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F. Lee
(1835 - 1905)
Home State: Virginia
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1856;Class Rank: 45/49
Command Billet: Brigade Commander
Branch of Service: Cavalry
Unit: Lee's Brigade
Before Sharpsburg
He was appointed brevet 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd United States Cavalry on 1 July 1856 and first served at the Cavalry School in Carlisle, PA. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 1 January 1858 and was then posted to frontier duty in Texas, where he saw combat with Comanches and was wounded. He resigned his commission on 21 May 1861.
He was commissioned First Lieutenant of Cavalry, PACS on 3 April 1861 (to date from 15 March) and served on General Ewell's staff as Acting Assistant Adjutant General at First Manassas on 21 July 1861. He helped organize and was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the First Virginia Cavalry on 27 September and was promoted to Colonel in March 1862. He was appointed Brigadier General on 24 July 1862.
On the Campaign
He commanded his Brigade in J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry Division in Maryland.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Major General on 3 September 1863 (date from 3 August) and commanded a Division of Cavalry. He was wounded by a gunshot to the thigh at Winchester, VA on 19 September 1864 and was absent, recovering, into December. He was promoted to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia in the last weeks of the war, and surrendered with them on 9 April 1865 at Appomattox, VA.
After the War
He was a farmer in Stafford County, VA, was elected Governor of Virginia (1886-90), and was President of the Pittsburg and Virginia Railroad afterward. He was appointed Consul-General of the US at Havana, Cuba (1896-98) and was commissioned Major General of US Volunteers for war with Spain on 4 May 1898. He commanded a Corps, was military Governor at Havana, and mustered out of service on 12 April 1899.
References & notes
His service from Heitman,1 Cullum,2 and the Compiled Service Records of Confederate General and Staff Officers, online via fold3. His Cullum Number is 1755. Personal details from family genealogists, at least one of whom has his middle name as Mason. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress.
He married Ellen Bernard Fowle (1853-1933) in April 1871 and they had 8 children.
Robert E. Lee, who was Superintendent at West Point (1852-55) when Fitzhugh was a Cadet, was his uncle.
Birth
11/19/1835; Fairfax County, VA
Death
04/28/1905; Washington, DC; burial in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 623 [AotW citation 26123]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. II, pp. 671-672; Vol. IV, pg. 105 [AotW citation 26124]