Robert E. Lee to Charles Carter Lee

Your very acceptable letter dated 24th April has come to hand & I am delighted to find that you & the Promence have arrived safely at your respective habitations. I hope you found things in a comfortable state & that you will soon have them as smiling, as the plan you propose to yourself, will as certainly ensure. The great thing at first is to make a correct beginning & to pursue the end with a steady & undeviaing course. Should you continue the course you have adopted & give the necessary attention, in a few years I am well assured you will have things not only to your liking but to mine, whose cheif wish is to see you one of the Nabobs of the land - I am perfectly willing to the exchange you propose between Gardner & Sam & desire it, should it be more convenient to you, You have therefore merely to consult yourself & give the necessary direction I will write to John Hill by this days mail - John is to be married to morrow night & I fear will be less disposed than ever to attend to your business. I do not know even where he is to be found, but will write under cover to Maj. Turner - I saw Richard Randolph (Near Yorktown) here day before yesterday on his way home from Richmond. He left Shirley there in high fun & frolic & preparing for a blowout at Jack Heith"s. Hill & Uncle Wms had left there a few days previous, But I could learn nothing of that little Susan. Bence & Nancy Hennon were there & were soon coming to Norfolk. Lavinia Randolph had been engaged to a Mr. Fitz Allen Deas, Midship. But her Father objected. Mary Randolph is to be married to night to a son of Dr. Chapman, Miss Mary Ritchie to a Mr. Green in a few days & 30 others follow suit this month - Our intercourse with Arlington for the last two or three weeks has been interrupted by the Old Potomac, breaking down, running aground etc, & I scarcely know anything that is doing in the District. I saw in the Intelligence the marriage of Miss Cora Livingston to Mr. Barton - Of our Rose I know nothing. But I hope he is as blooming as ever - I learn from little Walker that she is all well as usual & intends spending the Summer at New Port - I can hear nothing from Wanze nor will she give the least answer to Sunday letters I have written, begging she will come & spend the Summer with her Sister Mary - We are quite lively here now. The Troops have returned from Charleston in fine Spirits, & Black Hawk, The Prophet, their Sons, Neissosse etc, who have been sent here for safe keeping, cause the Point to be daily inundated by persons from Norfolk & the surrounding country - Mary sends much love & your Nephew many kisses. This last has improved vastly, is dabbling in sounds & dipping in locomotion besides he has a tooth & in daily expectation of another. Mary joins you in your wish for a Mrs. Lee & thinks she would add a charm even to Spring Camp, The Bun she thinks might soon follow.

Your Affectionate Brother

R. E. Lee