Anne,
       There you go again with the stereotypes--This 11th grade teacher is a
professional and an academic historian!
       On that note, let's clear up a few things.  I did my Masters Thesis on
5 women one of whom was Mary Custis Lee (Mrs. Robert E. Lee).  M.C. Lee was a
very strong-willed individual.   She was forced out of her family home of
Arlington and worked her way South.  At one point in 1862 she was actually
within Federal lines.  General George McClellan actually offered to post a
guard to protect her from "ignorant soldiers," but she was outraged even then
about being guarded like a prisoner.  Gen. Lee got permission to retrieve his
wife.  As far as the incident in Richmond--through all of my research I have
not found reference to a black soldier being posted to guard her.  A Union
General Godfrey Weitzel offered an ambulance for her retreat (she was
virtually an invalid by then), but she refused to leave Richmond.  Although
she did not start out in 1861 as a staunch Confederate, she was by 1865
mostly due to her anger over Arlington.  When the Union forces occupied
Richmond, M.C. Lee was in her invalid chair remarking, "the end is not
yet,...Richmond is not the Confederacy."
       And by the way--The Lee's slaves were freed in December of 1862
according to M.C. Lee.

Cynthia Hasley

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