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110 lot Lee, who fought by the side of William the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, and Lionel Lee, who followed Richard Coeur de Lion in the third Crusade 1192. Fitzhugh Lee is a grandson of General Henry Lee, known as "Light Horse Harry," of the Carolinas, during the Revolutionary war.

His early life spent in the country confirmed his health and strength, which have always been good. His tastes even in childhood were military; and after an excellent preparation for the course, he was graduated from West Point military academy in 1856. He was detailed at once to Carlisle barracks, Pennsylvania, and appointed instructor of war recruits in horsemanship. As a lieutenant of the 2d United States cavalry, he accompanied his regiment to Texas to subdue the hostile Comanches on the frontier. On May 14, 1858, he was wounded in the lungs by an Indian arrow; and he had several personal encounters with mounted Indians, one of these engagements, January 15, 1860, being particularly severe. He was instructor in cavalry tactics, at West Point from 1860-61. In the latter year he resigned his commission in the United States army, when the people of his native state had confirmed the act of secession; and returning to Virginia he was commissioned assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain in the Confederate army; and during the Civil war, he rose to the rank of major-general, commanding the cavalry corps of General Robert E. Lee.

His record in the Confederate army began with the first battle of Manassas, in which he served on the staff of General Ewell. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Virginia cavalry, Colonel J. E. B. Stuart commanding, in 1862. Succeeding General Stuart in the command of the regiment, he took part in the raid around McClellan's army and in all the battles of Northern Virginia, 1861-62. He was commissioned brigadier-general, July 25, 1862, and was in command of a brigade of Virginia cavalry in the second battle of Manassas, August 29 and 30, 1862, in which he made an attack on Pope's army at Catletts Station, taking Pope's headquarters and nearly making a prisoner of the commanding officer. He participated in the engagements of South Mountain, Crompton's Gap, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, from September 14, 1862 to July 3, 1863. He was commissioned major-general, September 3, 1863. He met Custer and Kilpatrick, October 19, 1863 in a cavalry engagement; and he commanded a division of cavalry in the battles