Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/109

Rh 16, 1864. But. in its next issue, Tuesday, December 20, the Sentinel confesses that it was imposed on, and denounces the letter as a "Yankee Forgery," and prints as its authority a letter, unsigned, but described as "from a source entitled to know." This letter which we shall call the Repudiation Letter, is as follows:

"I have read the published letter, said to have been written by General R. E. Lee. There is nothing about it that can be recognized as genuine by anyone familiar with his style. He never dated any of his letters Arlington House. In April, 1852, he never had belonged to any regiment, and could not, therefore, have been about to search for it in New Mexico. He was transferred to the Cavalry in 1855, and had previously been in the Engineer Corps. In the spring of 1852, he was engaged in the construction of the Fort at Sellers Point Flats (near Baltimore), and preparing to go to West Point, as Superintendent of the Military Academy there. He has never been to New Mexico. This plain statement of facts is made to furnish