Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1061

Rh Federal gunboat, with two pieces of artillery, and, on the previous day he was engaged in a lively fight four miles from there, in which he fired the first gun. During his experience in the Petersburg batteries there were many interesting incidents illustrating the life of an artilleryman. On one occasion he dropped a very successful shot upon a wood-pile, behind which were a number of sharpshooters intent on picking him off; on the same day with one gun he put out of action a four-gun Federal battery, blowing up its caisson; at another time he caused great havoc in a Federal line which permitted him to enfilade it at a distance of 200 yards. Since the war Mr. Lee has been engaged in the management of a planing mill at Danville, has served repeatedly as councilman, and is a valued member of Cabell-Graves camp. He was married in 1869 to Florence M. Jeffries, and they have six children.

Robert E. Lee, youngest son of Gen. R. E. Lee, was, at the time of the secession of Virginia and the appointment of his father as commander of the military forces of the State, a student in the university of Virginia. He at once asked permission to enter the army, but, in a letter of April, 1861, to his wife. General Lee said: "I wrote to Robert that I could not consent to take boys from their schools and young men from their colleges and put them in the ranks at the beginning of the war, when they are not needed. The war may last ten years. Where are our ranks to be filled from then?" From the same correspondence it appears that, in July, "Rob" was made captain of Company A of the university, and the general had sent him one of his own swords. Early in 1862 the young man, then eighteen years of age, made up his mind to leave the university and enter the army. The general did not encourage him in this. "I told him," he wrote, "of the exemption granted by the secretary of war to the professors and students of the university, but he expressed no desire to take advantage of it. As I have done all in the matter that seems proper, I must now leave the rest in the hands of our merciful God. I hope our son will make a good soldier." He enlisted as a private in the Rockbridge artillery after the battle of Kernstown and was soon in the thickest of the fight. Just after the battle of Sharpsburg the general wrote to Mrs. Lee: "I have not set eyes on 'Rob' since I saw him in the battle of Sharpsburg, going in with a single gun of his battery, for the second time, after his company had been withdrawn in consequence of three of its guns having been disabled." In December, 1862, he was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of his elder brother, Gen. W. H. F. Lee, and about the same time was appointed a cadet in the Confederate States army by President Davis. He continued in the service until the close of the war and participated in all the battles of the army of Northern Virginia under General Lee, except Gettysburg and Appomattox. He was wounded in the body at Spottsylvania Court House, and again in a fight with Hancock on the north side of the James river. After the close of hostilities he was engaged in farming at White House from May to December, 1865, and in the following year took possession of his farm in King William county, where he remained until 1892, when he made his residence at Washington, D. C, and engaged in business.