W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee
William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee
b. 1837 · d. 1891
Second son of Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee b. 1807 · d. 1870 United States Army officer who spent much of his childhood in Alexandria at the house on Oronoco Street before his West Point appointment, and who later commanded Confederate … and Mary Anna Custis Lee Mary Anna Custis Lee b. 1808 · d. 1873 Wife of , daughter of , and great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. Brought Arlington House and its Mount Vernon-derived collections into the Lee household. ; Confederate major general of cavalry; later U.S. Representative from Virginia.
“Rooney” Lee, named for his great-uncle William Henry Fitzhugh, was the second son of Robert E. and Mary Anna Custis Lee. He attended Harvard, served briefly in the U.S. Army, and resigned in 1859 to manage the family’s White House plantation on the Pamunkey River. He joined the Confederate cavalry in 1861, rose to division command under his cousin Fitzhugh Lee, was wounded and captured at Brandy Station (1863), and exchanged in 1864.
After the war he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1887-1891) representing Virginia’s 8th congressional district until his death in office.
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