Stephen Dill Lee (Stephen Dill Lee)
Civil War Confederate Lieutenant General, Educator. The youngest Lieutenant General of the Confederacy, Stephen Dill Lee was born to Dr. Thomas Lee and Caroline Allison Lee on September 22, 1833, in Charleston, South Carolina. He entered West Point at the age of 17 and graduated in 1854; he served in the U.S. Army in Texas, Florida, Kansas, and the Dakotas. In 1861, he resigned from the U.S. Army to enter service in the Confederate Army as a Captain and aide-de-camp to General Beauregard. and rose in rank from Captain to Lieutenant General. By profession an artillerist, he served in the artillery through all the Virginia campaigns until Sharpsburg, and was meantime promoted through grades to Colonel. On November 6, 1862, he was appointed Brigadier General and was assigned to the command of General Pemberton’s artillery at Vicksburg. He was exchanged after the capitulation of the place in July 1863, and was promoted Major General on August 3. He was then placed in command of the cavalry in the Department of Mississippi, Alabama, West Tennessee, and East Louisiana. Promoted to Lieutenant General on June 23, 1864, he assumed command of Hood’s old corps of the Army of Tennessee, which he led during the Tennessee campaign and in the closing days, until the surrender of General Joseph F. Johnston in North Carolina. Lee was severely wounded in Nashville, Tenn., in 1864 and surrendered with Johnston in High Point, N.C., on April 26, 1865. Despite his youth and comparative lack of experience, Lee’s prior close acquaintanceship with all three branches of the service — artillery, cavalry, and infantry — rendered him one of the most capable corps commanders in the army. In February 1865, Lee married Regina Harrison, daughter of James Thomas Harrison and Regina Blewett, of Columbus, Miss. They settled in Mississippi after the war and Lee was active as a planter for several years. In 1878, Lee was elected to the Mississippi Senate. From 1880 to 1899, he served as the first president of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Mississippi State University. He resigned as college president to serve as member of the commission to organize Vicksburg Military Park. Lee wrote several articles on the Civil War, was active in Confederate veterans activities, founder of the United Confederate Veterans where he held the post of Commander-in-Chief until his death in Vicksburg on May 28, 1908. The Stephen D Lee home in Columbus, MS is on the National Register of Historic Places and is open for tours. The second floor museum displays many period artifacts. (bio by: Family Tree Shaker) Family links: Parents: Thomas Lee (1809 – 1870) Spouse: Regina Harrison Lee (1841 – 1903)* Children: Blewett Harrison Lee (1867 – 1951)* *Calculated relationship
Born
- September, 22, 1833
- USA
Died
- May, 05, 1908
- USA
Cemetery
- Friendship Cemetery
- Mississippi
- USA