Fitzhugh Lee was born November 19th 1835 at Clermont in Fairfax County Virginia the son of Sydney Smith Lee. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he came close to being expelled by his famous uncle. He graduated in 1856.
In 1861 Lee was serving as an instructor at West Point, but with the start of the Civil War he resigned his United States commision and became a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Army, serving as a staff officer in the Peninsula campaign. He would become one of the youngest cavalry commanders at 27 during the war serving as General Robert E Lee’s chief of cavalry corp.
After the Civil War was over Fitzhugh became a farmer in Stafford Co, Virginia, elected governor of Virginia, and accepted an appointment from President Grover Cleveland as consul general in Havana, Cuba. He was one of only three ex-Confederate generals to serve as a Major General with the United States Volunteer Army during the Spanish-American War.
He died in Washington, DC on April 28th 1905.
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