inst him. He has not been branded by the
world with reproach for this; but his course has been applauded."

While Lee was wrestling with his momentous decision, a further
temptation was placed in his path, which he thrust aside. He was
offered the high post of commander-in-chief of the Union forces. This
offer came at a suggestion from Scott that "Colonel Lee would be worth
fifty thousand troops to our side"; and although Lincoln had never met
him, he was glad to accede to the suggestion. Lee quietly remarked in
declining the honor, "I stated as candidly and courteously as I could,
that, though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no
part in an invasion of the Southern States."

Such was the manner of man who was soon chosen to lead the Confederate
armies. Let us pause for a final picture of the man himself, from a
composite by men who knew him.

In physique Lee was every inch a man. He stood five feet eleven inches
in height, weighed 175 pounds, and there was not an ounce of
superfluous flesh on him. He was "as fine-looking a man as one would
wish to see," said General Hunt, "of perfect figure and strikingly
handsome." General Meigs added: "Lee was a man then in the vigor of
youthful strength, with a noble and commanding presence, and an
admirable, graceful, and athletic figure." General Preston remarked
that he had "a countenance which beamed with gentleness and
benevolence." J. S. Wise said, "I have seen all the great men of our
times, except Mr. Lincoln, and I have no hesitation in saying that
Robert E. Lee was incomparably the greatest looking of them all." And
Alexander H. Stephens, when he saw Lee for the first time, and talked
of the newly-born Confederacy, was moved in his enthusiasm to say: "As
he stood there, fresh and ruddy as a David from the sheepfold, in the
prime of manly beauty and the embodiment of a line of heroic and
patriotic fathers and worthy mothers, it was thus I first saw Robert E.
Lee. . . . I had before me the most manly and entire gentleman I ever
saw."

Lee's fame as a general of the first rank has survived the
over-enthusiastic eulogies of his friends and the first caustic
comments of his foes. His strategy has come to be recognized as of the
highest order. To begin with, he had to build his army "from the
ground up," but ended by having one of the most perfect fighting
machines in the history of warfare. His men obeyed him with a devotion
that was alm