………Walter Battle
The letters published on American Civil War Chronicles from two North Carolina brothers were originally found in Forget-Me-Nots of the Civil War, an “autobiography” by Laura Elizabeth Lee Battle. In the book, she identifies the two young men as her “two half brothers,” Walter Lee and George Lee, sons of Charles Washington Lee.
However, a 2004 book edited by Sharlene Baker identifies the brothers as Walter Battle and George Battle, Laura Battle’s brothers-in-law, both of whom died years before she married their younger brother Jessie Battle. George died during the war on June 2, 1862 in Richmond, Virginia and Walter died on November 20, 1869. Laura Elizabeth Lee married Jesse Mercer Battle on October 21, 1873 when she was 18 and he was 23.
……..George Battle
In Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, George Battle and Walter Battle are listed under the 4th North Carolina Infantry. There are no listings for George Lee or Walter Lee.
Why Laura Battle identifies the young men as her older brothers can never be known. It certainly confuses their true lineage. In an editor’s note to As You May Never See Us Again, Wanda Wade Mukherjee suggests that Laura passed George and Walter off as Lees because she perhaps thought having authentic Civil War letters by her kin would increase the notoriety of the book.
Sources:
- North Carolina General Assembly. Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, Volume 1. (1882) Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://books.google.com/books/about/Roster_of_North_Carolina_Troops_in_the_W.html?id=zYHk_df06QsC
- Battle, G. B., Battle, W. R., Craig, J. G., & Baker, S. (2004). As you may never see us again: The Civil War Letters of George and Walter Battle, 4th North Carolina Infantry; Coming of Age on the Front Lines of the War Between the States, 1861-1865. Wake Forest, NC: Scuppernong Press.
- Lee, L. E. (1909). Forget-me-nots of the Civil War: A romance, containing reminiscenes and original letters of two Confederate Soldiers. St. Louis, MO: Press A.R. Fleming Print.