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.