30th May 1861
It never occurred to me Gen’l Sanford that I could be forced to sue for permission to enter my own house and that such an outrage as its military occupation to the exclusion of me and my children could ever have been perpetrated by anyone in the whole extent of this country. I had been warned by an anxious friend that such a design was in contemplation nearly a month ago & advised to remove to a place of safety all my property that was of any value. Still incredulous I complied with his earnest entreaties in regard to the Mt. Vernon relics, plate, & pictures that we could never replace and after a visit of about 10 days to a friend in Fairfax was preparing to return to enjoy the season of all others most delightful and prepare for the reception of my younger children who will soon be returning from their different schools when I was informed that the whole place as well as the mansion was occupied by Northern troops. I intended to have obtained a permit and have returned to make some further arrangements for the comfort of my servants many of them old and infirm but was told by a gentleman who had made the same attempt that none could be given. So I am left homeless not even able to get or send to Alex where my funds are deposited to obtain means for my support.
Indeed the Zouaves are comnitting such enormities there upon every defenceless person they meet that it is not safe even to go in with a [illeg.]and the whole country is filled with men and women and children flying in terror. The South have never been at all deceived as to the pretext assumed of the government of the defence of the Capitol. Had they designed to attack it what prevented them months ago from fortifying the Arlington Heights. However, I forget that I am a suppliant and cannot trust my pen to write what I feel. You have a beautiful home and people that you love and can sympathize perhaps even with the wife of a “Traitor” and a rebel. I implore you by the courtesy due to any woman and which no brave soldier could deny, to allow my old coachman by whom I send this letter to get his clothes and give some letters to my manager relative to the farm and to give my market man a pass that will enable him to go and return from Washington as usual where his family resides. My gardner Ephraim also has a wife in Washington and is accustomed to go over every Saturday and return on Monday. My old cook has also a wife in the neighborhood, to allow the servants to go on with their usual occupations unmolested by the soldiers and protected by your authority, also to allow my boy Billy whom I only left at home to complete some work in the garden to come to me with his clothes as I can not use my carriage without his aid, and to permit my maid Marcellina to send me some (other? more?) articles that I did not bring away. She and the woman in the yard Selina can get what I want out of the house. I will not trouble you with any further requests only I pray that God may ever spare you and yours the agony and inconvenience I am now enduring.
Respectfully, M.C. Lee
You need be under no unease regards to any information that might be communicated through my servants as our mails are so delayed that no letters from anywhere since the occupation of Alexandria have I received. Any letters or papers brought by the market man from Washington will you please to (sic) forward them. Since writing the above my Coachman informs me is so unwell he is anxious to go to Georgetown to consult our physician Dr. Riley. Will you enable him to do so with safety?
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/civilwar/id/788/