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Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 2: birth.-career as officer of Engineers, United States army. (search)
Secretary of War had no difficulty in sending to Mexico the most capable officers. Engineers are as necessary to an army as sails are to a ship; they locate lines of battle, select positions for the artillery, make reconnoissances, and upon their reports the movements of the army are based. They draw topographical maps, construct roads and bridges, and guide troops in battle to positions they had previously reconnoitred. Scott soon drew to him from this branch of the service Totten, J. L. Smith, R. E. Lee, Beauregard, McClellan, Foster, Tower, Stevens, G. W. Smith, and others, and at once placed Captain Lee on his personal staff. This officer, when Scott was assembling the army at Tampico, for the purpose of investing and capturing Vera Cruz, was with General Wool, who had been assigned the duty of invading Mexico from the north, while Taylor advanced from Matamoras, and General Kearny from New Mexico. In a letter to Mrs. Lee, dated Rio Grande, October 11, 1846, Captain Le