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Robert E. Lee

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Robert E. Lee

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Auction Date:2015 Feb 11 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Seldom-encountered partly-printed vellum DS, signed “R. E. Lee,” one page, 7.75 x 10, April 11, 1854. A military discharge issued to “Adam Straley a Private of Captain The U. S. Mil Academy…of the detachment Regiment of Dragoons…to serve Five Years is hereby discharged from the Army of the United States in consequence of having served his full term of Enlistment.” Handsomely double-matted and framed to an overall size of 13 x 16. Signed at the conclusion by Lee as Brevet Colonel of the Corps of Engineers. In very good condition, with intersecting folds (two with partial separations), moderate overall creasing and wrinkling (lightly affecting signature), scattered toning and soiling, portions of printed and written text light but mostly legible, and light and mostly illegible character notations to bottom of document.

This document was signed in Lee’s capacity as Superintendent at West Point, a post he had held since 1852, appointed to the position following his own outstanding record as a cadet. For three years, Lee would forego a field assignment for desk duty, and has been credited with improving several buildings on the academy grounds and improving the curriculum of many courses. Creating a better soldier, ironically, would come back to haunt him a decade later, as many former classmates faced each other and the general in combat. Straley, the recipient of this discharge, was spared such a challenge, as after his five-year commitment to the US Army was fulfilled, he returned to his native Germany.