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Autographs/L: Robert E Lee Autograph Letter With Great Family Content

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,500.00 - 9,500.00 USD
Autographs/L: Robert E Lee Autograph Letter With Great Family Content
ROBERT E. LEE. Autograph Letter Signed, "R E Lee", 3-1/2 pages, July 4, 1868, Lexington, Virginia, 7.5" x 5.5", Choice Very Fine. A long, chatty letter with wonderful family content, addressed to Miss Caroline C. Stuart, daughter of Dr. Richard and Julia Stuart of Cedar Grove. The Stuarts were cousins of Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee. In part: "I am very glad to hear that you had not forgotten me & intended sometimes to gratify me with a letter. I shall always gladly receive them & promise to inflict upon you but short answers in return. I have been looking for you & Annette all the spring & I believe it is the 'hope deferred' that made me sick...I enjoyed my visit to Robt very much & wished that you were there all the time...The leaky house & flooded spring would not have been felt & his household would have been perfectly satisfactory...I truly wish that Custis engagement, which you say is reported, was true; but I never said a word to him on the subject, nor has he to me, & I shall wait till he tells me so before I congratulate him. You hear a great many things Carrie, but this time I fear your informant has shot beyond the mark. I shall leave here on the 14th Inst: with your Cousin M. for the Warm Springs & after she has tried that Bath for a fortnight, will take her to the Hot. I hope that she may receive some relief for she has a sad time...This hot weather produces more pain than usual & some restiveness...Agnes & Mildred will go with her. The former arrived this inst. & the latter has been quite sick...Mary will linger in Md: & East Virginia till we return. Agnes does not seem to be advised of her course & probably she is equally ignorant. From some remarks of hers which have been repeated to me, I am inclined to think that your information concerning my ungracious meddling came from her. Perhaps you are aware that she says a great many things. You must give a great deal of love to your father & mother for me and to all your sisters...All would unite with me in love, did they know I was writing..." Lee's daughter, Mildred, became ill with typhoid fever a few days after arriving at the Warm Springs, in Bath County, Virginia, and her father and sister, Agnes, nursed her throughout several anxious weeks. The letter is in excellent condition, other than faint toning; it has been silked to preserve it, the two sheets side by side.