d
physical development; his frame was as solid as oak, and stood the
strain of exhausting marches, loss of sleep, hunger, thirst, heat, and
cold, without failing him.

When he died, it was care which crushed his heart; his health was
perfect.

V.

LEE'S EARLY MANHOOD AND CAREER IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

Of Lee's childhood we have no memorials, except the words of his
father, long afterward.

"_Robert was always good_," wrote General Henry Lee.[1]

[Footnote 1: To C.C. Lee, February 9, 1817.]

That is all; but the words indicate much--that the good man was
"always good." It will be seen that, when he went to West Point, he
never received a demerit. The good boy was the good young officer, and
became, in due time, the good commander-in-chief.

In the year 1811 General Henry Lee left Stratford, and removed with
his family to Alexandria, actuated, it seems, by the desire of
affording his children facilities for gaining their education. After
his death, in 1818, Mrs. Lee continued to reside in Alexandria; was
a communicant of Christ Church; and her children were taught the
Episcopal catechism by young William Meade, eventually Bishop of
Virginia. We shall see how Bishop Meade, long afterward, recalled
those early days, when he and his pupil, young Robert Lee, were
equally unknown--how, when about to die, just as the war began
in earnest, he sent for the boy he had once instructed, now the
gray-haired soldier, and, when he came to the bedside, exclaimed: "God
bless you, Robert! I can't call you 'general'--I have heard you your
catechism too often!"

Alexandria continued to be the residence of the family until the young
man was eighteen years of age, when it was necessary for him to make
choice of a profession; and, following the bent of his temperament, he
chose the army. Application was made for his appointment from Virginia
as a cadet at West Point. He obtained the appointment, and, in 1825,
at the age of eighteen, entered the Military Academy. His progress in
his studies was steady, and it is said that, during his stay at West
Point, he was never reprimanded, nor marked with a "demerit." He
graduated, in July, 1829, second in his class, and was assigned to
duty, with the rank of lieutenant, in the corps of Engineers.

[Illustration: R.E. LEE, AS A YOUNG OFFICER New York D Apololay & Co.]

He is described, by those who saw him at this time, as a young man of
great personal beauty; and this is probab