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signed the letter R. E. Lee, folded and sealed it.
    Mary and the children lived with Mrs. Custis, her mother, in the huge manor house Arlington situated on the Virginia hills opposite Washington. Mrs. Custis was a strong woman and perhaps she could be of assistance in the matter of Mary’s lack of will. He would prepare a short letter to her and request she use her influence to induce Mary to perform her motherly duties. He hoped for, but held little expectation that Mrs. Custis’s effort would have much effect upon Mary.
    He turned to preparing his will, beginning with listing his holdings; canal and railroad stock, and state bonds of Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and six slaves. He estimated his wealth at thirty-eight thousand dollars. Considering five percent a reasonable rate of return, he calculated the interest on his holding would be more than his annual salary of $1,350 per year, and a sum large enough for his family to live comfortably off the interest should he be killed in the war. In addition Mary stood to inherit valuable property; the Arlington house, the White House on the Pamunky River, several hundreds acres of fertile land, and two hundred slaves. His family should be able to live very well indeed should he be killed.
    Lee glanced at Johnston and saw the tall, wiry man staring out the open doorway into the black night on the deck. “Something bothering you, Joe?” he asked.
    â€œThere’s going to be a lot of American boys killed in this war. Doesn’t it seem foolhardy for us with but a tiny army of a few thousand men to land from vessels on the open sea and invade a nation of seven million people?”
    â€œThey do occupy a mountainous land affording the greatest possible natural advantage for defense,” Lee said. “And the officers will be creoles. But Cortez did it with five hundred and fifty men.” Creoles were the descendants of Europeans and numbered about a million. The remaining citizens were Indians, or mixed white and Indian races called mestizoes.
    â€œYes but the Spaniards had firearms while the Aztecs had bow and arrows. In our case, the Mexicans have weapons as good as our own. And they’ll be fighting from behind strong defensive works. And don’t forget that the Aztecs thought Spaniards were gods, and men don’t fight as strongly against gods as they do against mortal men.”
    â€œIf any general can lead us to victory, then Scott is the one.”
    â€œEven Scott has to have enough soldiers to do it. Some of the officers believe President Polk and Secretary of War Marcy are deliberately withholding troops from him so that he will fail in his first battle. Then they can replace him with a general of the Democratic Party and then that man goes on to be the next president.”
    â€œYou know that’s not so. The newspapers call this Mr. Polk’s war. I think they’re right about that and winning it is more important to him than who might be the next president. He wants New Mexico and California so that our country extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I agree with him on that.”
    â€œIt has always been more than just settling the Texas boundary.”
    Lee went back to his writing. His spirit rose as he composed a titillating letter to Tasy Beaumont, a nineteen-year-old girl with whom he had been corresponding for better than a year. She provided the zest and excitement that Mary lacked. He pictured her young body and smiling face as his pen moved over the paper. He frequently used words and phrases that she could interpret as having sexual meanings. He would write Markie, Martha Custis Williams a young cousin of Mary’s, tomorrow after the landing on the Mexican shore. He admitted to himself that he found women, young women, ever more interesting as he aged.
    *
    Grant was seated outside on the main deck of Talbott’s Trader. The deck was crowded with soldiers, the eighty men of Grant’s enlisted