There is Probably No More Revealing Aspect of a Man's Character than that Given by the Opinion's of Those Who Work For Him
We have seen what Presidents and Great Men thought of Robert E. Lee. But What Did His Slave/Servant Think of Him?
For Your Consideration, We Present the Recollections of
Rev. William Mack Lee
Robert E. Lee's Slave
and Lee's Cook from 1861 to 1865
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HISTORY OF THE LIFE
of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee
I was born June 12, 1835, Westmoreland County, Va.; 82 years ago. I was raised at
Arlington Heights,
in the house of General Robert E. Lee, my master. I was cook for Marse
Robert, as I called him, during the civil war and his body servant. I
was with him at the
first battle of Bull Run,
second battle of Bull Run, first battle of Manassas, second battle of
Manassas and was there at the fire of the last gun for the salute of the
surrender on Sunday, April 9, 9 o'clock, A. M., at Appomatox, 1865.
The following is a list of co-generals who fought with Marse Robert in the Confederate Army: Generals
Stonewall Jackson,
Early,
Longstreet, Kirby, Smith,
Gordon from Augusta, Ga.
Beauregard from
Charleston, S. C.,
Wade Hampton, from
Columbia, S. C.,
Hood, from Alabama, Ewell Harrison from Atlanta, Ga., Bragg, cavalry
general from Chattanooga, Tenn., Wm. Mahone of Virginia, Pickett,
Forest, of Mississippi, Mosby, of Virginia, Willcox, of Tennessee,
Lyons, of Mississippi, Charlimus, of Mississippi,
Sydney Johnston, Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Marse Robert, and Curtis Lee, his son.
The
writer of this little book, the body servant of Gen. Robert E. Lee, had
the pleasure of feeding all these men at the headquarters in
Petersburg, the battles of Decatur, Seven Pines, the Wilderness, on the
plank road between
Fredericksburg and Orange County Court House, Chancellorsville, The Old Yellow Tavern, in the Wilderness,
Five Forks, Cold Harbor,
Sharpsburg, Boonesville, Gettysburg, New Market, Mine Run, Cedar Mountain, Civilian, Louisa Court House,
Winchester and
Shenandoah Valley.
At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to
General Grant:
"Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this
day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on
conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Northern
Confederate Army of Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I
surrendered on conditions; you have ten men to my one; my men, too, are
barefooted and hungry. If
Joseph E. Johnston
could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through
and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given
you a happy time." What these conditions were I do not know, but I know
these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I
surrender to you on conditions."
At the
close of the war I did not know A from B, although I had been preaching
two years before the war. I was married six years before the war. My
wife died in 1910. I am the father of eight daughters and I have
twenty-one grand children and eight great-grand children. My youngest
child is 42 years old.
I
was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one
born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my
judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war,
but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender.
The
following from the Bedford Bulletin, a paper published in the town of
Bedford, Va., which town I am now visiting, situated in the mountains in
full view of the famous Peaks of Otter; while soliciting means here to
finish my church near
Norfolk,
I caught inspiration to give the readers of this little book, my
friends, and friends and admirers of Marse Robert, a brief history of
his body servant and cook, the Rev. William Mack Lee, and will, I hope,
cause you to purchase one at the price named on back of same, as I will
never be able to write another; I am too old.
Lee's Body Servant Here.
Rev.
William Mack Lee, one of the best known colored men in the South, is in
town this week making an effort to raise funds to complete the payment
on his church near Norfolk. He is a Baptist minister and built the
church at a cost of $5,500, of which all has been paid except about
$500, and he wants to raise this before he returns home.
He
was born on the plantation of Gen. Robert E. Lee, in Westmoreland
County, 81 years ago, and at the outbreak of the civil war went to the
front as the body servant of his distinguished master. He cooked and
waited on the Southern chieftain during the entire four years of the
war, being with him at the surrender at Appomattox. The fact that the
war had set him free was of small moment to him, and he stayed with his
old master until his death.
He is a negro of the old type, distinguished
looking, polite in manner, and, despite his age, is straight, firm of
step and bids fair to serve his congregation for many more years. The
first day he was in town, he went to the old Burwell homestead, now the
home of Mr. John Ballard, because he and his master had stopped there
while on a visit to Bedford, soon after the war, and was greatly
disappointed to find that the last member of the Burwell family was
dead.
He will be in town all of this week,
and if you want to help him pay for his church you will find him on the
streets or some one will tell you where he can be found.
I
have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ the best I knew, with my
limited preparation, for 57 years. My master, at his death, left me
$360 to educate myself with. I went to school. I studied hard at the
letter, but my greatest learning came from Jesus Christ. God sent me out
to preach, and when God sends a man out, he is qualified both with the
Holy Ghost and the Spirit. He makes his words sharp as a two-edged
sword, and his feet as a burning pillar of brass.
