In Leesburg, Virginia, on September the 3rd, 1862, from a window in a big brick house on King Street, three little girls looked out. An ambulance stopped by a granite stepping stone and a soldierly figure with both wrists in splints, walked up the long box bordered brick path, and was welcomed.
The soldier was General Lee and little girls were the daughters of Mr. Henry Harrison – Maria and Alice and Daisy. General Lee was starting into the Maryland Campaign, he had sustained a painful hurt when standing by his horse which gave a sudden start. In catching himself, both wrists were sprained and a small bone in one was broken. Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Harrison’s physician, was called from next door to see that the wrists were dressed again. Traveller and General Jackson’s horse were put in the stable for General Jackson was here to confer. The little girls made horse hair rings from Traveller’s tail which he left behind in the stall as a memento.
General Lee paid a call in Leesburg. This visit was to Mr. John Janney who was President of the Secession Convention of Virginia – it was he who made the speech presenting the sword when General Lee was made Commander of The Armies of Virginia. He was escorted to Mr. Janney’s house on Cornwall Street by the little girls, Alice and Maria. They remember meeting a soldier who did not recognize him and sidled up and asked him the distance to Whites Ferry. General Lee replied kindly, “it makes no difference to you my man, keep up with your regiment.” Colonel Walter Taylor was present as one of General Lee’s Staff Officers and Mr. Kensey Stuart and General Chilton and Colonel Charles Marshall who has just written the Life of Lee that General Maurice the British General finished. General Fitz Hugh Lee and General Roony Lee were here. General Lee’s son, Bob, came in to see his Father, one of the very few times he saw his Father during the War. Father and son talked together in the northeast corner of the library. General Lee with his hand on his son’s knee and Bob with his arm at the back of his Father’s chair. The little girls wondered why General Lee let his son remain a Private. A guard was kept at Harrison Hall and a Flag at the gate. General Lee occupied the room over the Dining Room. Mr. Stuart had Prayers in the morning and asked “Where is General Lee?” He sat with book in hand waiting and after a little time, General Lee came and sat on the sofa – General Jackson sat beside him.
Mr. Harrison’s hospitality is far famed, we can imagine the breakfast table groaned with good things, there was a first and second table on this occasion. Mrs. Matthew Harrison, a cousin of the house, sat on General Lee’s right and cut his food for him and fed him.
Little Maria ran after General Jackson, after breakfast, and asked him when the Rockbridge Artillery would pass through Leesburg. The most loved Packard cousins, Joe and Walter, were in this Division.
The Confederate forces are estimated at this time, by General Longstreet, as “45,000 effective Men.” The Battle of Sharpsburg soon took place.
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