William Raymond Lee

He enrolled at West Point in 1825 with another Lee, Robert Edward, a distant relative, and was a cadet there for at least 3 years, but did not graduate. He was a civil engineer and by 1850 was superintendent of the Boston and Providence Railroad.

In 1860 he was a 50 year old merchant in Roxbury, MA. He was commissioned Colonel of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry on 1 July 1861 and mustered into Federal service with them on the 21st. He was captured at Ball's Bluff, VA on 21 October 1861 and exchanged from a prison in Richmond, VA early in 1862, and was injured at Glendale, VA on 30 June 1862.

He was in command of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry on the Campaign; they were heavily engaged in fighting in the West Woods at Antietam on 17 September 1862. After Brigade commander General Dana was wounded at Antietam (as reported by Colonel Hall of the 7th Michigan Infantry):

In a field behind the woods I found Colonel Lee with his regiment, Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers, in perfectly good order and with very full ranks. I informed Colonel Lee that he was in command of the brigade, being my senior; but he positively declined to relieve me, and repeatedly desired me to give such orders as I saw fit, and be would obey them. I reported this immediately to General Howard, commanding the division, and he directed me to continue in command.

He broke down after Antietam, and resigned and was discharged for disability on 17 December 1862. He was honored by brevet to Brigadier General of Volunteers in March 1865.

By 1870 he was a US Revenue officer in Boston, MA and in 1880 was a civil engineer there.

His service from Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines.1 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1850-1880, and a bio sketch by John Codman Ropes in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Vol. 28, 1893). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a CDV at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

He married Helen Maria Amory (1812-1893) in 1842 and they had 3 children. They lived with her wealthy widowed mother Elizabeth Bowen Amory to her death in 1858, afterward her (now) wealthy sister Anna.

08/15/1807; Salem, MA

12/26/1891; Boston, MA; burial in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, MA