Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/571

 Longs Blemoir of General R. E. Lee. 565

youth and opening manhood of Lee, are very interesting, and contain some new matter in the reminiscences of cotemporaries of the boy, the cadet, the skillful young engineer officer, and the account of his marriage to Mary Custis, and home life at Arlington.

The sketch of the career of " Captain Lee " in the Mexican war, is the fullest and most valuable which has yet been published, and is rendered the more interesting by contributions of General Wilcox, General Hunt, and General J. E. Johnston, besides free quotations from the official reports, which show that even then he was the rising soldier of the army.

The life of Lee from the Mexican war to the breaking out of the great war between the States — his service as engineer near Baltimore; his three years as Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, and his service on the frontier as Lieutenant-Colonel of the famous Second cavalry — is briefly sketched.

His views and. feelings on the breaking out of the war are presented in interesting letters, which had been before published, but are none the less valuable as showing the real sentiments of this great man.

General Long brings out clearly the invaluable service rendered by General Lee as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, and for a time of all of the Confederate forces in Virginia, in organizing, disciplining, and equipping the raw recruits and preparing them to win the first battle of Manassas and other victories of the next year.

Shortly after the battle of First Manassas, General Long had his first interview with General Lee, and was made Major and Chief of Artillery to the Army of Northwest Virginia. Henceforth Long served to the sad end at Appomattox, under the immediate eye and in the most confidential relations with General Lee, and we have a narrative greatly enhanced in interest and value by this fact. The writer of this review remembers to have heard General Lee, upon more than one occasion, speak in high terms of General Long — his ability as a soldier and his character as a man — and the remainder of the memoirs of General Lee's military career are therefore the work of a competent military critic, who speaks of what he saw and learned of General Lee himself, and of which admiring friends may justly say (what our author's own modesty would forbid), Magna pars /tut.

We regret that the late date at which we have received the book (only several days before closing this volume), and want of space, must compel us to omit a detailed review of the admirable