LIEUT.-GEN. STEPHEN D. LEE. CHAPTER LXI. His ancestry in South Carolina.-His service in the United States Army.-Aide to Gen. Beauregard at Fort Sumter.-Commands Virginia cavalry.-Assigned to Artillery.-Gallant and important action of his batteries at Second Manassas.— Anecdote illustrating the spirit of that day.-Gen. Lee in command at Vicksburg. -Extraordinary compliment from President Davis.-Gen. Lee repulses Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.-Battle of Baker's Creek.-Wonderful escape of Gen. Lee in the retreat.-Siege of Vicksburg.-Action of the 22d June, 1863.-Heroism of Texan soldiers.-Gen. Lee commands the cavalry in Mississippi.-His operations against Sherman.-He commands the Southwestern Department.-Raids of the enemy. Assignment of Gen. Lee to Hood's Army.-The Tennessee campaign.Gen. Lee protects the retreat.-Reflections upon his extraordinary career. STEPHEN D. LEE was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 22d September, 1833. His family was of the most distinguished of the State, and of historical note. During the Revolutionary war, when the British took Charleston, they seized forty of the principal citizens, and confined them on prison ships at St. Augustine, until the close of the war. Among those who thus suffered for their country's cause was the great-grandfather of the subject of our sketch. His grandfather was United States Judge in South Carolina; he was a man of great talents, and he was remarkable for the prominent and brave part he took in the "Nullification" difficulties on the Union side. A long and interesting account of his life, and this phase of it, may be found in O'Neil's "Bench and Bar of South Carolina." In 1850, Stephen D. Lee entered West Point, and graduated with J. E. B. Stuart, Curtis, Lee, Pender, Pegram, Gracie, Villepigue, and others afterwards distinguished in the war of the Con federates. Among his class-mates were, also, O. O. Howard, Weed, and others of note in the Federal army. Lee served six years as second-lieutenant in the Fourth Artillery, doing duty at various times on the frontiers of Texas, Kansas and Nebraska. In 1856, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy in the company commanded by Captain Pemberton (afterwards Lieut-Gen. Pemberton in the Confederate service), and was made regimental quartermaster. In 1857, he served under Col. Loomis against the Indians in Florida. As soon as it was evident what course events, arising from the sectional controversy between the North and South, would take, Lee resigned from the army-being then at Fort Randal, Nebraska. Although he took this step with regret, and although he was never sanguine of the success of the Southern movement for independence, he could not hesitate to follow the fortunes of his State. He was made a Captain in the volunteer forces of South Carolina; and in the formation of the Confederate army, the same rank was obtained. Commencing at this low step in the military service of the South, long without opportunities of conspicuous service, the glorious distinction yet awaited him of serving through every grade from Captain to Lieutenant-General, accomplishing each ascent of rank and fame by the force of individual merit, and with the disdain of any other influences to recommend him. His first active service in the war was as aide to Gen. Beauregard, and he participated in the attack on Fort Sumter. He and another officer carried the demand for surrender, and being refused, gave the orders to the nearest batteries to fire on the fort. He was subsequently appointed commissary, then quartermaster, then engineer officer in Charleston, in 1861. The duties of these posts were distasteful to him, and he accepted the position tendered him by the election of the men, of Captain of a light battery in Hampton's Legion. In this command he was engaged for several months in harassing the Federal gunboats and transports on the Potomac River, and in turning the enemy's attention from the construction of heavy batteries near Dumfries. In November, 1861, he was promoted Major of artillery. He accompanied Johnston's army to Yorktown, and back to Richmond in the Peninsular campaign. For his services he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel; was engaged at Seven Pines in Whiting's divison; and was afterwards in Magruder's division in the "seven days' battles" around Richmond, fighting the enemy at Savage Station and Malvern Hill, and commanding six batteries. After Malvern Hill, when the Confederate army was drawn back towards Richmond, Col. Lee was assigned to the command of the 4th Virginia cavalry, whose field officers were wounded. For a number of weeks he was constantly engaged in active scouting duty. His regiment had several skirmishes and affairs with the enemy near Malvern Hill, and was complimented for its activity and gallantry by the Commanding General. When the army moved into Northern Virginia, Lee was assigned to a battalion of artillery, with the rank of Colonel. war. The part his batteries played in the second battle of Manassas was decisive, and has claimed a brilliant page in every history of the war. They occupied a high and commanding ridge between the corps of Longstreet and Jackson, and during the early part of the action carried on an artillery duel with the enemy. In the evening a heavy attempt was made to crush Jackson, when Lee's batteries turned upon the advancing columns of the enemy, and engaged in one of the most desperate and furious actions of the For three quarters of an hour the twenty guns played into the ranks of the enemy at a distance not exceeding 800 yards. At one time there were Federal troops not more than 100 yards from the muzzles of the guns. The slaughter was terrific, and after a vain attempt of the enemy to encounter the fire of the batteries he gave up the field. The affair was so conspicuous as to bring Col. Lee into the notice of the whole army, and for the first time introduced him to the attention and favour of President Davis, who was pleased to say that his services at the critical juncture in which he had been engaged, saved the day. He had fought here with some interesting incidents. In the artillery duel of the morning, Lt. Elliott was handling two Parrott guns with great dexterity. Seeing a caisson of the Federals moving in the field, he called Col. Lee's attention to it, as he intended to strike it. They estimated the distance, and he sighted his gun for 3,500 yards. The shot must have almost struck the caisson, which took the gallop from a position which had been supposed secure from its distance. A second shot killed the two wheel horses, and disabled it. It was a most remarkable shot for distance and precision, and showed the proficiency of a battalion, which, besides its laurels on this field, obtained much subsequent distinction in the war. An anecdote illustrates the spirit of this glorious day in Lee's battalion. In the afternoon, as the action became hotter, Capt. Parker was serving his guns with admirable steadiness and zeal. The Captain was an elderly man, very pious; and many of his company were boys placed specially under charge for his good example and fatherly care. As the different reserves of the enemy were driven back two or three times in their effort to reach their front line, engaged with Jackson, it became evident that they must capture the batteries in the way of a successful assault. Animated by the necessity of penetrating this fire, the enemy rushed gallantly on, some of the men getting within 100 yards of Parker's guns. They were repulsed in great disorder, and with terrible loss. The excitement was intense, and one little fellow of sixteen years rushed up to Capt. Parker, and exclaimed, "Captain, God has given us the victory!" "Yes, my son," was the reply, "but go back to your gun. We will thank God after a while."* Col. Lee shared in the Maryland campaign, and was engaged in the battle of Sharpsburg, where his command lost heavily-more than 100 men and 90 horses out of four batteries. On the return of the Army of Northern Virginia to its old lines of defence, his connection with it ceased. Although his transfer to another theatre of operations was accompanied with promotion, he quitted Virginia with regret. The general opinion was that there was the head and front of the war, and that the officers who remained in the army that operated there had the best chance of distinction. The Western army was under a cloud; with fine officers and good troops, fortune was against it; and a malignant star had cast upon *The artillery which Lee commanded in the second battle of Manassas, and which made there its first well-recognized mark of glory, was composed of Rhett's South Carolina Battery, under Lieut. William Elliott, and Parker's, Eubank's and Jordan's Virginia Batteries. This, with Moody's Mississippi Battery (afterwards added), constituted the command of Gen. W. E. Alexander (afterwards Chief of Artillery in Longstreet's Corps), when Lee, promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, was sent to the West. It greatly increased its reputation at Fredericksburg, where it relieved the Washington Artillery, and repulsed the last charge of the enemy at dark at Marye's Hill. It was also engaged at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and in all important actions of the Army of Northern Virginia. Its career after Lee left it, was always watched by him with great pride and pleasure, and it was said that he took more interest in it than in any other subsequent command. it shadows of defeat and disaster which had already made many dark days for the Confederacy. Lee was made a Brigadier-General, and sent to Vicksburg. About this time President Davis visited Mississippi. The Southwest was jealous of Virginia, and open in expressing it. "Virginia," it was said, "got everything, the best troops, all the clothing, the best guns; nobody in Richmond cared what became of the Mississippi Valley." President Davis made a speech at Jackson, Mississippi, to allay the rising discontent. Vicksburg, he said, was to be defended; his native State, Mississippi, was dear to his heart; and he had reason to hope that within her borders there would be achieved victories decisive of the success of the Southern cause. He argued that there were two prominent objects in the programme of the enemy. One was to get possession of the Mississippi River, and to open it to navigation in order to appease the clamours of the West, and to utilize the capture of New Orleans, which had thus far rendered them no service. The other was to seize upon the capital of the Confederacy, and hold this out as a proof that the Confederacy had no existence. "We have recently repulsed them," said the President, "at Fredericksburg, and I believe that under God, and by the valour of our troops, the capital of the Confederacy will stand safe behind its wall of living breasts. Vicksburg will stand, and Port Hudson will stand, but let every man that can be spared from other voca tions hasten to defend them, and thus hold the Mississippi River, that great artery of the Confederacy, preserve our communications with the Trans-Mississippi Department, and thwart the enemy's scheme of forcing navigation through to New Orleans. By holding that section of the river between Port Hudson and Vicksburg, we shall secure these results; and the people of the West, cut off from New Orleans, will be driven to the East to seek a market for their products, and will be compelled to pay so much in the way of freights that those products will be rendered almost valueless. Thus, I should not be surprised if the first daybreak of peace were to dawn upon us from that quarter." * * * * In the close of this speech the name of the young BrigadierGeneral, who was to command at Vicksburg, was for the first time heard by many of the people of Mississippi. The President said: "Some time since, for reasons not necessary to recapitulate, I sent |