• Address: Chantilly, VA 20153 (map)
• Date Posted: 11/04/09

The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee edited by Clifford Dowdey (copyright 1961). This edition (copyright 1993) in two volumes is part of the Great Military Commanders series from Easton Press. These books, which are no longer available from the publisher, are in excellent condition.
Easton Press volumes are among the most beautiful and durable books available today. Each volume is bound in genuine leather with a hubbed spine and accented with 22-karat gold, and printed on acid-neutral paper. The Smyth-sewn pages have gilded edges and are complemented by a sewn-in satin ribbon page marker and end pages of rich moiré fabric.
These volumes are the product of the Virginia Civil War Commission, which, in 1961, accepted a proposal by the State Archivist of Virginia to publish the war papers of R. E. Lee as a permanent contribution to the documentation of the war. The resulting publication presents for the first time in one place the most significant war papers of R. E. Lee that exist in manuscript or, if previously printed, are scattered through many separate volumes.
Outside of the strictly military letters in the Official Records, few of Lee’s letters have been published in full, and most of his personal letters have never been published at all. In these volumes, the discernable difference between the man presented to the official Confederacy and to his family is revealed.
In his official correspondence, there is the guarded control of careful composition. In the letters to his family, there is a casual candor about the larger events and the course of their fortunes in the simplicity of homey exchanges. Because of the offhand revelations to his family, his personal letters complement his official letters in providing the mental background out of which his decisions were made. Through this, it is possible to trace the chart of his hopes and expectations through the changes and decline of the Confederacy’s lifespan.
Because of the understanding offered by the interplay between his official and personal letters, the selections in these volumes are concentrated largely on letters to his family and messages concerning his major military operations. The insight into Robert E. Lee’s personality as revealed in these volumes can probably not be matched by any other source on his life.
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