The diary was given to Henry Lee's son, General Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War by John H. Chandler of Westmoreland, Co. Va., a soldier of the 40th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Chandler received the diary from his father, who discovered it "in a bundle of old papers he had occassion to examine..." The original Civil War period letter accompanying th gifted diary is cataloged among the Robert E. Lee papers in WLU's archives.