Kinlock 30th [July 1861]
My dear Annie
I do not know if [word illegible] you have come to Shirley, but write there to know of your plans I have just returned from a visit of a week to E View & propose making one to Clarke which may occupy some 10 days or a fortnight. I have received the kindest invitation from cousin Anne Carter to bring you all to Armfield,1 but I thought that if Charlotte would take the Baby to the Hot Springs I would go there for about 3 weeks, & take you & Mary & that Agnes & Mildred might go to your cousin Julia I saw Alfred Randolph at E View & he says when you all go to Fredericksburgh, you must go straight to his house that his wife would be delighted to see you. If Agnes prefers she could go to the Hot Springs too, I am going to write to your cousin But today to make some enquiries about them if they are open &c &c. Now your papa has gone into Western Virginia I do not fear and advance from the enemy in that quarter. I wrote a long letter to Rooney enclosing one to Charlotte on the 17th & directed it to Ashland. I fear he did not receive it before he left, will you write to Charlotte to send for it & to write me at once if she will go to the Hot or what she will do. It is time to manage our visit to the springs if we are going tho’ I am told it is delightful there in September for the bathing. I hope you have received your muslin dresses I sent to your papa some time ago & various frills. We may possibly get to Arlington worse than we expect. The report is that our army is pressing down I hope your prayers have been offered up for our glorious tho’ dear bought victory in which the hand of God has been so manifest. Shall we not unceasingly pray that he will guide us to the end & deliver us from our enemies. May we sooner become vainglorious or think we are to conquer in our own strength. I got a letter from Markie dated the 13th. She had been to Arlington to get her papers out of that drawer. I send you the most interesting part of her letter. Take care of it & if you should have a private opportunity send it to me, back but do write at once & find out if possible what Charlotte is going to do & where my letters will find you I am going to Clarke in a few days to stay about a fortnight & if you & Agnes prefer coming up there you can do so as cousin M Meade & Anne Carter have written & invited you specially & are anxious you should come, your sister think she will not go up with me you know it is difficult to find out what she wishes to do.
You must if possible hear from Charlotte & then direct to me at Millwood Care of Bishop Meade Clarke County Va, which will be certain to find me. I do long to see you all & to be settled down once more but as I have rarely an opportunity of visiting my friends & one offers now I might as well avail myself of it as they have been so exceedingly kind & pressing in their invitations & scarcely know how to get away from them. I shall feel very anxious to hear from your papa & Rooney. Do you know if they will be together in the West give my most affectionate love to dear cousin Mary I suppose she will not leave Shirley & you must stay with her as long all you can there is no place where you will be more welcome or where I should be better satisfied to have you, I hope you all have been able to assist in work for the soldiers, we are all busy all the time knitting socks, making skirts &c&c. Markie’s direction in Phila where she will probably be before you can write is care of Mr Thomas Orton, 2019 Walnut Street. May God bless & preserve us & all dear to us is the constant prayer of yr affectionate mother
1. May be referring to Armfield farm near Chantilly, Virginia. “Chantilly” was built by Corneila Lee Tuberville and Charles Calvert Stuart. Cornelia’s maternal grandfather was Richard Henry Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who had named his estate in Westmoreland County “Chantilly.” After Stuart’s death, his son Sholto ran the farm. His neighbor was Francis Lightfoot Lee (1782-1850).
2. Reverend Alfred Magill Randolph (1836-1918) was born at “Eastern View” in the Meadows, Fauquier County, Virginia. He was a graduate of William and Mary and Virginia Theological Seminary. In 1859, he married Sarah “Sallie” Griffith Hoxton, with whom he had six children. During the Civil War, he worked at St. George’s Church in Fredericksburg, but left following the battle there in December 1862. In the spring of 1863, he joined the Confederate army as a chaplain. After the war, he lived in Norfolk, where he died in 1918. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Source: Photocopy of original letter, Lee Family Papers, Mss1 L51c 308, Section 16, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2016 November 17
