Lexington June 7th [1866][1]
My dear Jenny[2]
Custis is so unwell that he deputes me to answer yr note. After long searching I find the enclosed scrap, which was buried with your silver during the war, & is consequently very much defaced but the Geo. Washington is sufficiently plain I hope for yr purpose. I had a charming little visit to Nellie & Fitz. Aunt Nannie[3] was in fine spirits & much encouraged about her eye.
Now I am here, installed in the bosom of the blue mountains, & blue Presbyterians! Treading the paths of peace & virtue!
I hope you are doing the same. Give my love to the Seminary Hill[4]
& believe me always
affey yours
Mildred Lee
Source: The Archives of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Papers of the Lee Family, Box 5, M2009.521, Jessie Ball duPont Library, Stratford Hall
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2016 May 31
[1] The letter was likely written in 1866. The Lees did not move to Lexington until the late summer of 1865, but her comments about the town suggest that she had not been there that long when she wrote to Jenny.
[2] Virginia Mason Cooper Dawson (1843-1913) was the daughter of Samuel Cooper (1798-1876), the highest ranking general in the Confederacy, and Sarah Maria Mason Cooper (1800-1890). She married Nicholas Dawson (1835-1906) in 1873 October in Falls Church, Virginia. She is buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria.
[3] Anna Maria Mason Lee (1811-1898), the wife of Sidney Smith Lee.
[4] Located about two miles from Alexandria. It was the home of Cassius F. Lee (1808-1890).
