Get ready to hear about General Lee!

Well, it has been a while since my last post, needless to say it has been a very busy month. My sweet new 'esposita' and I are settling in nicely, not yet warmly, because it is very cold and snowy!! right now in Louisville. I hope to post some pictures of Florida and post about all the big corporate bank buildings in Naples soon! I have been reading The Recollections and Letters of General Lee, by his son of the same name, Robert E. Lee. I found it for $15 at a great little used book store in LaGrange! There is one small quote here taken from a letter Gen. Lee wrote that I think is very profound, yet simple, and applicable especially as a believer in Christ. The other is an entire letter that was very moving to read and I thought would be excellent to post. Enjoy!

Gen. Lee was sent to South Carolina for a time before he took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, which I did not know, and wrote this statement in a letter talking about how difficult it is to get the people to understand their need to make their city, Charleston, ready for defense. Lee writes:

“But it is difficult to arouse ourselves from ease and comfort to labour and self-denial.”- Robert E. Lee Recollections and Letters of General Lee by Robert E. Lee Jr.

After the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862, Gen. Lee wrote to his wife:

“.... I will commence this holy day by writing to you. My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God for His unspeakable mercies with which He has blessed us in this day, for those He has granted us from the beginning of life, and particularly for those He has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without His crowning help and protection? Oh, if our people would only recognize it and cease from vain self-boasting and adulation, how strong would be my belief in final success and happiness to our country! But what a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. Our army was never in such good health and condition since I have been attached to it. I believe they share with me my disappointment that the enemy did not renew the combat on the 13th. I was holding back all day and husbanding our strength and ammunition for the great struggle, for which I thought I was preparing. Had I divined that was to have been his only effort, he would have had more of it. My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men.”