There is much to be done which they only
can do.
Very truly yours,
R.E. Lee.
As time went on, and the more gaping wounds began to heal, Colonel
Taylor's letters from the general took in many cases a lighter and
happier tone. After some years, when four daughters had been born to
Colonel and Mrs. Taylor, while yet they had no son, the general chaffed
them gently on the subject: "Give my congratulations to Mrs. Taylor," he
wrote. "Tell her I hope that when her fancy for girls is satisfied (mine
is exorbitant) she will begin upon the boys. We must have somebody to
work for them."
One of the colonel's sons was present when I came upon this letter.
"And you see," he smiled, "my father obeyed his old commander to the
last, for the next baby was a boy, and the next, and the next, and the
next, until there were as many boys as girls in our family."
* * * * *
Colonel Taylor died at his home in Norfolk, March 1, 1916, and on the
subsequent June 15, was followed by his wife.
His death leaves but three members of Lee's staff surviving, namely,
Rev. Giles B. Cooke, of Portsmouth, Virginia, Inspector General; Major
Henry E. Young, of Charleston, South Carolina, Judge Advocate General;
and Colonel T.M.R. Talcott, of Richmond, Virginia, Aide-de-Camp.
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