A Portrait in Letters (Newly Discovered Robert E. Lee)

The Washington Post ^ | July 12, 2007 | Peter Carlson

[RDTF]

Two old steamer trunks sit in the rare-book room at the Virginia Historical Society, looking worn and forlorn. The smaller one was once red but the paint has faded to a dull rust. The larger one is brown with a piece of tin patching a hole in the top. On one side, a name is stenciled: "M. LEE."

That's Mary Custis Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee's adventurous eldest daughter. In 1917, she stored these wooden trunks in the "silver vault" in the basement of Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust in Alexandria. A year later, she died at the age of 83. Her trunks sat in a dusty corner of the vault for 84 years, unclaimed, until E. Hunt Burke, the bank's vice chairman, discovered them in 2002.

Burke called his high school classmate Rob E.L. deButts Jr., who is Robert E. Lee's great-great-grandson. Together, the two men descended into the vault. Burke carried a basket of old keys.

"The first one I pulled out was a perfect fit," he says.

The trunks were stuffed with Lee family papers -- a priceless cache of 4,000 letters, photographs and documents. DeButts carted them to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, which houses the world's largest collection of Lee papers. He spent a week there, sitting at a desk in the research library, reaching into Mary Custis Lee's trunks and picking out treasures and trash.

-snip-

[lovecraft]

“I don’t understand why it was “perverse.””
Because the war that her father led was infinitely more about keeping slaves than states rights.

Has to be one of the most ignorant statements I have read here. Unfortunately all too common. But the winners do get to write the history books, so you just don't know any better.

[wideawake]

The article really underscores how complicated American race relations are and always have been, as well as the complexity of American sectional relations.

We are one indivisible nation, no matter how much some would desire to divide this antion along geographical or racial lines.

[Badeye]

‘Except for the part about being outnumbered two or three to one, or about being beaten. Lee was forced to retreat and return to Viginia. His goal of attracting Maryland recruits to his army was a failure. And most importantly it showed to the European powers that the Union was not on the verge of defeat, thus ending forever what slim hope of foreign recognition there had been. By all accounts Antietam wound up being a disaster for the confederacy.’

Military historians throughout time since the battle disagree with your assertions.

While the ‘invasion’ did not acheive all that Lee had hoped, it did in fact end any Union effort that year to ‘march on Richmond’. The Union army was so staggered by the battle it lay quite for months afterwards.

Second, it shook the Union Army’s leadership to its core, caused the beginning of what can be described as a low intensity ‘mutiny’ of sorts.

Third, it gave Democrats plenty to crow about on the floors of both the House and Senate reminicent of what we are seeing from General Pelosi and Dingy Harry Reid today.

You assert it caused Europe to forget considering intervening on the CSA side. This is also incorrect, as most the major works about the era demonstrate conclusively. That didn’t come about til the following summer (1863) in the wake of Gettysburg.

Finally, about the ‘retreat’. Lee held his position along Antietam creek for another 24 hours, watching and waiting. The Union army didn’t attack, didn’t move. Given the ground itself was meaningless from a strategic viewpoint, holding it was by definition meaningless as well.

Objective people view the battle what it was, a draw. And a prime example of the failure of Union leadership that kept what should have been a year long conflict alive for four bloody years.

[Badeye]

‘Except for the part about being outnumbered two or three to one, ‘

btw, that was accurate, and it was closer to ‘3 - 1’.

[RDTF]

thanks for posting that pic!

[GretchenM]

Source

Mrs. Robert E. Lee (Mary Anna)

George Washington Custis Lee (first son of REL and MAL)

Mary Custis Lee (first daughter)

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

Anne Carter Lee didn't allow photos to be taken of her due to having stabbed herself in the eye with scissors when she was a child. She was not blinded by the accident, however.

Eleanor Agnes Lee

Robert E. Lee, Jr.

Mildred Lee

Daughter Agnes seems to me to be the one whose facial features and inner strength, quiet and steely determination one might say, most resemble her father's. Comments from those who have studied this family in depth?

[Non-Sequitur]

btw, that was accurate, and it was closer to ‘3 - 1’.

Hardly. Army sizes for the battle are all over the board. Confederate estimates run from 35,000 to 50,000 with 45,000 being the most commonly quoted size. Union army runs from 80,000 to over 100,000 with somewhere between 85,000 and 90,000 probably being the most accurate. No way it was 3-to-1.

[GretchenM]

You’re welcome — and wasn’t she a beauty! I just posted the rest of the fam’s portraits. Quite a distinguished-looking lot.

[Badeye]

‘Hardly. Army sizes for the battle are all over the board. Confederate estimates run from 35,000 to 50,000 with 45,000 being the most commonly quoted size. Union army runs from 80,000 to over 100,000 with somewhere between 85,000 and 90,000 probably being the most accurate. No way it was 3-to-1.’

Psst. Using the extremes of your own numbers, 90K to 35K....gee, sure looks close to 3 -1 to me....(chuckle)

Lee claimed he had 37,000 effectives AFTER Hill ‘came up’.

McClellan claimed he was facing 200,000 troops, based on the laughable Allan Pinkerton’s insane assessment, which has always caused me to wonder if Pinkerton wasn’t in fact a Southern Sympathizer, he was so wrong then and on numerous other occasions.

[NavyCanDo]

I think Lee would of rose to greatness even if the War Between the States never happened.

[RDTF]

big brother was a hottie!

[GretchenM]

I see the host site prohibits remote linking or even saving the photos to one’s PC to upload to tinypic.com, but if you go to the source link you can view the photos.

[Non-Sequitur]

While the ‘invasion’ did not acheive all that Lee had hoped, it did in fact end any Union effort that year to ‘march on Richmond’. The Union army was so staggered by the battle it lay quite for months afterwards.

I would suggest that the Seven Days battles and Second Bull Run did more to end any attempts at Richomond than did Antietam. Lee's Maryland campaign ended in less than two weeks, that can hardly be considered a success. And the Army of the Potomac under McClellan quite often lay quiet for months.

Second, it shook the Union Army’s leadership to its core, caused the beginning of what can be described as a low intensity ‘mutiny’ of sorts.

I don't know anyone who would suggest that. Three months later they were fighting at Fredericksburg.

You assert it caused Europe to forget considering intervening on the CSA side. This is also incorrect, as most the major works about the era demonstrate conclusively. That didn’t come about til the following summer (1863) in the wake of Gettysburg.

Which major works do that? Most historians that I'm aware of agree that Antietam, coupled with the Emancipation Proclamation, ended forever any chance of British intervention. And without Great Britain no other European power was willing to recognize the confederacy.

Finally, about the ‘retreat’. Lee held his position along Antietam creek for another 24 hours, watching and waiting. The Union army didn’t attack, didn’t move. Given the ground itself was meaningless from a strategic viewpoint, holding it was by definition meaningless as well.

By retreat I mean that by the evening of September 18, Lee was withdrawing and heading back home to Virginia. What would you call it?

Objective people view the battle what it was, a draw.

More objective people consider it at best a tactical draw for the confederacy but over all a strategic defeat.

[Non-Sequitur]

Psst. Using the extremes of your own numbers, 90K to 35K....gee, sure looks close to 3 -1 to me....(chuckle)

Using the other extreme 80,000 to 50,000 isn't even two to one...(snicker)

[Alex Murphy]

You are sooo right. However, most people will not venture there without protective garments.

People are converting to Mormonism just to lurk on DU?

[Constantine XIII]

No one thinks Al Gore is hip. LOL

[Badeye]

Psst. Using the extremes of your own numbers, 90K to 35K....gee, sure looks close to 3 -1 to me....(chuckle)
Using the other extreme 80,000 to 50,000 isn’t even two to one...(snicker)

Great. Ping me when YOU make up your mind.

I already know the data involved, intimately.

[StoneWall Brigade]

http://www.stonewallbrigade.com/afterthebattle07.htm

Here NS I thought you might want to check this out seems like a great event to be held at Fredericksburg this fall

[Non-Sequitur]

I already know the data involved, intimately.

Apparently you know data that nobody else seems to know, even historians like Stephen Sears and James McPhearson who have written whole books on the subject.

[Badeye]

Shelby Foote.

When you make up your mind, ping me. Til then you aren’t offering up anything of interest too me.