Fredericksburg
(Sunday) March 2d 1862
No letter from you this week! My dearest Charlotte, what is the matter? To punish you for your neglect, hoping that it may be sufficient to prevent any such conduct in future. I intend to make you a proposition, which is that, as I care not yet to see you, you should come up & pay me a short visit. What do you think of it? If it is agreeable to you, write to me to give me 3 or 4 days notice & I will try and meet you in Richmond. In case I should not be able to meet you, if you determine to come, you had better write to Custis to meet you in Richmond I should like you to bring the baby but as there has been a good-deal of Scarlet fever, I think you had better leave him with his Grandmama. You had better bring a maid, and if you could reconcile your-self to Margaret, Scott would doubtless be pleased, but manage that to suit yourself. Bring some work with you to keep you busy in my absence. I was very sorry & grieved to see an announcement of Lizzie’s death in the papers. There is a good deal of excitement & rumors with our number but I put no confidence in any of them.
Having written you a very long letter I will not bore you farther.
My best love to Mama & the Girls.
I shall be impatient for a reply.
Your devoted Husband.
W H F Lee
Source: Lee Family Papers, Mss1 L51c 344, Section 17, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2017 February 28
