THE favorable reception of Lee's Memoirs evinced by the exhaustion of two editions, seems to justify the issue of a third. The corrections and the additions to the original text made in the edition of 1827 have been retained; and a short biography of the author has been added in the hope of giving increased interest to the work. The incidents from which the biography has been prepared were furnished to the editor of the present edition by his eldest brother, Charles Carter Lee, so that he had only to select from the materials prepared for him what he deemed appropriate for the purpose.
On one point some explanation may be necessary. In the series of letters written to his son from the West India Islands by the author of the Memoirs in the latter days of his life, some repetition of his sentiments occurs, owing to his declining health, his distance from home, and the slow and uncertain communication of that period, and there are some topics discussed more interesting to his family than to the general reader; these have been omitted, though without affecting the sense of the letters.
The maps and plans accompanying the work have been prepared from sketches made by the engineers attached to the British army, for which I am indebted to Mr. H. B. Dawson.
LEXINGTON, VA., June 1, 1869.