Robert E. Lee Mexican War Maps

 View the Online Exhibit 

View the Finding Aid with detailed inventory 

The collection consists of 30 original military maps owned by Robert E. Lee; they comprise one of the most comprehensive  cartographic resources for the study of the Mexican War.  The bulk (28 items) were used by Lee in Mexico, 1846-1848, when he was serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Engineers Corps.  Two of the maps were drawn by Lee and bear his signature. The collection was donated to VMI in the 1890's by G. W. Custis Lee, General Lee's son and a faculty member at VMI, 1865-1870.