CS Lee, Anne Carter

Anne Carter “Annie” Lee
Ann Carter Lee.jpg

:CSA1stNat:

Born: June 18, 1839

Birthplace: Arlington House, Arlington, Virginia

Father: General Robert Edward Lee 1807 – 1870

Mother: Mary Ann Randolph Custis 1808 – 1873

Died: October 20, 1862

Place of Death: Jones Springs, Warrenton, North Carolina

Age at time of Death: 23 years old

Cause of Death: Typhoid Fever

Original Burial Place: Jones family Cemetery, Warrenton, NC

Current Burial Place: Lee Chapel Museum, Lexington, Virginia


Inscription on Original Grave:

ANNE C. LEE, DAUGHTER OF GENERAL R. E. LEE, AND MARY CUSTIS LEE / BORN AT ARLINGTON, JUNE 18TH, 1839 AND DIED AT THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WARREN COUNTY, N. C., OCTOBER 20TH, 1862. / PERFECT AND TRUE ARE ALL HIS WAYS / WHOM HEAVEN ADORES AND EARTH
 
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Some of my favorite insights on this daughter of Robert & Mary Lee. Anne Carter Lee was born with a reddish birthmark. When her father wrote Mary (she had been sent home from St. Louis to give birth) he inquired - -

“None of the descriptions of “Little Raspberry”, have satisfied my paternal longings. Does the mark you mentioned fade at all, or retain its original hue? . . . We must endeavor to assist her to veil of not eradicate it by the purity and brightness of her mind.”
The Lee Girls by Mary Couling - pages 12-13

When Annie was a small child she came across some scissors and being too young to realize the danger she placed the point of the scissors into one of her eyes. When REL wrote his will in 1846, just before going into a battle during the Mexican-American war he included this provision for Annie, - - -

“from an accident she has received in one of her eyes may be more in want of aid than the rest.”.
“The Lee Girls” page 17

The saddest - a letter dated to Mrs. Lee - October 26, 1862 - - -

“I cannot express the anguish I feel at the death of our sweet Annie. To know that I shall never see her again on earth, that her place in our circle, which I always hoped one day to enjoy, is forever vacant, is agonizing in the extreme. But God in this as in all things, has mingled mercy with the blow, in selecting that one best prepared to leave us. May you be able to join me in saying ‘His Will Be Done!’ . . I know how much you will grieve and how much she will be mourned. I wish I could give you any comfort, but beyond our hope in the great mercy of God, and the belief that he takes her at the time and place when it is best for her to go, there is none. May that same mercy be extended to us all, and may we be prepared for His summons.”
Recollections & Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by Captain Robert E. Lee
 
@gentlemanrob, when I read the post above by @DBF I was saddened by the amount of peer judgement taken to task by General Lee. The delights and wonders of a child brought forth among them to be judged on terms so coarse as I believe unjustifiable, and of which I consider unpardonable. The thought of her maybe being 'simple-minded' sprang into my mind, not as a harsh criticism, but an honest appealing to the senses of her 'delicacies'. Then I wondered if she had been tutored at home or taught as her sister had in a qualified school. Do you know?
Lubliner.
 
Then I wondered if she had been tutored at home or taught as her sister had in a qualified school.
Annie and Agnes went together to the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton in 1855. They both graduated in 1857. Before, I think they were home-schooled as they had a governess who insisted Agnes start writing a journal. But I'm not entirely certain; I haven't yet read Coulling's The Lee Girls.
 
That letter is one of the things that humanized the man for me. There's so much legend, so many glowing layers of historical shellac applied to Robert Lee over 150 years it's very difficult to get a read on him. He'd some across as somewhat cold until I came across that letter. It turned him into a man suffering so much he found it difficult to convey comfort to his wife.
 
@gentlemanrob, when I read the post above by @DBF I was saddened by the amount of peer judgement taken to task by General Lee. The delights and wonders of a child brought forth among them to be judged on terms so coarse as I believe unjustifiable, and of which I consider unpardonable. The thought of her maybe being 'simple-minded' sprang into my mind, not as a harsh criticism, but an honest appealing to the senses of her 'delicacies'. Then I wondered if she had been tutored at home or taught as her sister had in a qualified school. Do you know?
Lubliner.

I don't unfortunately know @ DBF do you happen to know?
 
There is this in John Perry’s “Lady of Arlington” describing the family’s move in the summer of 1841 where it is told that Mary organized her household in Brooklyn and started teaching the oldest two children their lessons at home. Eldest daughter Mary (Mee), it is said that she had trouble at first for she missed their Arlington home. So it appears that mother Mary had an ability to teach her children. Mrs. REL had a gift for languages, as she could read French, Greek and Latin. Arithmetic - had no interest to her (page 51).

Now in regards to Annie & Agnes: In 1850 - Mrs. Lee hired a governess, Susan Poor to live at Arlington and teach Annie & Agnes. “The girls all came to like her very much, and she returned their affections. Colonel Lee expected Miss Poor to teach the girls ‘to write a good hand & to be regular, orderly and energetic in the performance of their duties - to sing - to sew and knit and take regular exercise’.” (page 164)

In her journal, Agnes would write on July 13, 1852 -

"Miss Sue has gone, I wonder when I shall see her again. O I felt so sad when we parted! - there is only one gain, it may be of benefit to my hournal; it is so impossible to write unrestrainedly when you feel some one is going to look over what you have just written.” (page 16 “Growing up in the 1850’s” - The Journal of Agnes Lee).

This is her last entry in her journal regarding Susan Poor, but she may not have left the girls totally as there is this - - -

In 1852 - Lee was assigned to West Point and Annie and Agnes stayed at Arlington to study under Miss Poor. The author also goes on to say the Milly and Rob enrolled in the school for officers’ children on the post and Rooney was in boarding school and Mary attended Pelham Priory a school for girls in New York (page 170). Annie & Agnes did not even go to West Point for Christmas but stayed with their grandparents at Arlington.

Sometime in 1853 - the family is reunited at West Point. When the family leaves in 1855 it was said - - -

“Annie and Agnes had once cried for the sight of their grandmother’s garden; the day they boarded the open boat on the Hudson to be back there, they cried for the Academy as they took one last look at it through the pouring rain.” (Page 181)

At this point it was decided to send both girls to the Virginia Female Institute in Stauton. Just for the fun of it - here are some numbers -

Tuition - $240; Piano Lessons - $60.00; Harp & Use of Instrument - $80.00; Art and Foreign Language - $20.00 for each (choices include - Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian); $2.50 annual pew rent at Trinity Episcopal Church. (page 184 and page 74 Agnes Lee’s Journal)

Their studies also included: algebra, chemistry, political economy. 6 hours of classes, 2 hours of individual study, Bible study before breakfast and chapel afterward every day. (Pages 184-186)

In today’s view of higher education - when a graduate left the V.F.I. it would be the equivalent education of 2 years of college.


But just to show that young ladies could have some “cheeky” fun; there was this poem that was in Agnes’s handwriting in a “common place book” (a scrapbook kept by the Annie & Agnes titled to members of the “Mind Your Own Business Society” - - -

“If a person feels a person treading on his toes
Need a person ask a person how a person knows?
Is it anybody’s business if a gentleman should choose
To wait upon a lady if the lady don’t refuse?
Or to speak a little plainer, that the meaning all may know
Is it anybody’s business if a lady has a beau?

Is it anybody’s business when the gentleman does call
Or when he leaves the lady Or if he leaves at all?
Or is it necessary that the curtain should be drawn
To save from further trouble the outside lookers on?

Is it anybody’s business but the lady’s, if her beau
rides out with other ladies and does not let her know?
Is it anybody’s business but the gentleman’s if she
should accept another escort - where he does not chance to be?
the substance of our query simply stated would be this
‘Is is anybody’s business - what another’s business is?’

If it is or if it isn’t we would really like to know
for we’re certain if it isn’t - there are some who make it so.”**

**Agnes Lee’s Journal (page 105)
 
Anne Carter “Annie” Lee:

Died: October 20, 1862

Place of Death: Jones Springs Warrenton North Carolina

Age at time of Death: 23 years old

Cause of Death: Typhoid Fever

Original Burial Place: Jones family Cemetery Warrenton NC

Current Burial Place: Lee Chapel Museum Lexington Virginia

The sisters are still side-by-side, even in death:
DSC05578.JPG
 
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But just to show that young ladies could have some “cheeky” fun; there was this poem that was in Agnes’s handwriting in a “common place book” (a scrapbook kept by the Annie & Agnes titled to members of the “Mind Your Own Business Society” - - -

“If a person feels a person treading on his toes
Need a person ask a person how a person knows?
Is it anybody’s business if a gentleman should choose
To wait upon a lady if the lady don’t refuse?
Or to speak a little plainer, that the meaning all may know
Is it anybody’s business if a lady has a beau?

I wonder if that poem was pointed in the direction of Orton Williams - Eleanor Agnes Lee's beau and cousin of R. E. Lee's wife Mary Custis Lee. Lee frowned upon the young man, as he did not think he was the fitting match for his daughter (btw. all daughters of Robert E. Lee remained unmarried). The young couple was inseparable though. One day, Orton came to see Agnes and the couple went for a ride and all the Lee family were almost sure he would propose, but after a while, Agnes returned crying and Orton left Arlington for good. What had happened is still in the dark. Agnes never stopped thinking of Orton and was crushed when he was captured behind enemy lines and executed in 1862.
 
I wonder if that poem was pointed in the direction of Orton Williams - Eleanor Agnes Lee's beau and cousin of R. E. Lee's wife Mary Custis Lee. Lee frowned upon the young man, as he did not think he was the fitting match for his daughter (btw. all daughters of Robert E. Lee remained unmarried). The young couple was inseparable though. One day, Orton came to see Agnes and the couple went for a ride and all the Lee family were almost sure he would propose, but after a while, Agnes returned crying and Orton left Arlington for good. What had happened is still in the dark. Agnes never stopped thinking of Orton and was crushed when he was captured behind enemy lines and executed in 1862.
Yes he had ventured out to Tennessee and was accused of being a spy, when caught. Do you know if he maybe was?
Somehow I always felt the murder of General Meigs son toward the end by Mosby and his men was a revenge made for the execution mentioned. Both, I believe are just suspicions, and you know how those run.
But did Rosecrans have any actual proof of spying?
Lubliner.
 
I am glad she was moved to the Lee Chapel to be laid to rest with her family. I really believe it is what they would have wanted. Also read where her original grave had been vandalized at times. It is such a shame that even graves are not left alone.

I read that Annie also taught slave children to read at her home. She was a very religious girl too.
 
She was a very religious girl too.

Seeing your post reminded me that in 1853 on “one summer evening before summer’s close', daughters Mary Custis and Annie were confirmed at Christ Church, in Alexandria, Virginia. It was at the same time that Robert E. Lee was also confirmed in the church. Mary Coulling in her book “The Lee Girls” describe it as such - - -

“it must have been impressive for Daughter and Annie to have their father kneeling at the altar rail with them, but Agnes felt terribly left out, ‘I wish Annie and I could have been confirmed together’.” (page 40)

Once again showing the love and relationship of “The Girls”.
 
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