Stephen Dill Lee
1833 - 1908
Stephen Dill Lee, the youngest Lieutenant General of the Confederacy, was
born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 22, 1833. He was graduated from
West Point in 1854. Resigning his commission on February 20, 1861, he entered
Confederate service as captain and aide-de-camp to General Beauregard.
By profession an artillerist, he served in the artillery through all the
Virginia campaigns until Sharpsburg, and was meantime promoted through grades to
Colonel. On November 6, 1862, he was appointed Brigadier General and was
assigned to the command of General Pembertonís artillery at Vicksburg. He was
exchanged after the capitulation of the place in July 1863, and was promoted
Major General on August 3. He was then placed in command of the cavalry in the
Department of Mississippi, Alabama, West Tennessee, and East Louisiana.
Appointed to Lieutenant General, to rank from June 23, 1864, he assumed
command of Hoodís old corps of the Army of Tennessee, which he led during the
Tennessee campaign and in the closing days, until the surrender of General
Joseph F. Johnston in North Carolina.
After the war General Lee resided in Mississippi, where he was farmer, state
senator, and the first president of Mississippi State College. He was also a
leading figure in the United Confederate Veterans, whose organization he headed
as commander-in-chief from 1904 until his death at Vicksburg, May 28, 1908.