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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875. Excerpt: ... REMINISCENCES OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. CHAPTER I. THE SOLDIER. General Lee was in the highest, truest sense of the term, A Soldier; and, while a detailed narrative of his military achievements is not proposed, our portraiture would be incomplete without a chapter on his character and career in his chosen profession. With ample materials at hand, I prefer that the picture should be drawn by abler pens than my own, and shall, therefore, freely cull from what has been said by some of the ablest military critics of this and other countries. And I am fortunate in being able to present the estimate of Lee's generalship given by Lieutenant-General J. A. Early, in his address before Washington and Lee University, January 19, 1872, on the occasion of the second anniversary celebration of General Lee's birthday. Omitting only a few of the opening and concluding paragraphs, I give in full this splendid tribute of an able soldier to the chieftain whom he followed so faithfully during the war, and whose memory and fame it seems his proudest ambition to perpetuate: "The commencement of hostilities in Charleston harbor, the proclamation of Lincoln, calling for troops to make an unconstitutional war on the seceded States, and the consequent secession of Virginia, found General Lee a colonel in the United States Army, with a character and reputation which would have Insured him the highest military honors within the gift of the United States Government. In fact, it has been said that the command of the army intended for the invasion of the South was tendered him. However, rejecting all overtures made to him, as soort as he learned the action of his native State, in a dignified manner, and without parade or show, he tendered his resignation, with the determination to share t...