With Lee in Virginia: A Story of the American Civil War was published by Blackie and Son in 1890. Vincent Dowell, a young planter’s son from Virginia, enlists in the Confederate Army and serves under Robert E. Lee through the major campaigns of the Eastern Theater — Bull Run (Manassas), the Peninsula Campaign, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and the final siege of Petersburg.
The novel is Henty’s most morally problematic American work. While Vincent is depicted as personally kind to enslaved people and opposed to their mistreatment, Henty’s narrative sympathy lies firmly with the Confederate cause, which he presented as a defense of states’ rights and Southern civilization. The institution of slavery is acknowledged as an evil but treated as a secondary issue — a framing that served Confederate apologists then and since. The military history, however, is detailed and largely accurate.
Collecting With Lee in Virginia
First edition (Blackie and Son, London, 1890): Pictorial cloth.
Market values:
- Fine condition: $200–$500
- Very good: $75–$200
- Good: $25–$75
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. One of Henty’s most collected American-set novels.
The Confederate Cause
The novel follows a young Virginian who joins the Confederate Army and serves under Robert E. Lee through the major campaigns of the American Civil War. Henty, an Englishman, is sympathetic to the Confederate cause — a common Victorian British position — and the novel presents the war primarily as a conflict over states’ rights. Modern readers must navigate this framing, but the battle descriptions (Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness campaign) are among Henty’s most accomplished.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Henty’s views on race problematic? Yes. Henty’s racial attitudes were those of a Victorian imperialist: he believed in the superiority of European (specifically Anglo-Saxon) civilization and presented non-European peoples in terms that range from patronising to offensive. This is particularly visible in his novels set in Africa and India, and in With Lee in Virginia’s treatment of slavery.