The Last Letter of Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Confederate Government Known Definitively to Remain in Private Hands

With the Civil War ending, in what is almost a requiem, he praises the legendary army for the "patriotic fortitude that it has shown under all hardships", and has no doubt it "will bear the evils that the government is unable to prevent"

By January 31, 1865, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had been besieged in Petersburg for some seven months. On that day, Lee was named General-in-Chief of all Confederate Armies, requiring him to deal with all theaters of operation, and thus adding to the burdens he was already carrying. His primary concern remained, however, in Virginia, as if his army lost Petersburg, the Confederate government would have to evacuate the capital at Richmond, which might bring on complete defeat and an end to the war. Although some supplies continued to reach his embattled army in Petersburg, Union forces under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had cut off most of the supply routes to that city. The last major Confederate port capable of aiding the army, at Wilmington, North Carolina, had been closed in mid-January. As a result, Lee's army suffered from inadequate clothing and supplies, as well as hunger, even as war-weariness, coupled with knowledge of the sufferings of those at home, led to desertions.  

Though it was winter, Grant kept a constant pressure upon Lee's forces in order to cut the remaining two open supply routes, or at the least to force Lee to further stretch and thin his already-thin lines to protect those routes. On February 5, 1865, Grant ordered his troops out of their lines and toward the Boynton Plank Road, which was one of the two still open. At Hatcher's Run the armies battled for three days; and ultimately the Union line was extended, and Lee's line correspondingly thinned. March began with President Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration, which put an end to any lingering Southern hopes that the North would tire of the war and sue for peace. The military and political fortunes of the Confederacy were degrading.

But that was not all. By the beginning of March 1865, Confederate finances were in a desperate state, yet the government still needed adequate supplies for the military to carry on the war. Cash was scarce, so scarce that, according to "The History of the Confederate Treasury" by Ernest Smith, secret trade with the enemy had been allowed to secure gold for cotton. A system of confiscations and impressions had been in place, and but now the bills for this, when submitted to the Treasury, went largely unpaid. The Confederate currency become so debased that it was trading at a rate of 60 to 1, meaning that a soldier or supplier receiving $600 worth of Confederate money was actually getting $10 worth of value. Merchants had to inflate their prices, and even so many of them did not want to provide what little they could get with the blockade-running ports closed to a government that would, if they were lucky, pay for it with such a depreciated currency. This led to grave shortages in the army, and was of great concern to General Lee, who wrote Confederate President Jefferson Davis numerous times on the subject of lack of subsistence for his troops. Lee was also troubled by the fact that the army went largely unpaid, and by its growing inferiority to the foe in numbers as desertions increased, and few new, qualified recruits came forward to take their places.

In March, Confederate Secretary of the Treasury George Trenholm put forward a series of proposals centered on taxes, loans and donations to set the CSA financial house in order. These Trenholm believed were necessary if the Confederate government had any hope of regaining financial solvency. On March 11, 1865, the Confederate Congress passed an act providing for significant additional taxes. Congress also passed a bill to provide for the payment of "all arrears now due to the army and navy" (though President Davis would ultimately veto this bill). Then Congress passed the Act of March 17, 1865, which was considered a "law of dire emergency". It asked for a loan in gold and coin. Three days later, on March 20, this was followed by a call for donations from the citizens of the Confederacy. Smith's book states that "Joint resolutions came from Congress, and the Secretary of the Treasury gave official utterance…that at the Treasury being straitened, it is deemed not incompatible with the public dignity to accept the free-will offerings of a generous people." By March 20, the Confederacy was almost out of steam, and the war had just three weeks left to go.

Trenholm wrote to Lee on March 11 concerning his financial program, express his solidarity with the army, and, almost surely, to inform him of the passage of the two bills that day. On March 15, Lee wrote to Gen. Richard Taylor, who was in command of the Department of Alabama and Mississippi, concerning the Confederacy's currency problems and lack of financial solvency, asking him to "place valuable stores and government property as far as practicable in places of safety". Lee responded to Trenholm the next day, offering his support for Trenholm's financial program, pledging the army's continued support of the government regardless of its suffering, and praising the Confederate Army for "the patriotic fortitude that it has shown under all hardships." This was a fascinating characterization, and contained Lee's important view of the attributes of the Confederate Army: loyalty, patriotism, fortitude, and willingness to bear hardships. But it was more than that; considering that the war was but three weeks from its end, this was more like a requiem.

Letter signed, as Commander in Chief of the Confederate States of America, Head Quarters C.S. Armies, March 16, 1865, to Trenholm. "Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant: and to return you my sincere thanks for the solicitude you manifest for the interests of the Army. I have never doubted, nor I believe have the intelligent officers and men under my command, that the delay of their payment proceeded from causes beyond your control, and I highly approve of the wisdom of the policy from the adoption of which the inconvenience has arisen. I doubt not that the army will bear the evils that the government is unable to prevent, with the patriotic fortitude that it has shown under all hardships, and will rely without complaint upon your zealous efforts to minister to its wants.  With Great respect. Your Obt. servant. R.E. Lee." This would be Lee's last word on the subject during the war.

As these financial steps were being taken, Lee determined on a change of strategy – to find a way out of Petersburg before Grant cut off all supply routes and starved the Confederate army into submission. He decided that the best course was to go on the offensive, and he planned a surprise attack on the Union lines east of Petersburg. If the assault succeeded, Grant would be forced to weaken his lines south of Petersburg, enabling Lee's army to break out and to join General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina. He launched a surprise attack on the eastern portion of the Union line at Fort Stedman. Before sunrise on March 25, a large contingent of Lee's men begin their assault with a rush toward the Union fort. After some initial success, a Union counterattack brought an end to Lee's only major offensive of the siege. Grant then cut Lee’s final supply line into Petersburg on April 2 in the Battle of Five Forks, causing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2–3, ending the siege. Lee planned to regroup at Amelia Courthouse, about 40 miles west of Richmond and Petersburg, where rations would arrive from Richmond. He planned to then head south to effect a link-up with Johnston. Grant decided on a course of pursuit intending to cut Lee off, surround him, and force a surrender. The tactic was successful, and Lee surrendered on April 9.

This is a historic letter, as it appears to be Lee's final letter as commander of the Confederate Army prior to his surrender known to be in private hands. To determine this, we have searched the records of public sales going back 40 years, and find that this letter to Trenholm is the only Lee document or letter in those records dated between March 16-April 9, 1865 not owned by institutions. How fitting that in that letter he expresses his view of the attributes of his army, one of the most famous in the history of the nation, and indeed the world.