The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont. Robert E. Lee, portrayed by the distinguished star of stage and screen, Philip Merrivale. An original radio play based on the Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Robert E. Lee, by the noted American auditor and ether, Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman. The DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, present the Cavalcade of America, dedicated to those men and women in every walk of life who have shaped the destiny of America in the past, and to the youth of today who will shape the destiny of America in the future. Tonight, our broadcast comes to you from the stage of the mosque, the great civic center of Richmond, Virginia. Tonight we look backward to a courageous, gentle, and lovable character, a man who in his life and deeds stands as a bright symbol of the indomitable spirit of the South. All America honors the memory of Robert E. Lee, just as all Americans have deep affection for our southern states. But America's pride in the South is not alone for things of spirit. We see it today as a place of increasing opportunity, whose people are well out in the forefront of progress in many fields. The transition of the South from a largely agricultural community to a section of constantly increasing industrial importance is a thrilling chapter in the American Cavalcade. And in DuPont and other research laboratories, many of which are located in the South, scientists are working hand in hand with the people of the South, who are producing more and more of the raw materials necessary for American industry. DuPont chemists use millions of pounds of cotton linters to make products that range from motion picture film to plastics and rayon. Vegetable oils from the South are essential to the making of fine finishes manufactured by DuPont. Using turpentine from southern pine trees, DuPont today makes camphor, chemically identical with that formerly imported from Formosa. Because of this and other developments, the southern pine has advanced to the position of a great crop used by industry. Thus comes another forward step in diversification. But not only are southern farmers setting more kinds of crops, they are also getting more out of the crops. Their intelligent use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides to fight insect pests, chemicals for seed treatment, and agricultural explosives to clear the land and drain it, is helping to create a sounder prosperity. In all of these agricultural advances, DuPont chemists are happy to be playing a part. Thus, we find in the South men, materials, and vision that are helping to fulfill the DuPont pledge, better things for better living, through chemistry. Robert E. Lee, a name that stirs the hearts of men, for it holds in it the pride the world takes in honor and virtue, and the indomitable spirit of human goodness and aspiration. It was the year 1861, a time of darkness and storm. There was conflict in the nation and sorrow in the mind of Robert E. Lee. And in the early months of that year, even men of good will had to make a fateful decision. And for Robert E. Lee, the final moment had come to declare himself. In Washington, he is talking with his friend, Francis P. Blair. I left Arlington as soon as I received your message, Mr. Blair. I'm glad you did, Colonel Lee. The message sounded urgent. Yes, I had to see you. It's about secession. I feared so. Colonel Lee, what are your feelings and your intentions? Would that help any, Mr. Blair? I'll come to the point, Colonel Lee. President Lincoln and the Secretary of War, Mr. Cameron, are anxious to know. Well, sir, I pray the Union will not be dissolved. We have secession on our hands now. The government is calling out a large army to enforce federal law. President Lincoln has authorized me to ask you if you will accept its command. I see. Well, Colonel Lee? Mr. Blair, I am willing to sacrifice everything for the Union. Everything but honor. I can take no part in an invasion of the southern states. I am a Virginian. Do you realize what you're saying? Yes, sir, I do. But I hope this thing can be averted. I pray God it will be. Secession is nothing but revolution. General Scott. General Lee, come in, Colonel. Come in and sit down. Thank you, sir. How have you been? How are you? Tell me about yourself, Colonel Lee. General Scott, I have been asked to accept command of the Army. I knew that was coming, Colonel. Congratulations. I'm an old man. The burdens of command of being too heavy for old shoulders to bear alone makes me happy to know that you're going to carry on, especially now. I was deeply honored. No more than you deserve? No more than you deserve, sir. Appreciate your confidence, General Scott. But I cannot accept such a commission. What? Have you gone completely out of your head? General Scott, I pray God Virginia will never leave the Union. But should she do so, I could not bring myself to bear arms against her. I must stand by my own people, my native state. I will follow her not only with my sword, but if need be, with my life. Lee, you've made the greatest mistake of your life. The state of Virginia is in full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent state. Well, Robert, the session has come at last. Robert, you're not even listening to me. I'm sorry, my dear. I was thinking. Here. Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to the Secretary of War the day before yesterday. Honorable Simon Cameron, Secretary of War of the United States of America. Sir, I have the honor to tender the resignation of my commission as Colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R.E. Lee. Oh, Robert, this means the end, the end of everything you work for, doesn't it? I'm afraid it does. What will you do now, Robert? I don't know, Mary. I hope I never have to fight again. But if Virginia needs me, with God's help, I shall not fail her. I beg your pardon, Miss Lee, but there's a gentleman, Mr. Robertson, to see the Colonel. Oh, have him come in, Caesar. Yes, sir. This way, if you please, sir. Good evening, Mrs. Lee and Colonel Lee. Good evening, sir. Sit down, Mr. Robertson. I thank you, ma'am. I won't take up much of your time, Colonel Lee. And with your permission, Mrs. Lee, I'll be very brief. Please go right ahead, Mr. Robertson. Very well, ma'am. Colonel Lee, I have to give you this communication. It's from Governor Letcher. Thank you. Robert? They want me to command the military and naval forces of Virginia. Well, is there any message I should take back to Richmond, sir? No. No, it won't be necessary for you to do that. I have said I will stand by Virginia. May God help us. Good day, Major Jackson. General Lee, congratulations. You ought to be at the capital there celebrating your commission right now. I suspected they would be. We are facing trouble. Terrible days in the South now. Well, General Lee, anxiety and sorrow have prepared us. The people are crying out for deliverance. The time has come, sir, to send our divisions immediately to the North and crush the enemy. We can't waste lives in a hopeless offensive, Major Jackson. General Lee, it won't be hopeless. Yes, at present it would be. Major Jackson, no matter what happens, and we can't even call our lives our own now, from now on. I'll be depending on you. I will be with you, General Lee, all the way, I hope. Major General Lee, yesterday your mother, Virginia, placed her sword in your hand. We know you will draw it only in her defense, and that you will fall with it in your hand rather than the object for which it was placed there shall fail. Mr. President, gentlemen, trusting in Almighty God and an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native state, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword. There was a battle on Bull Run, and the Federals lay where they fell. They fought in the peninsula and in the West. There were a dozen battles before Mechanicsville, and the war had scarcely begun. There was a battle on the Chickahominy, and it lasted for seven days. Then the men of Robert E. Lee crossed the Rappahannock and stood again on Bull Run. There was another battle on Bull Run, and some thought the war had been won by Robert E. Lee. Good work, General Lee, good work. As Governor of Virginia, I tell you, you have the gratitude of the whole people, outnumbered two to one in the Federals routed. A victory indeed, General. Victory? Yes, Governor, but at what a cost. The Federals always come back. The Federals always will come back because there are so many of them. But you've stopped their advance, General Lee. Those lives were not lost in vain. I pray, God, they were not. In the spring, we shall see. Let us hope for more than the spring. Let us hope this terrible conflict will have passed away when our fields are green again. And they came back in the spring of 1863. Their numbers were greater than ever. They swarmed through the woods at Chancellorsville, 120,000 to Lee's 60,000. And Lee stayed with 14,000, spending the rest with Stonewall Jackson. And there was a twilight battle in the wilderness. Lee was waiting for news. The news came and it was late, very late. Time to report, General Lee. General Jackson's victory is complete at Chancellorsville. Thank God. Take General Jackson my best compliments and- General Lee. Yes? There is one thing I must report, sir. General Jackson was wounded. His left arm was badly shattered. They may have to amputate. Jackson, you will send him my orders to recover. Tell him, should he fail me, I will have lost my right arm. Stonewall Jackson died from his wounds at Chancellorsville. Too many had died before him. Those that were left now followed Robert E. Lee on the offensive and a surge of gray swept to the north. On the march to the Cumberland, Robert E. Lee rode at his army's head on the gray horse named Traveler. He passed through many towns and he talked to many people. General Lee? Yes, madam? I lost my two sons at Antietam, General Lee. Your men took our horse. We can't fly no matter how many times. Do they have to take our horse? I'm sorry. Sorry it's necessary. My man's too old to fight. He can't plow or get to grieving. He misses the boys so much. I will see if I can arrange for the return of the plow horse, ma'am. I'm sorry I cannot return your sons. There were many towns and the last was Gettysburg. The slopes of the Cumberland were yellow with the unharvested wheat, the orchards heavy with ripening fruit, and hope sprang like the smell of home to the nostrils of the lean hungry men in the army of Robert E. Lee. But for every victory there were fewer among them. There were many towns and the last was Gettysburg. There was a battle. It was the night of the second day of July in the year 1863. Gentlemen, we have had victory in the first days fighting here. We gained ground from which we can sweep Cemetery Ridge, and we must do it in the morning. But they've got more men than we have. I know, General. Now, here's my plan. Yes, sir? Your position will be along the Emmitsburg Road. Have one corps block the road. As for General Ewell's design for an operation at Culp's Hill, I favor that. That leaves Cemetery Ridge. General Lee. Yes? Tell me, sir, what will be the disposition of General Pickett's division? You will instruct General Pickett, sir, to place his men on the right of Hill's corps at Cemetery Ridge. I hope nothing goes wrong. You're thinking of the number of federal troops, aren't you, General? Yes, precisely, General Lee. I will take all responsibility. That is all, gentlemen. We will attack tomorrow morning. There was a battle at Gettysburg. On the afternoon of that third day of July, Robert E. Lee and the Grey Horse Traveler stood alone on the hill above and saw the Grey-clad troops close in on the Federals, saw Pickett's gallant charge up the entrenched slopes of the Union batteries, the stars and bars heroic beside him. But the Federals had their orders, and the Grey Lines broke on the broad sunlit meadow before Gettysburg. And there were the dead of the Blue and the Grey lying deep among the trees on Cemetery Ridge. At dusk, Robert E. Lee stood motionless beside Traveler. There had been a battle, and that night as the moonlight fell on the fields of Gettysburg. General Lee, General Lee. Yes? Shall I leave the officer's reports in your quarter, sir? No. I've seen it all, all of it. Give them my blessing. Well, this has been a hard day on you, sir. We failed. We failed on the left. It was all my fault. No, no, sir. No, it wasn't. I never saw troops behave more magnificently than General Pickett's division in that grand charge. It's nobody's fault but my own. I expected my men to achieve the impossible. Will there be an order to retreat tonight, sir? Tonight we'll let the men sleep. There would be two more years of it, but before the yellow-grey smoke of Gettysburg had rolled into the hills, the war was lost. The cause was there still in the fighting, but the cause was a lost cause, and the fighting a long epilogue to a finished tragedy. Robert E. Lee and his staff came at last before a place called Appomattox. Gentlemen, I have called you together to explain that our last hope of obtaining supplies has gone. For some days I have struggled with this problem. Now there is clearly no alternative. We must surrender. General Lee. Yes, General Alexander. The men of the First Corps are still in condition to fight. We can still cut through General Grant and the Federals. Let's not deceive ourselves. We can't. We can't disperse this army without formal surrender. The men will form guerrilla bands. That way we'll hold off an occupation indefinitely. Suppose I took your advice, General Alexander. How many men could get away for that? About two-thirds. Guerrilla bands. General Alexander, I will not allow it. We would be turning men into marauders. It would take our country years to recover from the consequences. I know hard things will be said. Maybe it will be hard to understand that we were overwhelmed by superior numbers. But the question is, is it right to surrender this army? I believe it is. I'm going to see General Grant. General Grant, General Lee. Good day, sir. I met you once before while we were serving in Mexico. Yes. Yes, I remembered. General Grant, what are your terms for the surrender of my army? Well, General Lee, here they are. The men and officers who surrender will have to be disqualified for taking up arms against the United States. That is until properly exchanged. I see. And individual parole, officers to retain side arms and horses, officers and men allowed to return to their homes. I hope you find the terms generous. They are more than generous. They are magnanimous, General Grant. Thank you, General. There's just one thing I'd like to ask, General Grant. What is it? In our army, sir, most of the cavalry, as well as the officers, own their own horses. I would like to understand whether these men will be permitted to retain their horses. Oh, I didn't know that. Why, certainly. But all the men who claim to own a horse or a mule take them home to work their little farms. Thank you, sir. That will have a good effect on my army. I'm glad they'll feel that way, certainly, now that we have peace again. Yes, General Grant. Peace. The last bugle's blow. The final bivouac is over and the years pass. In a house in Lexington, Virginia, sits a venerable warrior, a college president, a parole prisoner treated with honor. They came from miles around to talk with him and he saw them all. You spoke to me at Chancellorsville, General Lee. Of course. I remember. You wanted to leave and I had to reject it. Well, now you have it. You're returning home now? I've been home, General Lee. I ain't got no home no more. I burned it down. Took everything. Nothing left to work the fields even. There will be hardships for all. We must all find some work to do. Rebuild. I'll find work to do, General Lee. But not here. I'm leaving the South. I can't stay here after what those Yankees have done to us. Just thought you might want to know that. No young man. I don't want to know that. We fought like men. Now let us accept defeat like men. But how can we live? How can we ever hold up our heads again? By being proud. Go and rebuild your home. Hew logs and put them together if you must. Go back and rebuild your home. Promise you will. And be tolerant. Well, all right, sir. If you can feel that way about it, I can. And you'll be glad too in the days to come. You can work for Virginia to build her up again, to make her great again. You can teach your children to love and cherish her. Yes. I understand, sir. Remember the truth is this. The march of Providence is so slow and our desire is so impatient. The work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble. The life of humanity is so long and that of the individual so brief that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. But we mustn't be discouraged. Thank you, General Lee. I won't forget. It is history that teaches us to hope. Time ebbs away. Shadows deepen upon the massive grandeur of a hero's face. The great mind sinks to its last repose. Outside the windows of his chamber, daylight breaks. Watchers keeping their vigil are stirring and some strangle down to the little chapel to pray for him. It is another day. With axe or saw or plow or pen, the veterans of Robert E. Lee's army are in the swing of a new day's work. But for Robert E. Lee, it is ended. The life of discipline, of sorrow, and of service. The windows of his chamber do not look to the darkness in the West, but eastward to the sunrise. The cavalcade of America honors the spirit of Robert E. Lee. And now, the cavalcade of America's historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University. With a word about next week's program. Among the builders of the American nation, few hold a higher place than Tom Paine, a penniless Quaker immigrant who gave us the will to be free. It was in London in 1774 that Dr. Benjamin Franklin advised an obscure, middle-aged shipwreck of a man to begin life anew in Pennsylvania. Tom Paine did find a new life in America, and through his writings, Americans were themselves prepared and stirred to find their own political independence. His pamphlet, Common Sense, was one of the most effective publications in American history. Within six months of its appearance, Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence was adopted, and another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, had written that famous declaration. As tonight's broadcast comes to a close in Richmond, Virginia, the cavalcade of America returns to New York, where next week, when we present the story of Tom Paine, featured in the title role will be the well-known radio player, Frank Reddick. The orchestra and original musical effects on the cavalcade of America are under the direction of Don Voorhees. This is Basil Rysdale saying good night and best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
