A Tribute to Robert E. Lee

On the 155th anniversary of his death

October 12, 2025

(“Death of General Robert E. Lee,” 1870, lithograph in original frame / On Display at Fancy Hill, Courtesy of Kamron Spivey)

 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
~Ecclesiastes 7:1

Among the most beautiful and moving epitaphs inscribed on the tombs of the various British luminaries laid to rest in London’s Westminster Abbey, are those composed by Alexander Pope, one of England’s greatest poets.  And among Pope’s Westminster epitaphs is one, dated 1729, honoring British military hero Gen. Henry Withers.

While recently reading this epitaph memorializing Wither’s career and character, I was struck by how perfectly it would also have represented the career and character of Robert E. Lee of Robert E. Lee.  One cannot but believe that Withers and Lee must have been “cut from the same cloth” and have lived in similarly tumultuous times.

I transcribe below Pope’s epitaph for Withers, changing only four words (noted in bold) to adapt it specifically to Lee:

Here, Lee, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind,

Thy country’s friend, but more of human kind.

O! born to arms! O! worth in youth approved!

O! soft humanity in age beloved!

For thee the hardy veteran drops a tear,

And the gay courtier feels the sigh sincere.

Lee, adieu! Yet not with thee remove

Thy martial spirit, or thy social love!

Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage,

Still leave some ancient virtues to our age:

Nor let us say (those former glories gone)

The last true American lies beneath this stone.

Thusly is paid to Lee such honor in death as Alexander Hamilton paid to George Washington in his funeral oration on that great man: “if virtue can secure happiness in another world, he is happy.  In this, the seal is now put upon his glory. It is no longer in jeopardy from the fickleness of fortune.”

Respectfully,

Kenneth G. Everett  ‘64