bore gun of small weight and calibre must hereafter be replaced by rifled ordnance, sighted and fired with the accuracy of the rifle itself; and that earth-works had a more obstinate power of resistance than any other material yet tried. These operations form really the most important and instructive portions of the war, and the time is not distant when they and their author will be rated at the full measure of their value. G ROBERT EDMUND LEE. ENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, the junior officer of that grade in the rebel army, was born in Virginia in 1808, upon the Arlington estates. His father was Harry Lee, the friend and eulogist of General Washington. Robert received a liberal education, was admitted to the Military Academy at West-Point in 1825, and, on the thirtieth of June, 1829, graduated second in his class. He entered the army as Second Lieutenant of engineers on the first of July, 1829, and was, in 1835, appointed assistant astronomer for the demarcation of the new boundary line between the States of Ohio and Michigan. September twenty-first, 1836, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and on July seventh, 1838, to a captaincy. During 1844, he was a member of the Board of Visitors to the Military Academy, and a member of the Board of Engineers from September eighth, 1845, to March thirteenth, 1848. When General Wool was in command of Mexico in 1846, Captain Lee was Chief Engineer of that division, and remained in that position during the war. He was brevetted Major, April eighteenth, 1847, for “gallant conduct at Cerro Gordo;" Lieutenant-Colonel, August twentieth, 1847, for "gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco;" and Colonel, September thirteenth, 1847, for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the battle of Chapultepec. In this engagement he was wounded. At the end of the campaign he was again appointed, July twenty-first, 1848, a member of the Board of Engineers, and on the first of September, 1852, was made Superintendent of the Military Academy, which position he held until March third, 1855, when he received his full commission of Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second cavalry. The regiment was sent to Texas, but Lieutenant-Colonel Lee remained upon his estates at Arlington, and March sixteenth, 1861, was promoted to the colonelcy of the First cavalry. On the twentyfifth of April, 1861, he resigned his commission and joined the rebels. It will thus be seen that his promotion was unusually rapid, and the positions assigned him were such as permitted him to lead a life of comparative ease upon the estates which he inherited from his family. He was doubtless a diligent student, and the advantages of a liberal education, together with the positions he has held, have made him the ablest general in the rebel forces. Upon the organization of the rebel army, Colonel Lee was made General, holding a commission of |