of George H. Sharpe, Assistant Provost
Marshal general:

[Illustration]

Following his parole Colonel Taylor rode with General Lee to Richmond.
The general seemed to be in a philosophical frame of mind, but thought
much of the future. The subject of the surrender and its consequences
was about exhausted. The Colonel tells of one incident:

On the route General Lee stopped for the night near the residence
of his brother, Mr. Carter Lee, in Powhatan County; and although
importuned by his brother to pass the night under his roof, the
general persisted in pitching his tent by the side of the road and
going into camp as usual. This continued self-denial can only be
explained upon the hypothesis that he desired to have his men know
that he shared their privations to the very last.

This was perfectly in character with Lee. Throughout the War, we learn
from Colonel Taylor's book, the general used the army ration, and lived
the army life. He would not take up his quarters in a house, because he
wished to share the lot of his men, and also because he feared that, in
the event of the house falling into the hands of the enemy, the very
fact of its having been occupied by him might possibly cause its
destruction. It was only during the last year of the War, when his
health was somewhat impaired, that he consented sometimes to vary this
rule.

Lee's chivalrous nature is well shown forth in his famous General
Orders, No. 73, issued at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a few days before
Gettysburg.

After congratulating the troops on their good conduct the general
continued as follows:

There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on the part of
some that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the
army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and
Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy
than in our own.

The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could
befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the
perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and
defenseless, and the wanton destruction of private property, that
have marked the course of the enemy in our own country.

Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all
connected with them, but are subversive to the discipline and
efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends