Born Robert Edward Lee at the Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Anne Hill Carter Lee and Henry Lee III on January 19, 1807. His boyhood home was in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the Potomac river..He married the stepdaughter of the United States first president, George Washington, Mary Anna Custis in 1831. Mount Vernon, the plantation of the president was also in Alexandria,not far from the river.There home is a historic mansion the Custis - Lee Mansion (also known as Arlington House) in Arlington, Virginia which over looks the Potomac river and the grounds that became the Arlington National Cemetery. The Lee's had four daughter's Mildred Childe Lee,Mary Custis Lee,Eleanor Agnes Lee and Anne Carter Lee as well as three sons, Robert Edward Lee Jr, George Washington Custis Lee and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee.

General Lee served in the Civil war in 1862 and surrendered in 1865. He was the president of the Washington University, which is now called Washington and Lee University. On October 12, 1870 he passed away in Lexington,Virginia.