THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210629
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of American history knows that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of the McLean House at Appomattox Court House on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, when the peach trees in the neighboring orchards were in full bloom.
What is generally not known is that four years later Lee paid a courtesy call on his former military opponent at the White House in Washington after Grant had become president on the reunited nation. After calling on Grant, Lee visited the studio of Mathew B. Brady, the celebrated Civil War photographer who had taken several notable photographs of him, his son, Gen. Custis Lee, and his aide Col. Walter Herron Taylor of Norfolk, on the back porch of the Lee House in Richmond shortly after the surrender.
Brady's Richmond pictures of Lee are regarded as American photographic icons and depict the South's beloved general as a defeated but fiercely proud man. By contrast, the three photographs that Brady took of Lee at the time he called on President Grant are shockingly different, indicating how Lee had deteriorated physically from the time he had posed for Brady in 1865.
Meanwhile, Lee had become the president of Washington College in Lexington (now Washington and Lee University), a position he filled until his death at 63. In late April 1869, Lee went to Baltimore, under heavy pressure from his friends and associates, to lend his influence to what he considered a worthy undertaking - a project for securing capital to establish a railroad that would serve the Shenandoah Valley. On May 1, 1869, in response to an invitation from the White House, Lee proceeded to Washington to visit President Grant.
According to Douglas Southall Freeman's biography of Lee, both Lee and Grant remained dignified during the interview, but ``Lee, who was indeed always inclined to be more formal than the Northern general'' was more constrained. Quoting a contemporary source, Freeman added: ``The former enemies shook hands; Grant asked Lee to be seated. . . The interview was short, and all Grant could remember afterwards was that they spoke of building railroads, and he said playfully to Lee, `You and I, General, have had more to do with destroying railroads than building them.' But Lee refused to smile, or to recognize the raillery. He went on gravely with the conversation, and no other reference was made to the past. Lee soon arose, and the soldiers parted.''
Lee's 1869 visit to Washington, which he had left in 1861 to eventually become the commanding officer of the Army of Northern Virginia, did not go unnoticed. A day or so after his visit he was persuaded to sit for a series of photographs by Brady at his studio in the national capital. This is how Ray Meredith tells the story in his fascinating and lavishly illustrated ``Mr Lincoln's Cameraman'':
``The resulting pictures clearly showed his (i.e. Lee's) advanced age and the ravages of care and sorrow. After bidding Brady farewell, Lee left Washington for the last time, going directly to Alexandria, Virginia, where he had lived as a boy. when he was walking through the familiar streets, an old Mulatto woman hurried after the General calling, `Marse Robert, Marse Robert.' He stopped and waited, and as she came up to him she said, ` I am Eugenia, one of the Arlington slaves.' Lee greeted her warmly and shook her hands, saying, `I wonder if you would not like to have my picture, Eugenia?' `Deed I would, Marse Robert,' she answered. A little later she received it by post. One of Brady's portraits.''
When this touching encounter took place, Lee had only a little over a year to live. Early in May 1870, he visited Norfolk briefly as the guest of Dr. William Selden in the still-standing Selden House at the southwest corner of Freemason and Botetourt streets. Six months later, Lee died in Lexington on Oct. 12, 1870. As the dedicated president of a then small college, he had spent his last years teaching by practice and example the youth of Virginia to turn their backs on the ``Late Unpleasantness'' and be good Americans. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Gen. Robert E. Lee
by CNB