Details
LEE, MARY CUSTIS. Four autograph letters signed ("Mary C. Lee") to her husband's cousin Edward Carter Turner, Lexington [Virginia], 8 November 1868, 20 April 1869, October [day not given, but before the 12th] and 6 December 1870. Together 13 pages, 8vo-4to, the first letter (2 pp.) with a tear into text causing loss of about 12 words, the last torn cleanly along fold.
"I NEVER FOR A MOMENT THOUGHT THAT HE COULD DIE BEFORE ME"
An interesting but somber series of letters from Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, to his cousin Edward Turner, written during the last years of Lee's life, when he was President of Washington College, and just after his death. She catches up on family news, describes her health and deplores the political situation and reconstruction policies: "To think how all our fond hopes are blasted & what a prospect we have 4 more years of radical rule...We are expecting to move in a new house by the spring that they are building for the President of [Washington] College & hope then to have more room to entertain our friends... Life is waning away & with the exception of my own immediate family I am entirely cut off from all I have ever known & consider [?] my youth & my dear old Arlington I cannot bear to think of it used as it now is & so little hope of my ever getting there again: I do not think I can die at peace until I have seen it once more." (The Lees' Arlington estate had been seized by the Federal Government at the beginning of the war and used as a campground by Union troops.)
20 April 1869: "...The state of the country distresses me, but not as keenly as it has done formerly, I suppose I have become callous & I cannot say I have the least confidence in Grant, nor do I think he is the man for the times but God often makes use of the instruments that we know little of to accomplish his purposes either of mercy or vengeance..Robert has been quite sick for a week past....The College is flourishing."
In the third letter, written only about five or six days before his death on 12 October, Mrs. Lee gives a detailed description of his sudden "attack" and its aftermath: "...my husband has thrown some of his correspondence upon me as his Doctors have thought it was not well for him to sit so long at his desk as he has been doing for some years past. No doubt the newspapers have told you of his alarming and sudden attack on the evening of the 29th [September]....Robert had been unusually well the last 4 or 5 weeks and had been riding out regularly since the cool weather commenced, but that day he was detained at the College till about half past one o'clock. He looked very tired when he came in but ate as usual a plate of grapes & then his ordinary dinner always a very moderate one his little doze in his armchair after dinner, & then went to church being the usual evening for week service, then there was a vestry meeting... When I went in to tea he was not there. I waited about half an hour when I heard him come in as usual lay down his hat & coat & enter the dining room, as he came in I remarked, You have kept us waiting a long time--Where have you been? He stood up at the foot of the table without replying as if to say grace but did not utter a word & sank back in his chair. I said 'You seem very tired let me pour you a cup of tea.' He tried to speak but muttered something unintelligible. This alarmed me & Custis came to him & in the course of 10 minutes we had both Doctors... He slept continuously for 2 days & nights....[He] still does not speak except occasionally a few words tho I think it is more from disinclination to make the effort than from inability to do so. [He] welcomes me always with a pressure of the hand but never says any thing & sleeps still a good deal. The Drs. think he will soon recover tho' it seems to us very slow & that he has no symptoms either of paralysis or apoplexy--God grant they may be right..."
6 December 1870: "...God knows the best time for us to leave this world & we must never question either His love or wisdom. This is my comfort in my great sorrow & to know that had my husband lived a thousand years he could not have died more honored & lamented even had he accomplished all that we desired & hoped for. I am content that his labors are over, even while I must continue my weary pilgrimage alone without the strong arm & loving heart that has so long upheld me. I never for a moment thought that he could die before me & it overwhelmed me the more that I was entirely unprepared for it...." (4)
"I NEVER FOR A MOMENT THOUGHT THAT HE COULD DIE BEFORE ME"
An interesting but somber series of letters from Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, to his cousin Edward Turner, written during the last years of Lee's life, when he was President of Washington College, and just after his death. She catches up on family news, describes her health and deplores the political situation and reconstruction policies: "To think how all our fond hopes are blasted & what a prospect we have 4 more years of radical rule...We are expecting to move in a new house by the spring that they are building for the President of [Washington] College & hope then to have more room to entertain our friends... Life is waning away & with the exception of my own immediate family I am entirely cut off from all I have ever known & consider [?] my youth & my dear old Arlington I cannot bear to think of it used as it now is & so little hope of my ever getting there again: I do not think I can die at peace until I have seen it once more." (The Lees' Arlington estate had been seized by the Federal Government at the beginning of the war and used as a campground by Union troops.)
20 April 1869: "...The state of the country distresses me, but not as keenly as it has done formerly, I suppose I have become callous & I cannot say I have the least confidence in Grant, nor do I think he is the man for the times but God often makes use of the instruments that we know little of to accomplish his purposes either of mercy or vengeance..Robert has been quite sick for a week past....The College is flourishing."
In the third letter, written only about five or six days before his death on 12 October, Mrs. Lee gives a detailed description of his sudden "attack" and its aftermath: "...my husband has thrown some of his correspondence upon me as his Doctors have thought it was not well for him to sit so long at his desk as he has been doing for some years past. No doubt the newspapers have told you of his alarming and sudden attack on the evening of the 29th [September]....Robert had been unusually well the last 4 or 5 weeks and had been riding out regularly since the cool weather commenced, but that day he was detained at the College till about half past one o'clock. He looked very tired when he came in but ate as usual a plate of grapes & then his ordinary dinner always a very moderate one his little doze in his armchair after dinner, & then went to church being the usual evening for week service, then there was a vestry meeting... When I went in to tea he was not there. I waited about half an hour when I heard him come in as usual lay down his hat & coat & enter the dining room, as he came in I remarked, You have kept us waiting a long time--Where have you been? He stood up at the foot of the table without replying as if to say grace but did not utter a word & sank back in his chair. I said 'You seem very tired let me pour you a cup of tea.' He tried to speak but muttered something unintelligible. This alarmed me & Custis came to him & in the course of 10 minutes we had both Doctors... He slept continuously for 2 days & nights....[He] still does not speak except occasionally a few words tho I think it is more from disinclination to make the effort than from inability to do so. [He] welcomes me always with a pressure of the hand but never says any thing & sleeps still a good deal. The Drs. think he will soon recover tho' it seems to us very slow & that he has no symptoms either of paralysis or apoplexy--God grant they may be right..."
6 December 1870: "...God knows the best time for us to leave this world & we must never question either His love or wisdom. This is my comfort in my great sorrow & to know that had my husband lived a thousand years he could not have died more honored & lamented even had he accomplished all that we desired & hoped for. I am content that his labors are over, even while I must continue my weary pilgrimage alone without the strong arm & loving heart that has so long upheld me. I never for a moment thought that he could die before me & it overwhelmed me the more that I was entirely unprepared for it...." (4)