This is the story of William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, the second son of Robert E. Lee and the man known to both his contemporaries and history as Rooney Lee. As a young man, he defined the Virginia “habit of command” while a beloved but not overly studious student at Harvard alongside Henry Adams. As an officer, he was an incredible cavalry commander who became the youngest Major General in the Confederate Army, leading with distinction throughout years of war and despite immense personal tragedy. After the war, he helped show Virginians how to rebuild through his magnificent effort at restoring his White House plantation and establishing a program of scientific agriculture at Ravensworth plantation. He then became a Virginia State Senator, and a member of the United States House of Representatives before passing away, one of the last great Lees. Rooney Lee was a man of faith and duty, a dashing Cavalier of a talented commander, a loving husband and father, and an example of the Virginia gentleman, being one of the last great examples of what the Virginia gentry was like.
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0:00 Rooney Lee: A Cavalier in His Own Right
4:54 A Restless Boyhood
10:38 The Virginian at Harvard
21:36 From College to the Frontier Army
26:06 Marriage and the White House Plantation
28:04 A Cavalier Rides to War
31:10 Stuart’s Daring Ride Around McClellan
38:33 Loss, Wounding, and Imprisonment
52:33 Rooney Lee’s Final Campaigns
59:48 Rebuilding from the Ruins
1:04:44 A New Family and a Farming Legacy
1:08:09 Virginia’s Statesman
1:09:34 A Lee in Congress
1:12:33 A Quiet Farewell and Lasting Legacy
Sources Referenced in this Episode:
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Daughtry, Mary, Gray Cavalier: The Life and Wars of General William H. F. Rooney Lee, https://link.amazon/B07b2Jjh1
Armes, Ethel, Stratford Hall: The Great House of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4wxAAfl
Burt, Nathaniel, First Families: The Making of an American Aristocracy, https://amzn.to/4r0KLYG
Cole, Ryan, Light-Horse Harry Lee: The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero, https://amzn.to/4wiZOy3
Connelly, Thomas L., The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Idea, https://amzn.to/4ywRf4j
Crocker, H. W., III, Robert E. Lee on Leadership: Executive Lessons in Management, https://amzn.to/4gvXpds
Dabney, Virginius, Virginia: The New Dominion, https://amzn.to/46gVW69
Dowdey, Clifford, Lee: A Biography, https://amzn.to/46lDf14
Fleming, Thomas, A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War, https://amzn.to/4yzbiix
Flood, Charles Bracelen, Lee: The Last Years, https://amzn.to/4gDcA4I
Freeman, Douglas Southall, R. E. Lee: A Biography, https://amzn.to/4gkaqrx
Hendrick, Burton J., The Lees of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4xshjNe
Lee, Cazenove Gardner, Jr., Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4q7GiTI
Longacre, Edward G., Fitz Lee: A Military Biography of Major General Fitzhugh Lee, https://amzn.to/4xkLNAu
Nagel, Paul C., The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family, https://amzn.to/4wUxkfi
Nichols, James L., General Fitzhugh Lee: A Biography, https://amzn.to/4qeURoz
Royster, Charles, Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution, https://amzn.to/3TKWspX
Sanborn, Margaret, Robert E. Lee: A Portrait, https://amzn.to/3SA6EkN
Thomas, Emory M., Robert E. Lee: A Biography, https://amzn.to/46qVL8c
Transcript
