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General
Lee's Visit to Leesburg and Harrison Hall (Glenfiddich House)
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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