Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[16] Henley, of the navy, superintended the last details. A full army band was in attendance, and Captains Elton, Finch, and Madison, and Lieutenants Fitzhugh and Ritchie, of the navy, and Mr. Lyman, of the army, acted as pall-bearers. Upon the stone marking his grave is this inscription: “Sacred to the Memory of General Henry Lee, of Virginia. Obiit March 25, 1818, Aetat. 63.”

Not long before the war of 1861-65 the Legislature of Virginia passed resolutions for the appointment of a committee who, with the consent of his sons, should remove the remains to the capital city of Virginia, where a suitable monument would be erected to his memory. The commencement of hostilities prevented the accomplishment of this purpose. The sad duty had not been performed before by his sons, because one, Major Henry Lee, was abroad, one was an officer of the army, another of the navy, the fourth a lawyer, and their respective duties kept them widely apart, so that the matter, though frequently referred to in their correspondence, had never been fully arranged. The remains of “Light-horse Harry,” therefore, still rest amid the magnolias, cedars, and myrtles of beautiful “Dungeness.”

In many respects this officer was one of the most remarkable men of his day. He was a patriot and soldier, whose personal courage was tested in the fire of battle; an orator, a writer of vigorous and terse English, with a happy facility for expression rarely equaled. His book, called the Memoirs of the War of “76,” is the standard work to-day of events in the war in the Southern Department of the United States. Two editions of it had been exhausted, and in 1869 a third was issued by his son, R. E. Lee, who, forgetful of his own great deeds, was desirous only of perpetuating those of his distinguished father.

General Henry Lee was twice married: first to Matilda, the daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, of Stratford, and afterward to Anne Hill Carter, daughter of Charles Hill Carter, of Shirley. Four children were born from the first marriage. The eldest was named after his beloved commander, General Nathanael Greene, and died in infancy. The second son died when ten years old. The miniature of this child he always thereafter wore, and it is still preserved in the family. The third son,