Z 1945.000 Lee (Stephen D.) Papers

General Stephen Dill Lee was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on September 22, 1833. His great-grandfather was imprisoned for supporting the Continental cause during the Revolutionary War. Lee's grandfather was appointed a district judge in South Carolina by President Andrew Jackson during the nullification crisis.

In 1854, Lee attended the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, and upon graduating, entered the army as a regimental quartermaster for the Fourth United States Artillery; however, he resigned this post in 1861 as the South moved toward secession. Stephen D. Lee had a distinguished fighting record during the Civil War. He was one of two officers sent by General P. G. T. Beauregard to order the surrender of Fort Sumter. When the Union refused, it was Lee who gave the command to begin firing. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1862 and by the end of the war, achieved the rank of lieutenant general. Stephen D. Lee participated in the Seven Days', Second Manassas, Vicksburg, and Nashville battles and many skirmishes during the Confederate retreat following General Sherman's march to the sea.

After the war, Lee married Regina Harrison of Columbus, Mississippi. The couple made their home in Lowndes County. Lee became a state senator from Lowndes County in 1878, a delegate to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890, the first president of Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (Mississippi State University), a leader of the United Confederate Veterans, president of the Mississippi Historical Society, a member of the board of trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and president of the Vicksburg National Military Park Association. Stephen D. Lee died on May 28, 1907.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of Stephen D. Lee. There is a May 28, 1878, letter (typescript) from Lee to W. T. Walthall about the Confederate retreat from Dalton to Atlanta and its effect on soldier morale. There is also a June 29, 1896, letter from George M. West to Lee concerning the availability of an 1887 portrait of Jefferson Davis by John A. Elder. Also included is a printed copy of suggestions for the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890. Lee chaired a committee of the State Farmers' Alliance which submitted the suggestions.

1. Correspondence. 1878; 1890; 1896. 0.10 c.f.