Sunday Morning,
December 27, 1863.
Custis's dispatch which I received last night demolished all
the hopes in which I had been indulging during the day of dear Charlotte's
recovery. It has pleased God to take from us one exceedingly dear to us, and we
must be resigned to His holy will. She, I trust, will enjoy peace and happiness
forever, while we must patiently struggle on under all the ills that may be in
store for us. What a glorious thought it is that she has joined her little
cherubs and our Angel Annie1 in heaven! Thus is link by link of the
strong chain broken that binds us to earth, and smoothes our passage to another
world. Oh, that we may be at last united in that haven of rest, where trouble
and sorrow never enter, to join in an everlasting chorus of praise and glory to
our Lord and Saviour! I grieve for our lost darling as a father only can grieve
for a daughter, and my sorrow is heightened by the thought of the anguish her
death will cause our dear son, and the poignancy it will give to the bars of
his prison. May God in His mercy enable him to bear the blow He has so suddenly
dealt and sanctify it to his everlasting happiness.
__________
1 Daughter of General Robert E. Lee.
SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of
Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 297-8
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