As battles rage across the US over the fate of Confederate statues, there was one famed Southerner who fought in the Civil War who didn’t believe in them — Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In an Aug. 5, 1869, response to an invite to a sit-down to plan granite statues to memorialize one of the war’s bloodiest battles, the general panned the whole idea and told the group he wouldn’t even show up.

“My engagements will not permit me to be present, & I believe if there I could not add anything material to the information existing on the subject,” wrote Lee, a Virginian.

“I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife & to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.”

The invitation came from the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association “to attend a meeting of the officers engaged in that battle at Gettysburg, for the purpose of marking upon the ground by enduring memorials of granite the position & movements of the Armies on the field,” according to Lee’s letter.

The letter, posted on Twitter by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, is part of the Lee Family Digital Archive, an online repository of the family’s papers.

Calls for the removal of statues, plaques and other artwork honoring Confederate heroes like Lee have intensified since the violent clashes between white nationalists and anti-fascist counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.

One counter-protester was killed and dozens injured when a neo-Nazi supporter rammed his speeding car into a crowd.

President Trump escalated tensions when he said some of the nationalists — who were toting torches, Nazi and Confederate flags and in some cases assault weapons while chanting anti-Semitic slogans — were “very fine people.”

On Thursday, he condemned the statues’ removal, tweeting: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments.”