Lincoln, the unknown

23I N the spring of 1863, Lee, flushed with a phenomenal seriesof brilliant victories, determined to take the offensive and invadethe North. He planned to seize the rich manufacturing centersof Pennsylvania, secure food, medicine, and new clothes for hisragged troops, possibly capture Washington, and compel Franceand Great Britain to recognize the Confederacy.A bold, reckless move! True, but the Southern troops wereboasting that one Confederate could whip three Yankees, andthey believed it; so when their officers told them they could eatbeef twice a day when they reached Pennsylvania, they wereeager to be off at once.Before he quit Richmond, Lee received disquieting news fromhome. A terrible thing had happened! One of his daughters hadactually been caught reading a novel. The great general wasdistressed; so he wrote, pleading with her to devote her leisureto such innocuous classicsas Plato and Homer, and Plutarch'sLives. After finishing the letter, Lee read his Bible and kneltin prayer, as was his custom; then he blew out the candle andturned in for the night. . . .Presently he was off with seventy-five thousand men. Hishungry army plunged across the Potomac, throwing the countryinto a panic. Farmers rushed out of the Cumberland Valley,driving their horses and cattle before them; and negroes, theireyes white with fear, fled in terror, lest they be dragged backto slavery.166