The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-13
OBITUARY.
General Robert Edmund Lee.

Yesterday morning. at half-past nine o'clock,
died Robert Edmund Lee, who held the COM
mand In chief of the Confederate armies du ng
the latter portion of the war of the Rebellion.
He breathed his last at Lexington, Virginia,
the cause of his death having been congestion
of the brain, and his age sixty-three years and
over.
Richard Lee, an early ancestor of the de-
ceased Confederate chieftain, was associated in
1868 with Sir William Berkley in restoring the
Independent State of Virginia to the British
crown and was prominent in the ceremonies of
crowning Charles II King of England Scotland,
Ireland, and Virginia. A grandson of this
Richard Lee was subsequently known as "Lght-
Horse Harry" and is described by historians of
the Revolution as a dashing and brave cavalry
officer, and by Jefferson as an ''informer"-the
most opprobrous epithet known to that age of
plain English. Irving stamps General Charles
Lee, grand uncle Of the deceased, a calum-
niator of Washington, who was found guilty by
court-martial of plot to supersede him as COM
mander of the army. The claims to renown
of another great-uncle, Arthur Lee,
rest principally on the fact that
he was bitter enemy and libeler of Jefferson
and Franklin. General Henry Lee, who was
known as "Light-Horse Harry" was the father
of Robert E. Lee. He was twice married, his
second wife being Miss Anne Carter, of Shirley,
Virginia, by whom he had three sons-Charles
Carter Lee Sidney Smith Lee (who served in
the Rebel navy, and Robert Edmund Lee.
The latter was born at the family seat of Staf-
ford, Virginia, on the 10th of January, 1907. He
grew up in the quiet of home without betraying
any uncommon characteristics or brilliant in
tellect. He was known as boy of considerable
cultivation, easy manners, and quiet and reserved
hfg I'D
been noticeable in almost every member of the
family to which he belonged.
His family influence obtained him entrance to
West Point, which he entered in 1925, and in
which he graduated in 1899, standing number
two in class of forty-siX, and leading, among
others, Joseph e. Johnston, whom the Rebellion
made famous, and the late Professor o. NJ. Nit
chell, who also figured prominently in the war
on the Union side.
On leaving West Point young Lee travelled in
Europe for some months. On his return he was
married to Miss Custis, of Arlington, the daugh-
ter and heiress of George w. Parke Custis the
adopted son of General Washington. He thus
became proprietor of the Arlington estates
nearly opposite Washington, which were taken
possession of and confissated by the Govern.
ment during the war. By his marriage, he had
three sons and four daughters. G. w. Custis
Lee, one of his sons, served as aide-de-camp tc
JEFF. Davis for some time during the
recent war, and then became an active
leader in the field, with the rank of rrigadier-
general, being finally taken prisoner by Genera
Sheridan, near the close of the war. He il
thirty-nine years of age and graduated at West
Point in 1854, standing Ne. in his class. VIII
liam H. Fitzhugh Lee, another son, was edu
Gated at William and Mary's College, but subse
quently held a second lieutenancy in the United
States army, and, entering the Rebel army will
his father was killed in the battle of Five Forks
in the twenty-seyenth year of his age. He haC
previously been wounded in the cavalry fight a
Beverly Ford, and taken prisoner afterwards, a
his house in Beverly county, Virginia. Rober