his wife: "Tell your father that Mrs. Waite, wife of Colonel Waite, has a fine large cat, 'Jim Noaks,' which goes with her everywhere; he goes with her by day, sleeps with her at night, and in public conveyances she has him on a leash, carrying along a bottle of milk for his special use. I have been trying to persuade her to let me take him up to Camp Cooper. I have seen some fine cats in Brownsville, but no yellow ones. Dark brindle

is the favorite color on the frontier. In my walk, the other evening, I met a Mexican with a wild kitten in his arms, enveloped in a blanket. The little creature was spotted all over, like a leopard. I tried to buy him, but the man said that he was already sold. Even if I had succeeded in purchasing him, I should have had to keep him chained; they are very savage, when grown up."

In a letter written a month later from Indianola to his youngest daughter, Lee, after some good advice to the child, has more to say about cats. "I must inform you," he says, "that Jim Noaks, Mrs. Waite's cat, is dead. He died of apoplexy; I foretold his end; coffee and cream for breakfast, poundcake for lunch, and turtle and oysters for dinner. Then came buttered toast for tea and Mexican rats taken raw for supper. grew to be of enormous size, and ended in a spasm.

He

His beauty could not save him. I saw, in Antonio, a cat dressed up for company, with two holes bored in each ear, and in each were two bows of blue and pink ribbon. His round face, set in pink and blue, looked like a big owl in a full-blooming bush. Now be a good child, my dear, and think always of your devoted father. ... ."

In closing this chapter, it may be well to state that it was during this campaign, traveling over the bare Texas prairies, that Colonel Sibley invented the army tent which has since become so famous. He was caught in a bitterly cold "norther," his wife and daughter being with him; for the sake of warmth he made a fire in his wall-tent, expecting that the smoke would go out through the opening in front. It did not do so. This led Colonel Sibley to experiment, the next day, and he constructed a tent of canvas shaped like an Indian tepee, or wigwam. The experiment was successful, the model an excellent one, and the "Sibley" tent took a permanent place in the equipment of United States soldiers.

CHAPTER IX

THE CAPTURE OF JOHN BROWN

THUS far in the life of Robert E. Lee - that is, up to the year 1859, when he was fifty-two years old he had not passed through any of those experiences which afterward gave him world-wide fame. Thus far he had been simply a man of fine appearance, an exemplary husband and father, and an officer of distinction in the United States Army. There were other men who, but for subsequent events, would have been considered in substantially the same class. But his life divides itself into two parts; the first part closed with his Indian campaign on the frontier; and it all was creditable and honorable. The second part, which lifted him into a far higher class in American history, began with the invasion of Harper's Ferry, by John Brown, on Sunday afternoon, October 16th, 1859. This was the beginning, so far as Robert E. Lee was concerned, of the great strife which we call, sometimes, the "Civil War," and sometimes the "War of the Rebellion." This

episode at Harper's Ferry brought him for the first time into opposition with the movement which aimed at abolishing slavery in the United States.

At this time Lee did not assert himself for or against slavery, as an institution. As a Federal officer, he simply obeyed orders and, as always, performed his task effectively.

Lee had returned to Arlington to settle the estate of Mr. Custis, his father-in-law. While there a message came to him from the office of the Secretary of War, telling him that a certain man named "John Brown" had led seventeen other men, whites and blacks, into the town of Harper's Ferry with the avowed purpose of liberating the slaves in that region, and supplying them with weapons from the United States Armory in that town. The Secretary ordered Lee to go at once to the scene of this disturbance and seize all the men concerned in this unlawful exploit. A battalion of marines and a force of soldiers from Fortress Monroe were put under his command.

Lee responded promptly, made his preparations, collected his forces of men, and reached Harper's Ferry in less than thirty-six hours from the time he had been notified by the War Secretary. He reached there at midnight; but, dark though it was, he immediately set about an examination of

the grounds of the armory, posted pickets, and gathered from eyewitnesses as full information as he could concerning the events.

In Lieutenant-Colonel Lee's group of officers was Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart, afterwards General Stuart of the Confederate Army, called (from his initials) "Jeb" Stuart, a brilliant cavalry leader. Lee and Stuart consulted together, and Lee told Stuart that he had decided to bring matters to a head at early dawn; he was resolved to demand the surrender of "Captain Brown" with all his men; and if he refused, the engine-house of the armory, where the invaders had taken refuge, was to be charged by the marines with bayonets. If the men surrendered, they were to be handed over to the United States authorities. Lee wished to hand them over alive, and for this reason ordered the bayonet charge; for with bayonets more men would be taken alive than with bullets. And another reason why Lee ordered this bayonet attack was that several citizens of the town had been seized by the raiders, were held as hostages, and might be killed by the bullets.

Captain Brown had hoped that all the negro slaves of that region would rally around him, and start an insurrection against their masters. Unfortunately for him, his hopes were not fulfilled;