Anne Carter Lee

Anne Carter Lee was born on June 18, 1839, at Arlington Plantation in Virginia. She was the fourth child and second daughter of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. She was a member of the prominent Lee family, descending from Richard Lee I, a colonial colonist; her paternal grandfather was Henry Lee III, who served as Governor of Virginia and as a U.S. congressman. On her mother's side, her lineage includes Martha Washington, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, and Charles II of England.

During her childhood, Lee grew up on her family's plantation and was part of the American gentry, belonging to one of the First Families of Virginia. She was a sickly child, with health issues that led her to travel to natural springs in Virginia seeking benefits. At age seven, she suffered an eye injury, and in 1857, while attending boarding school, she was sent home due to an intestinal problem. She helped educate her younger sister, Mildred Childe Lee, preparing her for school, and reportedly taught some enslaved children on her family’s plantation to read and write, despite Virginia’s laws against such activities.

In 1861, following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Lee was temporarily relocated with her sister Agnes to Ravensworth Plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, bringing valuables such as silverware and family portraits. Later that spring, she joined her mother and sister at White House Plantation along the Pamunkey River. During this period, Union troops placed her family under house arrest; they were eventually permitted to cross Confederate lines to join her father in Richmond through arrangements made by General George B. McClellan.

In August 1862, Lee contracted typhoid fever. In an effort to recover her health, she and her sister Agnes moved to Jones Springs, a mineral spring site in Warren County, North Carolina. Despite treatment, her health continued to decline, and her mother traveled from Virginia to care for her. She died there on October 20, 1862, at the age of 23, with her mother and sister present. Following her death, her father, Robert E. Lee, expressed profound grief, noting the pain of her loss.

Anne Carter Lee was initially buried in the Jones family cemetery in Warren County, North Carolina. In 1866, a group of women constructed an obelisk memorial, known as the Anne Carter Lee Monument, at her original gravesite. In 1994, her remains were exhumed and reinterred at the University Chapel of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. This relocation faced opposition from some organizations, including local chapters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, who advocated for her body to remain in North Carolina.