A more ideal marriage than that of these two young people cannot be
imagined. Simple in their tastes and of home-loving dispositions,
they would have been well content to settle down quietly to country
life in their beloved Virginia, surrounded by their family and
friends. But the duties of an army officer did not admit of this,
and after a few years' service as assistant to the chief engineer
of the army in Washington, Lee was ordered to take charge of
the improvements of the Mississippi River at St. Louis, where, in
the face of violent opposition from the inhabitants, he performed
such valuable service that in 1839 he was offered the position of
instructor at West Point. This, however, he declined, and in 1842
he was entrusted with the task of improving the defenses of New
York harbor and moved with his family to Fort Hamilton, where he
remained for several years. Meanwhile, he had been successively
promoted to a first lieutenancy and a captaincy, and in his
thirty-eighth year he was appointed one of the visitors to West
Point, whose duty it was to inspect the Academy and report at stated
intervals on its condition. This appointment, insignificant in
itself, is notable because it marks the point at which the trails
of Grant and Lee first approach each other, for at the time that
Captain Lee was serving as an official visitor, Ulysses Grant was
attempting to secure an assistant professorship at West Point.





Chapter IV