Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/713

Rh graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1856, and commissioned 2d lieutenant in tiie 2d cav- alry. He was severely wounded in a fight with Indians, and in May, 1860, was ordered to report at West Point as instructor of cavalry. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861 he resigned his commission and entered the Confederate service. He was first placed on staff duty, and was adjutant- general of Ewell's brigade until September, 1861, when he was made lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Virginia cavalry, and later was promoted colonel, and he participated in all the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia. On 25 July, 1862, he was made brigadier-general, and on 3 Sept., 1863, major general. In the battle of Winchester, 19 Sept., 1864, three horses were shot under him, and he was disabled by a severe wound, which kept him from duty for several months. In March, 1865, he was put in command of the whole cavalry corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, and a month later he surrendered to Gen. Meade at Farmville, after which he retired to his home in Stafford county. In 1874 he made a speech at Bunker Hill which attracted wide attention. In the winter and spring of 1882-'3 he made a tour through the southern states, in the interest of the Southern historical society. He was elected gov- ernor of Virginia in 1885.

LEE, Samuel, clergyman, b. in England in 1625; d. in St. Malo, France, in 1091. He was a learned non-conformist divine, and minister to a church in Bristol, R. I., in 1686-'8. On his way home he was captured by the French. Besides several relig- ious treatises, he published " The Temple of Solo- mon portrayed by Scripture Light " (London, 1659).

LEE, Thomas, statesman, b. in Charleston, S. C, 1 Dec, 1769; d. there, 24 Oct.. 1839. His father was one of the Charleston patriots that were sent to St. Augustine by Sir Henry Clinton. Thomas was admitted to the bar in 1790. soon rose to eminence, was clerk of the South Carolina house of representatives in 1798-1804, at the latter date was elected an associate judge, and on his resigna- tion a few months subsequently became comp- troller-general of the state, nolding office till 1816. He was president of the state of South Carolina bank from 1817 till his death, served several terms in the legislature, and in 1823 was appointed by President Monroe U. S. district judge, holding office during the remainder of his life. He was active in the temperance reform and in benevolent enterprises. — His niece, Mary Elizabeth, author, b. in Charleston, S. C, 23 March, 1813 ; d. there, 23 Sept., 1849, early manifested literary tastes, was a zealous student, and possessed a remarkable talent for the acquisition of languages. Her prose writings have not been collected, but " Historical Talcs for Youth," published in the " Massachu- setts School Library," is from her pen. "The Blind Negro Communicant" is the best known of her poems. A volume of her verses, with a me- moir of her by Rev. Samuel Gilman, was published after her death (Charleston, 1851).

LEE, Thomas Sim, statesman, b. in Frederick county, Va., in 1744; d. there, 9 Nov., 1819. He was educated by private tutors, and removed to Maryland, where he held several local offices, and was governor of the state in 1779-'83. He was a delegate to the Continental congress in 1783-'4, and to the State constitutional convention in 1786. In 1794 he was elected U. S. senator from Maryland, but declined to serve.

LEE, William Little, chief justice of the Ha- waiian islands, b. in Sandy Hill, Washington co., N. Y., 25 Feb., 1821 ; d. in Honolulu, 28 June, 1857. He was graduated at Norwich university, Vt, and went to Portsmouth, Va., as superintendent of the military academy that had been established there by Capt. Alden Partridge. He then studied at Harvard law-school and settled in the practice of his profession at Troy, N. Y. Being threatened with pulmonary phthisis, he decided to try a milder climate, and in 1846 set out for Oregon. Being detained for several months at Honolulu by repairs to the vessel on which he had sailed, Mr. Lee un- dertook some important suits for the Hawaiian government, and soon afterward accepted the post of chief justice and chancellor, which he retained through life. Among his labors were the framing of the revised constitution of the kingdom, and the drawing up of its civil and criminal codes. He strenuously urged upon the king and chiefs the policy of giving up a third of their lands to the common people, and when a law to that effect was passed he was appointed president of the land com- mission to carry out its provisions ; but he declined to accept any compensation for his services. Judge Lee's health, always delicate, gave way as a result of undue exposure in attendance upon the sick during an epidemic of small-pox that decimated the Hawaiian nation in 1853. This brought on a return of his early malady, and in 1855 he left for the United States in the hope of regaining his health. As minister Judge Lee negotiated a reci- procity treaty, while there, with William L. Marcy, who was then secretary of state.

LEE, Wilson, clergyman, b. in Sussex county, Del., in 1761; d. in Anne Arundel countv, Md., il Oct., 1804. He became an itinerant Methodist minister in 1784, and labored extensively in the west, especially in Kentucky. He was appointed to the New London, Conn., district in 1794, and subsequently served on the New York, Philadel- phia, and Baltimore circuits. He was one of the most laborious and successful missionaries of his time, his labors in the west contributing largely to the evangelization of Kentucky and Tennessee, and he shared with Jesse Lee in the founding of Methodism in New England.

LEECH, Daniel D. Tompkins, government official, b. in Nassau, N. Y., 3 April, 1810; d. in Washington. D. C, 5 Nov., 1869. His grandfather, Capt. Hezekiah Leach, served in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. He was graduated at Union college in 1829, was a tutor of languages there, and afterward taught in the Albany academy under Joseph Henry. About 1837 he removed to Washington with Prof. Henry, took a clerkship in the post-office department, and retained a post either in this or in the treasury department until his death, his duties being largely in connection with the foreign departments because of his linguistic acquirements. In 1855, as confidential clerk to the postmaster-general, he compiled a post-route bill, covering the entire United States, for which congress voted him $1,000. In 1857 he wrote the histories of the U. S. departments for the "National Intelligencer." He was the author of the first postal directory (1857), and continued it for several years as a private enterprise, till it was adopted by the government. He was widely known for his zealous ministrations during the civil war among the National soldiers in camp, barracks, and hospitals. — His son, Samuel Van Derlip, clergvman, b. in Albany, N. Y., 17 March, 1837, attended school until he was fourteen years of age, when he became private secretary of Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia. In 1853 he went as secretary to a government expedition to Central America, Venezuela, and the West Indies, on his