Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh, 1837-1891

LEE, William Henry Fitzhugh, (grandson of Henry Lee), a Representative from Virginia; born at Arlington House, Arlington, Va., May 31, 1837; attended private school and Harvard University; appointed second lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States Infantry, and accompanied his regiment in 1858 in the expedition to Utah; resigned in 1859; returned to Virginia and took charge of his estates near White House, New Kent County, in 1859; during the Civil War he raised a company of Cavalry in 1861 and joined the Confederate service; was promoted successively from captain to major general of Cavalry; returned to his plantation; moved to Ravensworth, near Burke Station, Va., in 1874 and engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State senate 1875-1878 and served as presiding officer; served as president of the State agricultural society; elected as a Democrat to the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, and Fifty-second Congresses and served from March 4, 1887, until his death in Ravensworth, Va., on October 15, 1891; interment in the family burying ground at Ravensworth; reinterment in the crypt, Lee Memorial Chapel, Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va., in September 1922.

Rooney, so nicknamed to distinguish him for his cousin and contemporary Fitzhugh Lee of “Clermont,” Fairfax County, was the Lees' second son, born in 1837. He was one of the liveliest and most likable of the Lee children. He was adventurous and as a child evoked his father's praise couched in jest. Lee referred to him as “too large to be a man, too small to be horse” and believed he needed a tight rein. When he was eight years old, Rooney cut off his the tips of the forefinger and middle finger on his left hand while playing with a set of straw cutters.

Rooney's adventures during the 1850s kept him away from Arlington much of the time. He entered Harvard in 1854, one of the three Virginians at the school. At Harvard, he was popular and quickly fell in with Boston society. He demonstrated his athletic prowess, pulling an oar on the Harvard crew. He did not remain at Harvard to graduate, however.

In 1857, with the aid of General Winfield Scott, he secured a commission and fought in the campaign of 1858 against the Mormons. When the fighting was over, however, he became bored and by 1859 had given up the army and married Charlotte Wickham. Rooney and Charlotte settled down to farm the White House, the estate on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia he had inherited from his grandfather, George Washington Parke Custis. In 1861, Rooney joined the Confederate Army as a calvary officer under J.E.B. Stuart. Perhaps having the most illustrious career of any of the three Lee sons, Rooney was captured by Union troops at his wife's family home in June 1863, while he was there nursing a thigh wound sustained at the Battle of Brandy Station. He was taken to Fort Lafayette, New York as a prisoner of war and spent eight months there before returning to the Confederate Army in an exchange. During the war Rooney lost his young wife and both of their children.

After the war, Rooney returned to the White House estate. In 1867, he married Mary Tabb Bolling and they eventually had several children. He must have been much impressed by the daily routine he had learned at Arlington when he was growing up. For long after the Civil War, when the days at Arlington were dim memories, he still maintained the old regimen of evening tea, prayers before breakfast and at bed time, and Sunday evening hymn singing. Rooney Lee died in 1891.

Through Rooney and his younger brother Rob, there are over twenty direct descendants of Mary and Robert E. Lee alive today.

Born at Arlington in 1837, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee was the second son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis. His pedigree included “Light-Horse” Harry Lee and Martha Washington. Though hardly the most famous member of his family, “Rooney”—as he was known—nevertheless played an important part in the nation’s most trying ordeal.

After spending most of his childhood moving from post to post with his father, Lee was granted admission to Harvard in 1854, where his record was less than exemplary. It was hardly surprising that in 1857 Lee left the school to accept a commission in the army as a second lieutenant. Assigned to the 6th Infantry under Albert Sidney Johnston, the young officer was sent to Utah Territory to quell the Mormon Rebellion. Following additional assignments in Texas and the Pacific Northwest, Lee resigned his commission in 1859 to take up farming at the White House estate on the Pamunkey River in Virginia.

Lee’s simple agrarian life, however, was short-lived. When his home state seceded in April 1861, the Virginian once again took up the sword—this time as a captain in the 9th Virginia Cavalry, attached to what would ultimately become his father’s command, the Army of Northern Virginia. In his year of service with the regiment, Lee took an active part in the Seven Days’ Battles, and the Second Manassas and Maryland Campaigns, ascending to the colonelcy of the regiment along the way. When the Army of Northern Virginia reorganized its mounted arm in November 1862, “Rooney” Lee was given charge of a brigade and promoted to brigadier general.

Limited cavalry operations at the end of 1862 and in the spring of 1863 gave Lee little chance to test his mettle as a brigadier. However, on the morning of June 9, 1863, Lee, then camped near Brandy Station, Virginia, heard firing in the direction of the Rappahannock River at Beverly’s Ford. Riding to the sound of the guns, the general organized a defensive position, taking advantage of the terrain and a low stone wall. For five hours Lee’s cavaliers fought off repeated assaults by Union cavalry under General John Buford, effectively stalling the Federal advance and exacting a fearsome toll in casualties. Lee, however, did not escape unscathed. As the battle of Brandy Station drew to a close, the brigadier was badly wounded in the leg.

The general’s wound required several months of convalescence, during which he was captured. The next nine months of Lee’s career were spent as a prisoner at Forts Monroe and Lafayette. In December of 1863, Lee learned of the death of his wife. He was exchanged in March of 1864.

When Lee returned to the army that spring, he was given command of a division and promoted to major general, making him the youngest Confederate officer to hold that rank. He rendered reliable service during the war’s final year, most notably at the April 1865 battle of Five Forks. While his fellow generals George Pickett, Thomas Rosser and (his cousin) Fitzhugh Lee, enjoyed their lunch, Rooney defended against a combined assault by infantry and cavalry and, despite his best efforts, was ultimately overwhelmed. Little more than a week later, Lee surrendered his cavalry along with the entire remnant of his army at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, Rooney Lee resumed his life as a farmer and was the president of the Virginia State Agricultural society for several years. He was eventually drawn back into public life, serving a term as a state senator from 1875 to 1879 and later as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1887 to 1891. W. H. F. Lee passed away shortly after the expiration of his term and was buried in Alexandria. In 1922 his remains were reinterred at the Lee Mausoleum in Lexington, Virginia.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (May 31, 1837 – October 15, 1891), known as Rooney Lee (often spelled "Roony" among friends and family) or W. H. F. Lee, was the second son of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis. He was a planter, a Confederate cavalry General in the American Civil War, and later a Democratic Congressman from Virginia.[1] Lee was born at Arlington House in Arlington, Virginia, and named for William Henry Fitzhugh, his mother's uncle. At an early age, his father began to call him Rooney; what prompted him to use this nickname is not known, but it stuck as a way to differentiate him from his cousin Fitzhugh Lee.[2]

Rooney Lee attended Harvard University, where he befriended Henry Adams, who wrote about his relationship with Lee in chapter four of his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams. Lee followed in his father's footsteps after graduation, entering the United States Army in 1857 as a second lieutenant. He served with the 6th U.S. Infantry under Albert Sidney Johnston, and participated in the Utah War against the Mormons. In 1859, he resigned from the U.S. Army to operate his White House Plantation, on the south shore of the Pamunkey River, in New Kent County, Virginia. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army cavalry and was soon promoted to major. By last year of the war, Rooney Lee had risen to second-in-command of the Confederate cavalry in Virginia; Lee's cavalry division screened the Confederate evacuation of Petersburg, notably at the Battle of Namozine Church during the Appomattox Campaign. He surrendered along with his father at Appomattox Court House with only 300 officers and men, one-tenth the size of the command during the Petersburg Campaign.[3] Rooney Lee attended Harvard University, where he befriended Henry Adams, who wrote about his relationship with Lee in chapter four of his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams. Lee followed in his father's footsteps after graduation, entering the United States Army in 1857 as a second lieutenant. He served with the 6th U.S. Infantry under Albert Sidney Johnston, and participated in the Utah War against the Mormons. In 1859, he resigned from the U.S. Army to operate his White House Plantation, on the south shore of the Pamunkey River, in New Kent County, Virginia. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army cavalry and was soon promoted to major. By last year of the war, Rooney Lee had risen to second-in-command of the Confederate cavalry in Virginia; Lee's cavalry division screened the Confederate evacuation of Petersburg, notably at the Battle of Namozine Church during the Appomattox Campaign. He surrendered along with his father at Appomattox Court House with only 300 officers and men, one-tenth the size of the command during the Petersburg Campaign.[3]
Lee returned to White House Plantation and planting after the war. Nearby, his younger brother Rob lived at Romancoke Plantation across the river in King William County.

After their mother died in 1873, Rooney inherited Ravensworth Plantation, the old Fitzhugh family property (near present-day Springfield) in Fairfax County with 563 acres (2.28 km2) of land. He moved there with his family from White House.

In 1875 Rooney was elected to the Virginia Senate, serving until 1878. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1887. He served in the House until his death at Ravensworth in 1891. He is interred in the University Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, with his parents and siblings. Lee married twice, first in 1859 to Charlotte Georgiana Wickham, daughter of George and Charlotte Carter Wickham and a descendant of the attorney John Wickham and his wife. They had two children, Robert Edward Lee (March 11, 1860 – June 30, 1862) and Charlotte Carter Lee (October 19, 1862 – December 6, 1862). Charlotte Georgiana Wickham Lee died December 26, 1863.

On November 28, 1867, he married Mary Tabb Bolling. They had two sons, who both lived to adulthood: Robert Edward Lee III (February 11, 1869, at Petersburg – September 7, 1922 at Roanoke, VA) and George Bolling Lee (August 30, 1872 at Lexington – July 13, 1948 at New York, NY).

Lee's mother, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh. George was the grandson of Martha Dandridge and step-grandson of President George Washington.

Lee was also a descendant of Charles II of England through Lady Charlotte Lee (granddaughter of Barbara Villiers), who married the 4th Baron Baltimore, and possibly, a descendant of George I, through Benedict Swingate Calvert (grandson of Lady Charlotte Lee), the illegitimate son of 5th Baron Baltimore and of an unknown mother, who was supposed to be Melusina von der Schulenburg, illegitimate daughter of the King.