This self-published autobiography of William Mack Lee (1835-1932) makes clear his relationship to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee: “An’ nobody could see Marse Robert without seein’ me furst. An’ they had to tell me who they wuz an’ whar they cum from and what brigade they commanded. Yassah, I wuz his cook, too; he raised me from a baby an’ I stayed wid him durin’ the whole war, all de time he wuz at Petersburg, an’ till de surrender.” He was with Lee at the first and second Bull Run, first and second Manassas, and “was there at the fire of the last gun for the salute of the surrender of Sunday, April 9, 9 o’clock A.M. at Appomatix.”
Questions about the authenticity of this account have been raised by Kevin M. Levin whose discussion also cites Confederate Veteran magazine, which published an article in its September 1927 issue (p.324) debunking Lee’s claims and states “He has evidently read the life of the great general and talked about him until he has convinced himself of an association which never existed. He is not the first who has profited by claims too absurd to be given credence.” The article goes on to point out of some of the historical inaccuracies.
A notice in the Greensboro Patriot from 8 November 1920 records Lee in action. “Uncle William” Mack Lee, ‘Marse’ Robert E. Lee’s body servant throughout the war between the states, announces that he is ‘home from the Confederate reunion and in good health and spirits and with more money that I have ever had before’ after a tour of the South in a ‘special car’ and ‘they put me up at Rice’s hotel - not with the colored folks one time on the trip - and I had the three best meals every day…’ He was photographed by two hundred cameras; not including a motion picture camera, but his famous uniform and person wasn’t fixed on the films without a price - fame is too scarce these days to give away. Autographs of departed men of note have an intrinsic value, more so should the privilege of photographing the living - thus reasoned Uncle William and it cost every camera fan just fifty cents for a second’s snap.“
Scarce in the trade, a single copy is recorded at Swann in 2014.
An article questioning Lee’s authenticity can be read here: https://medium.com/k%C3%BChner-kommentar/the-southern-mythology-of-uncle-william-mack-lee-1835-1930-9fd2f3cf04e2
