Lee's campaign desk donated
Curator: Confederate general humanized
By Brian Hicks
It is called a campaign desk, an Antebellum-era box of mahogany and inlaid ivory that once carried papers, pens and Confederate stamps, and provided a stable writing surface on the battlefield.
In other words, it is, as J. Grahame Long calls it, a Civil War laptop.
Confederate Gen. Stephen Dill Lee
The desk would be valuable enough on its own, but this one, donated to the Charleston Museum this week, belonged to Lowcountry native and Confederate Gen. Stephen Dill Lee.
"It's nice to see personal items like this," said Long, the museum's curator of history. "Uniforms and weapons are nice, but these items help humanize a person."
The desk, donated by a descendent of Lee, likely saw more action than most Confederate soldiers. The general traveled the battle-scarred countryside throughout the war, fighting at Sharpsburg, Vicksburg, Franklin and Manassas. He likely carried the fold-out desk top everywhere he went.
"These were common and in high-demand, especially among officers in the Civil War," Long said. "It would have traveled with Lee, but obviously he loved it very much. He took care of it."
The desk is in near pristine condition and still carries mementos of this nation's deadliest period. Inside, there are a few Confederate stamps stuck to a lid, and there are two contemporary bullets where the ink well once sat.
He may not have been the most famous Lee from the war, but Stephen Dill Lee played an important role in the War Between the States. On April 11, 1861, Lee and Col. James Chestnut, husband of the famous Civil War diarist Mary Chestnut, rowed out to Fort Sumter to deliver the surrender ultimatum to Union Major Robert Anderson.
The Post and Courier
Charleston Museum curator J. Grahame Long looks at a Civil War-era campaign desk that once belonged to Confederate Gen. Stephen Dill Lee. The desk was donated to the museum by one of Lee's descendants.
Some folks claim Lee even fired the first shots on the fort a few days later.
It's unlikely the surrender note was penned on this desk, or that Lee even composed it, but the antique is still an important piece of history.
Brag Bowling, chairman of the Stephen Dill Lee Institute, the education outreach program of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said Lee is a major figure of the era. Although he eventually rose to the lofty rank of corps commander in the Western Confederate Army, he is perhaps even better known for his post-war work.
Lee eventually settled in Mississippi and became president of the state university there. He spent the final decades of his life trying to educate Southerners about the war.
As commander of the United Confederate Veterans, Lee charged the Sons of Confederate Veterans with upholding the honor and history of the South's soldiers.
It is a mission, Bowling said, the SCV continues to this day, and it's why the institute is named after Lee. No doubt some of those ideas promoted by the Charleston native in his life were composed on the desk, which is expected to go on display in August.
"That is a very valuable relic," Bowling said.
Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com.
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GAL2000 (anonymous) says...
A very evjoyable article to have read this morning...thanks, it was nice. :-}
July 6, 2009 at 7:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GAL2000 (anonymous) says...
Excuse me, "enjoyable". Just now getting some java.
July 6, 2009 at 7:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scottmcx (anonymous) says...
What have you done to teach the truth today?
~If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission, and offer my sword to the other side.~ Ulysses S. Grant (Union General, later US President)
"Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; learn from Northern school books their version of the war; and taught to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects of derision."
- Patrick Cleburne, General CSA
1896 at the Founding of the Sons of Confederate Veterans by S D Lee General, CSA....
"To you ... we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name ... remember it is your duty to see that the true history of the South "is presented to future generations."
July 6, 2009 at 7:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
I was born and reared in the South. I have ancestors who fought on both sides. So, I too have heard many learned opinions for the causes, some being propaganda, for sure. However, considering that the war led to the abolition of slavery makes the war a just war in its result...and brings to a fuller bloom the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Just as sure, while most southern citizens did not own slaves, they feared freeing the slaves and looked on black people as less than human. Most people don't realize that there were certain classes of white people in some states who could not vote until the black people got the vote. These white classes were only enfranchised to make sure that the black people were kept down. I didn't mean to get started on this...I'm sure the desk is nice. Older generations may not have had our technology, but they were every bit as smart as we think we are.
July 6, 2009 at 7:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Grinder (anonymous) says...
The writer missed the obvious point of information... is this Lee related to Robert E. Lee? Otherwise an interesting story.
Nice quotes, scottmcx
July 6, 2009 at 8:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dawhetsell (anonymous) says...
The WAr of northern aggression was not fought for slavery as most people state. It was fought for State's rights, those rights was to self govern and the right to leave the union.
We are in the same boat TODAY,the States need to stand for their rights, not keep taking funny money(printed out of thin air)with all kinds of strings attached. I don't think all these bubba's or what yankees call backwoods rednecks are going to let you take away their guns,ammo,food,beer and put in communes like the socialist countries have done(Germany,Russia, China annd.....ETC). Most have already let this country form a police state enforcer(homeland security) ,they are no different than the Gestopo,KGB, Red Guard of China and many other police state enforcers. You might not like what you get when you look for hand outs. General LEE warned the southerners to keep teaching by charging the Sons of Confederate Veterans with upholding the honor and history of the South's soldiers.
July 6, 2009 at 8:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
combahee (anonymous) says...
Why do so many try to preach revisionist history? Why perpetuate the myth of the Lost Cause?
Don't even try to compare the US in 1860 to the US today!
Besides a couple of paragraphs in an online newspaper isn't going to change the mind or attitude of anyone.
Nice little article about a neat relic going to the museum. Period.
July 6, 2009 at 9:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodforyou (anonymous) says...
scottmcx,
You quote Patrick Cleburne. I would like to know the date. Of all the interesting and honorable characters the war revealed, he stands the highest. He rose from volunteer infantryman to Brig. General on merit and the respect of the men who fought for him. Near the end of the war and before his tragic death on the battlefield, he drafted a proposal that gained the support of other officers and eventually made it's way to President Davis. The proposal involved offering slaves their freedom in exchange for fighting honorably in the confederate army. This would have raised troops, but more importantly for the war effort, would have turned the tables with regard to the politics surrounding the issue of slavery. Tellingly, the proposal was rejected, its existence concealed and Cleburne's career advancement put on hold. The average Southerner wasn't fighting for slavery, but in the end a few powerful men, whose power came from slavery, put their own self interest ahead of the southern cause and wasted the effort and lives of many great men.
July 6, 2009 at 12:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
signseeker17 (anonymous) says...
A very interesting artefact - I'll definitely go see it.
No matter what the "average" soldier or even the generals THOUGHT they were fighting for, by 1861...
"It [slavery] was not the only cause of the Civil War, but it was unquestionably the one cause without which the war would not have taken place. The antagonism between the sections came finally, and tragically, to express itself through the slavery issue."
-Bruce Catton
July 6, 2009 at 5:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
meesta_challie (anonymous) says...
One good thing to have come out of the war was a truly united nation.
Before, there was the rural South and the industrial North.
Afterward, those lines began to blur.
July 6, 2009 at 6:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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