Robert E. Lee

Standing on the Virginia side of White’s Ford, Robert E. Lee took a moment to himself to enjoy the scene and to think for just one more moment about the course he was taking. A half a mile away is Maryland United States. Say what you will. Justify it however you will. In the North this army will be seen as invaders, though they didn’t consider themselves invaders when they came into Virginia. Words. Semantics. It has all gone on for so terribly long. Six weeks people had thought it would last, and it has now been over a year and it must end. Those people have more than we do. More of everything. More guns, horses and millions more men. The longer it lasts, the less our chances of success. “Our last, best hope.” Someone else’s words, but this is ours. We must end it here. We must end it now. He felt the gaze of 40,000 men. They waited only for a sign from him.
He looked at Jackson and nodded. Stonewall smiled and nudged the cream colored claybank well out into the Potomac. There he stopped, removed his hat and pointed with it toward the United States.
“Move out!”

The preceding passage is an excerpt from To Make Men Free, and may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

No part of these excerpts may be reproduced or reprinted
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