The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-05-02
GEN. FlTZHUGH LEE DEAD
Noted Army officer and Statesman
Passes Away.
Stricken with Apoplexy on Train and
Finally succumbs in Washing
ton, ID. c.. Hospital.

! Washington, D. C.-General Fitzhugh
Lee of Virginia, died at the Provi-
dence Hospital in this city at 1120
O'Clock at night as the result of an at
tack of apoplexy and paralysis with
which he was stricken early in the
morning while travelling by rail from
Boston to Washington.
General Lee had been to Boston,
Mass, to advocate the representation
of Massachusetts, at the jamestown
Exposition in 1907, in which project he
was one of the moving spirits. He left
Boston apparently in his usual health.
| He was stricken with apOplexy at 3
O'Clock in the morning. just after the
train had left the Harlem River. New
( York City, the attack being followed
by paralysis which affected his entire
| left side. A physician was taken
aboard the train at Jersey City At
Philadelphia, Pa. he gave place TO an
other, who accompanied the General to
Baltimore. Md, where still another
was summoned and made the trip to
Washington.
The news of the Generals condition
Aiftu plSNSOtu Hill " dIU
many Of his army and personal friends
We're at the Pennsylvania station to
meet him.
Fitzhugh Lee rendered his greatest
service to his country during the Span
ish War and the period that imme-
diately preceded and followed that
epoch in American history.
A = q AZ, I,
in command of the Seventh Army
Corps, and, though he did not see any
actual fighting, took more active part
in the conduct of the military move
ments than any other Southern man.
with the possible exception of General
"Joea Wheeler.
During the period just before the war
General Lee, as Consul General at Ha-
vana, where, though a Democrat, he
had been retained by a Republican
Administration, through his tact and
firmness deserved so well of his coun-
try that his name will remain INSOFAR
able from that period of American his
tory. After the war he became Mill
tary Governor of Havana, and did val
liable work during the reconstruction
period in Cuba.
Fairfax County, Va, on November 10,
1885, and was sixty nine years old. A
nephew of Robert E. Lee, the famous
Confederate General, and a grandson
of General Henry e. Lee, the noted
Light Horse Harry" of the Revolu-
tionary War, he came from family Of
famous soldiers. But his ancestors had
been prominent in the councils of peace
as well as the councils of war in their
country ever since Colonial days. and
Fitzhugh did as much as any of his il
lustrious forbears to shed lustre on the
name of Lee i
Following the traditions of his FAM
lily, Fitzhugh Lee became a soldier. I
After a rudimentary education in the
local schools of his home town he en-
tered the West Point Military Academy
rat sixteen.
He was graduated in July. 1856. At
ter drilling recruits for some months
at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, he
was sent to the Western frontier,
where he was engaged in some spirited
combats with the Indians in Texas.
After his Indian fighting Fitzhugh
Lee was ordered back to West Point
as an instructor in cavalry tactics The
outbreak of the Civil War found him
serving in that capacity. He promptly
resigned and offered his services to the
Confederacy.
He served first on the staff of Gen
eral Ewell then as Lieutenant Colonel
of the First Virginia Cavalry, under
General Stuart, whom he accompanied
on his famous raid around the front Of
General McClellans army at Rich
mond. Later he was promoted Colo
mel, and with this rank participated in
all the campaigns of the Army of
Northern Virginia. After that his pro-
motion was even more rapid He was
appointed a Brigadier-Ge General in July,
1862 and a Major General year later.
1t was as a cavalry leader that Lee
displayed the greatest courage and
skill during the Civil War. The very
last stroke of the Army of Northern
Virginia was the cavalry charge led
by Fitzhugh Lee at Farmville, near
Appomattox, on April 8, 1865.
After the war Fitzhugh Lee returned
to his home in Stafford County, Va.
For the next few years he applied him
self to farming. Like the majority Of
the other great Confederate fighters
he accepted the result Of the war phi
losophically and was one of the first
recognized leaders or the Confeueracy
to preach the gospel of peace. The
war is over, let bygones be bygones,
was the doctrine of Fitzhugh Lee. He
spoke frequently in public in the in
terest Of reconciliation.
He was elected Governor of Virginia
in 1885.
General Lee was appointed to the
regular army with rank of Brigadier-
General in February, 1901. For time
he was in command of the Department
of Missouri. He retired for age from
the army the following March.
A widow and five children survive
him. Two Of the boys are army Off
GERS, and two of the girls are wives of
army officers, while the remaining
child is girl still in her teens.
f. G. Bigelow Trustee of Estates.
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