ORIGINAL COPY OF GENERAL LEE'S ORDER NUMBER 9, GENERAL LEE'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

THESE RARE COPIES WERE DISSEMINATED TO CONFEDERATE OFFICERS TO READ TO SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA AFTER THEIR SURRENDER 

Original copy of Gen. Robert E. Lee's General Order No. 9. Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 10 April 1865. 1 page, 9 3/4 x 11 in. With page numbers stamped to recto and verso. With original envelope addressed to James B. Parker and Edward J. Parker. 

Robert E. Lee’s General Orders No. 9, better known as the “Farewell Address,” was issued from headquarters at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on 10 April 1865, the day after his formal surrender to Ulysses S. Grant. Offered here is a contemporary manuscript copy in a clerical hand. Accompanying the document is an original envelope addressed to James B. Parker and Edward J. Parker.

The order, composed by Lee’s adjutant, Charles Marshall, and revised by the general himself, was copied at headquarters for circulation among officers.  The text opens with Lee’s acknowledgment that, “after four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude the Army of N. Va. has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources,” and concludes with his parting words, “With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

According to family tradition, this copy descended through Captain George Thomas Parker of Company H, 5th North Carolina Infantry. Parker enlisted in 1861 as a first sergeant, rose to captain in 1863, and was wounded in action on 30 May 1864 before returning to service in December. He surrendered with his regiment at Appomattox on 9 April 1865. The manuscript was said to have come into his possession in 1870, when the soldier who originally copied the order died at Parker’s home. The envelope accompanying the document bears the names James B. Parker, possibly another participant at Appomattox, and Edward J. Parker, who was in fact Captain Parker’s brother, suggesting that the document may have remained within the family circle.

This is a fine, rare original Confederate copy of Lee’s farewell to his army, preserved in good condition, and carrying with it the added resonance of family association with an officer who stood among the surrendered at Appomattox.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]

Small tears at creases.