dlofting
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Location
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
This is a piece extracted from "Four Years With General Lee" by Walter H. Taylor. Although the setting isn't that important it was just after the ANV had returned to Virginia following the battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam.
"He (Lee) had a great dislike to reviewing army communications: this was so thoroughly appreciated by me (Taylor) that I would never present a paper for his action, unless it was of decided importance, and of a nature to demand his judgment and decision. On one occasion when an audience had not been asked of him for several days, it became necessary to have one. The few papers requiring his action were submitted. He was not in a very pleasant mood; something irritated him, and he manifested his ill-humor by a little nervous twist or jerk of the neck and head, peculiar to himself, accompanied by some harshness of manner. This was perceived by me, and I hastily concluded that my efforts to save him annoyance were not appreciated. In disposing of some case of a vexatious character, matters reached a climax; he became really worried, and, forgetting what was due to my superior, I petulantly threw the paper down at my side and gave evident signs of anger. Then, in a perfectly calm and measured tone of voice, he said, "Colonel Taylor, when I lose my temper, don't you let it make you angry.""
I found this interesting in light of the Stuart/Lee scene in "The Killer Angels" and the movie "Gettysburg", where Lee struggles to control himself while speaking to Stuart. Although the scene itself is fictitious (as pointed out in other threads) and has no basis in fact, perhaps Lee's "temper" is not.
"He (Lee) had a great dislike to reviewing army communications: this was so thoroughly appreciated by me (Taylor) that I would never present a paper for his action, unless it was of decided importance, and of a nature to demand his judgment and decision. On one occasion when an audience had not been asked of him for several days, it became necessary to have one. The few papers requiring his action were submitted. He was not in a very pleasant mood; something irritated him, and he manifested his ill-humor by a little nervous twist or jerk of the neck and head, peculiar to himself, accompanied by some harshness of manner. This was perceived by me, and I hastily concluded that my efforts to save him annoyance were not appreciated. In disposing of some case of a vexatious character, matters reached a climax; he became really worried, and, forgetting what was due to my superior, I petulantly threw the paper down at my side and gave evident signs of anger. Then, in a perfectly calm and measured tone of voice, he said, "Colonel Taylor, when I lose my temper, don't you let it make you angry.""
I found this interesting in light of the Stuart/Lee scene in "The Killer Angels" and the movie "Gettysburg", where Lee struggles to control himself while speaking to Stuart. Although the scene itself is fictitious (as pointed out in other threads) and has no basis in fact, perhaps Lee's "temper" is not.