Old Lee Graveyard at Cobbs Hall

On this date in our family history . . . the 3rd day of May . . . in the year 1958 . . . there is a gathering of the Society of Lees at the recently restored Old Lee Graveyard at Cobbs Hall in Northumberland County, Virginia . . . the people attending are our kith 'n kin . . . the people said to be buried here include various ancestors of the Keeper of this family history blog . . . in 1927 Caz Lee had sketched the following image showing the location of said burying ground . . . 

above from 1957 Lee Chronicle

From the October 2013 Newsletter of the Society comes the following . . . 

"Who is actually buried at the Cobbs Hall Burying Ground? For the answer to that question we need to go back to Cazenove Lee’s 1927 Article in the Magazine of the Society of the Lees of Virginia. With only one surviving tombstone, the identification of the burials is necessarily based on analysis of existing documents, and the memory of family members. Caz works through all this information in his article and comes up with a list of Family members buried there (see listing at findagrave) . . . Was Cazenove Lee right in his analysis? Who is to say that he is not? Certainly there has been no evidence to dispute his conclusions, and it remains the best judgment we have to this day. Caz was a consummate historian and genealogist, who meticulously gathered Family information from all over. He maintained excellent records, and today, we are the inheritors of his dedicated work."

Springtime in Appomattox

On this date . . . the 9th day of April . . . in the year 1865 . . . at Appomattox Court House in Virginia . . . Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant . . . this General Lee is said to be a 5th cousin 8 times removed to President Obama . . . and a 3rd cousin twice removed to Cole Younger . . . and a 3rd cousin 4 x removed to President Kennedy . . . and he is possibly a 4th cousin twice removed to William Paschal Henry (1832-1912) . . . who is a 2nd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog. Upon Lee’s death five years later, the New York Herald wrote the following obituary . . .

On a quiet autumn morning, in the land which he loved so well and served so faithfully, the spirit of Robert Edward Lee left the clay which it had so much ennobled and traveled out of this world into the great and mysterious land. Here in the North, forgetting that the time was when the sword of Robert Edward Lee was drawn against us -- forgetting and forgiving all the years of bloodshed and agony -- we have long since ceased to look upon him as the Confederate leader, but have claimed him as one of ourselves; have cherished and felt proud of his military genius; have recounted and recorded his triumphs as our own; have extolled his virtue as reflecting upon us -- for Robert Edward Lee was an American, and the great nation which gave him birth would be today unworthy of such a son if she regarded him lightly. . . .

And then, fifty years after Appomattox . . .

The New York Times
April 9, 1915

Fifty years ago today, with the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, of General Lee to General Grant, the hearts of a great people were cheered by the promise of peace after a struggle of four years. "The Republic," as Henry J. Raymond wrote in an editorial article printed in The New York Time April 11, 1865, "rested again, and upon foundations as eternal as the hills." Few of us can recall the feelings of the people of the North on that day, after a victory that had been postponed for so many weary months, which are so vividly expressed in the article which is reprinted on this page today. In the South, too, the prospect of peace after the unequal struggle was welcome. It is all in the dim past now. There is no North, there is no South We do not recall Appomattox as a triumph of arms, but as the beginning of the complete restoration of that union which shall never again be severed.

Further reading . . .

• Eyewitness to History
• Appomattox
• Confederate History and Heritage Month

1864 :: Our Joseph survives the Battle of the Wilderness

On this date in our family history . . . the 6th day of May . . . in the year 1864 . . . Private Jos. H. Nettles is a member of Hood's Texas Brigade as they fight at the Battle of the Wilderness alongside Confederate General Robert E. Lee (who is a 4th cousin six times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog) . . . 

Nettles is reported as wounded in the leg on this date, while a very large number of fellow Texans lose their lives . . . this Joseph Helidorah Nettles (1832-1890) is a 2nd great-grandpa of the Keeper of this blog . . .



The Battle of the Wilderness
By Morris Schaff




And from The Handbook of Texas Online . . .

Hood's Texas Brigade rallies around General Lee. May 06, 1864. On this day in 1864, in one of the most moving incidents of the Civil War, Confederate general Robert E. Lee ordered the celebrated Hood's Texas Brigade to the front, and they in turn ordered him to the rear. During a critical moment of the fierce Battle of the Wilderness, as the Southern battle line was crumbling, Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, was heartened to see the Texas Brigade, under the command of John Gregg, arrive on the field as reinforcements. With a cry of "Hurrah for Texas!" Lee ordered them forward against the Union army and, carried away by his enthusiasm, began to lead them into the charge. The Texans, unwilling to risk their idol in battle, stopped and gathered around him, yelling "Lee to the rear!" and held onto his horse until he withdrew. The Texas Brigade suffered severe losses, but the Union army was once more fought to a standstill.