General Lee’s Week’s Visit
In 1869 the Episcopal Council of the State gathered in St. George’s Church and to this Council as a delegate from Grace Church, Lexington, of which he was a vestryman, came General Robert E. Lee the beloved hero of the South. Just across the street from St. George’s Church was the home of Judge William S. Barton and there he was the honored guest. Coming so shortly after the close of the war when the people were in almost a frenzy of sympathy for him and sorrow for their “Lost Cause” he produced an impression that will never be forgotten by those who saw him.
The Barton house was besieged by young and old, anxious to shake hands with him. The Bartons gave a large reception, and the writer recalls that scene as if it were yesterday.
Monument to Mercer
Erected by Congress to the Brilliant General Who Fell at Princeton.
The Street is Washington Avenue
General Lee stood with Judge Barton and his stately wife; General Barton and his wife, and the peerless beauty, Mary Triplett, who was the niece of the Bartons. To describe General Lee would be superfluous. The majesty of his presence has been referred to. He inspired no awe or fear, but a feeling of admiration as if for a superior being. People who spoke to him turned away with a look of happiness, as if some long felt wish had been gratified. Toward the conclusion of the reception, when only a few intimate friends remained, some of the young girls ventured to ask for a kiss, which was given in fatherly fashion. The Council lasted a week, from Sunday to Sunday and for that time General Lee remained at the Bartons.
The home life of this truly representative Virginia family brings back elusive dreams of the charmed days of old when a gentle elegance, a dignity, a grace of welcome that was unsurpassed in any land, made them ideal as homes and supreme in hospitality, and nowhere was this more clearly evidenced than in the family of Judge Barton. General Lee was serenaded here by Prof. A. B. Bowering’s Band, the same Band which accompanied the gallant 30th Virginia Regiment on its marches, and cheered them in Camp with patriotic airs.
It was Bowering’s Band that, when the body of Stonewall Jackson was removed from the Capitol in Richmond to the railway station, played the Funeral Dirge. Prof. Bowering has led other bands since then, and is at present the conductor of an excellent one.
It was at about this time that Father Ryan wrote one of his most beautiful poems, of which this is the last verse:
“Forth from its scabbard, all in vain,
Bright flashed the sword of Lee;
’Tis shrouded now in its sheath again,
It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain
Defeated, yet without a stain,
Proudly and peacefully.”