so very hard to get anything done, and while all wish well and mean
well, it is so different to get them to act energetically and
promptly.... The news from Kentucky and Tennessee is not favourable,
but we must make up our minds to meet with reverses and overcome them.
I hope God will at last crown our efforts with success. But the contest
must be long and severe, and the whole country has to go through much
suffering. It is necessary we should be humbled and taught to be less
boastful, less selfish, and more devoted to right and justice to all
the world.... Always yours,

"R. E. Lee."

To my mother:

"Savannah, February 23, 1862.

"I have been wishing, dear Mary, to write to you for more than a week,
but every day and every hour seem so taken up that I have found it
impossible.... The news from Tennessee and North Carolina is not all
cheering, and disasters seem to be thickening around us. It calls
for renewed energies and redoubled strength on our part, and, I hope,
will produce it. I fear our soldiers have not realised the necessity
for the endurance and labour they are called upon to undergo, and that
it is better to sacrifice themselves than our cause. God, I hope,
will shield us and give us success. Here the enemy is progressing
slowly in his designs, and does not seem prepared, or to have determined
when or where to make his attack. His gunboats are pushing up all the
creeks and marshes of the Savannah, and have attained a position so
near the river as to shell the steamers navigating it. None have as
yet been struck. I am engaged in constructing a line of defense at