Stratford Hall

Stratford Hall. Birthplace of Robert E. Lee. Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford Hall on January 19, 1807, to Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee , a Revolutionary War hero , and Ann Hill Carter. Robert E. Lee spent the first four years of his childhood here before moving with his parents and siblings to Alexandria, Virginia. Years later, during the Civil War and after Lee's wife's home, Arlington, had been turned into a United States military cemetery, Lee wrote a letter to his daughters Agnes and Annie Lee. “I am much pleased,” he wrote on November 22, 1861, “at your description of Stratford and your visit. It is endeared to me by many recollections, and it has always been a great desire of my life to be able to purchase it. Now that we have no other home, and the one we so loved has been so foully polluted, the desire is stronger with me than ever.” Lee never purchased Stratford, however, and never owned a home., After thirty-two years of service in the U.S. Army, Lee resigned his commission on April 20, 1861, and accepted command of Virginia's army and naval forces three days later. On June 1, 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave him command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee became general-in-chief of Confederate forces on January 1, 1865. He surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. In October 1865, Lee became president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He died there on October 12, 1870.