Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[13] his son, Charles Carter Lee, have been preserved, and are literary models, the object being to impress religion, morality, and learning upon his children, as well as to manifest his great affection for those left behind. “Fame,” he writes, “in arms or art, is naught unless betrothed to virtue.” And then: “You know I love my children, and how dear Smith¹ is to me. Give me a true description of his mind, temper, and habits. Tell me of Anne. Has she grown tall? And how is my last, in looks and understanding? Robert was always good, and will be confirmed in his happy turn of mind by his ever-watchful and affectionate mother; does he strengthen his native tendency?” He wanted to know, too, whether his sons rode and shot well, bearing in mind a Virginian's solicitude always that his sons should be taught to ride, shoot, and tell the truth.

In his opinion, Hannibal was a greater soldier than Alexander or Caesar; for he thought an ardent excitement of the mind in defending menaced rights brings forth the greatest display of genius, of which, forty-four years afterward, his great son was an illustrious example. On June 18, 1817, from Nassau, he writes: “This is the day of the month when your dear mother became my wife, and it is not so hot in this tropical region as it was then at Shirley. Since that happy day, marked only by the union of two humble lovers, it has become conspicuous as the day our war with Great Britain was declared in Washington, and the one that sealed the doom of Bonaparte on the field of Waterloo. The British general, rising gradatim from his first blow struck in Portugal, climbed on that day to the summit of fame, and became distinguished by the first of titles, ‘ Deliverer of the Civilized World.’ Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar, among the ancients; Marlborough, Eugene, Turenne, and Frederick, among the moderns, opened their arms to receive him as a brother in glory.”

Again he tells him “that Thales, Pittacus, and others in Greece taught the doctrine of morality almost in our very words, ‘ Do unto others as you would they should do unto you,’ and directs his.son's attention to the fact ”