Mary Custis Lee Eulogizes Her Husband, Robert E. Lee, as Possessing True Greatness, and Saying He Will Be Revered Down the Ages

Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, step-great-granddaughter of George Washington, and daughter of George Washington Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington. She married Robert. E. Lee, who would become the Confederate commander, and who was himself descended from a notable Virginia family. He was the son of Revolutionary War officer and Virginia Governor Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III.

During the Civil War, Lee was the most celebrated general of the South, beloved for his high character, devotion to duty, and brilliant battle successes. Lee’s greatest postwar legacy was toward national reconciliation. Although he had ostensibly retired from the national spotlight, in his correspondence he became a voice of moderation and unity. In one letter he urged that “all should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war and to restore the blessings of peace.” In another he stated, “I think it the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the Country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony, and in no way to oppose the policy of the State or General Government directed to that object.” Positions such as this were very influential in the South and largely contributed to Southerners accepting the verdict of the war rather than hungering for a rematch. They were also noted approvingly in the North.

Lee died October 12, 1870. After his death, and as the years increasingly passed, he became the symbol of the Lost Cause in the South and of the noble adversary and peacemaker in the North. History made his life into legend, myth, and image, and so rendered Lee both more and less than he in fact was.

Autograph letter signed, Lexington, December 1, 1870, by Mary Custis Lee, to a recipient identified by initials as B.J.L., who had written a letter commiserating with Mrs. Lee on her loss. “I should have responded at once to your letter but was quite unwell when I received it & hope now it may reach you in time for me to receive your reply before you leave home. lt is with much pleasure I forward the draft for $200.00 on Bank Republic N.Y. & hope you may never have cause to regret having aided me in obtaining this small portion of my Father’s inheritance, your first offer was to relinquish your right and part in it tc me for the sum of $500.00, which sum it was impossible for me to raise without trespassing upon the kindness of friends. Sometime afterwards if you recollect you wrote me again offering the same conditions for $200.00 if l could send it at once – that was equally out of my power & I sent the letter with one of Mr. Bradley’s to a cousin of mine in Baltimore who at that time thought would buy out for me the whole concern. As he has never done so, l shall endeavor to manage it myself. Have you ever heard from Mr. Bradley of the success of the edition put out last year by Mr Flint? lf you have anything due to you on that edition you had best write to him & after I hear from you I will write to Mr. Bradley myself.

“I thank you for your expressions of sympathy in my heavy sorrow. lt is a great alleviation to me to know how his memory is beloved & honored by all who can appreciate true greatness, & that the fame he never sought while living will cherish for ages to come the name of R. E. Lee.”

The recipient, who signed simply B.J.L. and whose identity we were not able to discover, has added his postscript, attesting to his dislike of Lee. An interesting juxtaposition with the above note and a testament to Lee’s complicated legacy.

“I simply tendered to Mrs Lee my condolence for the loss she had sustained in the death of her husband, but without the slightest hint that I had any respect for him, whom I regard as one of the worst of the traitors who took up arms against the Republic in 1861 and for four years endeavored to destroy it. -BJL”

A better eulogy of Lee cannot be imagined, and coming from his wife, is historic.