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‘Steady, front!’

I called out to General Lee to come back, the enemy were approaching, and that we could not fight while he was in our front. A number of our men, especially those of Company A, called out: ‘Come back, General Lee; we can't fight while you are in our front;’ and some members of Company A turned their right shoulders to General Lee and their backs to me, but I immediately brought these men into line by a ‘steady, front!’

Neither Lee nor ‘Traveler’ seemed inclined to take a single step backward. And Gordon continued his patriotic address and his adjutant continued tugging at ‘Traveler's’ bridle bit in a comical manner, but the noble presence of General Lee and the eloquent words and graceful bearing of General Gordon relieved this dramatic scene, which might soon have become a dreadful tragedy from every appearance of being a comedy.


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Robert E. Lee (5)
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