Presented here is a Robert E. Lee carte de visite, a 2-1/2" x 4-1/4" artifact that has been neatly signed "R.E. Lee" in black ink along the image's bottom border. The lightly faded, portrait photo's integrity has been effectively preserved by the item's thick but well-worn cardboard mount, with its "Boude & Miley / Lexington, Va." studio notation remaining legible. Although reputedly opposed to both slavery and secession, Robert E. Lee nonetheless declined to accept President Lincoln's offer to command the Union Army in 1861. Instead, the native Virginian gave his support to the Confederacy and steadily progressed through the conflict's events to become perhaps the most celebrated of all Civil War Generals. After the war, Lee accepted a position as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. Upon the general's death in 1870, trustees of the college changed the name in his honor to Washington and Lee University. This comes with a LOA from JSA.

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