Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[18] with his brothers-and the three often went together — should wine happen to be offered, Smith and Robert with their usual abstemiousness would decline; Carter, however, would accept, remarking: “I have always told these boys that I would drink their share of wine, provided they would keep me generously supplied.” He wrote, too, with beauty and fluency of expression, and once said to his brother Robert:. “The Government employs you to do its fighting; it should engage me to write your reports. I admit your superiority in the exercise of the sword and in planning campaigns. I am, however, as you know, the better writer of the two, and can make my pen mightier than your sword after the battle is over. We could thus combine and be irresistible.” He died, and was buried at his country seat, Windsor Forest, in Powhatan County. The third son, Sydney Smith, entered the United States Navy at an early age, and served with marked distinction in that service for thirty-four years. When Virginia withdrew from the Union of States he accepted service in the Southern navy.

A daughter of General R. E. Lee writes of him: “No one who ever saw him can forget his beautiful face, charming personality, and grace of manner, which, joined to a nobility of character and goodness of heart, attracted all who came in contact with him, and made him the most generally beloved and popular of men. This was especially so with regard to women, to whom his conduct was that of a preux chevalier, the most chivalric and courteous; and, having no daughters of his own, he turned with the tenderest affection to the daughters of his brother Robert.-His public service of more than thirty years in the navy of the United States is well known. He entered it as a boy of fifteen, and faithfully served his country by land and sea in many climes and on many oceans. He was in Japan with Commodore Perry, commanding his flagship, when that inaccessible country was practically opened to the commerce of the world. He was Commandant of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and afterward in command of the navy yard at Philadelphia. When the war of secession began he was stationed in Washington, but when Virginia seceded he did not hesitate to abandon the comforts and security ”