The age-herald., 1898-04-12

ent states; that they are absolved from all
 allegiance to the British crown, and that
 all political connection between them is
 and ought to be totally dissolved"
 His brother, Francis Lee, signed with
 him the Declaration of Independence. The
 grandfather of General Fitzhugh Lee was
 the famous Light Horse Harry" probably the most brilliant name in the distinguished
 annals of the Lee family. He was brave officer in the revolution, and a most daring
 one. He commanded legion noted for its
 exploits He distinguished himself by the
 capture of a British fort at Paulus Hook,
 and he served with such brilliancy under
 Green in the Carolinas that he said he was
 under obligations to Lee which he could
 never repay, and with his own hand wrote him, NO man in the progress of the cam paign has equal merit with yourself" The father of General Lee was Captain
 Sydney Smith Lee, and 1t is interesting to
 note that his birthplace was Camden, New
 Jersey, he having been born in Camden in house now occupied by the Young Mems Republican Club. while his mother was on a visit there. to a very intimate friend, a Mrs. Smith, after whom Captain
 Lee was called. He added the name or Sydney after the death of a brother of that
 name. Captain Lee resigned his commits sion in the United States navy to enter the confederate service at the time of the se- cession of Virginia.
 During the war Captain Lee commanded
 the important post of Drewey's Blun; he
 was afterwards made chief of the Bureau of Orders and Details under the secretary of the navy.
 Interest always centers around the moth- CTS of great men, from whom sons are
 said to derive their qualities of head and heart General Fitzhugh Lees mother was a Miss Mason of Virginia, a granddaughter of Vrginia's celebrated statesman, George
 Mason, a daughter of General John Mason
 and sister to James M. Mason.
 If the qualities which make great men are inherited, certainly this brief sketch of the ancestors of General Lee on both his
 mothers and fathers side would show him
 to be possessed of more distinguished an- cestry than usually falls to the lot Of one man. There is no question that pride Of ancestry is proper one if rightly directed and if used as a stimulus in good deeds, and to make one worthy of a good name, and a credit to the name one bears, but unworthily used, when parading one IS name on the roll of some Revolutionary society and feeling ones aims and ambitions could
 rest on the laurels of some ancestor
 Fitzhugh Lee was born at Clermont, the
 residence of his grandfather, General John Mason, on Nov. 19 1885. From an old cit izen of Fredicksburg the earliest picture of him is given. When small boy, dressed in a scarlet shirt, he was borne on the back of a negro servant to school, which he had stoutly refused to attend, until car ried by main force, he vigorously protest ing both by voice and by sundry kicks in the back administered to the unfor- tunate custodian of the little person. < To school he went, however, and at I6 he was appointed cadet at West Point through the influence of President Till man. Unlike his distinguished uncle, Rob- Sert E. Lee who never received demerit at West Point FitZhugh Lee received the maximum allowance to escape dismissal He apparently felt the same disinclination for study that he evinced as a small boy fin the red shirt.
 He graduated in 1856 however. and at the head of his class in horsemanship. His fine horsemanship secured at once for him a commission in the then Second, now Fifth, United States cavalry, regiment eagerly sought for by West Point grad
 uates. His first service was at Carlisle barracks It seems a curious coincidence that these same barracks were burned by | Fitzhugh Lee during the civil war
 From Carlisle Lee was sent to the from tier of Texas and soon distinguished him. self in conflicts with the Indians. In bat
 tie fought on May 19, 1859, between six com
 panies of United States troops and a large force of Comanche Indians, Lee was chosen to command a body that charged on foot through the thick jungle in which
 the Indians were hiding. Lee fell toward the end of the fight wounded by an arrow was despaired of. He was finally carried on litter two hundred miles over the prairie to his post, where he recovered, contrary to the opinion of the surgeon He
 was several times mentioned officially by
 General Scott for his bravery
 His first service in the Confederate army was at the battle of Manassas, on July