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Discovery
For the past three years, VHS archivists have been inventorying and cataloging the contents of two wooden trunks found at Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2002. These trunks, discovered by Robert E. L. deButts, Jr., and E. Hunt Burke, contained letters, legal papers, journals, travel souvenirs, financial records, and smaller artifacts that were collected by Mary Custis Lee, the eldest daughter of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Press release |
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Lee Family Trunks on YouTube
E. Lee Shepard, the Society's director of manuscripts & archives, explains the significance of the discovery and shows letters that were stored in the Lee family trunks. Also interviewed is E. Hunt Burke of Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company, the bank where the trunks were stored, and Elizabeth Brown Pryor, author of Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through his Private Letters. View the Push Pause video on YouTube.
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General Orders No. 61
Among the thousands of documents found in the Mary Custis Lee trunks were hundreds of notes and letters written by Robert E. Lee. One of the most amazing finds was "General Orders No. 61," announcing the death of Lee's subordinate, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson was shot by friendly fire on May 2, 1863, while he and others rode amid the chaos of Confederate lines during the battle of Chancellorsville. View the letter |
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Media Images
Images of the trunks are available for media use (i.e., to support newspaper, magazine, trade publication, travel media, broadcast, and general news reporting). For more information, please contact Jennifer Mason, Media Relations Specialist.
Email: jmason@vahistorical.org | Tel: 804.342.9665 | Media Images |
Partial support toward the acquisition of this collection has been provided by
The Alfred I. duPont Foundation and Roller-Bottimore Foundation
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