Stephen Dill Lee
Stephen Dill Lee (born September 22, 1833 in Charleston , South Carolina , † May 28, 1908 in Vicksburg , Mississippi ) was an officer in the US Army , general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War and American politician.
Lee came from a well-known South Carolina family and was a distant relative of the Lee family in Virginia (see, inter alia, Robert E. Lee ). He attended the US Military Academy at West Point , which he graduated in 1854 as 17th of 46 cadets. After graduating, he served in the artillery but returned his patent in 1861 after the secession of South Carolina.
Lee became a captain in the Confederate Army and served as General Beauregard's aide-de-camp during the bombardment of Fort Sumter . In the following years he took over a battery of artillery in the Northern Virginia Army and soon rose to lieutenant colonel and battalion commander . With this command he distinguished himself especially in the Second Battle of the Bull Run . Promoted to brigadier general, he was posted to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he took command of the Mississippi Army artillery from Lieutenant General John Clifford Pemberton .
Lee took part in the first and second Vicksburg campaigns and was captured by the Union Army when the city surrendered on July 4, 1863 , from which he was soon released. Lee was promptly promoted to major general and command of the cavalry in the Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana Defense Area. When his superior general Leonidas Polk was ordered to Georgia on the occasion of the Atlanta campaign in May 1864 , Lee rose to lieutenant general and commander in the military area.
A few months later, when John Bell Hood took command of the Tennessee Army outside Atlanta in July 1864 , Lee also went to Georgia and took over Hood's Corps. Lee served with his corps throughout the remainder of the Atlanta campaign and in the Franklin-Nashville campaign. On the second day of the Battle of Nashville , his corps was the only one that withstood Union attacks and covered the retreat of the defeated Tennessee Army for several days. Lee remained in the Tennessee Army and fought with her during the Carolina Campaign in 1865. Together with the Army and their Commander in Chief Joseph E. Johnston , he surrendered on April 26, 1865 at Durham Station, North Carolina.
After the war, Lee settled in Mississippi and became a planter . He was also politically active in the state's Senate . Lee also served as President of the United Confederate Veterans . He died on May 28, 1908 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
See also
literature
- Herman Hattaway: General Stephen D. Lee . Jackson, MS 1976.
Web links
- Stephen D. Lee in the database of Find a Grave (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lee, Stephen Dill |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Confederate politician and general in the Civil War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 22, 1833 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charleston , South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 28, 1908 |
| Place of death | Vicksburg , Mississippi |