Not long after Maury’s return to England, his friends began to urge him to return to the United States. There was some talk of a professorship in astronomy for him at the University of Virginia; and a definite offer of a chair in the Virginia Military Institute was made to him by the Superintendent as early as February, 1867. A little later he was asked to become the vice-chancellor of the University of the South, and for several months he was favorably inclined toward accepting this position. He finally decided, however, in favor of the professorship at the Virginia Military Institute at $2000 a year. He did not go to Sewanee, he said, because he thought the Episcopalians at the North were not disposed to assist the institution and the financial arrangements did not give the assurance of reasonable grounds for success. Maury’s letter of acceptance of the Chair of Meteorology in Virginia Military Institute is, in part, as follows: “I thank you kindly for your letter of the 3rd inst. (April, 1868), explaining my duties in the new Chair. They being such as therein defined, you have induced me to accept. I should lack courage to undertake a regular course of lectures as one of the faculty, simply because it would lead me into an untried line of life; and as my rule is to put my heart into whatever I attempt to do, and try my best, I should have to work overmuch—especially at the beginning—and I am afraid of that. The consideration, therefore, that I am not to be charged with a class, or expected to deliver a regular course of lectures, removes a ‘sea of troubles’ and leaves me in a field of research in which I am not altogether a ‘raw hand’.... You certainly do draw a very bright picture of the work that is before me (The Physical Survey of Virginia)—of the results that are expected from it, and of the success that is to attend my labors. We do not weigh in the same balance the force that I can bring to the work. Therefore, as bright as your picture is, I have my fears of what there may be on the other side. ‘Still, it’s wise and brave to hope the best’, and, bringing willing hearts and ready hands to the work, we’ll try to rub even the dark side bright, should it be turned towards us”. Though the General Amnesty was not passed until May 22, 1872, and Virginia had not as yet been restored to normal relations with the Union, her passing from Federal military control to home rule taking place from April to November, 1869, still the Northern attitude toward the Confederate leaders had already undergone considerable change, as evidenced by the release of Jefferson Davis under bail of $100,000 in May, 1867. Maury felt sure, therefore, that he would not be molested if he returned to the United States, and accordingly after bidding his many warm friends in England farewell, he set sail with his family from Liverpool, on July 1, 1868, for the home from which he had been absent for six years,—years filled with unusual and trying experiences.