Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 9.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[193]

Southern Historical Society Papers.

Vol. IX. Richmond, Va., May, 1881. no. 5.

The descent of General Robert Edward Lee from King Robert the
Bruce, of Scotland.

by Professor Wm. Winston Fontaine, of Louisville.

[The following paper which was read before the Louisville branch of the Southern Historical Society on March 29th, 1881, has excited great interest and there has been a widely expressed desire that we should publish it in our Papers.]

At a Texas State Fair some four or five years since the President of the Confederate States was seen turning, with eyes bedimmed by tears, away from a picture at which he had been silently gazing. Shall we for a moment glance at this picture? It is one of McArdle's splendid battle paintings. On a canvas of five feet by eight is seen one of the wild charges in which the red battle banner of the South was borne on to victory. In the immediate foreground there is a pause in the rush; and the irregular lines to the right and left are sweeping past the magnificient group which arrests our attention. A stalwart veteran, with herculean strength, has just seized a gallant charger by the foam-flecked rein, and is turning the rearing steed back to the rear. The mingling of emotion in the rider's mind is wonderfully depicted. The