William Henry Fitzhugh Lee William Henry Fitzhugh Lee ( May 31 , 1837 – October 15 , 1891 ) , known as Rooney Lee ( often spelled " Roony " among friends and family ) or W . H . F . Lee , was the second son of General Robert E . Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis . He was a planter , a Confederate cavalry General in the American Civil War , and later a Congressman from Virginia . Early life . Lee was born at Arlington House in Arlington , Virginia . He attended Harvard University , where he befriended Henry Adams , who wrote about his relationship with Lee in chapter four of his autobiography , " The Education of Henry Adams . " Lee followed in his father ' s footsteps after graduation , entering the United States Army in 1857 as a second lieutenant . He served with the 6th U . S . Infantry under Albert Sidney Johnston , and participated in the Utah War against the Mormons . In 1859 , he resigned from the U . S . Army to operate his White House Plantation , on the south shore of the Pamunkey River , in New Kent County , Virginia . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Lee was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army cavalry and was soon promoted to major . He initially served in western Virginia under the command of Brig . Gen . William Loring during 1861 and early 1862 . He was assigned to the command of Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart , where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and later as colonel of the 9th Virginia Cavalry . After the Battle of South Mountain , Lee was promoted to brigadier general . He fought at Antietam under the command of Brig . Gen . Fitzhugh Lee , his cousin . He commanded the 3rd Brigade of Stuart ' s Cavalry Division at the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville . He was wounded during combat at Brandy Station at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign and was captured by Union forces at Hickory Hill , Virginia , two weeks later , while recuperating . He was shipped to New York State , where he was held as a prisoner of war until returned to the Confederate Army on February 25 , 1864 . He was exchanged for the Confederate captive , Union Brig . Gen . Neal S . Dow . In April , Lee was promoted to major general and commanded a division in the Cavalry Corps during the breakout from Petersburg and the retreat of his father ' s army in the Appomattox Campaign . By the end of the war , Rooney Lee had risen to second - in - command of the Confederate cavalry . He surrendered along with his father at Appomattox Court House . Postbellum career . Lee returned to White House Plantation and planting after the war . Nearby , his younger brother Rob lived at Romancoke Plantation across the river in King William County . After their mother died in 1873 , Rooney inherited Ravensworth Plantation , the old Fitzhugh family property ( near present - day Springfield ) in Fairfax County with of land . He moved there with his family from White House . In 1875 Rooney was elected to the Virginia Senate , serving until 1878 . He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1887 . He served in the House until his death at Ravensworth in 1891 . He is interred in the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington , Virginia , with his parents and siblings . Marriage and family . Lee married twice , first in 1859 to Charlotte Wickham , a descendant of the attorney John Wickham and his wife . They had two children , a boy and a girl , both of whom died in infancy . Charlotte died in 1863 . On November 28 , 1867 , he married Mary Tabb Bolling . They had two sons , who both lived to adulthood : Robert Edward Lee III , born February 11 , 1869 at Petersburg , and George Bolling Lee , born August 30 , 1872 at Lexington . Lee ' s mother , Mary Anna Randolph Custis , was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh . George was the grandson of Martha Dandridge and step - grandson of President George Washington . Rooney is also a great - great - great - great - great - great grandson of Charles II of England through Lady Charlotte Lee , granddaughter of Barbara Villiers , who married the 4th Baron Calvert , and possibly , George I , through Henry Swingate Calvert , whose father was the 5th Baron Calvert and whose mother was supposed to be Melusina von der Schulenberg , illegitimate daughter of the King .