stated, their privations were doubtless necessary and everyone
would cheerfully accept them, knowing that he had the comfort of
his men continually in mind.

War had no illusions for this simple, God-fearing man. He regarded
it as a terrible punishment for the shortcomings of mankind. For
him it had no glory.

"The country here looks very green and pretty, notwithstanding the
ravages of war," he wrote his wife. "What a beautiful world God,
in His loving kindness to His creatures, has given us! What a
shame that men endowed with reason and knowledge of right should
mar His gifts."

The awful responsibility of his public duty was almost more than
any man could bear, but he had also to endure personal anxiety and
sorrow of the keenest kind. During his absence in the field one
of his daughters died, his wife was in failing health and his three
sons were in the army daily exposed to injury and death. Fitzhugh
and Custis had been made generals, and Robert had been promoted to
a lieutenancy and assigned to his elder brother's staff. Up to
the battle of Chancellorsville they had escaped unharmed, but while
the contending armies lay watching each other on either side of the
Rappahannock, Fitzhugh was severely wounded in a cavalry engagement
and Lee's first thought was to comfort and reassure the young man's
wife.

"I am so grieved," ...he wrote her, "to send Fitzhugh to
you wounded.... With his youth and strength to aid him, and your
tender care to nurse him, I trust he will soon be well again. I