Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/330

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VIRGLMA BIOGRAPHY

returned home, where he soon afterwards married Charlotte Wickham. He then be- came a planter and located on the famous old Custis estate, the "White House," where the \Vidow Custis lived at the time of her marriage to George Washington. William H. Lee joined the Virginia troops soon after the outbreak of the war, holding various ranks, from that of captain to that of major- general of cavalry. He was badly wounded in the fight at Brandy Station and taken to the home of a relative of his wife. General Wickham, and soon afterwards taken pris- oner and confined at Fortress Monroe. Thence he was taken to Fort Lafayette and confined there until March, 1864. In com- pany with another Confederate soldier he was held as hostage for two Federal pris- oners who were held in Richmond, who it was feared might be executed. Upon his release he returned home to find his young wife and children dead and his beautiful home burned to the ground and the estate laid waste. Almost the first thing he did was to go to Libby Prison and visit the two Federal prisoners who had been held, like himself, in fear of execution. He rejoined his command and led his division from Rapidan to Appomattox. His soldiers loved and trusted him and he fulfilled every duty and made every sacrifice required of him in the interests of the cause. When he was a prisoner of war, under fear of death, upon hearing of the fatal illness of his wife and two little children, he was not permitted to see them, even though his friends were working hard to obtain this permission for him. He accepted all as the ill fortune of war and was not embittered by this sor- row. Afterwards, as a farmer, he had to contend with a changing order of things and the confusion ensuing upon such great changes as followed the war. He became president of the Virginia Agricultural So- ciety, served as state senator and member of Congress.

In 1867 he married Mary Tabb Boiling, and in 1874 they removed to Ravensworth, an estate of the Fitzhugh family, which William H. F. Lee inherited from his uncle, William Henry Fitzhugh. His death oc- curred there, a few months prior to the ex- piration of his second term as member of Congress, and after his election to the fifty- second Congress. He was always courteous and dignified in manner and deportment, charitable in a quiet way, and very much de-

voted to home and family. His first wife died in 1863. His second wife was a daugh- ter of George W. and Martha S. (Nicholls) Boiling, of Petersburg, who survived him. with their two sons, Robert Edward and George Boiling Lee, the former of whom became a lawyer and the latter a physician.

The Boilings were early Virginia colo- nists. Robert Boiling came to Virginia in 1660, and married (first) in 1675, J^ne, daughter of Thomas Rolfe and granddaugh- ter of Pocahontas, and (second) Anne, daughter of John Stith. Robert, a son of the latter marriage, married Mary Cocke. Their son, Robert, married Mary Marshall Tabb, and the son of this union, Robert Boiling, the fourth of the name, was four times married, and by his last wife, Anne Dade (Stith) Boiling, had a son, George W., who married Martha S. Nicholls, of Georgetown. Mary Tabb Boiling was born at Petersburg, Virginia, in 1850.

Dr. George Boiling Lee prepared for col- lege at a private Episcopal school for boys near Alexandria, Virginia, and entered Washington-Lee University, which he left in 1892 to enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia LTniversity, of New York, from which he graduated in 1896 with the degree of M. D. He gained valuable experience and training by spend- ing seven months as an interne at Bellevue Hospital, New York, and for five years thereafter was chief of the clinic of the out- door department of the same hospital, per- forming the work with distinction and cred- it. He became well known in city medical circles. At the outbreak of the Spanish- American war he enlisted and in 1898 served as surgeon at the headquarters of the Sev- enth Army Corps at Jacksonville, Florida, holding the rank of captain. In 1899 he be- came associated with Dr. W. G. W^ylie in general practice in New York City, but since 1902 has been practicing his profession alone. He is well established and enjoys a good practice. He is peculiarly well fitted for his profession, which he chose because of his predeliction for it. Few have so noble lineage, including the most prominent among the aristocratic families of Mrginia, who bore so honorable a share in build- ing up the Old Dominion. He is a member of the New York State Medical Society, Greater New York Medical Society and New York County Medical Society, in all of which he takes a professional interest and