{⋆★⋆} LG Lee, Stephen Dill

Stephen Dill Lee
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:CSA1stNat:

Born:
September 22, 1833

Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina

Genealogical Connection: Stephen's Great-Great-Great Grandfather Francis Lee (Lord Mayor of London in 1602) is an ancestor of Robert E. Lee

Father: Dr. Thomas Lee 1809 – 1870
(Buried: Upper Long Cane Cemetery Abbeville South Carolina)​

Mother: Caroline Allison 1811 – 1838
(Buried: Calhoun Family Burial Ground McCormick South Carolina)​

Wife: Regina Harrison 1841 – 1903
(Buried: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi)​

Children:

Blewett Harrison Lee 1867 – 1951​
(Buried: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi)

Education:

1854: Graduated from West Point Military Academy (17th in class)​

Occupation before War:

1854 – 1856: 2nd Lt. United States Army 4th Artillery​
1856 – 1861: 1st Lt. United States Army 4th Artillery​
1857: Acting Assistant Adjutant General Department of Florida​
1857 – 1861: Quartermaster for 4th United States Army Artillery​
1861: Resigned from United States Army on February 20th​
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Civil War Career:

1861: Captain of South Carolina State Militia​
1861: Assistant Adjutant General of the forces in Charleston S.C.​
1861: Captain of Confederate Army Artillery​
1861: Aide to General P.G.T. Beauregard​
1861 – 1862: Major in Hampton's Legion Light Artillery​
1862: Lt. Colonel of Confederate Army Artillery​
1862: Participated in the Peninsula Campaign​
1862: Colonel of Confederate Army Artillery​
1862: Participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run​
1862: Participated in the Battle of Antietam​
1862 – 1863: Brigadier General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1862: Participated in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou​
1863: Participated in Vicksburg Campaign becoming prisoner of war​
1863 – 1864: Major General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1864: Commander of Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana​
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1864: Participated in the Battle of Tupelo Mississippi​
1864 – 1865: Lt. General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1864: Participated in the Atlanta Campaign​
1864: Wounded in the foot during the Battle of Spring Hill​
1864: Wounded in the foot by shall fragments (December 17)​
1865: Participated in the Carolina's Campaign​
1865: Surrendered with General Joseph Johnston's Army​

Occupation after War:

1865 – 1878: Planter in Columbus Mississippi​
1878: Mississippi State Senator​
1879 – 1880: Planter in Columbus Mississippi​
1880 – 1899: President of A & M College of Mississippi​
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1890: Delegate to Mississippi State Constitution Convention​
1899 – 1908: Chairman of Vicksburg National Park Association​
Active member of United Confederate Veterans Society​
1904: Commander in Chief of United Confederate Veterans Society​

Died: May 28, 1908

Place of Death: Vicksburg Mississippi

Cause of Death: Cerebral Hemorrhage

Age at time of Death: 74 years old

Burial Place: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi


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Lt. General Stephen D. Lee and Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson, both native South Carolinians, served together as Captain`s and Aides-de-Camp to General P.G.T. Beauregard during the early part of the ACW and were the ones sent to Major Robert Anderson, who was their former Instructor at West Point, to give terms and accept the surrender of Fort Sumter. It is said that Capt. Stephen D. Lee gave the order to fire the first shot (Cannon) on Fort Sumter which would have been the first shot fired during the Civil War. After Anderson surrendered Sumter, Capt. Samuel Wragg Ferguson lowered the Stars and Stripes and hoisted the First National Confederate Flag (Stars and Bars) over Fort Sumter. After the Battle of Shiloh, both Lee and Ferguson ended up in Mississippi where they served quite a bit of the war fighting against Sherman and Grant and after the war both moved to Mississippi and died there being laid to rest in their adopted state.

My 3rd Great Grandfather with the 2nd Regiment Alabama Cavalry in Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade served under the Command of Maj. General Stephen D. Lee in Mississippi from the summer of 1863 until the Spring of 1864. Specifically regarding "Grierson`s Northern Mississippi and Alabama Operations", "Sherman`s Chattanooga Campaign", "Maj. General S. D. Lee`s Expedition to the Tennessee River"; "Maj. General Nathan Bedford Forrest`s Campaign to Recruit his new Cavalry Division in Middle Tennessee", "Sherman`s Great Mississippi Expedition (Meridian Campaign) and "Maj. General Nathan Bedford Forrest`s Okolona Campaign"

 
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A & M College of Mississippi now it's called Mississippi State University

Lee Hall at the campus of MSU
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The quadrangle in the center of the campus has served as the ROTC's drill field. During the height of the Viet Nam War, the course curriculum required 2 years of ROTC. Every Tuesday, this Drill Field would be covered with cadets in formation.

Air Force ROTC cadets from my class taken in 1972.

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In the center of the Drill Field where the sidewalks intersected, there is a bust of General Stephen D. Lee. This bust appears to be identical to the one shown in the cemetery in the previous post.

This is a photo of my Father posing next to General Lee which was probably taken during his freshman year in 1939.

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This probably don't happen at all of the Sons of Confederate Veterans meetings but it happens at ours. It's known as Lee's Charge "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought: to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of the principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty that the true history of the South is presented to future generations".
 
"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of the principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations".

This "Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans" was written by S. D. Lee and first given at New Orleans on 24 Apr 1906. Our SCV Camp also quotes it after honoring the American Flag, Christian Flag, Confederate Battle Flag and Mississippi State Flag during our monthly meetings.
 
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Polloco, both Samuel Wragg Ferguson and Stephen D. Lee remained close friends of Jefferson Davis after he was released from prison and moved to Beauvoir in Biloxi, Ms. and both would visit him often there. Ferguson even moved to Biloxi for a few years and spent time with Davis daily. Both Lee and Ferguson were at his funeral in 1889 and 4 years later were also members of Jefferson Davis` Reinterment Escort (Mississippi Escort) on 27 May 1893 who escorted Davis` remains from New Orleans to Richmond where he was re-interred there. I have a copy of a photo of all of the ones who made up the Mississippi Escort (1893), to include Lee and Ferguson who were sitting side by side in the photo.
 
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This probably don't happen at all of the Sons of Confederate Veterans meetings but it happens at ours. It's known as Lee's Charge "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought: to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of the principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty that the true history of the South is presented to future generations".
More than one hundred years ago (1906) General Stephen D. Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the United Confederate Veterans, gave a charge to the next generation of Southerners. This charge has defined the mission of the Sons of Confederate Veterans ever since:

“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish.”
http://www.stephendleeinstitute.com/about-us.html
 
When I read about Stephen Lee, I always think of his “dear friend” and West Point classmate General William Dorsey Pender. When Pender died (July 18th) from his wound he received on July 2nd at Gettysburg, that fall Pender’s wife Fanny gave birth to the couple’s 3rd son and named him Stephen Lee Pender. But another loss for the Pender’s was the “matchmaking” they were working on uniting Stephen Lee to Fanny’s younger sister Pamela Martha Shepperd. Without General Pender “catalytic influence the romance withered’.

The Civil War Letters of General William Dorsey Pender, page 262.
 
When I read about Stephen Lee, I always think of his “dear friend” and West Point classmate General William Dorsey Pender

Cadet Stephen D. Lee was roommate with Custis Lee and ate dinner with the Lee family. At the time, he did not know he was distantly related to the Robert E. Lee---going back several generations.
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Lee was a stout post-war defender of General Hood. There are several intriguing letters exchanged where Lee was urging Hood to break his silence and go on record of what actually caused the Spring Hill debacle. At one point, Lee threatened to go public himself if Hood would not. This is covered well in Sam Hood’s book from his newly found Papers of General Hood. In the past year I have seen some letters from Lee to other Confederate figures in the late 1800s recounting his correspondence with Gen. Hood offered by a dealer.
 
Cadet Stephen D. Lee was roommate with Custis Lee and ate dinner with the Lee family. At the time, he did not know he was distantly related to the Robert E. Lee---going back several generations.
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Lee must have been an instructor at West Point or stationed there or nearby because this certainly isn't a photograph of him as a cadet - moustaches and beards were forbidden to cadets! Besides, he's wearing the uniform of a Regular Army officer, artillery to judge by his cap insignia, but for some reason he's cradling a cavalry saber.
 
When I read about Stephen Lee, I always think of his “dear friend” and West Point classmate General William Dorsey Pender. When Pender died (July 18th) from his wound he received on July 2nd at Gettysburg, that fall Pender’s wife Fanny gave birth to the couple’s 3rd son and named him Stephen Lee Pender. But another loss for the Pender’s was the “matchmaking” they were working on uniting Stephen Lee to Fanny’s younger sister Pamela Martha Shepperd. Without General Pender “catalytic influence the romance withered’.

The Civil War Letters of General William Dorsey Pender, page 262.
And I will remember the famous photos taken of the Dunker Church area at Antietam showing casualties of Lee's artillery in "artillery hell".
 
Lee had his good moments, and bad ones too.
I have often wondered what his veterans thought of him criticizing THEM in the OR's for their lack of zeal at the battle of Jonesboro, GA.? That took place a short time after Lee rammed thousands of them against the dug in Yanks at the battle of Ezra Church, with a terrible casualty rate, that accomplished little.:unsure:
He fought a good commander in A.J. Smith, at the battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, and was beaten back.

Kevin Dally
 
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