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In Texas, Robert E. Lee Acknowledges Receipt of Several Orders and Communications from Army Adjutant General in Washington
In Texas, Robert E. Lee Acknowledges Receipt of Several Orders and Communications from Army Adjutant General in Washington
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Description:

Robert E. Lee
San Antonio, TX, March 15, 1860
In Texas, Robert E. Lee Acknowledges Receipt of Several Orders and Communications from Army Adjutant General in Washington
LS

ROBERT E. LEE, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Colonel Samuel Cooper, March 15, 1860, San Antonio, Texas. 2 pp., 7.75" x 9.75". Light toning; very good.

In this letter, Colonel Robert E. Lee acknowledges receipt of several general and special orders as well as some communications regarding specific officers. He also acknowledged the orders to arrest Juan Cortina and his followers (Cortinistas).

Mexican rancher Juan Cortina (1824-1894) was an important local leader who effectively controlled the Mexican state of Tamaulipas as governor. A veteran of the Mexican War, his family's lands were divided by the Rio Grande, leaving portions in both Mexico and the United States. Cortina gathered, trained, and armed a private army of Tejanos (Mexican Texans) to resist the incursions of the Anglos (American Texans). In the autumn of 1859, he briefly occupied the city of Brownsville. Local residents, Texas Rangers, and U.S. Army forces from San Antonio engaged Cortina's forces at the Battle of Rio Grande City on December 27, 1859, decisively defeating Cortina's forces and forcing Cortina to retreat into the Burgos Mountains, ending the First Cortina War.

In May 1861, the shorter Second Cortina War took place. Cortina had aligned himself with the federal government and invaded Zapata County, Texas, along the border with Mexico. Confederates under Captain Santos Benavides defeated Cortina at the Battle of Carrizo, and Cortina retreated into Mexico.

Within just over a year after Lee wrote this letter to Cooper, both men would be in the service of the Confederacy. Although Lee initially remained loyal to the Union after Texas seceded, he refused to fight against his home state of Virginia. Cooper was from New York but married a Virginian and had been a close friend of Jefferson Davis when Davis was Secretary of War (1853-1857). Like Davis and Lee, he was also a slaveowner.

Complete Transcript
Head Quars. Dept. of Texas,
San Antonio, March 15, '60.
Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the following official papers from your office since the 29th ultimo, viz:
General Orders Nos 1, 2 and 3, current series, Adjutant General's Office.
Extracts of Special Orders Nos 35, 38 and 39, Adjt. Genl's Office, with a copy of Sp'l Ors. No 36.
Bvt. Major Nichols' communication of the 24th ultimo, stating that the Secretary of War desires that a leave of absence be granted to Dr. L. H. Holden &c.
Your communication of the 24th Feby., directing that the most rigorous measures be adopted to put a period to the outrages on the Rio Grande, and to effect the arrest of Cortinas and his followers.
Copy of your letter of the 28th ultimo, to Lieut. Col. W. Seawell, 8th Infantry, advising him that the Secretary of War declines granting him a twelve months' leave on the grounds on which it was applied for.
Yours and Brevet Major Townsend's communications of the 2nd and 3rd instant, respectively, in further reference to the Rio Grande difficulties.
I am, very Respectfully, / Your obedient servant,
R E Lee
Bvt Col. U.S.A. / Comd'g Dept.
To
Col. S. Cooper / Adjutant General U.S.A. / Washington, / D.C.

Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) was born in Virginia and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1829. He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. After working on the construction of fortifications on the coast of Georgia, Lee returned to Virginia in 1831 and married Mary Custis, with whom he had seven children. He served as an officer and engineer in the U.S. Army for 32 years. He served as one of General Winfield Scott's chief aides in the Mexican War and was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance. He fought in several major battles; received promotions to brevet major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel; and was wounded in battle. After the Mexican War, he returned to engineering work for the army and served as the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy (1852-1855). When his father-in-law died in 1857, he had to take a two-year leave of absence to execute the will, which included a proviso to free his nearly 200 slaves within five years of his death. He finally filed the deed of manumission in December 1862. In 1859, Lee commanded a detachment of militia to arrest John Brown and his followers at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Lee was in Texas when that state seceded, and his commanding officer surrendered Lee and the other American forces to the Texans. Lee returned to Washington and was appointed colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry. Three weeks later, he was offered overall command and the rank of major general of the expanding U.S. Army. Although Lee opposed secession, he would not fight against Virginia, and after that state voted to secede, Lee resigned his commission. He immediately received an appointment to command the Provisional Army of Virginia and the Virginia State Navy. With the formation of the Confederate States Army, Lee was one of its first five full generals. After commanding in western Virginia, he was sent to the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas to organize coastal defenses. On November 5, 1861, he was appointed as commander of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In the spring of 1862, he became a military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who in June appointed him as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, after Joseph E. Johnston was wounded. Lee successfully thwarted Union General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. He also defeated General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run. His narrow defeat at Antietam gave President Abraham Lincoln the victory he sought for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Lee went on to additional victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville before his invasion of Pennsylvania was turned back at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. He battled effectively against new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant throughout 1864 but was forced to withdraw into the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg after devastating losses on both sides during the Overland Campaign. In February 1865, Lee became General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States, but losses of manpower and supplies forced Lee's abandonment of Richmond on April 2 and surrender to Grant a week later at Appomattox Court House. After the war, Lee was neither arrested nor punished, though he lost both the right to vote and the Custis-Lee Mansion across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., which became Arlington National Cemetery. He applied for a pardon but did not receive one. He joined the Democrats in opposing the Radical Republicans but accepted an invitation from President Grant to visit the White House in 1869. He served as the president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, from October 1865 until his death.

Samuel Cooper (1798-1876) was born in New York and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1815. Appointed a second lieutenant, he gained promotion to first lieutenant in 1821 and captain in 1836. He served in various artillery units until 1837, when he was appointed chief clerk of the War Department in Washington, where he received brevet promotions to major in 1838, lieutenant colonel in 1847, and colonel in 1848. He served in the Second Seminole War as chief of staff for Col. William J. Worth. Cooper served as Adjutant General of the U.S. Army from July 1852 until his resignation on March 7, 1861. He was immediately given a commission as a brigadier general and served as both Adjutant General and Inspector General of the Confederate Army throughout the war. He was promoted to full general in May 1861, the first and one of only seven to achieve that rank. As the Confederacy collapsed, Cooper preserved the records of the Confederate Army and turned them over to the U.S. government. After the war, he returned to farming at his home near Alexandria, Virginia.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.75" x 9.75"
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