A very nice, typed letter on letterhead from the office of the Governor of Virginia by Fitzhugh Lee to Abner Doubleday, addressed cordially to “My Dear General,” signed in ink by Lee and with a hand-written notation/correction. Lee had taken up the governorship at the beginning of 1886 and in this letter, dated October 27^th, 1886, he responds to an inquiry by Doubleday about the movements of the Confederate cavalry at Gettysburg, recording his own experience in covering the retreat with two brigades of cavalry and his timely arrival to drive back Union cavalry attacking the Confederate wagon train and its escorts at Williamsport.

The correspondence postdates Doubleday’s book, “Chancellorsville and Gettysburg,” published by Scribners in 1882, and was likely part of Doubleday’s preparation of, “Gettysburg Made Plain,” published by the Century Company in 1888. This small book was partly a response to “Battles and Leaders,” which included Hancock’s and Howard’s reports of the first day’s fight, but no account by Doubleday. The battle was a sore-point for him. Meade had removed him from command of the First Corps, which he had assumed upon Reynolds’ death, and declined to reinstate him. “Gettysburg Made Plain” illustrates the hard-fighting of the First Corps against odds, its predicament as Howard’s Eleventh Corps pulled back, and a few digs against Howard himself. Doubleday seems to have made use of Fitzhugh’s Lee’s advice to consult Jeb Stuart’s report in the “Southern Historical Papers,” but also to have used Lee’s reminiscences in the section of the book dealing with the retreat on pages 53, ff.

The letter is in very good condition, exhibiting some fold lines, but no holes or separations. It has a small hand-written addition by Lee on the first page and very bold ink signature on the second. It is a very displayable Gettysburg related letter between two well-known generals on opposite sides during the war.   [sr]

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