Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-05-05

General Lee was probably the
most distinguished non-of1ice holding
visitor that Washington had with
any degree of frequency. Every body
knew the fine looking old veteran
and all were anxious to meet him.
The President was in the habit of
sending for him to come to the
White House of evenings and the
;wo would spend hours talking of
the strenuous times when blue met
gray in the death grapple. It was
impossible to find General Lee at the
Shoi cham, where he lived when there,
that he was not surrounded by a
group of distinguished men, frequ
entity foreign soldiers come to
America. He never tired of discuss
ing the war, but probably no man
ever heard him, certainly in many
years, say harsh word of his old
time enemies. He was reconstructed
in the best sense; he had forgiven
his enemies, but he had lost none of
his love for his old comrades, and
none of his admiration for the quail
ties that made them the most won
derful soldiers the world has seen.
He was one of them. General Lee
and Senator Daniel were the warmest
and most intimate friends and a
great portion of bis time when in
Washington was spent in the com.
pany of the Lame Lion. His grief at
the death of his comrade is deep.
While General Lee was coming
South through New York, and suf-
fering ssonies from the malady
which was to prove the death of him
in few hours, Senator Daniel In
the same city was making a speech
full of patriotism and love of the
reunited country.
Gen. Lees attack is attributed
largely to his activity in behalf of
the military and naval review which
is to be held in the vicinity of James
town, Va. His heart and soul has
been in the work, and he labored
zealously to make it success. The
general had been in Boston some
days endeavoring to arrange to have
Massachusetts represented at the
jamestown Exposition. Thursday af-
ternoon be addressed the legislative
committee on Federal relations, advo
eating Massachusetts State building
at the exposition. In the evening
he began his journey South, his
health at the time appearing to be
good.
CAREER OF GREAT ACTIVITY.
His distinguished ancestry, his
brilliant record as soldier for both
the blue aud the gray, and his mas
terly administration as consul gener-
al at Havana during the exciting
period leading up to the Spanish
American war made Fitzhugh Lee
CONSPICUOUS as man among men.
Gen. Lee was born November 10,
1885, at Clermont, Fairfax County,
Va. He was the son of Commodore
Sydney Smith Lee, who was the third
son of Gen. Henry Lee, popularity
known as "Light Horse Harry" Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee was nephew of the
late Gen. Robert Z. Lee, and followed
the fortunes of his distinguished
uncle and Of his native State in the
civil war, but accepted, as did the
former, all the results of the war,
and since ApPomattox had. served
Virginia and his country in a num-
ber of important official capacities.
To him perhaps as much as to any
other man may be credited that firm
reuniting Of the North and the South
which existed even before the war
with Spain disproved a favorite
theory abroad that the United States
of America was conglomerate
nation SHIELD together by a rope of
sand"
Fitzhugh Lees father, Sydney
Smith Lee, graduated from the Ma
Val Academy and was appointed ~
midshipman in 1920. He became
commander in 1850, and resigned in
April 1861, to join the Confederacy.
His public service of more than
thirty years in the navy included
Perry's expedition to Japan and the
Mexican war. Commander Lee was
the favorite brother Of Gen. Robert
+. Lee, who called him by the pet
nickname of "Rose."
Fitzhugh Lees mother was Ann
Marie Mason, the youngest child of
Gen. John Mason. She grew up to
be great beauty and belle, and was
known as "the beautiful Nanny
Mason of the island" She spent many
of the happy days Of her girlhood
at Mount Vernon and Arlington, and
it was at the latter place, the home
of the Lees, that she met Sidney
Smith Lee, then lieutenant in the
navy. This meeting resulted in
courtship and marriage.
| 4 widow and five children survive
!. General Lee. Two of the boys are
army officers and two of the girls are
wives of army officers, while the re-
naming child is young woman still
in her teens. The children are Mrs.
j. O. Rhea, wife of Lieutenant Rhea.
J now at Fort Oglethorpe; Lieutenant
Fitzhugh Lee, of the cavalry branch
, now in Manila; Lieutenant George
Mason Lee, of the Seventh Cavalry,
who is now in San Francisco; Mrs.
3 Anne Brown, wife of Lieu tenant
t Brown, of the Seventh Cavalry, who
is now at San Francisco, aud Miss
! Virginia Lee.
Sorrow has entered every home Ia
Virginia, and not only Virginia, bat
throughout the United States and
far beyond its borders, wherever
Fitzhugh Lee was known will the
/. intelligence of his sudden death carry
9 sorrow. While President McKinley
! lived, General Lee shared with him