“THE MOST INTIMATE OF THE ACCOUNTS OF GENERAL LEE”

(LEE, Robert E.) LONG, Armistead Lindsay. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee: His Military and Personal History Embracing a Large Amount of Information Hitherto Unpublished. New York, Philadelphia and Washington: J.M. Stoddart, 1887. Thick octavo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, patterned endpapers. $750.

First edition, second printing, issued the year after the first, of Lee’s memoirs, written by his military secretary, “one of the most valuable source books for the history of Lee and of the Civil War.” With four plates, seven facsimiles of Lee’s hand-drawn field maps, and a large folding map.

"Following a short service in West Virginia, [Long] was ordered, in 1861, to report to Gen. Robert E. Lee in South Carolina. He arrived in Charleston on the eve of the great fire and that night he and Lee fled together from a burning hotel, each clasping a baby in his arms. Thus Long was introduced to an intimate companionship with his chief which continued throughout the war. Shortly afterward, when Lee became commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Long was appointed his military secretary with the rank of colonel… Lee had chosen Long, whom he loved and trusted, for the most responsible position upon his staff… This volume contains the most intimate of the accounts of General Lee during the Civil War… In all, the work is one of the most valuable source books for the history of Lee and of the Civil War" (ANB). First published 1886. Wright L624. See Eicher 268; Nicholson, 479. Stamped owner name on frontispiece recto.

Contents clean and fresh; minor rubbing to extremities. A near-fine copy, scarce in original cloth.