"Then order one thousand."
"No, not a thousand."
"How many, then?" continued Lee.
"Not one," answered Heath. "I may as well bring this matter to a point at once; not a single man will I furnish from this post by your order."
"Then," exclaimed Lee in an excited manner, "I will order them myself."
"That makes a wide difference," rejoined Heath. "You are my senior, but I have received positive written instructions from him who is superior to us both, and I will not myself break those orders. Read them."
He handed Washington's letter to Lee, in which he positively forbade the removal of any troops from that post.
"The commander-in-chief is now at a distance," said Lee, after reading the letter, "and he does not know what is necessary here as well as I do."
Turning to Major Huntington, Lee said authoritatively: