You Can Own a Piece of Lee's Hair and Wartime Pocket Knife

From the January 13, 2014, Falls Church (Va) Patch "General Robert E. Lee's Hair for Sale: Guess How Much?" posted by Mary Ann Barton (ed).

A letter, pocket knife and clip of his hair will be auctioned by Quinn's Auction Gallery, Lot #172, tomorrow in Falls Church, Virginia. It has been on loan and display at Arlington House, the Lee Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery for more than twenty years.

Robert E. Lee originally sent the items to a woman in Baltimore after the war who had requested items to raise funds for an orphanage according to a 1907 Baltimore Sun article that accompanies the items.

The auction company estimates the lot will go for $20,000 to $30,000 with a suggested starting bid of $10,000.

In the letter, Lee wrote: "I must apologize for the condition of this knife by stating that it was my companion during the war. REL."

I Wonder If He Had It With Him At Appomattox? --Old Secesh