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Lee, Robert E.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:14,000.00 USD Estimated At:14,000.00 - 18,000.00 USD
Lee, Robert E.
Autograph Letter Signed &#34;<I>R.E. Lee</I>,&#34; 1p, 8½x8&#34;, Petersburg, 14 Nov. 1864. With address panel from original envelope Free Franked, &#34;<I>R.E. Lee Gen</I>.&#34; To Mr. Shippen at his estate, &#34;Violet Bank,&#34; where Lee made his headquarters during the winter of 1864. Lee responds to the Shippen family&#39;s offer to use their house for his personal winter quarters: &#34;<I>Upon reflection I think it best not to accept your kind offer of the house at Violet Bank. I shall be located at no one place this winter as far as I can judge, but will have to be passing along the lines from one side of the river to the other. I cannot therefore see to the house or take care of it, & you had better place in it someone who can. I hope to be able to get over to see Mrs. Shippen but am obliged to go this m</I>[or]<I>n</I>[in]<I>g to the right, which may detain me till night. If I should not be able to see her, please present my kind regards to her & Willie & say that I shall always remember them</I> …. &#34;<BR><BR>During this last winter of the war, Lee&#39;s troops had dwindled to barely 60,000, while Grant&#39;s grew in number. Lee spent much of that winter in the saddle, keeping his troops together by force of his personality and the men&#39;s devotion to him; hence his &#34;passing…from one side of the river to the other.&#34;