Major General George Washington Custis Lee (September 16, 1832 – February 18, 1913), aka Custis Lee, was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee.

From 1850 to 1854 he attended West Point, graduating first in his class. His father was the superintendent at the time of his graduation. Custis Lee was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers like his father before him and served until he resigned from the U.S. Army as a First Lieutenant in the Spring of 1861 after Virginia seceded from the Union.

During the American Civil War, Custis Lee rose to the rank of major general and spent most of the war as an aide-de-camp to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Shortly before the end of the war, Custis Lee commanded troops in the field and was captured at Sayler's Creek three days before his father surrendered to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Lee served on the faculty of the Virginia Military Institute and upon the death of his father, he served as the ninth president of Washington and Lee University between 1871 and 1897. He is buried in the Lee Chapel near his family members.

Notes

External links

• National Park Service biography
• Find-a-Grave

cs:George Washington Custis Lee de:George Washington Custis Lee fi:George Washington Custis Lee