Transcript General Robert E. Lee A Family History

General
Robert E. Lee
A Family History
The Lee Family Tree
• Robert E. Lee married Mary Anna Randolph
Custis on June 30, 1831.
The Lee Family Tree
• Mary Lee was the daughter of George
Washington Parke Custis.
The Lee Family Tree
• George Washington Parke Custis was the
grandson of Martha Washington.
The Lee Family Tree
• George Washington Parke Custis’ father
(George Washington Parke Custis –
Jacky) was the son of Martha Washington
by her first marriage to Daniel Parke
Custis. They also had a daughter named
Martha ("Patsy") Parke Custis. When
Martha’s first husband died, George
Washington adopted Martha’s two
children.
The Lee Family Tree
• Mary Anna Randolph Custis was the step-great
granddaughter of President George Washington
and Martha Washington.
Arlington House – The Home of
Robert E. Lee
Arlington House
• George Washington Parke Custis (Mary Lee’s
father) built Arlington House on the banks of the
Potomac River overlooking Washington, D.C.
• Arlington House was intended as a memorial to
George Washington.
• Mr. Custis stored portraits, Washington's
personal papers and clothes, and the command
tent which the president had used at Yorktown.
Arlington House
• When Mary’s father died she inherited
Arlington House and Robert and Mary
made it their home.
• Arlington House needed many repairs and
Lee took a leave of absence from the
Army until 1860 to begin the necessary
improvements.
The Civil War Begins
• Lee was concerned for the safety of his
wife who was still residing at the mansion
and convinced her to vacate the property.
She managed to send some of the family
valuables off to safety.
• Federal forces occupied Lee's property
within a month after the fall of Fort Sumter
and used it as a headquarters for the
Union Army.
Arlington Cemetery
• By 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington
and Alexandria were filled with Union dead, and
General Montgomery C. Meigs quickly selected
Arlington as the site for a new cemetery.
• Meigs, a Georgian who had served under Lee in
the U.S. Army and who hated his fellow
Southerners who were fighting against the
Union, ordered that graves be placed just
outside the front door of the mansion, to prevent
the Lees from ever returning.
Arlington Cemetery
• Meigs himself supervised the burial of 26
Union soldiers in Mrs. Lee's rose garden.
• Neither Robert E. Lee nor his wife were to
ever set foot on the property again.
• Robert E. Lee and his wife never legally
challenged the return of the home.