The doctor then began to make excuse for his rudeness, but General Lee said quietly:
“It is no matter, Doctor; there is plenty of room till your wounded come up.”
This story is often told of him: In 1864, when General Lee was on the lines below Richmond, many soldiers came near him and thus brought to them the fire of the foe. He said to the soldiers: “Men, you had better go into the back-yard; they are firing up here and you might get hurt.”
The men obeyed, but saw their dear General walk across the yard and pick up some object and place it in a tree over his head. They found out that the object he had risked his life for was only a little bird which had fallen out of its nest. God had given the stern chief a heart so tender that he could pause amid a rain of shot and shell to care for a tiny fallen birdling.
General Lee dearly loved his horses. Once, when at the springs, he wrote to his clerk in Lexington and sent this message to his horse, Traveler: “Tell him I miss him dreadfully.”
Traveler lived only two years after the death of his master. In the summer of 1872, when he was fifteen years old, the fine, faithful animal, that had carried the General through the storms of war and the calm of his latter years, died of lock-jaw in Lexington. He was noted for his springy walk, high spirit, and great strength. When a colt, he was called Jeff. Davis. The General changed his name to Traveler. He was his most famous war-horse.
In the summer of 1862, General Lee owned a beautiful war-horse called Richmond, given to him by some friends in the city of Richmond. But, to the grief of his master, this pet was short-lived; and what he writes after his loss, sounds almost as if he were looking back to the death of a friend:
“His labors are over, and he is at rest. He carried me very faithfully, and I shall never have so beautiful an animal again.”
General Lee was noted for his want of hatred towards any one. He called the Northern soldiers “those people.” Once, in the midst of a fierce battle, he said to his son Robert, who was bravely working at a big gun, “That’s right, my son; drive those people back.” When told of Jackson’s fatal wound, his eye flashed fire and his face flushed as he thought of his great loss; but he quietly said:
“General Jackson’s plans shall be carried out. Those people shall be driven back to-day.”