Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/114

110 of the possibility of an erroneous date; and his statement must be confined to the time when the letter bears date.

The answer to this theory of wrong date is furnished by the facts. Change the date of The Duty Letter to whatever time you please, and the first two sentences are still impossible. They affirm two things: (1) "I am just in the act of leaving home for New Mexico"; and (2) "My fine old regiment has been ordered to that distant region, and I must hasten to see that they are properly taken care of." So the new date must satisfy two conditions, which must concur and co-exist, viz: (1) General Lee must be at home, in the act of leaving, in haste, for New Mexico, and (2) his fine old regiment must recently (this is clearly implied) have been ordered to New Mexico. But as General Lee was never in New Mexico, nor was the Second Cavalry ever ordered to New Mexico, let us change "New Mexico," as written in The Duty Letter, to Texas, treating "New Mexico," as a slip of the pen, when Texas was meant. Such |heterophemy is totally unlike General Lee, but let it be supposed as a concession for the sake of the argument.

When, then, did General Lee, after he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Cavalry, leave home (Arlington) to join his regiment in Texas? Only twice, once in February, 1856, and again in February, 1860. This is shown, not only by the records in the office of the Adjutant-General at Washington, but also appears conclusively from General Lee's letters and Memorandum Book covering the period from 1855, when the Second