Need expert historian on Robert E Lee

[bearbqd]

Hey everyone, I need some help and advice. I have a friend who is a civil war nut. He has a ton of family history with the civil war, has many family heirlooms from the era, and claims to be a direct descendant to Thomas Jefferson. He is on hard times right now and is selling some items including what he claims is the hand stitched mini battle flag that was kept in General Lee's bible that he carried with him. I have seen the item in question and should have a picture of it on my backed up hard drive. It is very old looking and he says that back in the 70's he approached the Smithsonian with it and asked for a value. They supposedly told him it could be worth a quarter million dollars even back then. They wanted him to donate it. He opted not to.
I'll have to get the name again, but the lady who supposedly made the flag was either a second wife of Lee if that's correct, or by a famous general's wife that was close to Lee. I'll have to get the names again.

My question is has anyone ever heard of him carrying a flag in his bible and if it could be documented and validated in any way, how much an item like this might be worth, especially during a possible bidding war between wealthy collectors at a historical items collection.
What avenues might I go through to generate the most attention for this item? I think I will first contact the curator of the museum of the confederacy to see what his knowledge is on the subject. Thanks for any help.

 

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[bearbqd]

Bump. Couldn't find this thread directly on the General discussion section

 

[bearbqd]

Guess there aren't as many experts as I thought on these forums.

 

[spartacus53]

We might want to try and post it in the Civil War forum.. What he's looking for would almost fall under trivia. I don't think many could even tell you who made his shoes, or tailored his uniform.

 

[bearbqd]

Thanks, I've got folks now from the museum of the confederacy and Heritage auctions looking into it.

 

[spartacus53]

Good luck, and give an update.. You got my curiosity up on this. I am a big Civil War buff, but that was way out of my league

 

[tadpole1]

Robert E. Lee is buried in Lexington, Va. on the campus of Washington & Lee Carver Law university. You could probably get more info on him there than anywhere else that I know of.