Since my interview with you on the 18th inst. I have felt that I ought no longer to retain my commission in the Army. I therefore tender my resignation, which I request you will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once but for the struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service to which I have devoted the best years of my life, and all the ability I possessed.... Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire again to draw my Sword.[182] For this purpose the commissioners from the governor and convention had come, to ask Robert E. Lee to draw his sword--to accept the office of commander in chief of the Virginia forces. General Lee arrived in Richmond on April 22, and the next day accepted from the Secession Convention the command just offered him: Trusting to Almighty God, an approving conscience and the aid of my fellow citizens, I will devote myself to the defense and service of my native State, in whose behalf alone would I ever have drawn my sword.[183] [Illustration] [Illustration] EPILOGUE WASHINGTON IN GLORY--AMERICA IN TEARS The effect of the sudden news of his death upon the inhabitants of Alexandria can better be conceived than expressed. At first a general disorder, wildness, and consternation pervaded the town. The tale appeared as an illusory dream, as the raving of a sickly imagination. But these impressions soon gave place to sensations of the most poignant sorrow and extreme regret. On Monday and Wednesday the stores were all closed and all business suspended, as if each family had lost its father. From the time of his death to the time of his interment the bells continued to toll, the shipping in the harbor wore their colors half mast high, and every public expression of grief was observed. On Wednesday, the inhabitants of the town, of the county, and the adjacent parts of Maryland proceeded to Mount Vernon to perform the last offices to the body of their illustrious neighbor. All the military within a considerable distance and three Masonic lodges were present. The concourse of people was immense. Till the time of interment the corpse was placed on the portico fronting the river, that every citizen might have an opportunity of taking a last farewell of the departed benefactor.--_The Alexandria Times and District of Columbia Advertiser_, December 20, 1799. [Illustration] PART THREE Five Sketches of the Nineteenth Century [Illustration] Chapter 24 The Yeaton-Fairfax House [607 Cameron Street. Owners: The Misses Crilly.] William Yeaton was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1766, and migrated to Alexandria to enter the shipping business when a young man. In the early nineteenth century he launched into the building trade--an "undertaker" he would have been called in the eighteenth century--an architect and contractor today.