June 30, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
There is a subscription going on among the wealthy citizens of Richmond, to buy a house for Gen. Lee. Not less than one hundred thousand dollars is to be collected, and with this fund the building is to be completely furnished in the handsomest manner. Such a tribute to the distinguished and incomputable services of our great commander, is in the highest degree appropriate and becoming, and certainly no community will offer it with a better grace than the citizens of Richmond, who are undoubtedly indebted to Gen. Lee for the preservation of their homes and fortunes from the hands of a ruthless enemy last summer. Gen. Lee has been a serious loser by the war. His family residence at Arlington Heights, opposite Washington City, has been in the enemy’s hands ever since the beginning of hostilities, and they burned the dwelling at the White House, on the Pamunkey, and devastated the plantation during the Peninsula campaign of Gen. McClellan. If the subscription to purchase a house for Gen. Lee were thrown open to citizens of all parts of the Confederacy, there is little doubt that money enough would be set down instantly to buy a Blenhelm or a Strathfieldsaye, such as England gave to her Marlborough and her Wellington, but all that is now proposed is to give the noble leader of our armies a comfortable mansion which will afford a home to his family while he is fighting the battles of his country, and this the citizens of Richmond claim the proud privilege of doing. Richmond Correspondence – Atlanta Appeal.