Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/379

 Robert E. Lee, 371

ing to him in the affirmative he was struck by the voice of the boy, and asked him "Whose son are you?'* To which he answered, " I am Robbie/* whereupon his father said, *' God bless you, my son, you must go in.**

When General Lee was in camp near Richmond his friends fre- quently sent him something to improve his mess-table. A lady, noted for the very good bread she made, had frequently favored him with some. One day, as we were riding through the street, she was standing in her front door and bowed to us. The salutation was, of course, returned. After we had passed he asked me who she was. I told him she was the lady who sent him such good bread. He was very sorry he had not known it, but to go back would prove that he had not recognized her as he should have done. His habitual avoid- ance of any seeming harshness, which caused him sometimes, instead of giving a command, to make a suggestion, was probably a defect. I believe that he had in this manner indicated that supplies were to be deposited for him at Amelia Courthouse, but the testimony of General Breckenridge, Secretary of War, of General St. John, Com- missary General, and Lewis Harvie, President of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, conclusively proves that no such requisition was made upon either of the persons who should have received it ; and, further, that there were supplies both at Danville and Richmond which could have been sent to Amelia Courthouse if information had been received that they were wanted there.

Much has been written in regard to the failure to occupy the Round Top at Gettysburg early in the morning of the second day*s battle, to which failure the best judgment attributes our want of entire suc- cess in that battle. Whether this was due to the order not being sufficiently positive or not, I will leave to the historians who are dis- cussing that important event. I have said that Lee*s natural temper was combative, and to this may be ascribed his attack on the third day at Gettysburg, when the opportunity had not been seized which his genius saw was the gate to victory. It was this last attack to which I have thought he referred when he said it was all his fault, thereby sparing others from whatever blame was due for what had previously occurred.

After the close of the war, while I was in prison and Lee was on parole, we were both indicted on a charge of treason ; but, in hot haste to get in their work, the indictment was drawn with the fatal omission of an overt act. General Grant interposed in the case of General Lee, on the ground that he had taken his parole and that he