Black and white photograph of Robert E. Lee’s back door, with a circled area highlighting the word ‘Devil’ scrawled on a brick, and a tufted chair visible in the foreground.
Library of Congress
On April 20, 1865, famed photographer Mathew Brady took what might be his most iconic series of images. Somehow, he had convinced Robert E. Lee, fresh from his surrender at Appomattox, to pose for his camera. “It was supposed that after his defeat it would be preposterous to ask him to sit,” Brady would later recall, “but I thought that to be the time for the historical picture.” Lee invited Brady to his home in Richmond. There, Brady took six photographs—some of Lee alone, and some of the general with two members of his staff—outside the back door of Lee’s house.
Until recently, this image of a solitary Lee—likely the most familiar of those taken by Brady that day—concealed a fascinating secret. As Lee stood for the camera, no one noticed that the word “Devil” had been scrawled on one of the bricks to the left of the back door, presumably by one of the many Union soldiers who occupied Richmond after its fall, perhaps even one of those posted outside the Lee home to guard it from vandals.
Brady or someone on the scene must have discovered and removed the insult, which was probably scribbled in chalk, as a subsequent photo from the session bears no evidence of this anonymous message.
Presented by the Center for Civil War Photography, a non-profit organization devoted to collecting, preserving, and digitizing Civil War images for the public benefit.
Related topics: Robert E. Lee
