Stephen D. Lee
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Stephen Dill Lee (22 September 1833 – 28 May 1908), Confederate general in the American Civil War, came of a family distinguished in the history of South Carolina, and was born at Charleston. Graduating from West Point in 1854, he served for seven years in the United States Army and resigned in 1861 on the secession of South Carolina.
He was aide de camp to General Pierre Beauregard in the attack on Fort Sumter. On April 11, 1861, Lee delivered an ultimatum from Beauregard to Union Major Robert Anderson demanding the evacuation of Fort Sumter. Anderson refused and the Confederates began bombardment of the fort, which fell two days later, precipitating the beginning of the U.S. Civil War.
Lee was captain commanding a light battery in General Joseph E. Johnston's army later in the year 1861, and fought at the Second Manassas and Antietam. Thereafter, by successive steps, each gained by distinguished conduct on the field of battle, he rose to the rank of brigadier-general in November 1862, being ordered to take command of defences at Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. He served at this place with great credit until its surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant in July 1863, and on becoming a prisoner of war, he was immediately exchanged and promoted to major-general.
His regimental service had been chiefly with artillery, but he had generally worked with and at times commanded cavalry, and he was now assigned to command the troops of that arm in the south-western theatre of war. After harassing, as far as his limited numbers permitted, the advance of William Tecumseh Sherman's column on Meridian, Mississippi, he took General Leonidas Polk's place as commander of the department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana. In June 1864, on John B. Hood's promotion to command the Army of Tennessee, Lee was made a lieutenant-general, the youngest in the Confederacy, and assigned to command Hood's old corps in that army. In the Atlanta Campaign he fought at Atlanta and Jonesboro, accompanied Hood in the bold advance to Nashville, and fought in the battles of Ezra Church Franklin and Nashville, after which, in the rout of the Confederate army, Lee kept his troops closed up and well in hand, and for three consecutive days formed the fighting rearguard of the otherwise disintegrated army. Lee was himself wounded, but did not give up the command until an organized rearguard took over the post of danger.
On recovery he joined General Johnston in North Carolina for the Carolinas Campaign, and he surrendered with Johnston in April 1865.
After the war he settled in Mississippi, which was his wife's state and during the greater part of the war his own territorial command, and devoted himself to planting. He was president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi (now Mississippi State University) from 1878 to 1897, took some part in state politics and was an active member and at the time of his death commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans society. He also helped promote women's rights, wrote about history and made efforts to preserve the Vicksburg battlefield sites. He died at Vicksburg on 28 May 1908 and is buried in Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.
Categories: 1911 Britannica | 1833 births | 1908 deaths | Confederate Army generals | West Point graduates
