Anne Carter Lee (June 18, 1839 – October 20, 1862) was the fourth child and second daughter of General

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

and

Mary Anna Custis Lee Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (October 1, 1807 – November 5, 1873) was the wife of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the last private owner of Arlington Estate. She was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis who was the grand ...

. She grew up at

Arlington House Arlington House may refer to: * Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial *Arlington House (London), a Rowton House, originally a homeless hostel, England * Arlington House, Margate, an apartment block in Kent, England *Arlington House, the demo ...

on her family's plantation. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, she stayed with relatives at Ravensworth Plantation and White House Plantation. She and her mother and sisters were placed under house arrest by Union troops in 1861 before being allowed to cross over Confederate lines to join her father in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

. Lee suffered from various health conditions throughout her life and died of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

at the age of twenty-three. She was buried in

Warren County, North Carolina Warren County is a County (United States), county located in the northeastern Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the northern border with Virginia, made famous for a Warren County PCB Landfill, lan ...

, where she died. In 1994, her body was interred at University Chapel of

Washington and Lee University Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, it is among ...

Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virg ...

. The Anne Carter Lee Monument stands at her original gravesite in Warrenton.

Biography

Anne Carter Lee was born on June 18, 1839, at Arlington Plantation in Virginia. She was the fourth child and second daughter of

and

. Lee was named after her grandmother,

Anne Hill Carter Lee Anne Hill Carter Lee (March 26, 1773 – June 26, 1829) was the First Lady of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 as the wife of the ninth governor, Henry Lee III. She was the mother of the general-in-chief of the Confederate States of America, Robert E. L ...

, and was a member of the prominent

Lee family The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial Bri ...

. She was a descendant of the colonist

Richard Lee I Richard Lee I ( – 1 March 1664) was an English-born merchant, planter and politician who was the first member of the Lee family to live in America. Poor when he arrived in the colony of Virginia in 1639, Lee may have been both the colony's w ...

, and her paternal grandfather,

Henry Lee III Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early American Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot and politician who served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia United States House of Representatives, Representa ...

, served as Governor of Virginia and as a U.S. congressman. On her mother's side, Lee was a descendant of

Martha Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 Old Style, O.S. – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, who was the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she served as the ...

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as the proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just f ...

, and

Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...

. She was a sister of

Mary Custis Lee Mary Custis Lee (July 12, 1835 – November 22, 1918) was an American heiress and the eldest daughter of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. Throughout the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, she rem ...

Mildred Childe Lee Mildred Childe Lee (February 10, 1846 – March 27, 1905) was an American society hostess and the youngest child of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. She was the last member of the Lee family to be born at Arlington Plantation and had a pr ...

George Washington Custis Lee George Washington Custis Lee (September 16, 1832 – February 18, 1913), also known as Custis Lee, was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee. His grandfather, George Washington Parke Custis was the grandson of Marth ...

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 Custis. He was a planter, a Confe ...

Eleanor Agnes Lee Eleanor Agnes Lee (February 27, 1841 – October 15, 1873) was an American diarist and poet. The fifth child of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee, she was a member of the prominent Lee family of Virginia and was affectionately calle ...

, and

Robert E. Lee Jr. Robert Edward Lee Jr. (October 27, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was the sixth of seven children of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis. He became a soldier during the American Civil War, and later was a planter, bus ...

Lee had a privileged upbringing typical of the

planter class The planter class was a Racial hierarchy, racial and socioeconomic class which emerged in the Americas during European colonization of the Americas, European colonization in the early modern period. Members of the class, most of whom were settle ...

. A member of the

American gentry The American gentry were rich landowning members of the American upper class in the colonial Southern United States. The Colonial American use of ''gentry'' was not common. Historians use it to refer to rich landowners in the South before ...

, her family were one of the

First Families of Virginia The First Families of Virginia, or FFV, are a group of early settler families who became a socially and politically dominant group in the British Colony of Virginia and later the Commonwealth of Virginia. They descend from European colonists who ...

. She was a sickly child, often travelling around to various natural springs in Virginia with her mother in search of healing benefits. When she was seven years old, Lee suffered from an eye injury. While away at boarding school in 1857, she was sent home with an intestinal problem. Lee helped educate her younger sister, Mildred, and prepared her for life at boarding school. She also taught some of the enslaved children on her family's plantation to read and write, even though this was illegal in Virginia. When the

broke out in 1861, Lee was sent with her sister, Agnes, to

Ravensworth Ravensworth is a village and civil parish in the Holmedale valley, in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-west of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond and from Darlington. The parish has a population of 255, acc ...

, their cousin's plantation in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most p ...

. She brought along the family silver and portraits for safekeeping. That spring, she joined her mother and sister at

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

, another relative's plantation along the

Pamunkey River The Pamunkey River is a tributary of the York River, about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in eastern Virginia in the United States. Via the York Ri ...

. The family were placed under house arrest by the Union Army but were released after General

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...

arranged for them to be sent across

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

lines to join Robert E. Lee in

. In August 1862 Lee contracted

. She and Agnes moved to Jones Springs, a

mineral spring Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage un ...

, in an effort to improve her health. Her state continued to decline and, after a few weeks, her mother came down from Virginia to nurse her. She died on October 20, 1862, in the presence of her mother and sister. Upon learning of her death, her father wrote, "To know that I shall never see her again on earth, that her place in our circle which I always hope one day to rejoin is forever vacant, is agonizing in the extreme." She was buried in North Carolina in the Jones family's cemetery. In 1866, a group of women had an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

, known as the Anne Carter Lee Monument, built at her gravesite. In 1994, members of the Lee family arranged for her remains to be brought to

, where she was reinterred in the University Chapel. The moving of her remains had been protested by local chapters of the

Sons of Confederate Veterans The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohisto ...

and members of the

Military Order of the Stars and Bars A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

, who wanted the body to stay in North Carolina.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Anne Carter 1839 births 1862 deaths 19th-century American women American people of English descent American socialites Burials at University Chapel Deaths from typhoid fever in the United States Episcopalians from Virginia

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...

Women in the American Civil War Children of Robert E. Lee