Having raised a company of cavalry, he was made its captain, and was rapidly promoted from rank to rank until he reached that of major-general. Soon after his entry into the Confederate service he became a.s.sociated with the command of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, and partic.i.p.ated thereafter in nearly all the movements of that fearless and dashing leader, whom the brave Gen. Sedgwick, of the United States Army, p.r.o.nounced "the best cavalry officer ever foaled in North America." On June 3, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee, the father of my deceased colleague, a.s.sumed the command of the Army of Northern Virginia three days after the retiracy of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, caused by a wound received in the battle of Seven Pines.

The plans of the Federal commander for the capture of the capital of the Southern Confederacy had been well chosen. His army, according to his own report, numbered 156,000, of whom 115,000 were ready for duty as fighting men. All the vast resources of his Government were being employed to enable him to prosecute his campaign with efficiency and vigor. His troops had been furnished with artillery and small arms of the most approved description and best pattern. They had abundance of ammunition of the finest quality and ample supplies of food and clothing. Gen. McDowell, then at Fredericksburg with 40,000 men, and Gens. Banks and Fremont in the valley of Virginia, were expected to cooperate in the movement. A line of fire was slowly but steadily being drawn around Richmond. These plans, as I have said, had been well conceived and were being executed with great precision and skill.

To oppose this formidable advance there were less than 100,000 fighting men in Virginia, and they were greatly inferior to the enemy in both equipments and supplies. Gen. Johnston, penetrating the designs of his adversary, commenced operations to prevent their accomplishment. The b.l.o.o.d.y and stubbornly contested battle of Seven Pines was fought in part execution of his plans. When Gen. Robert E. Lee succeeded to the command it was apparent that some decisive blow must be struck to save the Southern capital from a state of siege. Surveying the whole field with a keen and practiced eye, he saw that the left wing of the Union army, which had been thrown across the Chickahominy and advanced to within four or five miles of Richmond, occupied a strong and almost impregnable position. An attack upon the center promised no better results.

Under these circ.u.mstances he turned his attention to the right wing, and, in order to obtain the fullest and most accurate information concerning McClellan's position and defenses on that portion of his line, ordered Gen. Stuart to make a reconnoissance in the direction of Old Church and Cold Harbor. With 1,500 picked men that pink of Southern chivalry immediately undertook the execution of the orders of the commanding general. This daring exploit was popularly known as "Stuart's ride around McClellan." It is a fact that he did pa.s.s entirely around the Union army, and, building a bridge across the Chickahominy, reentered the Confederate lines in safety. In this perilous expedition he was a.s.sisted by his bravest and best officers, among whom were Gens.

WILLIAM H.F. LEE, and his cousin, the dashing Fitz Lee.

More was accomplished than had been antic.i.p.ated, and it was ascertained that the right and rear of McClellan were unprotected by works of any strength. In consequence of the information thus obtained the decision was formed to make the attack in that direction, and on the 26th of June, 1862, began that series of splendid battles which culminated in the retreat of McClellan's army to Harrisons Landing, on the James River, and the deliverance of Richmond from danger. On the 9th of June, 1863, there occurred near Brandy Station, in the county of Culpeper, Va., one of the most extensive and stubborn cavalry fights of the whole war. Two divisions of Federal cavalry, commanded by Gens. Buford and Gregg, and supported by two brigades of "picked infantry," fell upon Stuart with such suddenness and fierceness that the attack was almost crowned with victory. Nothing saved him from defeat, if not from greater calamity, but his own coolness and that of his lieutenants, coupled with the indomitable pluck and intrepidity of his troopers.

In this engagement that brave Georgian Gen. Young, formerly a member of this House, by a splendid charge with sabers, without carbine or pistol, repulsed a dangerous and gallant a.s.sault on the rear, while Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE, with equal courage and dash, protected the left of the Confederate position. In this encounter Gen. LEE received a severe wound, which necessitated his retirement from the field. He was carried to Hickory Hill, in Hanover County, the home of Gen. Wickham, a near relative of his wife, and here he was captured and placed in solitary confinement in Fort Monroe as a hostage, certain officers of the United States being then held under sentence of death in Libby Prison in retaliation for the execution of certain Confederate officers in the West.

Gen. Custis Lee, being then a young unmarried man, on the staff of the Confederate President, met, under special flag of truce, representatives of the Government at Washington, and begged to be permitted to take the place of Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE, giving as a reason for the proposed exchange his desire to save from punishment the innocent wife and children of his wounded brother. The offer was declined, and he was told that the burdens of war must fall where chance or fortune placed them.

In this incident we have a beautiful and touching ill.u.s.tration of the strength and warmth of brotherly love and of the knightly bearing of the Lees of Virginia. While thus detained as a prisoner of war, racked with physical suffering and those mental tortures which a sensitive and high-strung man must feel under such circ.u.mstances, there came the sad tidings of the death of his loved wife and two children; and thus was added another, the most poignant of all the griefs with which he had been afflicted. His old Virginia home, a.s.sociated with so many sacred memories, had been reduced to ashes, and now there remained of the once happy family which formerly occupied it only the captive father. This weight of woe would seem too much for human endurance, but he bore it with the fort.i.tude of a Christian soldier. He was exchanged in the spring of 1864, and returning to his division, led it in all the engagements, from the Rapidan to the Appomattox, where the curtain fell upon the stirring and b.l.o.o.d.y scenes in which he had been such an active partic.i.p.ant.

As a soldier he was always calm, cool, and self-possessed. Those who have had experience in the ranks know that the bravest and best soldiers will falter and hesitate when they are without confidence in the ability, judgment, and foresight of their leader. The soldiers who were ranged under the standard of Lee, believing that their n.o.ble commander was equal to all emergencies, followed him with unwavering trust, and their survivors testify to the affection in which a spirit so gentle and yet so brave was held.

No higher eulogy can be p.r.o.nounced upon any man than to say of him that which can be truly alleged of Gen. LEE, that he was an honored and trusted leader in that splendid Army of Northern Virginia, which only failed where success was impossible. They challenged the respect and admiration of the world, and of their great captain it has been said that "a country which has given birth to men like him and those who followed him may look the chivalry of Europe in the face without shame, for the fatherlands of Sidney and Bayard never produced a n.o.bler soldier, gentleman, and Christian than Robert E. Lee."

These meager details of our civil war have not been given with the purpose of reviving unpleasant memories or of perpetuating sectional animosities. They have been related because they const.i.tute an important part of the story of the life of him whom we mourn.

On both sides were displayed the highest qualities of the military leader, and ill.u.s.trated as never before the pluck, endurance, and dash of the American soldier. They were Americans all, and, without distinction of sections, we can claim part of the honor of their achievements and partake in the pride of their great names. We have furnished to the world the indubitable proof that these States united are invincible. When, at Appomattox, our arms were stacked and banners furled we returned to our homes with no divided allegiance.

We believe that in the safety of the Union is the safety of the States.

And we rejoice that "the gorgeous ensign of the Republic is still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original l.u.s.ter, not a stripe polluted or erased, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?'

Nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterwards,' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 'Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.'"

But while entertaining these sentiments, we can not, we will not, forget our glorious dead. The brave men against whom we fought neither expect nor desire such unnatural conduct. Whether the cause for which they died was just or not it would be idle to discuss. It is enough for us to know that--

They were slain for us, And their blood flowed out in a rain for us-- Red, rich, and pure, on the plain for us; And years may go, But our tears shall flow O'er the dead who have died in vain for us.

After the cessation of hostilities Gen. LEE resumed the occupations of a farmer on the old plantation which he had left in 1861. The implements of warfare were exchanged for those of the husbandman, and following the plow on the furrows he commenced the work of repairing the losses he had sustained. In 1868 he married Miss Mary Tabb Bolling, the daughter of Col. George W. Bolling, of Petersburg, and they continued their residence at the White House until 1874, when they removed to Ravensworth, in the county of Fairfax, where he died.

He was an able and faithful Representative, and always devoted to the interests of his const.i.tuents. As a fitting eulogy to his worth it may be truly said that it was his disposition to follow the line of duty to the end. The conscientious performance of every trust confided to him was the watchword of his life. In his conduct as a legislator he was never ruled by faction or interest, but the promotion of the public good was the motive of all his actions. While exhibiting none of the showy and sparkling qualities of the orator, he was distinguished for the possession of good judgment and strong practical common sense. He was a man of calm and even temperament, and was seldom, if ever, controlled by prejudices or swayed by pa.s.sion. Those who were a.s.sociated with him here remember his dignified and courteous bearing. No words of bitterness or reproach ever escaped his lips, and he never forgot what was due to others as well as to himself.

I never heard him speak an unkind word of another, and while reserved, and to a certain extent formal, in his demeanor, he was a man of infinite sweetness of disposition:

And thus he bore without abuse, The grand old name of gentleman.

Both in his public and private life he furnished an example worthy of the emulation of all who love the true n.o.bility of humanity. We will draw aside the curtain only for a pa.s.sing glance at the domestic circle, of which his beautiful and lovely wife was at once the pride and the ornament. Surrounded by this devoted helpmeet and two manly sons, there was not a happier home in old Virginia. Warmed by the love of his big and generous heart, it was the abode of contentment and peace. The dread messenger was never more unwelcome than when he entered the portals of Ravensworth and made vacant forever the chair of the husband and the father.

We can say nothing to a.s.suage the poignant grief of the widow and children, but our hearts are filled with the fervent prayer that Heaven's choicest blessings may be showered upon them.

ADDRESS OF MR. HERBERT, OF ALABAMA.

Mr. SPEAKER: In this brief tribute to the memory of Gen. WILLIAM H.F.

LEE I should be unworthy of the friendship which it was my privilege to claim did I indulge in anything else than the language of soberness and truth. In him there was no manner of affectation; he pretended to be nothing but such as he was, and it is certain that if he had been giving directions to his biographer he would have laid down the rule announced by Thomas Carlyle, in his review of the life of Lockhart, that the biographer in the treatment of his subject "should have the fear of G.o.d before his eyes and no other fear whatever."

Froude, as biographer, claims subsequently to have applied to the life of Carlyle his own rule; and all the world knows that in the portrayal of Carlyle's faults of character the biographer left many a sting in the hearts of those who had loved the great man while he lived and who felt that the failings on which the historian had dwelt ought to have been interred with his bones. The biographer who shall perform faithfully the task of writing the life of "ROONEY" LEE will not paint him as a genius like Carlyle; but, sir, if there was any single feature in the character of our friend that, laid bare to the world even by the bold hand of an Anthony Froude, would cause the faintest blush to tinge the cheek of family or friends, I, who knew him well, do not know what it was.

It is true, sir, that it was not my fortune to be thrown in contact with him in the earlier years of his life. I did not know him when his character was being shaped and molded by the generous and refining influences which surrounded him from his cradle to his manhood.

My personal acquaintance with him may be said to have begun only when he had taken his seat by my side in this Hall. But his fame had come before him. A representative of the most distinguished family in America, he had been, by this circ.u.mstance alone, conspicuous from his birth; and yet he came among us with not a spot upon his name.

During the civil war, from a subordinate position rising rapidly to high command and always in the bright light that surrounded him as a son of the most ill.u.s.trious general of modern times, he bore himself as a soldier without reproach. Neither in civil life nor in war had calumny a.s.saulted him. Such a man, entering here upon a new career, attracted attention the moment he came into this Hall.

It soon appeared to those who watched him closely that he was singularly modest. This modesty was not diffidence. He was at all times self-poised. On this floor, addressing himself to a public question just as in a private conversation among his friends, he always had the easy, unpretentious manner of the thoroughbred gentleman, but his modesty was easily apparent in an utter lack of self-a.s.sertion. He never put himself forward except when duty prompted, and then he did nothing for display; never a word did he speak for himself, but only for his cause.

He made indeed no pretensions to oratory; he had never been trained in its arts; but his mind was broad and highly cultured, he had a vast fund of vigorous common sense, and he expressed himself readily and pointedly. With these faculties he would in time have taken rank as a strong debater.

While broadly patriotic, he had at the same time a high sense of obligation to his immediate const.i.tuency, and he was patient to a remarkable degree. His district, you will remember, Mr. Speaker, lay just beyond the Potomac.

It was an easy matter for his const.i.tuents to come to the Capitol, and naturally many of them sought office at his hands. I sat near him in the Fifty-first Congress. Often have I known him to be carded out a dozen times a day; and if he ever expressed himself to me as worried by these interruptions he never failed to show by what he said that his annoyance arose not so much from the importunities of his friends as from his inability to serve them.

In address he was remarkably pleasing. Indeed, his manner was so genial, so pleasant, so hearty and sincere, that the memory of his kindly greeting will not be forgotten until the whole generation of his friends shall pa.s.s away. Who is there among his a.s.sociates on this floor that will ever cease to remember him as, morning after morning in the springtime, he came into this Hall, bringing from his home a basket of roses to distribute among his friends? He was not seeking popularity.

Such a thought had not occurred to him, nor did it enter into the mind of anyone here. He simply loved his friends, and he loved flowers just as he loved all things beautiful and true.

Such a man could not but be, as Gen. LEE was, a model brother, husband, and father. In all his life nothing was more lovely and beautiful than his family relations.

He had about him none of the arts of the demagogue; he was always true to himself, and therefore never false to any man. His whole walk and conversation ill.u.s.trated that he was the worthy son of his n.o.ble father; that from his youth up he had profited by the precepts and example of that ill.u.s.trious chieftain, who declared, in those memorable words already quoted by my eloquent friend [Mr. Tucker], that duty was the sublimest word in the English language. And, Mr. Speaker, let me say that the idea conveyed by this word duty, as taught by the father and practiced by the son, was far higher than that ideal, lofty though it was, expounded by philosophers like Plato and Cicero. With the Lees duty meant Christian duty.

With all these characteristics Gen. LEE could not but grow and continue to grow as he did in power and influence in a body like this; and had he been spared for that long career in this Hall hoped for by his friends he would have risen to eminence as a legislator.

But this was not to be. He has pa.s.sed away from us forever.

When such a man dies out from among us, let critics cavil as they may about time wasted in memorial addresses. We should do violence to our own feelings did we not pause to honor his memory; we should do wrong to the American people, whose heritage they are, did we not spread before them the lessons of his life, that the whole country may venerate his virtues and the youth of the land may emulate his example.

ADDRESS OF MR. HERMANN, OF OREGON.

Mr. SPEAKER: Of all picturesque spots on the face of the earth there is perhaps none that can rival in scenic beauty Mount Arlington, in the State of Virginia. Shaded by the primeval forest to the rear, and in front beautified by the gently sloping lawn, decorated by variegated flowers and artistically trimmed shrubbery, with the dark-green waters of the Potomac ebbing and flowing not far away and in full view the mighty nation's splendid capital city, stands the stately old mansion, with its cla.s.sic columns, where nearly fifty-five years ago was born our departed friend and colleague, and one of the beloved Representatives of the people of Virginia--Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE. Born in Virginia, he remained a Virginian continuously to the hour of his death.

Inheriting the martial genius of his eminent ancestry, he early aspired to a career in the military service of his country, and at the comparatively early age of twenty we find him bidding adieu to his college studies at Harvard and uniting with the Army in its expedition to Utah in 1858, where he first experienced the fatigues and hardships incident to the life of the soldier in the long march over the arid plains and through the mountain canyons into the Mormon territory. The prospect of inaction, with a long period in garrison, proved a disappointment to so ambitious a spirit, and he resigned his commission and returned to the domestic welcome of his Virginia farm.

Soon, however, the indication of a long peace proved delusive, and the scene shifted. This time it was decreed that he should behold the terrible conflict in which one portion of his unhappy country was to engage in deadly array with another portion. Obeying what he conceived to be the mandate of his State, he followed the impulse of his feelings and the example of his kindred and his friends, and periled all in that belief. He partic.i.p.ated at once, and most actively, in some of the most sanguinary engagements of the civil war. Wounded at one place, taken prisoner at another, then exchanged, and again in the van of battle, we find him following the forlorn hope until the close of the struggle at Appomattox, when he again returned to the old farm.

He possessed the undivided confidence of his const.i.tuents. He was regarded by them, as he was so long observed by us in our intimate a.s.sociations with him in this Hall, and especially in the committee rooms, as an intelligent and conscientious legislator, a laborious servant of the people, a courtly gentleman, a generous and devoted companion. Loyal as he was to his political convictions, he was yet the most considerate and the most conservative in his relations with those who radically differed with him. He admired frankness; he despised duplicity. While he was obedient to the reasonable edicts of caucus and party organization, we recall occasions when he was prompt to rise above the partisan. He was as broad-gauge and comprehensive in the study and performance of his duty toward all parts and all interests of his reunited country as he was anxious for the obliteration of sectional animosity and sincere and generous of heart in his social obligations to all of his fellow-men.

The most touching remembrance we bear of Gen. LEE's goodness of heart has reference to his custom in springtime of bringing to this Hall from his farm great quant.i.ties of lovely roses, and having them distributed to his a.s.sociates of both political parties on this floor with his compliments. Here we have a practical ill.u.s.tration that flowers are the interpreters of man's best feelings. In oriental lands the language of flowers was early studied and made expressive. As Percival says:

Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, On its leaves a mystic language bears.