reat land owner on Northern Neck, the Virginia Colony
was much indebted for royal recognition. His grandson, Henry Lee, was
the grandfather of "Light-horse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary fame, who
was the father of Robert Edward Lee.

Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, in Westmoreland County, Va.,
the same county that gave to the world George Washington and James
Monroe. Though he was fatherless at eleven, the father's blood in him
inclined him to the profession of arms, and when eighteen,--in 1825,--on
an appointment obtained for him by General Andrew Jackson, he entered
the Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1829, being second
in rank in a class of forty-six. Among his classmates were two men whom
one delights to name with him--Ormsby M. Mitchel, later a general in the
Federal army, and Joseph E. Johnston, the famous Confederate. Lee was at
once made Lieutenant of Engineers, but, till the Mexican War, attained
only a captaincy. This was conferred on him in 1838.

In 1831 Lee had been married to Miss Mary Randolph Custis, the grand
daughter of Mrs. George Washington. By this marriage he became possessor
of the beautiful estate at Arlington, opposite Washington, his home till
the Civil War. The union, blessed by seven children, was in all respects
most happy.

In his prime Lee was spoken of as the handsomest man in the army. He was
about six feet high, perfectly built, healthy, fond of outdoor life,
enthusiastic in his profession, gentle, dignified, studious,
broad-minded, and positively, though unobtrusively, religious. If he had
faults, which those nearest him doubted, they were excess of modesty and
excess of tenderness.

During the Mexican War, Captain Lee directed all the most important
engineering operations of the American army--a work vital to its
wonderful success. Already at the siege of Vera Cruz, General Scott
mentioned him as having "greatly distinguished himself." He was
prominent in all the operations thence to Cerro Gordo, where, in April,
1847, he was brevetted major. Both at Contreras and at Churubusco he was
credited with gallant and meritorious services. At the charge up
Chapultepec, in which Joseph E. Johnston, George B. McClellan, George E.
Pickett, and Thomas J. Jackson participated, Lee bore Scott's orders to
all points until from loss of blood by a wound, and from the loss of two
nights' sleep at the batteries, he actually fainted away in the
discharge of his duty. Such ab