When in after life the members of a class meet on some
public college anniversary or gather together at a reunion and the
memories and traditions of college life are talked over anew, the merits
of those who excelled in pleasant companionship, in kindly bearing, in
generous conduct towards their associates, in outdoor games and sports
requiring strength and dexterity, are pleasant subjects to dwell upon,
even if the possessors failed to stand among the highest upon the roll
of scholarship.
Thus it was that LEE established himself among his associates during the
three years that he remained among us, and though he contented himself
with a medium standing in scholarship and exhibited no ambition to gain
a high rank upon the college rolls, he won the regard and confidence and
respect of all his classmates and held a warm place in the hearts of
those with whom he was most intimate.
Towards the close of our junior year, in the early part of 1857, upon
the recommendation of Gen. Winfield Scott, he received a commission as
second lieutenant in the Army, and was assigned to the Sixth Regiment of
Infantry, which was ordered into active service on the Western frontier,
and took part in the expedition to Utah which was commanded by Col.
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