of public places--Preference for country life . . . . . . . . . . 412

Chapter XXIV
Last Days
Letter to his wife--To Mr. Tagart--Obituary notice in "Personal
Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee"--Mrs. Lee's account of his
death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431





Chapter I
Services in the United States Army


Captain Lee, of the Engineers, a hero to his child--The family pets--
Home from the Mexican War--Three years in Baltimore--Superintendent
of the West Point Military Academy--Lieutenant-Colonel of Second
Cavalry--Supresses "John Brown Raid" at Harper's Ferry--Commands the
Department of Taxes


The first vivid recollection I have of my father is his arrival at
Arlington, after his return from the Mexican War. I can remember
some events of which he seemed a part, when we lived at Fort Hamilton,
New York, about 1846, but they are more like dreams, very indistinct
and disconnected--naturally so, for I was at that time about three
years old. But the day of his return to Arlington, after an absence
of more than two years, I have always remembered. I had a frock or