Robert E. Lee to Charles Carter Lee

I am happy to have it in my power to catch you, though even on the wing. For you have been a bird of Passage so long, & have either left, or about to leave, any place you may have been at, before I heard you were there, that hitherto it has been impossible. "Such lands"! "Such lands"! I was very much in hopes that you could have found some green Spot in Hardy, upon which to locate yourself pleasantly, as you seemed to have prefered it & you would have then been nearer to us. But I have no doubt that you will not be better situated on the "Order" - Don't let a want of Division of Property delay you in any plan you may wish to adopt. But if you wish to satisfy your Conscience, run imaginary lines, dividing it into Northern, Middle & Southern districts according or Eastern, Middle & Western, according as the Greater Axis of the whole lies N & S. or E & W. Then toss up the best two out of three which you shall have, or which amounts to the same thing fix yourself upon either of these divisions, & when the land is surveyed & divided each mans part will lie wholly to itself - Should you be out there this winter & I can get off from here, I will pay you a visit, & together we can reconnoitre the whole concern. I am glad you are so enamoured of "Log houses, Green grass, Pine trees & cattle" & perhaps the charms of your Establishment may win me from Uncle Sam - As to our Rose I can get nothing satisfactory concerning his movements. His marriage appears to be postponed till his return from (At least I can learn nothing to the contrary) Sea. But when he is really to sail, I cannot hear, I will write to him however & tell him to be sure & leave the Power of Attorney. When I last heard, he was A. [at Arlington] & Mrs. Custis wrote, Spending all his energies in visiting Miss Nanie. Anne was also at A but was soon to go to R. A letter had been received from Walker, dated Brandywine Springs, exactly a month from the birth of boy - I have heard nothing from Uncle Wms or any of them in Fauquier, Except that little Ella had presented her husband with her first pledge of Affection - Mrs. Custis & Bena have returned home & I hope will be benefitted by their trip - The cholera is raging still on the Coast. It has not yet subsided in N. York, is very violent in Phila., has commenced in Baltimore & Wash - But poor little Norfolk has suffered beyond every thing & the numbers of deaths has exceeded by several hundred per centum, even those in N. Y. It is spreading in Jersey & Delaware, & has got among the little villages on the Roanoke. At N[orfolk] it has been confined almost entirely so far to the Poor Blacks & Intemperate Whites, Some families have lost all their servants - A great many families from there, have come here - We have had no case of it here that I know of, Mrs. C. is very uneasy about Mary & though I do not know that there is more danger here than elsewhere I left it with her whether she would go or stay, She has determined to remain - The Baltimore as well as Wash - Boats have stopped services & every thing in N. is at a stand - The disease has at last left the troops from here, that are engaged on the Indian Frontier - Mary sends much love & says She has as abundance of locks now to spare you some, that she wishes you could transfer some of your green grass, trees etc. here, And before going to Housekeeping you had better come & take a lesson from her - By the last mail I wrote to Mr. Burwell on the subject you mentioned - There is nothing new that I know of - I read the Meyers book with great pleasure. I think it a masterly production but rather too severe, for its own purpose.

[R. E. Lee]