xli “I hope,” he wrote: Ibid., 416.
xli “He had been taught to believe”: Ibid., 418.
xlii “Washington,” Everett wrote: Quoted ibid., 420.
xlii “Secession,” Lee wrote: Ibid., 421.
CHAPTER 1 “Not Heedless of the Future”
5 By the time of the American Revolution: Richard B. McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), 13.
7 The years between 1773 and 1776: Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York: Scribner, 1934), Vol. 1, 2.
8 A year later: Ibid.
8 Washington, recognizing Lee’s special skills: Ibid., 3.
9 “much to the horror”: Ibid., 66.
9 “sensitive, resentful”: Ibid., 4.
10 When Matilda died in 1790: McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington, 17.
11 “Why didn’t you come home?”: Paul Nagel, The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 166.
11 In a half-baked scheme: Emory Thomas, Robert E. Lee (New York: Norton, 1995), 26.
11 On a visit to Shirley: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 8.
13 In these modest circumstances: Nagel, The Lees of Virginia, 175, 195–96.
15 Henry Lee helped to barricade: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 14.
15 “Death seemed so certain”: Ibid., 15.
15 This proposal was not taken up: Ibid.
16 “Broken in body and spirit”: Nagel, The Lees of Virginia, 182.
16 He didn’t even manage: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 31.
16 “My dear Sir”: Ibid.
16 When it was brought to: McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington, 18.
17 That had been tried before: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 37.
18 The contrast between her childhood: Thomas L. Connelly, The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society (New York: Knopf, 1977), 169.
19 For somebody whose health was as fraiclass="underline" Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 45.
20 She entrusted him with the keys: Ibid., 39.
20 He accompanied her on drives: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 34.
20 “Self-denial, self-control”: Ibid., 23.
21 When he first went away: Ibid., 30–31.
21 His maternal grandfather: Ibid., 24.
21 Perhaps because Ann Carter Lee: Ibid., 25.
21 As a child he was surrounded: Ibid., 25, 28.
24 At that time there was not as yet: Ibid., 38.
25 Fitzhugh’s letter referred: Ibid., 39.
CHAPTER 2 The Education of a Soldier
30 The academy still consisted of only: Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York: Scribner, 1934), Vol. 1, 49.
30 The stone wharf: Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, Travels Through North America During the Years 1825 and 1826 (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Carey, 1828), 110.
30 An English visitor with an eye for detaiclass="underline" William N. Blane, An Excursion Through the United States and Canada, 1822–1833 by an English Gentleman (London: Baldwin, Craddock and Joy, 1824), 352–76.
30 Tent mates were obliged to purchase: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 51.
30 Meals were ample: Theodore J. Crackel, West Point: A Centennial History (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 89.
31 The new cadets were given: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 52.
31 The marquis was greeted: Albany (New York) Argus, July 8, 1825.
33 Another roll call and inspection: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 56–57.
33 The list of things forbidden: Ibid., 52.
33 Unlike third-year cadet Jefferson Davis: Ibid., 55.
33 By the end of his first year: Ibid., 62.
34 One of them later said: Michael Fellman, The Making of Robert E. Lee (New York: Random House, 2000), 11.
37 He had no reason to be apprehensive: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 67.
38 Everywhere they went: Paul Nagel, The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 232.
38 This is not to say: Ibid., 235.
39 This problem he solved: Ibid., 206.
40 To his credit, perhaps, Henry never denied his guilt: Ibid., 207–14.
41 In a climax worthy of a nineteenth-century romantic noveclass="underline" Ibid., 218.
43 Perhaps the most intense part of his studies: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 76–77.
43 Robert’s position as adjutant of the corps: Ibid., 80.
43 It is interesting to note: Ibid., 81.
44 Although Douglas Southall Freeman states: Ibid., 84.
45 She was staying at Ravensworth: Ibid., 87.
46 Mrs. Lee was hardly a major slave owner: A. M. Gambone, Lee at Gettysburg: Commentary on Defeat—The Death of a Myth (Baltimore, Md.: Butternut and Blue, 2002), 37.
47 He rejoiced in being known: Nagel, The Lees of Virginia, 235.
47 In fact two of the older Lee boys: Ibid.
48 Even at the very end of his life: Ibid., 292.
48 Robert was punctual to a fault: Ibid., 236.
50 Lee journeyed north to New York: Emory Thomas, Robert E. Lee (New York: Norton, 1995), 57; Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 94.
51 On the other hand, Cockspur Island: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 95.
51 Major Babcock, to whom Lee: Ibid., 96.
53 In January word finally arrived: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 62.
54 Lee laid siege to Mary’s mother: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 104.
55 Mary was to have no fewer: Ibid., 105; Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 64.
55 Nothing except his children: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 108.
56 Perhaps nothing is more symbolic: Ibid., 109.
CHAPTER 3 The Engineer—1831–1846
61 “I actually could not find time”: Emory Thomas, Robert E. Lee (New York: Norton, 1995), 65.
61 this is pretty tame stuff: Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York: Scribner, 1934), Vol. 1, 107.
62 During his honeymoon: Ibid., 112–13.
63 The Lees’ “apartment”: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 66.
64 Convinced that “he was ordained”: Tony Horowitz, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (New York: Henry Holt, 2011), 20.
66 One of the doctors: William Styron: The Confessions of Nat Turner—A Critical Handbook, Melvin J. Friedman and Irving Malin, eds. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1970), 43.
66 Fear of further slave insurrections: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 11–12.
67 He reassured his mother-in-law: Ibid., 111.
67 Notwithstanding his sensible effort to calm: Ibid.
67 “In this enlightened age”: Ibid., 372.
68 “My own opinion is that they [blacks]”: Michael Fellman, The Making of Robert E. Lee (New York: Random House, 2000), 268.
69 “The idea that Southern people”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 376.
69 In any case, Lee returned to work: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 69.
70 After the boy’s birth: Ibid., 71.
71 It was not just a question of neatness: Ibid.
71 “The spirit is willing”: Ibid.
72 While she was away: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 18.
72 At that time, Lee owned: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 72.
73 “an extended mock love affair”: Ibid.
73 Whereas the portrait of Mary Custis: Ibid.
73 When Harriet gave birth: Ibid.
73 “How I did strut along”: Ibid., 73.
73 “As for the daughters of Eve”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 118.
74 Owing to Talcott’s frequent absences: Ibid., 119.
75 When he took command of the army of Italy: Sir Edward Cust, Annals of the Wars of the Nineteenth Century (London: John Murray, 1863), Vol. 3, 260.
78 As a result Mr. Schneider: A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee (New York: J. M. Stoddard, 1886), 25.
78 The original boundary line: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 82.
79 “But why do you urge”: Ibid., 82–83.
79 The apparent harshness: Ibid., 83; Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 134.
79 In the heroic medical tradition of the day: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 83.
79 Eventually two large “abscesses”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 134.
80 “I have never seen a man”: Ibid.
80 “The country looks very sweet”: Ibid., 136.
81 “they wanted a skillful engineer”: Ibid., 138.
82 The immediate problem facing Lee: Ibid.
83 Lee’s responsibilities included: Ibid.
83 “the dearest and dirtiest”: Ibid., 139.
83 His aide and companion on the long trip: Ibid., 140.
84 “The improved condition of the children”: Ibid., 141.
85 The problem to which he gave the most immediate attention: Wikipedia, “Mississippi River,” 10.
85 When the river was high: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 89.
85 He had planned to survey: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 143.
86 “in full costume”: Elizabeth Pryor, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters (New York: Viking, 2007), 114.
87 His solution to the problems: See Stella M. Drumm, “Robert E. Lee and the Mississippi River,” Missouri Historical Society, Vol. 6, No. 2, February 1929.
88 “The commerce thus made available”: Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 28–29.
89 By July 1838, “Lee had pushed”: Drumm, “Robert E. Lee and the Mississippi River,” 146.
89 On the way home Lee encountered: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 148.
90 Even so, the Lees left their daughter Mary: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 91–92.
90 Lee boasted that the boys: Ibid., 93.
90 They spent a month: Ibid.
91 Saint Louis was by no means: Pryor, Reading the Man, 111; Mary P. Coulling, The Lee Girls (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Blair, 1987), 11; Harnett T. Kane, The Lady of Arlington: A Novel Based on the Life of Mrs. Robert E. Lee (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953), 91.
91 Although the Lee family: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 94.
91 “brats squalling around”: Coulling, The Lee Girls, 10.
92 One observer comments on Lee’s diligence: Drumm, “Robert E. Lee and the Mississippi River,” 170.
92 She was also pregnant: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 158.
93 “his family was increasing”: Ibid., 157.
94 Typically, Lee’s correspondence: Drumm, “Robert E. Lee and the Mississippi River.”
94 He plunged into Gratiot’s defense: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 158.
94 The improvements Lee had made: Pryor, Reading the Man, 116.
94 Fortunately, common sense prevailed: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 174.
95 After an extended journey: Ibid., 178.
96 The race was won: Pryor, Reading the Man, 122.
96 It may be true: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 185.
98 He took care to praise: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 102.
98 “I receive poor encouragement”: Ibid., 103.
99 “He seemed to be weighted down”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 188.
99 Mary and the children: Ibid., 191.
101 “appointed as a member”: Ibid., 194.
101 “horror at the sight of pen”: Ibid.
101 It was neither interesting nor demanding: Ibid., 197.
101 “adventuresome young man”: Ibid., 196.
101 In a piece of surgery: Ibid.
101 “We must endeavor to assist her”: Coulling, The Lee Girls, 13.
101 In any event, Lee was the most admirable: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 196.
102 required a “tight rein”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 4 The Perfect Warrior—Mexico, 1846–1848
104 “Generally, the officers”: Christopher Conway and Gustavo Pellon, The U.S.-Mexican War: Binational Reader (Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 2010), 153.
104 “The Southern rebellion”: Joan Waugh, U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (Chapel Hilclass="underline" University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 203.
104 “better satisfied”: Robert E. Lee to Mary Lee, May 12, 1846, Debutts-Ely Papers, Library of Congress; Elizabeth Pryor, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Papers (New York: Viking, 2007), 158.
104 The “Texans”: Wikipedia, “Mexican-American War,” 3.
105 Provocation was not long in coming: Ibid., 14, n12.
106 “the Sharpening of Swords”: Pryor, Reading the Man, 158.
106 “If he were left at Fort Hamilton”: Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York: Scribner, 1934), Vol. 1, 202.
107 “I reached here last night”: Robert E. Lee to Mary Lee, September 21, 1846, Debutts-Ely Letters, Library of Congress.
108 He was accompanied by his “faithful”: Robert E. Lee Jr., Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1924), 5.
108 Connally took care: Ibid.; Reverend J. William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee: Soldier and Man (New York: Neale, 1906), 50.
110 This was cautious, but unnecessary: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 208; Wikipedia, “Mexican-American War,” 8.
110 To Wool’s dismay: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 211.
113 Worth was a fiery hero: Ibid., 53.
117 “the largest amphibious invasion yet attempted”: John Eisenhower, So Far from God: The U.S. War in Mexico, 1846–1848 (New York: Anchor, 1990), 255.
117 His incredibly detailed plans: Ibid., 253–54.
117 They were “the first specially built”: K. Jack Bauer, Surfboats and Horse Marines: U.S. Naval Operations in the Mexican War 1846–1848 (Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1969), 66.
120 Dust clouds in the distance: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 214.
120 Lee picked “the son”: Ibid., 215.
120 Lee’s cavalry escort: Ibid.
120 “on a hill not far away”: Ibid.
121 “This Mexican was the most delighted”: Ibid., 216.
121 Lee had ridden: Ibid.
121 The incident apparently: Ibid.
122 Although Scott couched his demand: Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D. Written by Himself (New York: Sheldon, 1864), Vol. 2, 403.
122 A second problem was that Scott: Ibid., 402.
122 “a great disappointment”: Ibid.
122 “I had now”: Ibid., 403.
123 For the moment: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 219.
124 From the sea Tampico: Ibid., 220.
124 Scott had been informed: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 413.
125 Lee was one of the few: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 221.
125 “a gently curving strip”: Bauer, Surfboats and Horse Marines, 77.
125 The landing was scheduled: Ibid., 78.
126 Lee witnessed the landing: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 419.
126 “were considered . . . to be among the strongest”: Bauer, Surfboats and Horse Marines, 83.
126 The wall around: Ibid.
127 As “Scott’s protégé”: Allan Peskin, Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2003), 155, 156.
127 “a lurid glare”: Ibid., 157.
128 “but hidden from its view”: Ibid.
128 Lee built the battery: Bauer, Surfboats and Horse Marines, 92.
128 Lee found the sailors: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 230.
129 “unconscious of personal danger”: Ibid., 231.
129 “No matter where I turned”: Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee (New York: Appleton, 1913), 36–37; Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 231.
129 The hellish exchange: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 158.
129 On March 25 the city’s: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 427; Eisenhower, So Far from God, 264.
129 Mexico’s “principal port”: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 428.
130 “It was awful”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 231.
130 As Lee looked: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 159.
130 Of these, the better road: Ibid., 162.
130 This road crossed: Ibid.
131 In Washington, President Polk: Ibid., 174.
131 Worth’s behavior: Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Fifty Years in Camp and Field (New York: Putnam, 1909), 130.
132 Two days out of Vera Cruz: Justin H. Smith, The War with Mexico (St. Petersburg, Fla.: Red and Black, 2011), 47; Peskin, Winfield Scott, 162.
132 The troops applauded: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 432.
133 “that indefatigable engineer”: Smith, The War with Mexico, 50.
134 “The right of the Mexican line”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 239.
134 One of Twiggs’s engineers: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 163.
134 there were Mexican troops: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 239.
135 More soldiers came and went: Ibid., 240.
135 “He did not reach”: Ibid., 241.
136 Worth was still sulking: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 149.
136 The spirit of the senior officers: Ibid.
136 It was a grueling: Smith, The War with Mexico, 51.
136 The intention had been: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 242–43.
136 “You infernal scoundrel”: Ibid., 243.
137 “Charge them to hell”: Ibid.
137 Twiggs had sacrificed: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 148.
138 “Her plaintive tone”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, 291.
138 The only part of Scott’s plan: Peskin, Winfield Scott, 167.
138 Over 1,000 Mexican soldiers: Ibid.; Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 246.
139 “Nor was he less conspicuous”: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 248.
139 The landscape delighted: The Robert E. Lee Reader, Stanley F. Horn, ed. (Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1949), 58.
140 Lee busied himself: Freeman, Robert E. Lee, Vol. 1, 250.
140 “strongly occupied”: Ibid.
141 In desperation, Scott determined: Scott, Memoirs, Vol. 2, 460.
141 “the gorgeous seat”: Ibid., 466–67.