Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/712

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were not achieved. A critical study of his cam- paigns seems also to show that he erred in giving too much discretion to his lieutenants at critical junc- tures, when his own fuller knowledge of the entire situation and plan of battle or campaign should have been an absolutely controlling force. It is no reflection upon those lieutenants to say that they did not always make the wisest or most fortunate use of the discretion thus given to them, for with their less complete information concerning matters not immediately within their purview, their decis- ions rested, of necessity, upon an inadequate knowl- edge of the conditions of the problem presented. Instances of the kind to which we refer are found in Stuart's absence with the cavalry during all that part of the Gettysburg campaign which preceded the battle, and in Ewell's failure to seize the strong position at Gettysburg while it was still possible to do so. In both these cases Lee directed the doing of that which wisdom dictated; in both he left a large discretion to his lieutenant, in the conscien- tious exercise of which an opportunity was lost.

Three days after Gen. Lee's death his remains were buried beneath the chapel of the university at Lexington. In accordance with his request, no funeral oration was pronounced. For a view of Gen. Lee's residence, " Arlington House," see Custis, George W. P., vol. ii., p. 45. The corner-stone of a monument to his memory was laid in Richmond, Va., on 27 Oct., 1887. There is a recumbent statue by Valentine over his grave, and a bronze statue on a column in New Orleans. A portrait of him was painted from life by John Elder, for the commonwealth of Virginia, which is now in the senate chamber at Richmond ; another by Elder, for the city of Savannah, is in the council chamber of that city ; and still another is at the University of Virginia. The vignette is copied from an early portrait, while the steel engraving is from a photo- graph taken in Richmond, during the last year of the war. Gen. Lee edited, with a memoir, a new edition of his father's " Memoirs of the Wars of the Southern Department of the United States" (New York, 1869). See "Life and Campaigns of Robert Edward Lee," by E. Lee Childe (London, 1875); "Life of Robert E. Lee," bv John Esten Cooke (New York. 1871) ; " Life and Times of Rob- ert E. Lee," by Edward A. Pollard (1871) ; " Per- sonal Reminiscences of Robert E. Lee," by John W. Jones (1874); "Four Years with Gen. Lee," by Walter H. Taylor "(1877) ; and " Memoirs of Robert E. Lee," by Gen. A. L. Long (1886). A life of Gen. Lee is now (1887) in prepa- ration by Col.Charles Marshall, aide - de- camp on his staff, 1861-5, to whom the original papers of Gen. Lee have been committed by the

family. — His wife,

Mary Randolph Custis, b. at Arlington House, Alexandria co., Va., in 1806; d. in Lexington, Va., 6 Nov., 1873, was the only daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of Washington, and the grandson of his wife. In June, 1831, she mar- ried Robert E. Lee, by which event he came into possession of Arlington, on the Potomac river, and of the White House, on the Pamunkey. Mrs. Lee had strong intellectual powers, and persistently fa- vored the Confederate cause. She was in Rich- mond during the civil war, and afterward accompa- nied her husband to Lexington, where she resided until her death.— His eldest son, George Washing- ton Custis, soldier, b. at Arlington, Va., 16 Sept., 1832, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1854 at the head of his class. He was commis- sioned 2d lieutenant of engineers and assigned to the engineer bureau at Washington. In the spring of 1855 he was assigned to duty on Amelia island, Fla., where he was engaged in constructing the fort at the mouth of St. Mary's river, and in the autumn of 1857 was ordered to San Francisco, Cal., for the construction of the works at Fort Point. In Octo- ber, 1859, he was promoted 1st lieutenant and or- dered to the engineer bureau at Washington, where he remained until the beginning of the civil war, when he resigned his commission and entered the Confederate service. He was commissioned major of engineers of the provisional army of Vir- ginia, 10 May, 1861, and on 1 July was appointed captain in the Confederate corps of engineers. He located and constructed the fortifications around Richmond, and on 31 Aug., 1861, was appointed aide-de-camp to Jefferson Davis, with the rank of colonel of cavalry. On 25 June, 1863, he was com- missioned brigadier-general and assigned to a bri- gade organized for local defence around Rich- mond. In the autumn of 1864 he was commis- sioned major-general and given the command of a division in the Army of Northern Virginia, which he led bravely and skilfully till he was captured at Sailor's Creek. In October, 1865, he became professor of military and civil engineering and applied mechanics in Virginia military institute, and in February, 1871, succeeded his father as president of Washington college (now Washington and Lee university). Tulane university gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1887.— His brother, Will- iam Henry Fitzhugh, soldier, second son of Robert E. Lee, b. at Arlington, Va., 31 May, 1837, was graduated at Harvard in 1857, and in the same year appointed 2d lieutenant in the 6th in- fantry, U. S. army, and served in the Utah cam- paign of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and after- ward in California. Early in 1859 he resigned his commission and took charge of his farm, the his- toric White House, on the Pamunkey. In the spring of 1861 he raised a cavalry company for the Confederate service, was made captain, and was soon promoted major and made chief of cavalry to Gen. Loring in the West Virginia campaign. In the winter of 1861— '2 he was ordered to Freuericks- burg and was made lieutenant-colonel. In the spring of 1862 he was made colonel, and not long afterward was attached to the brigade of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, in most of whose campaigns he par- ticipated. On 3 Oct., 1862, he was made briga- dier-general, to date from 15 Sept. At Brandy Station, 9 June, 1863, he was severely wounded, and was afterward captured by a raiding party and carried to Fortress Monroe, where he was held for some time as a hostage. In the early spring of 1864 he was exchanged, on 23 April was promoted ma- jor-general of cavalry, and led his division in the fights from the Rapidan to Appomattox, where he surrendered. He soon went to work at the White House, rebuilding the dwelling, and became a farmer. For some years he was president of the Virginia agricultural society. In 1875 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1886 to congress. — Robert Edward's nephew, Fitzhugh, soldier, b. in Clermont, Fairfax co., Va., 19 Nov., 1835, was