o children. It was a great match for a poor subaltern officer, as his
wife was heiress to a very extensive property and to a large number of
slaves. She was clever, very well educated, and a general favorite; he
was handsome, tall, well made, with a graceful figure, and a good
rider; his manners were at once easy and captivating. These young
people had long known one another, and each was the other's first
love. She brought with her as part of her fortune General Washington's
beautiful property of Arlington, situated on the picturesque wooded
heights that overhang the Potomac River, opposite the capital to which
the great Washington had given his name. In talking to me of the
Northern troops, whose conduct in Virginia was then denounced by every
local paper, no bitter expression passed his lips, but tears filled
his eyes as he referred to the destruction of his place, that had been
the cherished home of the father of the United States. He could
forgive their cutting down his trees, their wanton conversion of his
pleasure-grounds into a graveyard, but he could never forget their
reckless plunder of all the camp equipment and other relics of General
Washington that Arlington House had contained.

Robert Lee first saw active service during the American war with
Mexico in 1846, where he was wounded, and evinced a remarkable talent
for war that brought him prominently into notice. He was afterward
engaged in operations against hostile Indians, and obtained the
reputation in the army of being an able officer of great promise.
General Scott, then the general of greatest repute in the United
States, was especially attracted by the zeal and soldierly instinct of
the young captain of engineers, and frequently employed him on distant
expeditions that required cool nerve, confidence, and plenty of
common sense. It is a curious fact that throughout the Mexican War
General Scott in his despatches and reports made frequent mention of
three officers--Lee, Beauregard, and McClellan--whose names became
household words in America afterward, during the great Southern
struggle for independence. General Scott had the highest opinion of
Lee's military genius, and did not hesitate to ascribe much of his
success in Mexico as due to Lee's "skill, valor, and undaunted
energy." Indeed, subsequently, when the day came that these two men
should part, each to take a different side in the horrible contest
before them, General Scott is said to have urg