Commonwealth of Virginia
Governor’s Office
Richmond, Va. May 11th 1889
Mr C. F. Lee Jr
L.B. #73
Alexandria Va
My Dear Cassius
I have duly received your note with enclosed extract.
Gen George H. Thomas was a member of my regiment in the old U.S. Army, and I knew him very well. He was anxious to come South, and wrote letters to Governor Letcher and Gen F H. Smith of the V. M. I. asking them to get him a place when he resigned. He married a lady from New York, and I think it was due to her efforts that he remained on the other side. He was quite an ardent Secessionist when I knew him first before the war.
He achieved a good reputation in Mexico as a subordinate officer of artillery, but his reputation as a Cavalry officer was only moderate, he was too heavy and too slow. He was a gentleman, and an officer of undoubted ability.
He was from Southampton Co, and the state of Virginia voted him a sword for his services in the Mexican War. I write in great haste, We are all pretty well
Yours truly
Fitzhugh Lee
Source: The Archives of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Papers of the Lee Family, Box 6, M2009.442
Transcribed by Caitlin Connelly
