COLONEL TAYLOR AND GENERAL LEE
Forth from its scabbard all in vain
Bright flashed the sword of Lee;
'Tis shrouded now in its sheath again,
It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain,
Defeated, yet without a stain,
Proudly and peacefully.
--ABRAM J. RYAN.
Though I had often heard, before going into the South, of the devotion
of that section to the memory of General Robert E. Lee, I never fully
realized the extent of that devotion until I began to become a little
bit acquainted with Virginia. I remember being struck, while in Norfolk,
with the fact that portraits of General Lee were to be seen in many
offices and homes, much as one might expect, at the present time, to
find portraits of Joffre and Nivelle in the homes of France, or of Haig
in the homes of Britain. It is not enough to say that the memory of Lee
is to the South like that of Napoleon I to France, for it is more. The
feeling of France for Napoleon is one of admiration, of delight in a
national military genius, of hero-worship, but there is not intermingled
with it the quality of pure affection which fully justifies the use of
the word _love_, in characterizing the feeling of the South for its
great military leader--the man of whom Lord Wolseley said: "He was a
being apart and superior to all others in every way; a man with whom
none I ever knew, and very few of whom I ever read are worthy to be
compared; a man who was cast in a grander mould and made of finer metal
than all other men."
Nor is this love surprising, for whereas Napoleon was a self-seeking
man, and one whose personal character was not altogether admirable in
other respects, and whereas he could hardly be said to typify France's
ideal of everything a gentleman should be, Lee sought nothing for
himself, was a man of great nobility of character, and was in perfection
a Virginia gentleman. At the end, moreover, where Napoleon's defeat was
that of an aspirant to conquest, glory and empire, Lee's defeat was that
of a cause, and the cause was regarded in the entire South as almost
holy, so that, in defeat, the South felt itself martyred, and came to
look upon its great general with a love and veneration unequaled in
history, and much more resembling the feeling of France for the
canonized Joan of Arc, than for the ambitious Corsican.
When, therefore, my companion and I heard, while in Norfolk, that
Colonel Walter H. Taylor, president of the Marine Bank of that city, had
served through the Civil War on General Lee's staff, we naturally became
very anxious to meet him; and I am glad to say that Colonel Taylor,
though at the time indisposed and confined to his home, was so kind as
to receive us.
He was seated in a large chair in his library, on the second floor of
his residence, a pleasant old-fashioned brick house at the corner of
York and Yarmouth Streets--a slender man, not very tall, I judged
(though I did not see him standing), not very strong at the moment, but
with nothing of the decrepitude of old age about him, for all his
seventy-seven years. Upon the contrary he was, in appearance and manner,
delightfully alert, with the sort of alertness which lends to some men
and women, regardless of their years, a suggestion of perpetual
youthfulness. Such alertness, in those who have lived a long time, is
most often the result of persistent intellectual activity, and the sign
of it is usually to be read in the eyes. Colonel Taylor's keen, dark,
observant, yet kindly eyes, were perhaps his finest feature, though,
indeed, all his features were fine, and his head, with its well-trimmed
white hair and mustache, was one of great distinction.
Mrs. Taylor (of whom we had previously been warned to beware, because
she had not yet forgiven the "Yankees" for their sins) was also present:
a beautiful old lady of unquenchable spirit, in whose manner, though she
received us with politeness, we detected lurking danger.
And why not? Do not women remember some things longer than men remember
them? Do not the sweethearts who stayed at home remember the continual
dull dread they suffered while the men they loved faced danger, whereas
the absent lovers were at least in part compensated for the risks they
ran, by the continual sense of high adventure and achievement?
Mrs. Taylor was Miss Elizabeth Selden Saunders, daughter of Captain John
L. Saunders of Virginia, who died in 1860, in the service of his
country, a commander in the United States Navy. When the war broke out
Miss Saunders, wishing to serve the Confederate Government, became a
clerk in the Surgeon General's office, at Richmond, and there she
remained while Colonel Taylor, whose training at the Virginia Military
Institute, coupled with his native ability, made him valuable as an
officer, followed the fortunes of General Lee, part of the time as the
general's aide-de-camp, and the rest of the time as adjutant-general and
chief of staff of the Army of Northern Virginia, in which capacities he
was present at all general engagements of the army, under Lee.
On April 2, 1865, when Lee's gallant but fast dwindling army, short of
supplies, and so reduced in numbers as to be no longer able to stand
against the powerful forces of Grant, was evacuating its lines at
Petersburg, when it was evident that the capital of the Confederacy was
about to fall, and the orders for retreat had been despatched by Colonel
Taylor, in his capacity as adjutant--then the colonel went to his
commander and asked for leave of absence over night, for the purpose of
going to Richmond and being married. He tells the story in his
exceedingly interesting and valuable book, "General Lee--His Campaigns
in Virginia":
At the close of the day's work, when all was in readiness for the
evacuation of our lines under cover of the darkness of night, I
asked permission of General Lee to ride over to Richmond and to
rejoin him early the next morning, telling him that my mother and
sisters were in Richmond and that I would like to say good-by to
them, and that my sweetheart was there, and we had arranged, if
practicable, to be married that night. He expressed some surprise
at my entertaining such a purpose at that time, but when I
explained to him that the home of my bride-elect was in the enemy's
lines, that she was alone in Richmond and employed in one of the
departments of the government, and wished to follow the fortunes of
the Confederacy should our lines be reëstablished farther South, he
promptly gave his assent to my plans. I galloped to the railroad
station, then at Dunlops, on the north side of the river, where I
found a locomotive and several cars, constituting the "ambulance
train," designed to carry to Richmond the last of the wounded of
our army requiring hospital treatment. I asked the agent if he had
another engine, when, pointing to one rapidly receding in the
direction of Richmond, he replied, "Yonder goes the only locomotive
we have besides the one attached to this train." Turning my horse
over to the courier who accompanied me, with directions to join me
in Richmond as soon as he could, I mounted the locomotive in
waiting, directed the engineer to detach it from the cars and to
proceed to overtake the engine ahead of us. It was what the sailors
call a stern chase and a long one. We did not overtake the other
locomotive until it had reached Falling Creek, about three-fourths
of the distance, when I transferred to it and sent the other back
to Petersburg. I reached Richmond without further incident, and
soon after midnight I was married to Elizabeth Selden Saunders....
As will be readily understood, the occasion was not one of great
hilarity, though I was very happy; my eyes were the only dry ones
in the company....
The people of Richmond were greatly excited and in despair in the
contemplation of the abandonment of their beautiful city by our
troops. General Lee had for so long a time thwarted the designs of
his powerful adversaries for the capture of the city, and seemed so
unfailing and resourceful in his efforts to hold them at bay, that
the good people found it difficult to realize that he was compelled
at last to give way. There was universal gloom and despair at the
thought that at the next rising of the sun the detested Federal
soldiers would take possession of the city and occupy its streets.
The transportation companies were busily engaged in arranging for
the removal of the public stores and of the archives of the
government. A fire in the lower part of the city was fiercely
raging, and added greatly to the excitement.
Somewhere near four o'clock on the morning of the 3d of April I
bade farewell to all my dear ones, and in company with my
brother-in-law, Colonel John S. Saunders, proceeded toward Mayo's
Bridge, which we crossed to the south side of the James, in the
lurid glare of the fire, and within the sound of several heavy
explosions that we took to be the final scene in the career of the
Confederate navy, then disappearing in smoke on the James River,
near Rockets.
Before we departed from the colonel's library, which we felt obliged to
do much sooner than we wished to, owing to the condition of his health,
he called our attention to an oil portrait of his old commander, which
occupied the place of honor above the mantelpiece, and asked his
daughters to let us see his scrap-book, containing personal letters from
General Lee, Jefferson Davis, and other distinguished men, as well as
various war documents of unusual interest.
We felt it a great privilege to handle these old letters and to read
them, and the charm of them was the greater for the affection in which
the general held Colonel Taylor, as evidenced by the tone in which he
wrote. To us it was a wonderful evening.... And it still seems to me
wonderful to think that I have met and talked with a man who issued
Lee's orders, who rode forth with Lee when he went to meet Grant in
conference at Appomattox, just before the surrender, who once slept
under the same blanket with Lee, who knew Lee as well perhaps as one man
can know another, and under conditions calculated to try men to the
utmost.
As adjutant, Colonel Taylor took an active part in arranging details of
surrender and parole. He says:
Each officer and soldier was furnished for his protection from
arrest or annoyance with a slip of paper containing his parole,
signed by his commander and countersigned by an officer of the
Federal army.
I signed these paroles for all members of the staff, and when my
own case was reached I requested General Lee to sign mine, which I
have retained to the present time.
This document, with Colonel Taylor's name and title in his own
handwriting, and the signature of General Lee, I am able to reproduce
here through the courtesy of the colonel's daughters, Mrs. William B.
Baldwin and Miss Taylor, of Norfolk. It is the only parole which was
signed personally by General Lee.
[Illustration]
On the back of the little slip, which is of about the size of a bank
check, is the countersignature of George H. Sharpe, Assistant Provost
Marshal general:
[Illustration]
Following his parole Colonel Taylor rode with General Lee to Richmond.
The general seemed to be in a philosophical frame of mind, but thought
much of the future. The subject of the surrender and its consequences
was about exhausted. The Colonel tells of one incident:
On the route General Lee stopped for the night near the residence
of his brother, Mr. Carter Lee, in Powhatan County; and although
importuned by his brother to pass the night under his roof, the
general persisted in pitching his tent by the side of the road and
going into camp as usual. This continued self-denial can only be
explained upon the hypothesis that he desired to have his men know
that he shared their privations to the very last.
This was perfectly in character with Lee. Throughout the War, we learn
from Colonel Taylor's book, the general used the army ration, and lived
the army life. He would not take up his quarters in a house, because he
wished to share the lot of his men, and also because he feared that, in
the event of the house falling into the hands of the enemy, the very
fact of its having been occupied by him might possibly cause its
destruction. It was only during the last year of the War, when his
health was somewhat impaired, that he consented sometimes to vary this
rule.
Lee's chivalrous nature is well shown forth in his famous General
Orders, No. 73, issued at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a few days before
Gettysburg.
After congratulating the troops on their good conduct the general
continued as follows:
There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on the part of
some that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the
army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and
Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy
than in our own.
The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could
befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the
perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and
defenseless, and the wanton destruction of private property, that
have marked the course of the enemy in our own country.
Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all
connected with them, but are subversive to the discipline and
efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends of our present
movement. It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed
men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people
have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose
abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and
offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose
favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain. The
commanding general, therefore, earnestly exhorts the troops to
abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury
to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and
bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against
the orders on this subject.
R.E. Lee,
General.
Truly, a document to serve as a model for warriors of all future
generations, albeit one showing an utter lack of "Kultur"!
Said Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts: "I doubt if a hostile
force ever advanced into an enemy's country, or fell back from it in
retreat, leaving behind it less cause of hate and bitterness than did
the Army of Northern Virginia in that memorable campaign."
After the war, Colonel Taylor and his wife settled in Norfolk, where,
within a very short time, a United States grand jury indicted Jefferson
Davis and General Lee for treason--this, in the case of Lee, being in
direct violation of the terms of surrender. When Grant learned of the
shameful action of the grand jury he complained to Washington and caused
the proceedings against Lee to be dropped.
In Colonel Taylor's scrap-book I found a letter written by Lee before
the indictment had been quashed, referring to the subject:
Richmond, Va.
June 17, 1865.
My dear Colonel:
I am very much obliged to you for your letter of the 13th. I had
heard of the indictment by the grand jury at Norfolk, and made up
my mind to let the authorities take their course. I have no wish to
avoid any trial the government may order, and cannot flee. I hope
others may be unmolested, and that you at least may be undisturbed.
I am sorry to hear that our returned soldiers cannot obtain
employment. Tell them they must all set to work, and if they cannot
do what they prefer, do what they can. Virginia wants all their
aid, all their support, and the presence of all her sons to sustain
and recuperate her. They must therefore put themselves in a
position to take part in her government, and not be deterred by
obstacles in their way. There is much to be done which they only
can do.
Very truly yours,
R.E. Lee.
As time went on, and the more gaping wounds began to heal, Colonel
Taylor's letters from the general took in many cases a lighter and
happier tone. After some years, when four daughters had been born to
Colonel and Mrs. Taylor, while yet they had no son, the general chaffed
them gently on the subject: "Give my congratulations to Mrs. Taylor," he
wrote. "Tell her I hope that when her fancy for girls is satisfied (mine
is exorbitant) she will begin upon the boys. We must have somebody to
work for them."
One of the colonel's sons was present when I came upon this letter.
"And you see," he smiled, "my father obeyed his old commander to the
last, for the next baby was a boy, and the next, and the next, and the
next, until there were as many boys as girls in our family."
* * * * *
Colonel Taylor died at his home in Norfolk, March 1, 1916, and on the
subsequent June 15, was followed by his wife.
His death leaves but three members of Lee's staff surviving, namely,
Rev. Giles B. Cooke, of Portsmouth, Virginia, Inspector General; Major
Henry E. Young, of Charleston, South Carolina, Judge Advocate General;
and Colonel T.M.R. Talcott, of Richmond, Virginia, Aide-de-Camp. Of
these officers only the first two surrendered with General Lee, Colonel
Talcott having left the staff by promotion in 1863.
Yes, two of them surrendered, but if we are to believe Charles Francis
Adams we cannot say that Lee and his forces were actually vanquished,
for as the Massachusetts soldier-author put it:
"Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia never sustained defeat. Finally
succumbing to exhaustion, to the end they were not overthrown in
fight."
THE HEART OF THE SOUTH