Stephen D . Lee Stephen Dill Lee ( September 22 , 1833 – May 28 , 1908 ) was an American soldier , planter , legislator , and author . He was the youngest Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War , and later served as the first president of $ 3 . Late in life , Lee was the commander - in - chief of the United Confederate Veterans . Early life and career . Lee was born in 1833 in Charleston , South Carolina , to Thomas Lee and his wife Caroline Allison . He was raised in Abbeville , South Carolina . He possibly volunteered for service with the United States Army during the Mexican – American War . Lee entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1850 , graduating four years later and standing 17th out of 46 cadets . On July 1 , 1854 , he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Regiment . Lee was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant on October 31 , 1856 . He served as the 4th Regiment ' s Quartermaster from Sept . 18 , 1857 , to February 8 , 1861 . Lee was serving as adjutant of Florida as well as his regiment ' s quartermaster in 1857 during the Seminole Wars . From 1858 to 1861 he was assigned to the western frontier , posted in Kansas and then in the newly created Dakota Territory . Lee then resigned his U . S . Army commission twelve days later to enter the Confederate service . Civil War service . After resigning from the U . S . Army in 1861 , Lee entered the Confederate forces as a captain in the South Carolina Militia . On March 6 he was assigned as the Assistant Adjutant General and Assistant Inspector General of the Forces at Charleston , and on March 16 he was appointed a captain in the Regular Confederate States Artillery . Beginning on April 11 Lee was aide - de - camp to Brig . Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard . That same day he delivered an ultimatum from Beauregard to Union Maj . Robert Anderson , demanding the evacuation of Fort Sumter , which was refused and after bombardment the fort fell on April 14 , precipitating the start of the Civil War . When Beauregard received permission to organize two regular companies of artillery on May 11 , Lee was assigned to command one of them ( the other went to Capt . Charles S . Winder . ) Lee ' s company was assigned to Castle Pinckney until May 30 , when it was sent to Fort Palmetto on Cole ' s Island , arriving June 1 . In June 1861 Lee resumed his position in the South Carolina Militia , and then in November he was promoted to the rank of major in the Confederate Army . Lee commanded a light battery in Hampton ' s Legion in Gen . Joseph E . Johnston ' s army later in 1861 . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1862 , and was the artillery chief for Maj . Gen . Lafayette McLaws ' s division of the Army of Northern Virginia from April to June 17 , and then in the same role under Brig . Gen . John B . Magruder until July . Lee participated in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign , notably during the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1 , the Battle of Savage ' s Station on June 29 , during the Seven Days Battles from June 25 to July 1 , and the Battle of Malvern Hill also on July 1 . He briefly served in the 4th Virginia Cavalry in July , was promoted to colonel on July 9 , and assumed command of an artillery battalion of Maj . Gen . James Longstreet ' s Corps that same month . Under Longstreet , Lee fought in the Second Battle of Bull Run that August and then Battle of Antietam on September 17 , where his guns played a prominent role in defending the ground near the famed Dunker Church . The following is a summary of Lee ' s involvement at Antietam : On November 6 , 1862 , Lee was promoted to the rank of brigadier general . Leaving the artillery branch , Lee briefly led an infantry division during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou from December 26 – 29 , where he repulsed the attacks of Union Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman . Beginning in January 1863 he led a brigade in the Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana until that May , when he was ordered to take command of Lt . Gen . John C . Pemberton ' s artillery defending access to the Mississippi River at Vicksburg . Lee fought notably during the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16 , where he was wounded when he was hit in a shoulder . Military historian Jon L . Wakelyn praises Lee ' s performance in this action , saying " he was the hero of the battle of Champion Hills . " Lee served throughout the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg until Pemberton ' s surrender to Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant on July 4 , becoming a prisoner of war . While on parole , he was promoted to the rank of major general on August 3 , 1863 . Beginning on August 16 Lee was assigned to command the cavalry of Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana , and he was officially exchanged on October 13 . He was then given command of the Department of Alabama & East Louisiana on May 9 , 1864 . Troops in Lee ' s department under Maj . Gen . Nathan B . Forrest scored a victory at the Battle of Brice ' s Crossroads on June 10 , and seriously threatened Union supply lines supporting Sherman in Georgia . Lee personally reinforced Forrest but the combined Confederate force was defeated at the Battle of Tupelo , ensuring the safety of Sherman ' s supply lines . Lee was promoted to lieutenant general on June 23 , 1864 , making Lee the youngest at this grade in the Confederate Army . On July 26 he was assigned to lead the Second Corps , Army of Tennessee , commanded by John B . Hood . During the Atlanta Campaign , Lee fought at the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28 and the Battle of Jonesborough on August 31 and September 1 . Lee fought in the Franklin - Nashville Campaign and was severely wounded in the foot at the Battle of Spring Hill on November 29 , but did not give up the command until an organized rearguard took over the post of danger . In regard to the confused and disappointing fight at Spring Hill , Lee considered it " one of the most disgraceful and lamentable occurrences of the war , one that is in my opinion unpardonable . " He then participated in the Battle of Franklin on November 30 . Lee ' s men arrived at Franklin at 4 p . m . with orders from Hood to support Benjamin F . Cheatham ' s force if necessary . Meeting with Cheatham , Lee decided the situation was dire and attacked at 9 p . m . , taking serious losses from the Union position and from Confederate artillery as well . Following the campaign ' s Battle of Nashville on December 15 – 16 , Lee kept his troops closed up and well in hand despite the general rout of the rest of the Confederate forces . For three consecutive days , they would form the fighting rearguard of the otherwise disintegrated Army of Tennessee . Lee was wounded in the foot by shell fragments on December 17 . Upon recovery , Lee joined Gen . Joseph E . Johnston during the 1865 Carolinas Campaign . On February 9 he married Regina Harrison , with whom Lee would have one child , a son named Blewett Harrison Lee . When the remnants of the Johnston ' s Army of Tennessee was re - organized in early 1865 , Lee was left without a command matching his rank , and his commission as a lieutenant general was canceled on February 23 ; however , on March 23 he was appointed a " temporary " lieutenant general . Lee surrendered at that rank with Johnston ' s forces in April and was paroled on May 1 . Postbellum career . After the war Lee settled in Columbus , Mississippi , which was his wife ' s home state and during the greater part of the war his own territorial command , and devoted himself to planting . He served as a state senator in 1878 , and was the first president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi ( modern - day Mississippi State University ) from 1880 to 1899 . Lee served as a delegate to the state ' s constitutional convention in 1890 , was the head of the Vicksburg National Park Association in 1899 . He also was an active member ( and from 1904 commander - in - chief ) of the United Confederate Veterans society . In 1887 Lee wrote an article for the first volume of " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War " , and he published " Sherman ' s Meridian Expedition and Sooy Smith ' s Raid to West Point " in 1880 . Lee died in 1908 in Vicksburg , Mississippi , and was buried in Friendship Cemetery located in Columbus . He fell sick after giving a speech to former Union soldiers from Wisconsin and Iowa , four of the regiments whom he had faced in battle 45 years earlier at Vicksburg . The cause of his death was attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage . At the time Lee was also planning the next reunion of the United Confederate Veterans , held on June 9 , 1908 . Legacy . Based on Lee ' s familiarity with the three major arms of an Civil War - era army , military historian Ezra J . Warner summarized him as an able and versatile corps commander , saying " 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 . " Lee is also memorialized with a statue in the Vicksburg National Military Park , as well busts in the center of the Drill Field at Mississippi State University and Friendship Cemetery in Columbus . Lee Hall at Mississippi State University is also named in his honor . The Lt . Gen . Stephen D . Lee Camp # 545 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Vicksburg , the Stephen D . Lee ' s Caledonia Rifles Camp # 2140 in Caledonia and the Captain Stephen Dill Lee Chapter of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars in Charleston , SC were named in his honor . On April 25 , 1906 , in a speech given at New Orleans , Louisiana , Lee gave the following charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans