Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout / A Story of the United States in the Times That Tried Men's Souls - Alfred Bishop Mason

Four days afterwards, General Wadsworth of New York, a gallant fighter, one of the corps commanders who had tried to spur the too-prudent Meade into attacking, came to the White House.

"Why did Lee escape?" Lincoln eagerly asked him.

"Because nobody stopped him."

And that was the truth of it. If Lee had been stopped, the war would have ended nearly two years before it did end. It is a wonderful proof of Lincoln's wonderful sense of justice that though he repeated: "Our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it," he added at once: "Still, I am very, very grateful to Meade for the great service he did at Gettysburg."

Lee was a son of "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, the daring cavalry commander of the Revolution and the author of the immortal phrase about Washington: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Robert E. Lee had had an honorable career at West Point and in the war with Mexico and was Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers in the United States army when the war between the States began. He loved his country and her flag, but he had been bred in the belief that his loyalty was due first to Virginia rather than to the Union. When the Old Dominion, after first refusing to secede, finally did so, Lieut.-Col. Lee, U. S. A., became General Lee, C. S. A. Great efforts were made to keep him on the Union side. It is said he was offered the chief command of our army. Sadly he did his duty as he saw it. He put aside the offers made him, resigned his commission, and left Arlington for Richmond.

Arlington, now a vast cemetery of Union soldiers, crowns a hill on the Virginia side of the Potomac. The city of Washington lies at its feet. The valley of the Potomac spreads before it. From the portico of the old-fashioned house, a portico upheld by many columns, one can look towards Mt. Vernon, not many miles away, but hid from sight by clustering hills. The house was built in 1802 by George Washington Parke Custis, son of Washington's stepson, who was his aide at Yorktown in 1783, and grandson of Martha Washington. Parke Custis, who died in 1858, directed in his will that his slaves should be freed in five years. Lee, his son-in-law and executor, scrupulously freed them in 1863 and gave them passes through the Confederate lines. He had already given freedom to his own slaves. Long before the war, he wrote from Fort Brown, Texas, to his wife: "In this enlightened age there are few, I believe, but will acknowledge that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any country.... I think it is a greater evil to the white than the black race."