GENERAL LEE'S LAST ILLNESS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3101, 18 January 1871, Page 3

GENERAL LEE'S LAST ILLNESS.

The Lexington, Va., correspondent of the " New York Tribune." writes : The facts in resppcfc to the last illness of General Lee, as I obtained them from those i about him in his last hours, are substantially these; On Wednesday Sept. 28, he was at Washington College and about the streets diligently attending to the duties of the presi--1 dence. During this afternoon he presided at a meeting of the vestry of the church in which s be was communicant. Thence he went home, partook of a light tea, and, while sittiug surrounded by his family, he was attacked with stupor, becoming speechless and so continuing during the night. In the morning he seemed better, and hopes were entertained that it was only a slight indisposition from nervous prostration. • He continued apparently to improve until , Monday last, but spoke very little, and that only in reply to questions as to how he felt. He did not seem as confident of recovery as hiß physicians and friends. His intelleot, however, was without a cloud, and he gave many signs s that he knew what going on around him. On ■ Saturday, Dr Madison addressed him cheerfully, remarking : " General you must make haste and get well, for Traveller (his favorite horse) is getting lazy, and must give him some 1 exercise." The only reply was a shake of the sick man's head, accompanied by a look that said as plainly as words could say, that he had no hope of engaging again in out-door recreation. Monday found the General worse, and - though his sudden demise was not anticipated, ■ it was thought best to telegraph for his sons, General Fitzhugh, General, Curtis, and Capt. Robert Lee, to come to his bedside. Before 1 the messenger reached them their father was < dead. He died at 9.50 o'clock on Monday ; morning. The physicians who attended him ; in lasts moments says that the remote cause \ of his death was long continued depressing influences inoidents to responsibilities resting ' upon him during the last year of the war, the I disastrous termination of the struggle in which j alibis energies were enlisted, and the afflictions of the South since the surrender of the rebel army. ' What he has gone through since few can ' know who have not Been how he has been J burdened with tho sorrows of the whole people . who have seemed to look to him as father. a He haß borne a quiet exterior, but the -very fibres of his heart have been wearing away by degrees, until at last they have broken, and 3 the vital spark has fled. His physicians con--3 cur in the opinion that the died rather from , mental that there was on merely physical I reason why he should not have lived many years longer. The immediate cause of bis 3 death, however, was, they say, " mental and 5 physical fatigue, inducing venous congestion B of the brain, which, however did not proceed I as far as appoplexy or paralysis, but gradually caused cerebral exhaustion and death."