

 it angrily, exclaimed, "Go to the rear, sir," spurred his horse, and rode 

 rapidly forward. The whole thing occurred as quickly as I can tell it to 

 you.' 



" This conversation with old Major Morton interested me profoundly 

 and made a deep impression upon my memory. My recollection of it is 

 still (after the lapse of about fifty-five years) clear and distinct. What I 

 have written about it, if not in his very words, is substantially what he told 

 me. The words, 'My God ! General Lee, what are you about ? ' are the 

 very words which he declared that General Washington uttered. I will 

 add that Major Morton, in all the region of country in which he spent his 

 long life, was reputed to be a man of the very highest integrity no one 

 who ever knew him ever doubted or questioned his veracity. Indeed, he 

 was proverbial for honesty, courage, and veracity. Altho' only a sergeant 

 at the date of the battle of Monmouth, he afterward rose to the rank of a 

 major in the Revolutionary Army ; and in the service acquired the sobri- 

 quet of 'Solid Column. 1 When, in 1825, General Lafayette revisited the 

 United States, and held a levee at Richmond, Va., at which many of the 

 surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution from various parts of 

 the state of Virginia attended, and were successively presented to him ; as 

 Major Morton's turn came to be presented, Lafayette said, cordially, 'Oh, 

 it is not necessary to introduce " old Solid Column " to me, I remember 

 him well.' 



"WM. ROBERTSON." 



