DEATH OF THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL LEE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 921, 19 January 1871, Page 2

DEATH OF THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL LEE.

General Lee, one of the most cele* brated generals in the Confederate army, died at Lexington, Virginia, on the 13th October, of congestion of the brain. Ho died ealmly and in full possession of his reason, expressing a sure faith in religion. His death caused great grief throughout the South, Business in Virginia was generally suspended, and the press, with few exceptions and regardless of politics, extol the exalted purity of character of the deceased. The following obituary notice is from the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 14th October : —Robert Edmund Lee, commander-in-chief of the Confederate army in Virginia, died yesterday at Lexington, the scene of one of his victories, . Ho was the son of General Henry Lee, the friend of Washington, was born in Virginia in 1808. After receiving a liberal education, he was admitted into West Point, as a cadet, in 1825. In July, 1829, he entered the U.S. army as 2nd Lieut.; in September, 1836, he was made Ist Lieut.; and in July, 1838, Capt. In 1845 he was appointed a member of the Board of Engineers, and in the following year Chief Engineer of the army in Mexico. He was brevetted Major, April 18,1846, for gallant conduct at Cerro Gordo ; Lieut.Col., August 20, 1847, for bravery at Contreras and Churubusco ; and Colonel, September 13, 1847, for gallant conduct at Chapultepec. At the end of the Mexican war he was again appointed a member of the Board of Engineers, and in 1852 he was raised to the post of Super- > intendent of West Point Mil. Acad., which he held till March, 1855, when he was appointed Lieut.-Col. of Cavalry. On the 16th of March, 1861, he was appointed Colonel of Cavalry, and on the 25 th of April, in the same year, he resigned his commission in the U.S. army and offered his sword to Virginia, which State had just then seceded from the Union, and was threatened with invasion by the Federals. General Lee's first appointment in his new sphere of action was that of Commander-in-Chief of the forces of his native State. In the summer of 1861 he was sent by President Davis to conduct the military operations in the mountain regions of Virginia, but nothing of importance was accomplished by him, as he was thwarted at every step by a defective organisation and the impassable condition of the roads. He returned to Richmond, and was occupied till June, 1862, with the geaeral disposition and equipment of the Confederate forces. General Joseph E. Johnston having been disabled, by a wound received at the battle of the Seven Pines, in May, 1862, for the command of the army entrusted with the defence of Richmond —at that time threatened by the approach of a formidable Federal army —General Lee assumed the command, and found himself opposed to McCiellan, his old companion in arms, and associate as a member of the commission sent by the U.S. Government, in 1854, to the seat of war in the Crimea, to watch the progress of the siege of Sebastopol. In the campaign that ensued, the proposed object of which was the capture of Richmond, a series of formidable attacks were made by General McCiellan in the immediate vicinity of that city—the obstinate fighting continuing almost uninterruptedly for seven days—and the issue of which was most triumphant tp the. Confederate cause ; General Jjee, powerfully aided by the late lamented " Stonewall J ckson," haviug completely baffled McClellan's efforts, and compelled him to retreat with all his forces. la August following, he forced Pope to fall back precipitately upon Washington. In his Maryland campaigns of 1862 and 1863 he was not fortunate. The sanguinary conflict at Antietam or Sharpsburg, fought on September 17, 1862, w a s a drawn battle, but it necessitated his withdrawal south of the Potomac; and Gettysburg in July, 1863, was a serious reverse to the Confederates, which was redeemed only by* the admirable order maintained in the retreat. In December, 1862, General Lee signally defeated Burnside at Fredericksburg, and in May, 1863, he vanquished Hooker at Chancellorsville. In the begiuuing of May^ 1864, he confronted the vast Federal host of General Grant on the James River, and in the many memorable engagements in the course of the ensuing campaigns, all resulting in disaster to t]ie Union forces, his wonderf'uj skill in

strategy and indomitable resolution were conspicuously displayed. General Lee was tall, his frame well knit, his countenance pleasing, his manners gentle, and 2,| 8 habits singularly abstemious. la victory as in defeat he maintained the same serene, equal demeanour ; and his perfect self-command, humanity, devotion, and courage have won for him the admiration of Europe and America, as well among strangers and enemies as in the army that he. commands, and among the people who are proud to claim him as their own.