I have a lot of problems believing that General Lee actually ever publicly said "I am too old to command..."
Let's consider the primary source of this quote. The source is Charles S. Venable, Lieut. Colonel, C.S.A. of General Lee's staff in his article "General Lee in the Wilderness Campaign" which was written twenty years after the war for publication in the Battles & Leaders series (see Part 4 page 240.)
Venable writes:
"When he (Lee) discovered that Meade had withdrawn, he exclaimed in the presence of his generals," I am too old to command this army; we should never have permitted these people to get away."
In the next line of the article, Veneble dramatically claims:
"Some who were standing by felt that in his heart he was sighing for that great " right arm" which he threw around Hooker at Chancellorsville."
Now think about it folks----Can you really imagine Lee "in the presence of his generals" say aloud "I am too old to command..."
Don't you think if he did actually say this in December 1863, he would have again have made an attempt to resign command of the Army of Northern Virginia as he tried to do after the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg? Furthermore, there is no other person, let alone a General who ever corroborated the Venable claim. Veneble fails to identify the generals present, but incredibly he goes on to emphatically claim that some of these unnamed generals felt Lee was in his heart sighing because of the lose of Stonewall Jackson, eight months earlier.
I just can't buy Venable as a reliable primary source. Can you?!?