American Historical Ephemera & Photography

One page, 8 1/8 x 10 5/8 in., creased at folds, with some wear to edges. On Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi letterhead. With original envelope addressed to Bishop Green of Sewanee, TN. 

In full: "My Dear Bishop, Please accept the enclosed as a slight token of my like and esteem for you. God grant that your life may yet be prolonged many year, to cheer and strengthen your friends, and admirers. Yours affect'ly, S.D. Lee."

The "enclosed" item referenced is a signed CDV of Jefferson Davis, offered as Lot 106 in this sale. 

[With:] Printed envelope for "Pioneer Express Company. (Express Forwarders.)" addressed to "Miss Lilly Green, Present." 

Stephen Dill Lee (1833-1908) graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1854, briefly serving with the Army during the Seminole Wars and in the west before the Civil War broke out. He decided to join the CSA as an aide-de-camp and captain to General P.G.T. Beauregard, and was promoted through the ranks, ultimately to lieutenant general in June of 1764, becoming the youngest person to hold that rank in the Confederate Army. His commands included a battery of guns under General Joseph E. Johnston, chief of artillery for Generals Lafayette McLaws and John Magruder, and a battalion of artillery under General James Longstreet. He was in charge of the artillery at the Battle of Vicksburg under General John C. Pemberton, where he was captured. After achieving his final promotion, he was placed in charge of General John B. Hood's former corps within the Army of Tennessee, commanding that corps through the Atlanta Campaign of late 1864 and finally joining General Joseph E. Johnston for the Carolina Campaign in early 1865 before surrendering in April.  

After the war, Lee became the first president of Mississippi State College, in which capacity he wrote the letter featured here.

Reverend William Mercer Green (1798-1887) was the first Episcopal bishop of Mississippi, helping to organize the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America upon the secession of Mississippi from the Union.