a Northern
officer, it is said, wrote beneath this:

"A Northern officer has protected your property, in sight of the
enemy, and at the request of your overseer."

The resolute spirit of Mrs. Lee is indicated by an incident which
followed. She took refuge with her daughters in a friend's house near
Richmond, and, when a Federal officer was sent to search the house,
handed to him a paper addressed to "the general in command," in which
she wrote:

"Sir: I have patiently and humbly submitted to the search of my house,
by men under your command, who are satisfied that there is nothing
here which they want. All the plate and other valuables have long
since been removed to Richmond, and are now beyond the reach of any
Northern marauders who may wish for their possession.

"WIFE OF ROBERT LEE, GENERAL C.S.A."

The ladies finally repaired for safety to the city of Richmond, and
the White House was burned either before or when General McClellan
retreated. The place was not without historic interest, as the scene
of Washington's first interview with Martha Custis, who afterward
became his wife. He was married either at St. Peter's Church near by,
or in the house which originally stood on the site of the one now
destroyed by the Federal forces. Its historic associations thus failed
to protect the White House, and, like Arlington, it fell a sacrifice
to the pitiless hand of war.

From this species of digression we come back to the narrative of
public events, and the history of the great series of battles which
were to make the banks of the Chickahominy historic ground. On
taking command, Lee had assiduously addressed himself to the task of
increasing the efficiency of the army: riding incessantly to and
fro, he had inspected with his own eyes the condition of the troops;
officers of the commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance departments
were held to a strict accountability; and, in a short time, the army
was in a high state of efficiency.

"What was the amount of the Confederate force under command of Lee?"
it may be asked. The present writer is unable to state this number
with any thing like exactness. The official record, if in existence,
is not accessible, and the matter must be left to conjecture. It is
tolerably certain, however, that, even after the arrival of Jackson,
the army numbered less than seventy-five thousand. Officers of high
rank and character state the whole force to have been sixty or seventy
thousand