{⋆★⋆} 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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Can you share your source?
In the book "Who Was Who in the Civil War" by Stewart Sifakis you will find the following sentence in the biography about Stephen Lee ...."For a time he commanded an infantry brigade at and near Vicksburg, and during the siege of the city itself he was Pemberton's chief artillerist". It also mentions Lee being chief of Artillery , Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (May-July4, 1863) just before his becomming a Major General.. Not sure but I think Wikapedia makes mention of it too.
 
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Thank you for that.

I think we all know the value of Wikipedia. I have the full set of the works by Sifakis, but there are mistakes to be found.

No reflection, just saying.

I have researched that part of the war for years and that is the first I've heard of S D Lee being transferred from the infantry to artillery during the last few months of the Vicksburg campaign.
 
I agree there are mistakes in both and probably many other books and biographys as well. But that's one of the great things about this forum, when mistakes or discrepancys are posted a member or two will bring it to your attenion you fairly quick. Thank You!
 
I tend to believe an opinion of the Battle of Tupelo that I read somewhere. After General Forrest's tremendous victory at Brice's Crossroads, his commander, General Lee, wanted to get some of the glory by leading the next campaign. He failed to move his troops and motivate them as well as Forrest did and came close to suffering a major defeat.
Forrest detractors try to pin that defeat on Forrest.
 
Forrest detractors try to pin that defeat on Forrest.
Unfortunately I get the idea from the account of the battle written by Ed Bearss in Blue & Gray that to a considerable extent Forrest and his advocates have tried to pin the defeat on Lee.
 
Unfortunately I get the idea from the account of the battle written by Ed Bearss in Blue & Gray that to a considerable extent Forrest and his advocates have tried to pin the defeat on Lee.
It is my understanding that Lee was the overall commander, and also that Forrest was against frontal assaults.
 
It is my understanding that Lee was the overall commander, and also that Forrest was against frontal assaults.
According to Bearss whose interpretation I wouldn't question, it wasn't until after the assault failed that Forrest loudly protested against having made it. He did something of the same with Joe Wheeler at Fort Donelson after another failed assault but continued to hold a grudge against Wheeler whereas he seems to have smoothed things over with Lee. To me at least that indicates he shared responsibility with Lee but not with Wheeler over the failures.
 
Whatever his role in Tupelo which can be argued over whether its on him or Forrest, I can't see any real argument for him at Ezra Church, aside from "He shouldn't have been given that position". He just fed men into the Union center line, resulting in his and Stewart's Corps being cut up even further after all the bloodletting of July 20th and 22nd. Of the three July Battles, Ezra Church was probably the most pathetic action of that entire campaign.

I will say though, he does seem to improve after the campaign, once he's had time in the command seat. His corps is the only one still in any shape after Nashville, and he co-leads the rear guard of the army with Forrest.
 
As a student of the Atlanta Campaign, Lee's time in corps command was marked with two disasters for his command, at Ezra Church & Jonesborough, where he ordered his men forward into head on assault onto enemy works unprompted by his superiors.

However, his actions at Nashville, holding off Wood's & Steedman's attack on Overton Hill, & keeping his command in relatively good order & forming the rear guard for Hood's routed army, deserve to be acknowledged.

Real shame he got promoted over men like Cleburne...
 
Of the three July Battles, Ezra Church was probably the most pathetic action of that entire campaign.
Guessing that my ggg-uncle Pvt. Wallace M. Dewitt would have agreed with you. He was a regimental blacksmith serving in Co. D, under command of Captain Sloane, 30th Arkansas Infantry Regiment. That battle was his last. He lived through it and returned home to Arkansas, without much remaining of his left arm though. I'm hoping to be able to spend more time in the Atlanta area to tour the historical markers there.
 
General Stephen D. Lee by Herman Hattaway

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This biographical portrait by a well known Civil War historian brings much deserved attention to an exceptional Confederate military figure who became one of the New South's most progressive leaders.
Herman Hattaway's clear, swift narrative depicts Lee in brilliant performance at Second Manassas, Chickasaw Bayou, Nashville, and after the war as a leader who used his military skills and discipline to work in bringing prosperity and education into the defeated South.

After the war Lee established a home in Mississippi and found fulfillment in his calling to be the first president of Mississippi A & M College (today Mississippi State University), where he preached the message of applying brain power to farming. His admirers bestowed upon him the title "Father of Industrial Education in the South."

Though the significance of Stephen D. Lee was long overlooked in historical perspectives of the Civil War and the development of the New South, Hattaway's appreciative study has remedied a case of unintended neglect by previous historians.



Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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