In the midst of all this fighting, his boys were ever in his thoughts. This is a part of what he wrote to his son Custis on Christmas-Eve, 1846:
“I hope good Santa Claus will fill my Rob’s stocking to-night; that Mildred’s, Agnes’s, and Anna’s may break down with good things. I do not know what he may have for you and Mary, but if he leaves you one-half of what I wish, you will want for nothing. I think if I had one of you on each side of me, riding on ponies, I would be quite happy.”
Not long after, he wrote to his boys thus:
“The ponies here cost from ten to fifty dollars. I have three horses, but Creole is my pet. She is a golden dun color, and takes me over all the ditches I have yet met with.”
When the war was at last ended, in 1848, Captain Lee went home for a short rest, after which he was sent to West Point, as the Superintendent of the Academy from whose walls he had gone forth twenty-three years before. His duty was to watch over the studies and training of the boys who would one day be officers in the army.
Corps (kōre), a body of troops. Of′ficer, one who has charge of soldiers. Lävå, melted matter flowing from a volcano. Fēat, a great deed. Lieuten′ant (lutĕn′ant), an officer next below a captain.
Tell me— When Robert became Lieutenant Lee. Whom he married. Where he was sent in 1837. What war broke out in 1846. About a great feat performed by Captain Lee. Where he was sent in 1848.
CHAPTER III.
A Cavalry Officer.
After being three years at West Point, Captain Lee was sent to Texas as Lieutenant-Colonel (kûrnel) of the Second Regiment of Cavalry. Cavalrymen are soldiers who fight on horseback and who carry sabers, and pistols, and short guns, called carbines.