Lee's Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862-1865

Of all those who served with Robert E. Lee in the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia, no one was as close to him as Walter Taylor. Twenty-two years old when hostilities broke out, Taylor served at Lee's side virtually without interruption during the entire Civil War. The only officer who could lay claim to such a distinction, Taylor served first as aide-de-camp and subsequently as assistant adjutant general of the Army of Northern Virginia. He traveled with Lee, ate at his mess, shielded him from a flood of administrative concerns, and on occasion delivered his battlefield orders to division and corps commanders. His personal correspondence, written without reserve as he enjoyed an unparalleled opportunity to observe Lee's inner circle, constitutes a unique addition to the Civil War record. The 110 letters compiled in Lee's Adjutant shed light on day-to-day life at Lee's headquarters and on the general himself. Written to Taylor's fiancee and family, these letters recount the Army of Northern Virginia's early triumphs, invasions of the North, defeat at Gettysburg, the bloody struggle in the Wilderness, the siege of Petersburg, and final surrender. In them the young officer testifies to the simplicity of Lee's lifestyle as well as the gentility of his demeanor. He describes the bond that developed between himself and the general, and he discusses the furloughs, reports, dispatches, petitions, and grievances that he handled as Lee's alter ego in administrative matters. In addition to offering an eyewitness account of Lee's Civil War service, Taylor's correspondence illumines social, religious, and military concerns of the period. To these revealing letters Lockwood Tower adds abiographical sketch of the young adjutant. Tower describes Taylor's role in helping Lee organize the Army of Virginia, his midnight wedding on the night that Richmond fell, and - as an officer who lived to see the fiftieth anniversary of the war's end - his role in shaping Confederate memory.