Captain Lee, of Romancoke),[1] then a youth of sixteen, and away from home at boarding school. Why, it has been asked, may not the letter have been written to Robert E. Lee, Jr.? Those who "catch at straws" point out that in 1860, General Lee could properly have said "my fine old regiment," a description inapplicable in 1856, to raw recruits just ordered to Texas. Besides, it is argued, might not the Second Cavalry have been ordered in 1860 to go from Texas to New Mexico, "that distant region," thus escaping the change in the letter of "New Mexico" to Texas? But this gun is spiked at once by a letter to the writer from the Adjutant-General, July 27, 1914 (already quoted): "I have the honor to inform you that the Second Cavalry did not serve in New Mexico, at any time prior to the Civil War." And as to the suggestion that The Duty Letter was written to Robert E. Lee, Jr., who, in 1860, had "classmates," and was at an age to expect parental advice, Captain Lee, in a letter to the writer, July 29, 1914, says: "I am positive that no such letter was ever written to me, before, during, or since the war."[2]
- ↑ Since this paper was read before the State Bar Association, and while it is being revised for publication, the death of Captain Lee is announced. He passed away, after a lingering illness, on October 19, 1914. No braver or more chivalric man ever lived, and his death is lamented by his surviving comrades of the war, and by a host of friends. His "Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee" exhibits the most ideal relations between a father and son to be found in literature.
The surviving descendants of General Robert E. Lee are Miss Mary Custis Lee, his eldest daughter; Colonel Robert E. Lee and Dr. George Boiling Lee, his grandsons, sons of General W. H. Fitzhugh (Rooney) Lee; and Misses Anne Carter Lee and Mary Custis Lee, his granddaughters, daughters of Captain Robert E. Lee. - ↑ We have seen that General Lee left Arlington to join his regiment in Texas twice only, viz.: on February 20, 1856, and February 10, 1860. This is shown conclusively by his letters and Memorandum Book. He returned to Arlington November 11, 1857, called home by the death of his father-in-law, G. W. Parke Custis, which occurred on October 21, 1857.
It is stated by several of General Lee's biographers that after coming home in the fall of 1857, he returned soon after to his regiment, and was at home again on a second furlough when John Brown's Raid (which he suppressed) occurred in October, 1859. That this is error is shown not only by General Lee's letters and Memorandum Book, covering fully the period from 1857 to 1861, but by the records of the War Department. In a letter to the writer, July 24, 1914, the Adjutant-General says: "According to the records, General Lee left San Antonio, Texas, October 24, 1857, on leave. He rejoined there, February 20, 1860, and assumed command of the Department of Texas on that date. Dur-
