The blameless life he had led, his high character, his gentle and unassuming manners, won for him not only the respect but the admiration of all with whom he came in contact.

As gentle as a child and as tender as a woman, with the courage of a hero and a faith that never faltered, he proved himself a worthy descendant of that race of famous men from whom he sprang, and most worthily bore a name which will be honored as long as a liberty-loving people shall find a dwelling place upon the earth.

William H.F.  Lee was the son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and was born at Arlington, on the 31st day of May, 1837.

He was educated at Harvard, where he ranked not only as a good scholar, but on account of his splendid size and strength became quite famous in athletics, being “stroke oar” of the University Rowing Club.

His great ambition was to follow the profession of his father and to go to West Point; but having had an older brother there, that fact was considered in those days an insuperable obstacle.  While still at Harvard, completing his education, he was, through the interest taken in him by Gen. Winfield Scott, who made the request as a special and personal favor to himself, appointed in 1857 a second lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States Infantry, and inaugurated his military career by taking a detachment of troops to Texas by sea and then by land up the country to San Antonio.

In 1858 he accompanied his regiment, under the command of Col.  Albert Sidney Johnston, in the expedition to Utah against the Mormons, taking an active part in that campaign, marching from Fort Leavenworth to Salt Lake City, and then, when the troubles were quelled there, traveling on foot to Fort Benicia, Cal.  While on the Pacific coast he received a letter from his father, written January 1, 1859, in which he said: 

I can not express the gratification I felt in meeting Col.  May in New York, and at the encomiums he passed upon your soldiership, zeal, and devotion to your duty.  But I was more pleased at the report of your conduct.  I always thought and said there was stuff in you for a good soldier, and I trust you will prove it.

Resigning his commission in the Army, he came home to be married to his cousin, a Miss Wickham, and settled down as a farmer at the “White House” (where Washington met Martha Custis and was married), a large estate on the Pamunkey River, left him by his maternal grandfather, G.W.  Park Custis, of Arlington.

When that irrepressible conflict of 1861 was upon us, and Virginia called upon her sons to defend her soil, he, sharing the faith of his fathers, in the belief that his allegiance was due to his State, quickly raised a company of cavalry, and was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia.  Serving in every grade successively from captain to major-general of cavalry, he led his regiment in the famous raid around McClellan’s army, and was an active participant in all those brilliant achievements which made the cavalry service so proficient.