Tag: Lee (George W. C.)

Wikipedia says: George Washington Custis Lee (September 16, 1832 – February 18, 1913), also known as Custis Lee, was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. His grandfather George Washington Custis was the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington and grandson of Martha Custis Washington. He served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War, primarily as an aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis, and succeeded his father as president of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

…Custis Lee served in the Virginia state forces, until July 1861. At that time he was given a commission as a captain in the Confederate States Army. During the next few months, Lee worked in the Confederate Engineers. He spent his time constructing fortifications for the new capital city, Richmond. At the end of August 1861, Lee was offered and accepted the position of aide-de-camp to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was then promoted to the rank of colonel. Lee served in his position for the next three years of the war. He was often sent on missions to assess the military, and would then return to report to Davis. When Robert E. Lee became the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Custis Lee had constant contact with his father. In 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, Custis Lee was put in charge of supervising the engineers at Drewry’s Bluff.

In June 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general. Lee was discouraged from taking a field command by Davis, but encouraged by his father. Lee asked his father for a field command, but his father replied that his highest duty was obedience to his superiors. For the most part, he obeyed Davis, but during the Battle of Gettysburg, Custis Lee was given the command of the troops in Richmond. In 1864, Custis Lee was placed in command of Richmond’s local defenses against General Grant and General Benjamin Butler. He did so well that he was given command of Richmond’s eastern defenses at Chaffin’s Bluff. Lee remained at Chaffin’s Bluff throughout the next months, and in 1864, he was promoted to major general. Shortly before the end of the war, he commanded troops in the field and was captured at Sayler’s Creek by David Dunnels White a private in the 37th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment on April 6; three days before his father surrendered on Palm Sunday April 9, 1865 to Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.