Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/181

 Major-General George Washington Custis Lee. 169

lowed that the class of "9 was far more distinguished for ability than the class of '54. For seven years thereafter he served with marked distinction in "the Engineers," the corps de'clite of the army, receiving repeated commendation from his supe- riors for skill in the construction of forts from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, and especially for his able work in river im- provement — all of which led to his assignment to duty in the "Engineer Bureau" at the seat of government.

Then came the Secession of the Southern States, when every Southern officer of the Army and of the Navy must needs meet the question whether to adhere to the Union, or to draw his sword against his native State.

His father left him absolutely free of all influence of his to decide the momentous question. "Custis," he writes to his wife, "must decide for himself, and I shall respect his decision, whatever it is."

But that decision was never for a moment in doubt, for there was bred in his bone the feeling of his grandfather, "Light Horse Harry," who exclaimed, when the "Virginia and Ken- tucky Resolutions," foreshadowing Secession, were under dis- cussion in the Virginia Legislature in 1798 — "Virginia is my country ; her will I obey, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me."

When, on May 2nd, 1861, the die was cast, and, resigning his commission in the army, he resolved to ofifer his sword to his mother State, it is safe to say that all those who knew him best (including his father, ever temperate in his estimate of the abilities of even his own sons) entertained no shadow of doubt that a brilliant military career lay open before him in the conflict impending between the sections.

He was then in the very flower of his young manhood (not quite twenty-nine) and of high and imperturbable courage, as was to be expected of one of his "valiant strain." He had re- ceived, as we have seen, the severest professional training, was as cautious of judgment as he w^as sparing of speech, and even those comrades, who were resolved to oppose him, reckoned