Nice post!
Nam Vet
Fascinating. I read a book once which covered the origins of the Lee family when they first emigrated to America. They made their fortune from tobacco and were large land owners. IIRC, there were 7 sons who inherited large swaths of property, etc. The entire family has an interesting history.
Reading some of this stuff is really confusing.
From one side of their mouth posters claim that you can’t support the troops if you don’t support the war (cause). From the other side of their mouth it is claimed that you can support a slave holding general but don’t support the cause (slavery).
Yeah, Hitler almost conquered Europe with strokes of brilliant military moves....if you’ll just ignore that little thing with the Jews.
Also, all those slaves singing on the plantation were really happy; certainly happier than any Negro today.
Vast majority of our posters are intelligent, “fair” minded, and harshly critical when it is called for (why I am a member). A few on these threads only provide fodder for the DBM ....and guess who is going to be quoted on CNN.
I have a book of some of Lee's letters. Found in a store in Kennesaw, I believe. (Wildman's Trading Post? Does that ring a bell with anyone?)
I had it rebound and gave it to my daddy and when he died, Mama gave it back to me.
Just caught this at the source link:
“Correction to This Article
An earlier version of this article in print and on the Web incorrectly identified the subject as Mary Lee Custis.”
The article is about Mary Custis Lee.
I've got people like this in my own family. When my grandparents moved out of their house into a rest home unfortunately I wasn't there. I fear probably a lot of letters, etc. that could have added more to my family's history was tossed out like last week's paper.
But imagine, letters and memorabilia from literally two different eras. It's one thing to see them in a museum but that she kept them. Like a personal connection to the beginning.
The real pleasure I get from reading that sort of period stuff - and I hope this doesn't sound petty - is that the people writing it were literate and for the most part that despite the hundred and a half years between, what you understand is precisely what they meant to express. I don't think you could say that about most modern newspapers, and those folks are paid to write that stuff.
Lee cutting his own stars off is an act rich in possible symbolisms and interpretations. Perhaps in one of those letters he mentions it, but what little I know of the character of this most private man suggests not.
We are one indivisible nation, no matter how much some would desire to divide this antion along geographical or racial lines.
Trash?
Wow, that’s exciting.
My grandmother had some similar trunks that had belonged to my grandfather’s mother. Her husband was only a major in the Union Army, from NY, though.
Unfortunately, she sold most of it to a museum or collector, after her stock broker churned her retirement account into oblivion. She had more than just letters. She had his uniform and sword and an old leather doll. I have the picture album and the history of the family that his mother wrote about 1918. He is not my blood grandfather, though, and I can’t find any living members of the family.
Where did the family move after moving from Arlington?
B4L8r
Next up....Al Sharpton calls for the papers to be burned.
What a wonderful statement.
Super article. During the war, Robert E Lee was liked as much by the North as he was in the South. He had even been offered command of the Union Army at the start of the war.
A true gentleman whose grace, kindness and honor is lost on many today.