Lee's Last Letter

Lee regularly met visitors in his office and attended daily to his vast correspondence. In addition to letters to parents of Washington College
students, he answered queries about the school and corresponded with his
family and friends.

In the last letter written from his office, Lee tells Samuel Tagart of Baltimore, whom he had met at White Sulphur Springs, “I am much better…my pains are less and my strength greater. In fact, I suppose I am as well as I shall be.” That evening, after attending a vestry meeting at Grace Episcopal Church, Lee suffered a stroke. Two weeks later, on the morning of October 12, 1870, he succumbed to pneumonia.

Before the end of October, the Trustees renamed the school Washington and Lee University to honor Lee along with his hero George Washington. The faculty designated January 19, the date of Lee’s birth, as a day of annual commemoration. “Founders Day” continues to be observed today by faculty and students with an academic convocation in the chapel.

—Transcript—

Lexington, Va: 28 Sept. 1870.
My Dear Mr. Tagart:
Your kind note of the 26th reached me this [morning]. You see how easy it is “to inveigle me into a correspondence.” In fact when a man desires to do a thing, or when a thing gives a man pleasure, he requires but small provocation to induce him to do it. Now I wanted to hear how you and Mrs. Tagart were, what you were doing, & how you had passed the summer, & I desired to tell you so. That is the reason I write. In answer to your question, I reply that I am much better. I do not know whether it is owing to having seen you and Doctor Buckler last summer, or to my visit to the Hot Springs. Perhaps both, but my pains are less & my strength greater. In fact I suppose I am as well as I shall be. I am still following Dr. B’s directions & in time I may improve still more. I expect to have to visit Baltimore this Fall, in relation to the Valley R. R., & in that event I hope to see you, if you will permit me. I am glad to hear that you spent a pleasant summer. Colonel White and I would have had a more agreeable one had you been with us at the Hot, and as every place agrees so well with Mrs. Tagart, I think she could have enjoyed as good health there as at Saratoga, and we should have done better. No I could not see you at Saratoga, nor Long Branch either. In fact I saw nobody at either place.
Give my sincere regards to Mrs. Tagart, & remember me to all friends, particularly Mr. Sam Smith. Tell Charlie Pitts his brother is well & handsome & I hope that he will study, or his sweethearts in Baltimore will not pine for him long.
Captain White is well & busy & joins in my remembrances_ Mrs. Lee & my daughters unite with me in messages to you and Mrs. Tagart, &

I am most truly
yours
R. E. Lee

S. H. Tagart, Esq.

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