Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom

by Trumbull White

CHAPTER XXV.

FITZHUGH LEE TO THE FRONT.

Importance of the American Consulate at Havana in a Critical
Time—General Fitzhugh Lee the Man for the Place—Sketch of the
Life of Lee—A Nation's Confidence in Its Popular Hero—How He
Left Havana and How He Promised to Return Wife and Family of
General Lee—His Place During the Early Period of the War.

Never was there a more genuine and typical American gentleman in a difficult position where a genuine and typical American gentleman was needed, than Fitzhugh Lee, the American consul-general at Havana during the most critical time prior to the outbreak of our war with Spain. The Cuban consul generalship is an office of much greater importance than others of the same name in other countries where diplomatic representatives are maintained. It includes the obligations of diplomacy as well as those of commerce, and Lee was the man for both.

His predecessor in the office, Ramon Williams, had held the position for many years and it was recognized by him as well as by the authorities at Washington that a change should be made because of the unusual demands upon the office. His long and faithful service in the tropical country had undermined his health so that his energies were lessened thereby, at a time when they were most needed for the safety of American interests.

It was in the spring of 1896 that President Cleveland, believing that a man of unusual ability should represent the United States at Havana, chose Fitzhugh Lee for the post. The selection was approved from the first by everyone who knew him, and not many months had passed until General Lee became an idol and a hero of the whole American people.

His Havana record has been no surprise to those who knew of his exploits during the war, or of his family. Blood will tell, and it has told in the case of General Lee. His family has always been famous in American history. How could the grandson of "Lighthorse Harry, the Revolutionary hero," or the nephew of Robert E. Lee, be anything else but courageous and possessed of tact and common sense?

The son of a naval officer, he preferred the army as a career. Graduating from West Point, he fought on the frontier for six years before the opening of the Rebellion, and was engaged in several desperate encounters with the Comanche Indians in Texas. On one of these occasions he was pierced through the lungs by an arrow, but he lived to tell the story. On another occasion he grappled with a big Indian in a hand-to-hand encounter, threw his antagonist on the ground and killed him.

Though only twenty-seven years of age, Lee was an instructor in cavalry tactics at West Point when the war broke out. He "followed his State" into the secession movement. His war record is a matter of pride to every Virginian. The dashing young officer was an ideal trooper, fearing nothing and loved by his men. He was modest, too. After some brilliant movement of personal valor his brigade formed in a body and determined to serenade him at his headquarters, expecting, of course, a speech. But Lee got an inkling of the matter, and when he saw them coming he slipped out of his tent and hid in the bushes. After the disappointed troopers had called for him in vain and dispersed he peeped furtively from his hiding place, and in a subdued tone asked, "Have they gone?"

COMPOSURE IN BATTLE.

General Lee possessed remarkable composure in battle. He never got the least rattled under the most trying conditions, except at Saylor's Creek, on the retreat from Petersburg; he never betrayed anxiety, and, though often under a rattling fire, no one ever saw him dodge. This cannot be said of many of the bravest men. Sometimes a bullet will unexpectedly whizz close to one's head, and the impulse to dodge is almost irresistible, though it never did anybody any good.

One of the officers with him said once that the only time he had been moved by the enemy's fire was at the battle of Winchester. He and General Early met under an apple tree near the summit of a hill and in a very exposed place. There was no firing at the time, but while the two generals, still on their horses, were intently examining a map, one shot was fired. It fell short and they paid no attention to it. But lo! another came, struck the apple tree just above their heads, and as the apples rained down on them they concluded the map could be better examined in a less exposed position—a conclusion in which all others agreed with remarkable unanimity. And nobody stopped to get any apples.

General Lee is a superb horseman. He rode a splendid mare named Nellie. She had the form, the strength, the nimbleness of limb, the tapering neck, the alert poise of the head, the bright and intelligent eyes that made her a model worthy to bear any master. She was all grace and beauty. When the confederate columns were broken in the same battle and the rout began, for it was little less, General Lee was at a very exposed point. The fire of thirty pieces of artillery was directed against it. The air was full of exploding shells; horses were plunging about on three legs, neighing piteously for a place of refuge; others were disemboweled by the furious shot; others were loose, running to and fro, bewildered by the terrible havoc, while the mutilated bodies of men could be seen on every hand; numbers who were crippled were hobbling away, and all seemed doomed to death. It was here that the beautiful Nellie was gored by one fragment of shell and her master's leg torn by another.

He was noted for his geniality and jollity. He loved humor and fun, and got all there was to be had in those trying times. But his cheerfulness failed at Appomattox. There he cried.

After the war had ended, General Lee settled in Stafford County as a farmer and miller. His life was the quiet and uneventful one of a country gentleman, caring for nothing but his wife, whom he married in 1871, and his children. About 1875 he began to take an active part in politics, and he attended the national convention of 1876 as a delegate. In 1885 he was elected governor of Virginia. It was then that he again became conspicuous. General Lee headed the southern division of the inauguration parade, and his handsome presence and splendid horsemanship forced the men on the sidewalks to cheer him with more vim than they did anyone else. A similar demonstration occurred when, four years later, General Lee led the Virginia troops in the Washington centennial parade in New York to the stirring tune of "Dixie." On both of these occasions he sat in the identical saddle which his uncle, General Robert E. Lee, had used on his familiar gray war horse, Traveler. Who could occupy it more worthily? Any one who has seen "Fitz" Lee mounted like a centaur on a Virginia thoroughbred is certain to have in memory ever afterward an ideal figure of a knightly "man on horseback." Afoot he is not so imposing, being only of medium stature, and, of late years, quite portly. He has a fine head and face, with frank steel blue eyes and a ruddy complexion, set off by his now almost white hair, mustache and imperial. His bearing is alert and military. Altogether, he does not look, and probably does not feel, his sixty-two years.

During Mr. Cleveland's second term he was made collector of internal revenue at Lynchburg, Va.

THE MAN FOR THE PLACE AT HAVANA.

Once settled in his position in Havana, General Lee's fame began to multiply. The American opinion of him was voiced immediately after the destruction of the Maine, by L. P. Sigsbee, the brother of the commander of that ill-fated ship, when he said: "There's a man down there looking after the interests of this country who cannot be blinded. He has more sand than anybody I know of, and if there's anything treacherous in this explosion we'll know of it without delay. The man I mean is General Fitzhugh Lee."

The same thought occurred to every American who had watched his career. From first to last everybody had confidence in his Americanism, his bravery and his cool-headedness. He held his office through merit alone, no politician gaining any success in the effort to win from him that position of distinction and profit, after the change of administration when President McKinley assumed the executive chair. The nation recognized that he was first an American and an interference with him on partisan grounds would not have been tolerated.

Jealous of American honor, and firm in insisting upon the rights of his countrymen, he has always kept cool. Courteous and polite as well as courageous, he has never blustered and he has won the respect and admiration of the Spaniards as well as their fear.

Throughout his service in Cuba, General Lee's figure was a familiar one in Havana, and even by those most antagonistic to him because of their official position, he was heartily admired. No matter what the threat of violence from hot-headed Spaniards, when the relations were most strained between the two countries, General Lee never admitted the slightest danger to himself and refused to accept any guard except that which he himself was able to maintain for himself. Upon the streets and in the hotels and cafes he was exempt from disrespect by the sheer force of his splendid personality. And never until the last day of his stay in Havana when all diplomatic relations were severed, did the Spanish authorities in that city omit any of the forms of courtesy.

GENERAL LEE PROMISES TO RETURN.

On that day, when in company with the British Consul General he went to bid farewell to Captain General Blanco, the latter refused to see him upon the excuse that he was too busy. When the homeward voyage was actually begun, in the little boat that carried to the steamer the Consul General and the last newspaper correspondents who remained in Havana till the end, the malice of the Spanish onlookers at the docks could restrain itself no longer. With imprecations and scornful and insulting epithets they raised their voices against him. With proper dignity General Lee ignored it all, except to say in one definite last message, that he would be back again before long with troops to stand by him.

In his office in the consulate at Havana, General Lee gained the admiration and the confidence of every American who had occasion to meet him. Brave as an American should be, and equally gentle and tender-hearted, he was the man for the place. The Spanish outrages upon American citizens roused in him but two sentiments. One was sympathy and grief for those who suffered. The other was indignation and enmity against those who were guilty. To the extent of all his power he guarded and aided those for whom that first sentiment was roused. He left Cuba with an accumulation of detestation for Spanish outrages in that unhappy island against Americans and Cubans, that would stimulate to deeds of valor through whatever warfare might follow in which he should be a leader. With a great heart, a brilliant mind and a magnificent physique, General Lee combined all the qualities which made him worthy of the American pride which was centered upon him.