Custis-Lee Mansion: The Robert E. Lee Memorial, Virginia

by Murray H. Nelligan

THE LEES AT BALTIMORE, 1849 TO 1852. Lee was home for a short time during the summer of 1849 to recuperate from a touch of fever, and in the autumn his family joined him at Baltimore. There they lived through 1851, coming home for Christmas and occasional visits. Seldom was the family together, however, for their eldest son, Custis, entered West Point in 1850, and usually some of the children were at Arlington with their grandparents.

Mrs. Custis kept the absent ones informed as to what was going on at Arlington. “Your Grandfather is seized with a spirit of improvement lately,” she wrote to the lad at West Point in 1851. “He is making new steps to the Portico (the old ones having so decayed as to be unsafe) and intends paving it with octagon brick tiles which are now being burned in the vast brick kilns in Washington.” Later, she reported that the steps were finished and the portico floor about to be laid.

Though 70 and often unwell, Mr. Custis’ activity seldom flagged. A polished and effective speaker, with a gift for being able to enter into the spirit of an occasion, he was well-liked for his personal charm and unassuming manner. He was fond of children, and a great favorite with the young Lees. Conscious of his advancing years, Custis increased the output of his Recollections of Washington, that his personal knowledge of the General might not be lost. In this he was encouraged by the Lees, who also approved his renewed interest in scientific agriculture. While strongly advocating the establishment of a department of agriculture in the National Government, Custis applied the latest methods of fertilizing and cultivation to his own farms so that the land inherited by his grandchildren would be fertile, rather than worn-out like that of so much of his native State.

A view of “Arlington House” made in 1853 by the historian-artist Benson J. Lossing. From the original water color in the Lee Mansion.

Christmas in 1851 was typical of the many happy ones celebrated at Arlington, and, telling his son at West Point about it, Lee wrote: “[We] found your grandfather at the Washington depot, Daniel and the old carriage and horses, and young Daniel on the colt Mildred. Your mother, grandfather, Mary Eliza, the little people, and the baggage, I thought load enough for the carriage, so Rooney and I took our feet in our hands and walked over.... The snow impeded the carriage as well as us, and we reached here shortly after it. The children were delighted at getting back, and passed the evening in devising pleasure for the morrow. They were in upon us before day on Christmas morning, to overhaul their stockings.... I need not describe to you our amusements, you have witnessed them so often; nor the turkey, cold ham, plum-pudding, mince pies, etc., at dinner.” “Rooney” was the Lee’s second boy, William Henry Fitzhugh.

George Washington Parke Custis in his old age. From the photograph by Mathew Brady in the collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York.

THE LEES AT WEST POINT, 1852 TO 1855; DEATH OF MRS. CUSTIS. Lee took command of West Point in September 1852, where he was shortly joined by his family. Mrs. Custis had been well when they left, so the telegram which came in April telling of her critical illness was entirely unexpected. Mrs. Lee started for home at once, but on arrival found her beloved mother dead and her father prostrated by his loss. She at once took charge of the household and herself conducted the morning worship which had been forgotten in the sorrow and confusion. After breakfast she selected a spot for her mother’s grave among the trees a short distance from the house. For years, Lee had called Mrs. Custis “Mother,” and his grief at her death was almost as great as Mrs. Lee’s. By now the religious convictions instilled in him by his mother had been matured by his own experiences and the example of those at Arlington, and soon after his return from West Point at the end of the term, he and two of his daughters were confirmed at Christ Church, Alexandria.

Hoping to divert Mr. Custis, the Lees took him back with them to West Point. But not even a trip to Niagara Falls with his son-in-law could keep him from worrying about his beloved Arlington, and he soon returned home. To ease his loneliness, the Lees came home on brief visits in the spring and summer of 1854.