Head Quarters
W. H. F. Lee’s Cavalry Division
Army Northern Virginia
Jany 15 [1863]
My dear Agnes:
I am very much obliged to you for your New Year’s letter. Moses & Scott1 arrived safely satiated with their gayeties. Moses has been quite sick suffering from his change of diet. He is now the head of a family & wears his new honors very well. We are all pretty well just now. The cavalry has lately been pretty gay. Several of the Regiments have been having Tournaments. The 13th Virginia had a coronation party on Thursday last after their Tournament.
We have seen a good deal of the Masons lately. Mildred’s friend Miss Emma2 is a great favorite with her cousin John. Miss Laisa is a very nice young lady after Custis’ ideas. What have you been doing with yourself? Is Miss Sally still the rage? We hear of you sometimes. I am rejoiced to hear of your having recovered from your neuralgia. Tell ma that the drawers were just in time & I wish you would ask Mary to continue to send me my long boots.
Hear Shirley & Miss Rose made up their affair. I saw by the papers that dear Ann Richie had died.
My love to all
Your aff. Brother
W H F Lee
Rob is well & sends his sinc. regards
1. Lee is likely referring to Major Raphael Jacob Moses (1812-1893), a planter and lawyer from South Carolina, and Fred R. Scott. Both worked as commissaries. Moses was living in Georgia when the war broke out. He later served as Chief Commissary for Georgia. After the war, he became a legislator, though he died in Belgium. Scott was born in Ireland on 1830 October 22. He moved to New York City in 1850 and then to Petersburg, Virginia, in 1852. He married Sarah Frances Branch in 1857 and entered the Confederate army as a private in the 12th Virginia infantry. He rose to the rank of major. After the war, he worked for the Richmond-Petersburg railroad. He died in Richmond in 1898 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery.
2. Likely Emma Virginia Mason (1815-1909), a native of Kentucky, who later settled in Alexandria, Virginia. She was a descendant of George Mason of Gunston Hall. She was known as the “Florence Nightengale of the Confederacy” for her work in hospitals during the war. She was also an author and editor, who, after the war, published Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, concerning Lucinda Lee, and Popular Life of Gen. Robert Edward Lee.
Source: Transcribed from photocopy of original letter, Lee Family Papers, Mss 1 L51 c 338, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2016 December 9
