WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE
Major General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee was a son of Robert E. Lee and was born on May 21st, 1837. Graduating at Harvard when he was twenty years of age, he was appointed second lieutenant in the 6th Infantry, and he served under Albert Sidney Johnson in Utah and California. In 1859 he resigned his commission to operate his farm, known as the “White House,” on the Pamunky River, which became not only important as a strategic position, but famous in the history of the war. At the beginning of 1861, he organized a company of cavalry and later became a major in the new-made Confederate Army. In West Virginia he was chief of cavalry for General Loring. In the winter of 1861 and ’62, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 9th Virginia, and in less than two months became its colonel. His regiment constituted a part of the brigade of General J. E. B. Stuart. In the Chickahominy raid he was one of the three colonels with Stuart, and his troops defeated the Federal cavalry on June 13th in this expedition. He suffered rough treatment at Boonsboro. He was knocked from his horse and left unconscious by the roadside; but reached Sharpsburg in time for the fight. He rode with Stuart in the Chambersburg raid. His courage and intrepidity saved Stuart, by protecting the ford at which he must cross. In November Lee became brigadier general. He was prominent at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and at Fleetwood he was captured after being severely wounded. He was carried to Fortress Monroe and subsequently to Fort LaFayette and was exchanged in March, 1864. At this time he was promoted to be a major general and commanded a division of Confederate cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was with General Lee, his father, to the end. After the war he returned to his plantation. He was a member of the Fiftieth, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses from the Eighth Virginia District and died at Alexandria in 1901.