LARGE LOCK OF ROBERT E. LEE'S HAIR FROM HIS LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA DOCTOR, HOWARD T. BARTON.

Large lock of General Robert E. Lee's hair, taken at death. [Lexington, Virginia], [1870]. Approx. length 6 in. Housed in an envelope inscribed in ink: "A few gray strands of Gen. R.E. Lee's hair, given to Dr. H.T. Barton at the time of the general's death, is enclosed in purse. The strands are the remainder of the lock of hair which was put in a [brooch] owned by Mrs. Annie Blaine of [Houston], Texas. Mrs. Blaine is a step daughter of H.T. Barton." WITH Two (2) antique brooches encasing white strands of Robert E. Lee's hair. The largest features vignetted albumen portrait of Lee and measures approx. 2 x 2 1/4 in. Each with original straight pin. ALSO WITH Barton family archive of 23 letters and documents dating from 1864 to 1922. Further details of archive are included below.

A historic lot that includes perhaps the largest lock of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's hair ever made available for public acquisition. Indeed, it may be the most substantial lock of his hair extant. Originating by descent from the family of General Lee's personal doctor, Dr. Howard Thornton Barton, the effects offered here have comprehensive provenance and have never been published. In addition to the lock of hair, this lot also includes two brooches containing strands of Lee's hair (one with an albumen portrait of the general), and a family archive of letters from 1864 to 1922.

Dr. Howard Thornton Barton was a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia and enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute just one year after it opened its doors. Attending from 1840-1843, he graduated 2nd in his class. Barton remained in Virginia and married Fairinda Fairfax Washington (1823-1866) in 1857 in Westmoreland County, where he practiced as a physician. He became step-father to her three children from her first marriage, Jason, George and Farsinda Payne. Together they had three more children, William Barton (1849-1922), Susan S. Barton (1862-?), and Perrin Washington Barton (1865-1916). A genealogical document included in the archive states that Fairinda was descended from George Washington's grandfather, Lawrence Washington. During the Civil War, Barton served as a medical officer in the Confederacy and was Surgeon-in-Charge at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. After the war, he continued his practice, moving to Lexington, Virginia.

In October of 1865, General Robert E. Lee accepted an offer to serve as the President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington. Although Dr. Barton and General Lee may have known each other before, either during the war or in Lexington, Lee's biographer Charles B. Flood first records an encounter between the two in 1868. Apparently, Dr. Barton (a widower), attempted that summer to court Robert E. Lee's daughter, Mildred, and the General was not impressed.

Although Dr. Barton's attempted courtship of Mildred was met with derision by Lee, he was nonetheless employed as his physician. In his biography of Lee, Charles B. Flood recounts the General's declining health in 1869, prompting a visit from Dr. Barton: "On the day Buchser left with his vibrant portrait, Lee came down with what at first appeared to be only a severe cold. He stayed in the house for a week, chafing to get on with his work for the college. On November 2, he attended a faculty meeting and afterward went for a ride on Traveller in the cold dusk. That put him back in bed. By now his Lexington physicians, Drs. Howard T. Barton and R.L. Madison, were putting together a more comprehensive picture of their patient's condition. When Lee complained of aches, they thought of rheumatism; a later medical generation would have looked first for a deteriorating heart, which could supply the other symptoms." (p. 223).

Dr. Barton would continue to attend to General Lee in the last year of his life and his final days. As recounted by Flood, Dr. Barton was called by Mildred when she "found her father 'bowed down, and looking very strange and speaking incoherently.'...the doctors diagnosed his condition as a 'venous congestion of the brain,' which a later generation would have termed a cerebral thrombosis, or blood clot lodging in the brain. He also had a throat infection. These new afflictions, combined with his heart condition and hardening arteries, were producing what his doctors called "cerebral exhaustion." (p. 257).

Dr. Barton would attend to General Lee until he died. When Mildred saw that her father seemed to be struggling one day, she recalled "I rushed out for the doctor...he came, looked at him, and without saying a word walked quietly away. In a moment he was dead---". It was almost certainly at this moment that Dr. Barton was gifted a sizable lock of General Lee's hair, a practice thoroughly common throughout the 19th century.

Dr. Barton would die in 1893, with General Lee's son, George Washington Custis Lee (1832-1913) serving as a pallbearer. The hair then passed by descent, according to an accompanying envelope, to Mrs. Annie Blaine, Dr. Barton's step-daughter. Born Annie McBride (1862-1942), she was the daughter of Eliza Jane McNutt (1830-1917) and her first husband Robert McChesney McBride (1821-1862). In 1880, Dr. Howard T. Barton married Eliza and became step-father to Annie.

This lot also includes a Barton family archive of 23 letters and documents dating from 1864 to 1922. The content generally contains family news and occasional medical stories. The archive includes:

ALS from Seth Barton? (1829-1900), to his parents. N.p., 6 June 1864. 3pages. A soldier's letter from the front - possibly Seth Barton who was a brigadier general with the Confederate Army.

ALS from T. Barton Jones to "Sister and Miss Holly". Fredericksburg, [Virginia], 18 May 1866.

Seven (7) ALsS from Mary Elizabeth Barton Jones (1828-1868), to her brother Howard Thornton Barton: Vaulcuse, [Frederick County, Virginia] 22 & 23 February 1866. Approx. 6 pages (4 pages with overwriting). With original envelope with Newtwon Stephensburgh stamp. -- Vaucluse, 3 March 1866. 3 pages. With original envelope with Middletown, VA stamp. -- Oak Sound, [Maryland], 7 February 1867. 4 pages. With original envelope with Waverly, MD stamp. -- Vaucluse, 15 May 1867. Approx. 7 pages (4 pages with overwriting). With original envelope. -- Vaucluse, 22 May 1867. 2 pages. With original envelope. -- [Autograph note]. [Vaucluse], 16 February n.y. With original envelope with Stephensburgh, VA stamp. -- [Autograph letter]. N.p., 1 October n.y. 3 pages.

Three (3) ALsS from Howard T. Barton to his sister Mary Elizabeth Barton Jones: N.p., 8-11 April 1866. 6 pages. -- Fredericksburg, [Virginia], 3 October n.y. 3 pages. -- Fredericksburg, [Virginia], 30 April 1867. 4 pages.

Three (3) ALsS to matriarch Susan Catherine Stone Barton (1796-1875) from her children: From Mary Elizabeth Barton Jones (1828-1868). Fredericksburg, 22 February n.y. 4 pages. -- From Howard T. Barton. Fredericksburg, [Virginia], 5 May 1867. 4 pages. -- From Thomas Scott Barton (1833-1894). New Orleans, Louisiana, 22 September 1867. 4 pages.

Two (2) ALs from patriarch Thomas Bowerbank Barton (1792-1871) to his children: To his son Howard Thornton Barton. N.p., 5 August 1865. 1 page. -- To his daughter Mary Elizabeth Barton Jones. N.p., 21 April n.y. 4 pages.

ALS from Judge William Stone Barton (1820-1898), to his brother Howard Thornton Barton. Baltimore, [Maryland], 18 February 1875. 4 pages. With original envelope. With news of their mother's death.

ALS from Thomas Scott Barton (1833-1894) to his sister [Emily Stone Barton Brune (1836-1908)]. New Orleans, 28 March 1893. 2 pages. Notice of his brother's death.

Last Will ALS from Howard Thornton Barton to his children. Lexington, Virginia, 27 October 1888. 3 pages. With original envelope addressed "To my beloved children to be opened at once, on my death."

TLS by W.R. Castle Jr. to William Howard Barton (1859-1922). Washington, D.C., 28 February 1919. 1 page, on American Red Cross National Headquarters Letterhead. Informing Dr. Barton of his son's death: "Howard B. Barton, Master Engineer, died at 7-10 P.M. September 18th at Camp Hospital #13, as a result of pneumonia.

In Memory of Dr. William Howard Barton typed document signed. Abingdon, Virginia, 23 March 1922.

ALS from Susan S. Barton (b. 1862, daughter of H.T. Barton), to nephew or niece. N.p., n.d. Includes details of the family and siblings of Howard Thornton Barton.

ALSO WITH: Three World War I era handbills from The World. With original envelope. [New York], [1915]. -- Undated sheet tracing the ancestry of Fairinda Washington Payne, tracing back to George Washington's grandfather Lawrence. -- Partial sheet and fragment with Barton family tree. -- Three additional envelopes: 8 Oct. n.y. from Mary Elizabeth Barton Jones -- To Dr. Howard T. Barton. April. 29. -- To Miss V.I. Barton, American Barracks Tientsin, [China], 3 November 1930.

Condition: Hair is in excellent condition, an large sample, housed loose in the original envelope. Both brooches show signs of use but are in excellent shape. Letters vary with signs of age including old folds, occasional short separations, brown spotting, etc. A complete condition report is available upon request.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Generals, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Documents, Jewelry, Letters, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Medical History]