Autograph letter signed "R.E. Lee Lt Col 2 Cav / Bt Col Commd Regt" to Colonel S[amuel] Cooper, discussing various officers in the 2nd Cavalry and their recruiting efforts.
Louisville: 23 April 1855. 3p., folded sheet (245 x 185 mm). Docketed by Lee on the last page and additionally signed by him. Condition : usual folds. written shortly after his appointment by jefferson davis as lt. col. of the 2nd cavalry, lee organizes his regiment and mentions future confederate officers. After three year’s service as the Superintendent of West Point, Lee was given a field commission in the 2nd cavalry. “The Second United States Cavalry, one of four new regiments approved by Congress on March 4, 1855, was organized specifically for service [against Indians] on the Texas frontier. It was an elite organization … The officers were handpicked by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce. Thus the regiment was known as ‘Jeff Davis's Own.’ Most of the officers, like Davis, were West Point graduates and southerners. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. Eleven of these became Confederate generals, and the Second Cavalry supplied one-half, or four, of the full generals of the Confederate Army - Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood” (The Handbook of Texas, online). At the time of this attractive-looking letter, Lee was assembling his staff and raising troops for the regiment’s ten companies. Writing to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, he gives the names of sixteen officers with their respective company designations and their recruiting instructions. Of particular note are the future Confederate officers discussed, including: Edmund K. Smith, Charles W. Field, Earl Van Dorn, George B. Cosby, Nathan G. Evans, and George B. Anderson. Also among the officers here mentioned are future Union officers George Stoneman and Charles J. Whiting. Lee closes the letter by informing Cooper that he has “not yet been able to ascertain whether there is any Qr M, Medical Officer &c stationed nearer than St. Louis” and asks for instructions on those positions as well as asking “Is the Reg’t to enlist its own Buglers, or will they be furnished for the Gen’l Rendezvous
Autograph letter signed "R.E. Lee Lt Col 2 Cav / Bt Col Commd Regt" to Colonel S[amuel] Cooper, discussing various officers in the 2nd Cavalry and their recruiting efforts.
Louisville: 23 April 1855. 3p., folded sheet (245 x 185 mm). Docketed by Lee on the last page and additionally signed by him. Condition : usual folds. written shortly after his appointment by jefferson davis as lt. col. of the 2nd cavalry, lee organizes his regiment and mentions future confederate officers. After three year’s service as the Superintendent of West Point, Lee was given a field commission in the 2nd cavalry. “The Second United States Cavalry, one of four new regiments approved by Congress on March 4, 1855, was organized specifically for service [against Indians] on the Texas frontier. It was an elite organization … The officers were handpicked by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce. Thus the regiment was known as ‘Jeff Davis's Own.’ Most of the officers, like Davis, were West Point graduates and southerners. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. Eleven of these became Confederate generals, and the Second Cavalry supplied one-half, or four, of the full generals of the Confederate Army - Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood” (The Handbook of Texas, online). At the time of this attractive-looking letter, Lee was assembling his staff and raising troops for the regiment’s ten companies. Writing to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, he gives the names of sixteen officers with their respective company designations and their recruiting instructions. Of particular note are the future Confederate officers discussed, including: Edmund K. Smith, Charles W. Field, Earl Van Dorn, George B. Cosby, Nathan G. Evans, and George B. Anderson. Also among the officers here mentioned are future Union officers George Stoneman and Charles J. Whiting. Lee closes the letter by informing Cooper that he has “not yet been able to ascertain whether there is any Qr M, Medical Officer &c stationed nearer than St. Louis” and asks for instructions on those positions as well as asking “Is the Reg’t to enlist its own Buglers, or will they be furnished for the Gen’l Rendezvous
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
