Gen. McClellan was now re-appointed to the command of the national armies. Sept, 10,1862, Harper's Ferry was captured by the rebels preparatory to the invasion of Penn sylvania. McClellan followed Lee's movements, keeping the body of his army between Lee and Washington. By good fortune coming into possession of Lee's order of march, he forced the latter to turn. The battle of Antietam was the result. With a greatly superior force McClellan succeeded in inflicting such a blow that Lee was forced to abandon the invasion of Pennsylvania, but his superior generalship prevented the former from obtaining any further advantages as Lee retreated southward. On Nov. 7, 1862, McClellan was relieved of command. Lee had evidently relied nmch in carrying out his plans either offensive or defensive on the extreme caution of the union com mander. The appointment of Burnside gave fresh activity to the national campaign., The government decided to renew the attempt on Richmond via Fredericksburg. Both armies were rapidly drawn southward, and on Nov. 20 Lee was gathering his entire army behind the works of Fredericksburg, while Bnrnside's covered the hills on the north, facing them. On Dec. 11 Burnside began the attack. On the 12th his army had achieved a good position. On the 13th a heroic assault was directed squarely against the fortified hills of Fredericksburg. It WaS hurled back with terrible loss to the union army. After this battle the army of gen. Lee was not again molested until the campaign of 1863 opened. Gen. Joseph E Hooker had been appointed to supersede gen. Burnside, and with a powerful army now declared his intention to make quick work of ousting the confederate army from Fredericksburg. His army was double in numbers that of Lee. On April 29 he had massed six army corps on the u. side of the Rappahannock near Chancellorsville, and should have chosen his own battle-field. The genius of Lee was never more conspicuous titan at this time. He took the initiative of attack before Hooker's army was through the " Wilderness," and detaching gen. Stonewall" Jackson with,21,000 men to make a long circuit to the rear of the right flank of the union army, he occupied gen. Hooker with menaces in front until the evening of the 30th, when Jackson's attack fell like a thunderbolt from a clear sky on the rear of the union army. The next morning the attack was made real in the front, and such was the paralysis of the union commanders, and such the mastery of the time and place for action on the part of Lee, that the great army of Hooker was already defeated. But while the battle on that field was won, Lee received intelligence that the union gen. Sedgwick, at the head of 20,000 troops, had captured Fredericksburg and was now on the hill in his rear. On May 2 he turned his entire force back and attacked but did not dislodge him. But that night Sedgwiek, hearing of the discomfiture of Hooker's army, retreated. On Mav 4 the whole union army was in full retreat, completely outgeneraled at all points.
lee now organized his army to renew the invasion of Pennsylvania, and on June'3 commenced the advance with an army of 80,000 men. He maneuvered so as to force Hooker with all his army to follow, but at the same time so attenuated his line as to draw the following characteristic: letter from president Lincoln to gen. Hooker: the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank-road between Fred ericksburg and Clmcellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere; could you not break him?" But Hooker was evidently afraid of Lee anywhere, and with reason. The entire confederate army was transferred to North Virginia. On June 27 it was concentrated near Chambersburg. Gen. Geo. G. Meade now succeeded Hooker in the command of the national army, now n. of Washington. Lee's entire army was now in Pennsylvania. The national army concentrated towards Gettysburg. There gen. Meade brought Lee to battle and chose the field. On July 1 the battle of began by an unexpected collision between the union cavalry and the head of gen. Hill's column moving from Chambersburg towards Gettysburg. It resulted in the repulse of the union advance, and its retirement to the strong position of Cemetery ridge, s. of Gettysburg. The great battle was begun by Lee, July 2, 1863, at 4 p.m., by a tremendous cannonade followed by an impetuous attack on the right of Meade's position. It failed. The next day gen. Meade anticipated the strong attack to be made ou his position, by an early retaking of a position gained by the confederates the day before. On the afternoon of the 3d
Lee massed 145 cannon and opened the 'tattle for two hours with their thunder, under cover of which his attacking columns of 15,000 men formed. The attack was all that human bravery could make it; but the column melted before the fire that waited for it; and though its head reached and covered the key of the struggle, the main force of the column was annihilated, and the position quickly retaken. Gen. Lee's noble equa nimity was conspicuous in this defeat in the manner of his meeting the disorganized remnant of that returning column, infusing them with his own serene confidence. A retreat was now necersary, but it was deliberate and orderly, and gen. Meade, after his victory, found no place in Lee's army for attack. He maneuvered retreating until s. of the Rappahannock, where he endeavored to bring Meade to battle. But the latter was too wary. Then he advanced and endeavored to get to the u. of the national army, but Meade's counter-movements, prompt and rapid, prevented: and the latter in turn advanced, attacked and captured a part of Lee's force, compelling his retreat to the Rapidan. Here Meade planned an attack by surprise, but Lee received timely infor mation, and when Meade's force confronted him, was in a position too strong to be attacked. With a quickness and boldness peculiar to him, he observed that Meade's army was in a weak position to resist an attack, and planned one for the following day. But the next day Meade and his army were no longer there. " They had disappeared like a phantom," writes gen. Lee's biographer. That ended the campaign of Virginia in 1863.
The " immense campaign" of 1864 for the possession of Richmond was now to test and crown the military fame of gen. Lee. Gen. U. S. Grant, victorious thus far on every tield, assumed the personal command of the army of the Potomac. For an entire year all the vast resources at his command were used with that rugged grit that regards Ito loss of life too great which achieves the quick end of war, and with an energy and skill that all the world acknowledges. Yet during that entire year gen. Lee, with an army small in comparison, by his engineering skill, masterly handling, and invariable readiness, aided by his necessary concentration behind strong defenses, Grant's army at bay, and yielded at last only as a cube of steel may yield to the last great pressure of a colossal vise. The year was filled with the news of sanguinary battles with small results. Grant was hammering at the front of flint that Lee invariably pre sented. But the weakening force could but show their heroic valor and the resources of their commander. Gen. Lee surrendered the remnant of the army of Virginia on April 9. 1865. His parting address to his remaining troops is a model of sad dignity and grateful recognition of an army's constancy.
In Mar., 1866, gen. Lee was called before the reconstruction committee of congress to give his views. He was very guarded iu the expression of opinions, but gave a hearty approval of what is known as president Johnson's policy. His answers to ques tions put to him were not particularly instructive, often vague and evasive, and have neither the ring of his military incisiveness nor the breadth of a statesman's view. They indicated his intention to give a mournful acquiescence, but not a support, to the re-formed union, and illy concealed the strengtn of his social aversion to northerners in southern society. But it must be stated that the questions put to him were often need lessly painful for him to answer, and called either for a pronounced adhesion to the lost cause, evasion, or renewed loyalty. His answers indicated the middle course.
In person gen. Lee was of the noblest type of manly beauty: tall, broad-shouldered, erect, with a dignity as impressive as that of Washington, yet not so cold; of habits as pure, more warmly religious; with a calm, confident, kindly manner that no disaster could The man was molded for the leader of a nobler cause than that of a confederacy whose corner-stone was human slavery. In the fall of 1865 gen. Lee had accepted the presidency of Washington college in Lexington, Va. Its sedentary duties and the habitual sad less of his proud spirit sapped his health, and a congestion of the brain terminated his life, Oct. 12,1870.