ROBERT EDWARD LEE (1807-1870) Autograph endorsement, autograph letter signed

Lotto 913
5 0005 500
Autograph endorsement signed “R.E. Lee D42 “Headquarters”, 27 September 1863. [With:] STUART, James E. B. (1833-1864). Autograph endorsement signed “J.E.B. Stuart Major Genl.”, “Hd Qrs Cav Corps” 25 September 1863, both accomplished one the verso of JONES, William E. “Grumble” (1824-1864). B44 Autograph letter signed “W. E. Jones Brig Genl” to General R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Orange C[ourt]. H[ouse], 24 September 1863. 1p. 25,7 x 20,5 cm Lightly toned at horizontal folds with minor marginal tears not affecting text. Lee overrules J.E.B. Stuart's objections to allow William E. Grumble Jones leave to return home during his arrest awaiting his court martial. Jones respectfully asks the assistant adjutant general "that the limits of my arrest may be extended to the state of Va. AS the proceedings of the Court in my case have to be reviewed by the Secretary of War it will probably be some weeks before the result is known. Whilst I can be of no service here I would be glad to attend to my private affairs at home. By using the telegraph and rail road I can return to my command within forty-eight hours after my presence may be required then.” On the verso, Stuart, who had ordered Jones's arrest for insulting him (following a long simmering feud), forwards the request with the recommendation it not be granted: “An officer in arrest should in my opinion have no indulgence in the nature of a leave of absence as the writing would be.” But Lee overruled Stuart, admitting that while Stuart’s remarks “are correct, but in this case I think it advantageous to grant the application.” Stuart’s aide, H. B. McClellan writes the next day, extending the “limits of his arrest" to the limits of Washington County, Virginia. Although Jones was ultimately found guilty, Lee intervened again and transferred Jones to the Trans-Allegheny Department in West Virginia. He would be killed the following year at the Battle of Piedmont in June 1864.