ALS as superintendent of West Point, signed “R. E. Lee,” one page both sides, 8 x 9.75, May 8, 1854. Letter to Cadet W. Eugene Webster, in full: “The accomp’g letter & check of the Treasurer of the Acad’y will answer your inquiries concerning your pay for March & April. I am very Sorry to hear that your health is so feeble & still more regret the probability of its not allowing your return to the Acad’y. I would not advise its sacrifice for the gratification of any military aspiration, still I would advise you to weigh well the advantages of your App’t & Consult your father and mother before relinquishing it. Should you not be well to return by the 1st July, & there is a reasonable expectation of your becoming so by the 1st Sept; unless in the opinion of your father, mother & Phy’n, it would be imprudent to risk your resuming your duties; If you will send me the proper certificate of your Physician, an Army Surgeon would be the best; I will endeavor to get an extension of your leave. I must have it in proper time, to get the Sec’ys action. I had hoped the climate of the South & particularly the inmates of Cedar Grove would have entirely relieved you of all Corporeal ills. I do not know what they would not cure me of if I was a young man again. Your Cousins may have gone to A— having been detained more than a month by the inability of the younger to travel. Another Cousin Ella Carter accomp’d them as far as Phila. Please present my kind regards to your mother & all the household at Cedar Grove.” In very good to fine condition, with light overall wrinkling, several intersecting folds, and toning along extreme edges.
Lee served as the superintendent of West Point from 1852 to 1855, edifying and training scores of young men who would either serve under him or against him during the American Civil War; he would take leave of West Point when he was promoted as second-in-command of the Second Cavalry regiment in Texas. Lee’s oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during his tenure, graduating first in his class in 1854. Interestingly, the recipient of this letter, W. Eugene Webster of Cedar Grove, VA, was the cousin of Lee’s wife Mary Anna Custis, whose father was the half-sibling of the cadet’s mother, Rosalie Eugenia Stuart Webster. A fascinating letter stemming from Lee’s brief yet formative period at the esteemed military academy.
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