Augusta County: "Gen. R. E. Lee," by R. M. Tuttle, May 30, 1888

Summary: This is a laudatory poem about Robert E. Lee, indicative of the widespread adulation for him that swept the nation, the former Confederacy, and Virginia in the late ninettenth century.

As Pilot,^* solitary, lone,
Sublimely rises o'er the plain,
And from its pinnacle of stone,
Like turret high of holy fane.
Looks down with condescending gleam
On hamlet, village, field and stream;

So, too, above the common crowd,
In solemn grandeur singly rose,
With many native gifts endowed,
The honored chieftain whom we chose
To lead our armies-even he,
The world-renowned, great Robert Lee.

Thus from a more exalted plain,
Not haughtily as spirit mean,
But with demeanor all urbane,
He looked down calmly on each scene,
And with a wider range of view,
Man covered men as few could do.

Peace to his ashes! Gatherd all
In marble mausoleum grand;
But in the Dixie capital,
As if still leading the command.
High his equestrian statue raise,
That all may see who led the Greys.

*Pilot mountain is a solitary cone of rock, which rises perpendicularly to a great height above a comparatively level country, and is in Surry county, North Carolina. The peake is quite a noted one.

---

Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Stuanton Spectator, May 30, 1888