Today, on Robert E. Lee’s birthday, Midlands residents can view one of the Confederate general’s most prized personal possessions: his pocket bible.

The bible is on display at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum along Gervais Street, along with the family bible of Stonewall Jackson and the famous bullet-struck bible of Lexington native Sgt. Walter Henry Counts.

These and other artifacts will be highlighted as a part of the museum’s Religion in the Civil War symposium that is part of the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War. The daylong symposium, co-hosted by the Relic Room, the state Department of Archives and History and the S.C. Historical Society, is slated for Jan. 28.

For more information about the symposium or for details on how to do your own research on Lee, call the Relic Room at (803) 737-8095 or visit www.crr.sc.gov.

-- Jeff Wilkinson