Major Gen. George Washington Custis Lee (CSA)

Served as Major General in the Conderate Army and aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Custis_Lee

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. He served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War, primarily as an aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis, finally got a field commission at the end of the war, was defeated in his first battle and was captured. The uniform he surrendered in can be seen in the Confederate Museum in Appomattox Va. . He donated it while alive in the late 1800 as the uniform General Lee surrendered in, which it is. His uniform, Gen Custis Lee. The uniform he surrendered in. Remember he is a "LEE" and never considered anyone would put two and two together. His father General Robert E. Lee surrendered in a uniform buttoned to the neck with his typical three stars at the collar on each side. After the War he succeeded his father as president of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

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• 'George Washington Custis Lee1
• 'M, #321615, b. 1832, d. 1913
• Last Edited=3 Dec 2008
• Consanguinity Index=0.0%
• ' George Washington Custis Lee was born in 1832.1 He was the son of General Robert Edward Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis.1 He died in 1913, unmarried.1
• Citations
• 1.[S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p32162.htm#i321615
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Birth: Sep. 16, 1832 Fort Monroe Hampton City Virginia, USA Death: Feb. 18, 1913 Annandale Fairfax County Virginia, USA

Civil War Confederate General. Though an accomplished man in his own right, he is better remembered as the eldest son of Robert E. Lee. Raised an 'Army brat' and thus often denied daily contact with his father, he was educated in a series of private boarding schools, lastly at the mathematics academy of Benjamin Hallowell. At 17 he received an appointment to West Point from President Zachary Taylor and at the Academy had, as did his father before him, an outstanding academic record. Custis barely missed expulsion at the start of his second year due to an alcohol related incident, but continued his good class work. Under the command of father during his final two years at school, he graduated first in the Class of 1854 and was assigned to the Corps of Engineers. During his time in the Army he had duty in California, Georgia, and Florida; upon the October 10, 1857, death of his grandfather George Washington Parke Custis he inherited Arlington House. The property was taken via a spurious claim of non-payment of taxes during the Civil War, eventually to become Arlington National Cemetery. After the war Custis sued for recovery of his house and land and in an 1882 Supreme Court decision won his case; having never harbored a desire to see the dead dug up, he sold his title to the federal government for $150,000 in 1883. Stationed in Washington, D.C. at the outbreak of war, Custis resigned his commission and tendered his services to Virginia. Commissioned in the Confederate Army in July 1861, he was named aide-de-camp to President Davis the next month and promoted to Colonel. Thru most of the conflict he was to serve as Davis' assistant and earned respect, though questions persist; by some accounts, Custis wanted field duty and was prevented from accepting it either by Davis' superior rank or by his father's, while according to other versions of the tale he lacked confidence in his own abilities and was happy behind a desk. Whatever the truth, he did maintain a home on East Franklin Street in Richmond where he cared for his invalid mother. He was sent on frequent fact-finding missions for the President and his engineering skills were put to occasional use as when he supervised the fortification of Drewery's Bluff on the James River in the spring of 1862. Named Brigadier General on June 25, 1863, he commanded Richmond troops during the period covering the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1864 he was placed in charge of the defense of Richmond and commanded at Chaffin's Bluff where he did a good enough job that the Union did not take Richmond until after the surrender at Appomattox. Promoted to Major General on October 20, 1864, he participated in the final retreat from Petersburg and was captured at Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865, though he was released when the war ended three days later. When his father accepted the presidency of Washington College, Custis followed his parents to Lexington where he held a professorship of civil engineering at VMI while helping to design the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee; named President of the University of Maryland in 1867, he declined the post after public protest of a Confederate getting the job and returned to Lexington. Upon his father's death Custis became President of what would one day be Washington and Lee University, remaining in office until 1897 and during his tenure donating Charles Willson Peale's 1772 portrait of George Washington to the Lee Chapel. After retirement he moved into Ravensworth Mansion, the Fairfax County estate of his by-then deceased younger brother Rooney, where he lived out his days. (bio by: Bob Hufford)

Family links:

Parents:

 Robert Edward Lee (1807 - 1870)

 Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (1808 - 1873)

Siblings:

 George Washington Custis Lee (1832 - 1913)

 Mary Custis Lee (1835 - 1918)*

 William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (1837 - 1891)*

 Anne Carter Lee (1839 - 1862)**

 Anne Carter Lee (1839 - 1862)*

 Eleanor Agnes Lee (1841 - 1873)*

 Robert Edward Lee (1843 - 1914)*

 Mildred Childe Lee (1845 - 1905)*

*Calculated relationship

• *Half-sibling

Burial: Lee Chapel Museum Lexington Lexington City Virginia, USA Plot: Lee Crypt in the Lee Chapel

Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Apr 16, 2000 Find A Grave Memorial# 9117

(Custis, "Boo"); 1832–1913; served as major general in the Confederate Army and aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis, captured during the Battle of Sailor's Creek; unmarried