A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 615 pages of information about A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 615 pages of information about A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The following was the order of the procession when it was completed: 

  Music.

  Escort of Honor, consisting of Officers and Soldiers of the Confederate
  Army.

  Chaplain and other Clergy.

  Hearse and Pall-bearers.

  General Lee’s Horse.

  The Attending Physicians.

  Trustees and Faculty of Washington College.

  Dignitaries of the State of Virginia.

  Visitors and Faculty of the Virginia Military Institute.

  Other Representative Bodies and Distinguished Visitors.

  Alumni of Washington College.

  Citizens.

  Cadets Virginia Military Institute.

  Students of Washington College as Guard of Honor

AT THE CHAPEL.

After the first salute, a gun was fired every three minutes.  Moving still to the sound of martial music, in honor of the dead, the procession reentered the grounds of Washington College by the northeastern gate, and was halted in front of the chapel.  Then followed an imposing ceremony.  The cadets of the Institute were detached from the line, and marched in double file into the chapel up one of the aisles, past the remains of the illustrious dead, which lay in state on the rostrum, and down the other aisle out of the church.  The students of Washington College followed next, passing with bowed heads before the mortal remains of him they revered and loved so much and well as their president and friend.  The side-aisles and galleries were crowded with ladies, Emblems of mourning met the eye on all sides, and feminine affection had hung funeral garlands of flowers upon all the pillars and walls.  The central pews were filled with the escort of honor, composed of former Confederate soldiers from this and adjoining counties, while the spacious platform was crowded with the trustees, faculties, clergy, Legislative Committee, and distinguished visitors.  Within and without the consecrated hall the scene was alike imposing.  The blue mountains of Virginia, towering in the near horizon; the lovely village of Lexington, sleeping in the calm, unruffled air, and the softened autumn sunlight; the vast assemblage, mute and sorrowful; the tolling bells, and pealing cannon, and solemn words of funeral service, combined to render the scene one never to be forgotten.

The sons of General Lee—­W.H.F.  Lee, G.W.C.  Lee, and Robert E. Lee—­with their sisters, Misses Agnes and Mildred Lee, and the nephews of the dead, Fitzhugh, Henry C., and Robert C. Lee, entered the church with bowed heads, and silently took seats in front of the rostrum.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES AND INTERMENT.

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A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.