Mary+Custis+Lee

(October 1, 1808 – November 5, 1873) was the wife of Confederate General Robert E.Lee

Mary Anna Custis Lee- Wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

-She was born on October 1, 1808 and died on November 5, 1873

-Her birth year is usually said to be 1808, but in the Custis family Bible and in her mother’s records it is said to be 1807. Also it is said in a letter her mother wrote in autumn of 1807

-She was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis (George Washington’s stepsgrandson) and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis (daughter of William Fitzhugh) and Ann Randolph.

-She was very well educated-knew both Latin and Greek, and loved to talk to her father and husband about politics -She loved literature

-In 1859, after her father passed away, she edited and published his writings-it was entitled “//Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son George Washington Parke Custis, with a Memoir of this Author by his Daughter”// -She knew Robert E. Lee from when she was a child

-Her sons and husband were called to service in Virgina, and she delayed evacuating Arlington until May 15, 1861. That month she wrote to Lee, //"War is inevitable, and there is no telling when it will burst around you . . . You have to move and make arrangements to go to some point of safety which you must select. The Mount Vernon plate and pictures ought to be secured. Keep quiet while you remain, and in your preparations . . . May God keep and preserve you and have mercy on all our people.” //

“When Virginia joined the Confederate States of America at the beginning of the Civil War, Robert resigned his commission with the federal army and accepted a commission in the army of Virginia. With some delay, Mary was convinced to pack up many of the family's belongings and move out of the home at Arlington, because its nearness to Washington, DC, would make it a target for confiscation by the Union forces. And so it was -- for failure to pay taxes, though an attempt to pay the taxes was apparently refused. She spent many years after the war ended trying to regain possession of her Arlington home.”  -She taught her female slaves to read and write-although she did not free her slaves, she was an advocate of eventual emancipation

-She was using a wheelchair by 1861 because of her rheumatoid arthritis

Questions: Why did you say you were against slavery, but kept your slaves? What was it like having all your sons and husband at war?