Free George W. S. Trow by Meet Robert E Lee Page B

Mexican general, was doing.

     
    To get news for Scott, Lee went behind the lines of enemy soldiers. This was dangerous work.
    Once when Lee was behind enemy lines he heard voices. Mexican soldiers were coming to drink at a spring! Lee jumped under a log. More Mexicans came. They sat on the log and talked. Lee had to hide there until dark.
    Lee found out many things for Scott. Once he even found a secret road for the Army. And he was very brave. At Cerro Gordo he led the first line of men into battle. The Americans won. But Lee wrote to his son, Custis, “You have no idea what a horrible sight a field of battle is.”
    Then came the biggest battle of the war. The Americans attacked a fort outside Mexico City. Lee planned the attack. For days he worked without sleep. He found out where the Mexican soldiers were. He knew where to put the big guns. It was easy for the Army to take the fort. The American Army marched right into Mexico City. The war was over!

 

6
Back To West Point
     
    Robert E. Lee came home. He had not seen Arlington or his family for two years. He hugged Mary and the children. But he could not find his youngest son Robert. “Where is my little boy?” he asked. A boy stood near by. Lee picked him up and kissed him. Everyone laughed. Lee had kissed his son’s best friend.
    The family was glad Lee was back. He high-jumped with the older boys. He had the littlest children tickle his feet while he told them stories. Sometimes the stories were so good the children forgot to tickle. “No tickling, no story,” Lee would say.
    The Army was pleased with Lee’s work. They made him a colonel. They asked him to be head of West Point.
    Colonel Lee liked running West Point. His oldest son Custis was a cadet now. Custis often visited him.
    West Point was in New York, in the North. But the Lees felt at home there. Many of Colonel Lee’s Army friends were from the North. Cadets from North and South were friends.
    But there was bad feeling growing between North and South. The biggest reason for this was slavery.
    Most people knew that slavery was wrong. In the North it was against the law. But in the South it was allowed. People with big farms said they needed slaves to do the work.
    Lee knew that slavery was wrong. He said it was bad for the slave and worse for the man who owned him. He freed the few slaves his family had given him. When some said they wanted to go to Africa, he sent them.
    Lee did not tell other people to free their slaves. And he thought the North had no right to tell the South what to do about slavery.
    Lee did not like to argue about slavery. He thought it made the trouble worse. He did not see how deeply people felt.
    In a few years Colonel Lee’s job at West Point was over. The family was glad to get back to Virginia. But Lee had to leave often. He came home when he could. Old Mr. Custis had died. Now Lee had to run Arlington.
    One fall day in 1859, a soldier came to Arlington. He carried a message for Colonel Lee.
    Fighting had broken out in a town called Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Strangers with guns had come to free the slaves. Lee was told to bring Harpers Ferry to order.

     
    Harpers Ferry: October, 1859
     
    A great crowd had come to the fire-house. The men who had tried to free the slaves were hiding inside.
    Colonel Lee sent a message in. He said soldiers were all around the building. He told the men to give up.
    The men would not come out. They moved fire engines across the door.
    The soldiers smashed in the door with a ladder. There were gunshots. A soldier fell. The rest ran in. Inside they found a band of men led by a strange, wild man.
    This brave, angry man was John Brown. He hated slavery. Many in the North thought he was right in fighting to free the slaves. But in the South people hated him. Robert E. Lee believed he was a madman.
    In December, 1859, John Brown was hanged. Robert E. Lee was there.

 

7
North Against South
     
    On November 6, 1860, Americans elected a new