the accumulated agony of defeat and despair.  Those words could only have been uttered by a man who made duty the paramount object of living—­the performance of it, the true glory and crown of virtuous manhood.  It may be objected by some critics that he mistook his duty in espousing the Southern cause.  Doubtless many persons will urge that objection, and declare that the words here written are senseless panegyric.  But that will not affect the truth or detract from Lee’s great character.  He performed at least what in his inmost soul he considered his duty, and, from the beginning of his career, when all was so bright, to its termination, when all was so dark, it will be found that his controlling sentiment was, first, last, and all the time, this performance of duty.  The old Puritan, whose example he admired so much, was not more calm and resolute.  When “the last day” of the cause he fought for came—­in the spring of 1865—­it was plain to all who saw the man, standing unmoved in the midst of the general disaster, that his sole desire was to be “found at his place, and doing his duty.”

From this species of digression upon the moral constituents of the individual, we pass to the record of that career which made the great fame of the soldier.  The war had already begun when Lee took command of the provisional forces of Virginia, and the collisions in various portions of the Gulf States between the Federal and State authorities were followed by overt acts in Virginia, which all felt would be the real battle-ground of the war.  The North entered upon the struggle with very great ardor and enthusiasm.  The call for volunteers to enforce obedience to the Federal authority was tumultuously responded to throughout the entire North, and troops were hurried forward to Washington, which soon became an enormous camp.  The war began in Virginia with the evacuation and attempted destruction of the works at Harper’s Ferry, by the Federal officer in command there.  This was on the 19th of April, and on the next day reinforcements were thrown into Fortress Monroe; and the navy-yard at Norfolk, with the shipping, set on fire and abandoned.

Lee thus found the Commonwealth in a state of war, and all his energies were immediately concentrated upon the work of placing her in a condition of defence.  He established his headquarters in the custom-house at Richmond; orderlies were seen coming and going; bustle reigned throughout the building, and by night, as well as by day, General Lee labored incessantly to organize the means of resistance.  From the first moment, all had felt that Virginia, from her geographical position, adjoining the Federal frontier and facing the Federal capital, would become the arena of the earliest, longest, and most determined struggle.  Her large territory and moral influence, as the oldest of the Southern States, also made her the chief object of the Federal hostility.  It was felt that if Virginia were occupied, and her people reduced under