Robert E. Lee LS to Samuel Cooper Regarding Military Academy Band in 1853!

In this magnificent display, a letter signed by Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) is flanked by a print of Lee after the original photograph taken by Mathew Brady in mid-April 1865. The letter, written at West Point, New York on October 8, 1853, is signed by Lee as "RE Lee" at lower right. On pale blue stationery, inscribed overall in a gorgeous secretarial hand. Expected light paper folds, else near fine. The sight size of the letter is 7" x 5.5". Framed with gilt-edged cream matting behind Plexiglas. Not examined out of frame. The overall size of the gilt-finished frame is 20.5" x 15" x .75".

Robert E. Lee, then a U.S. Army Brevet Colonel and Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, wrote Colonel Samuel Cooper, then U.S. Army Adjutant General, regarding a member of the "Military Academy Band".

In part:

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th Inst. directing me to inform Musician O'Neil, of the Military Academy Band, that his application for discharge cannot be granted…"

Robert E. Lee had been appointed Superintendent of West Point, his alma mater (Class of 1829), in 1852. By all accounts, Lee loathed the position, which he saw as an administrator's--and not a military commander's--job. During his three-year-long tenure there, Lee was actively involved with the student body, and improved campus infrastructure. He was reassigned to Texas in 1855 to help protect Western settlers from the Apache and Comanche.

Lee's letter recipient, Samuel Cooper, was a distant relative through marriage (Lee's nephew's mother was the sister of Cooper's wife.) Cooper had been appointed Adjutant General in mid-July 1852, and he would serve in that position until resigning in March 1861 to join the Confederate Army. Within the CSA, Cooper actually outranked all of his more famous fellow commanders, including Robert E. Lee.

This letter, then, was exchanged between two American career military officers just eight years before they switched allegiances and rallied to the Confederacy, where they both fulfilled extremely significant leadership roles.

The exact identity of the subject of this letter, "Musician O'Neil", is unknown. We can assume, however, that O'Neil played one of the band's core instruments: fife, drum, flute, clarinet, bassoon, bugle, horn, or cymbals. The U.S. Military Academy Band was firmly rooted in the tradition of the American Revolution's fife and drum corps; it was formally established in 1817.

Lee hailed from a Virginia family with a prestigious Revolutionary War record. He served in the United States Corps of Engineers working on coastal fortifications throughout the 1830s and up until the Mexican War. During the 1846-47 conflict, Lee served as an aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott. Lee’s reputation for military competency and strategy was so well-established by April 1861 that he was Abraham Lincoln’s first choice to command the Union Army.

Instead, Lee accepted a commission in the Confederate Army, eventually commanding the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsvile, and Gettysburg, often riding on his famous grey horse Traveller. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the war.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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