Stephen Dill Lee (September 22, 1833 – May 28, 1908) was an American officer in the Confederate Army, politician, and first president of Mississippi State University from 1880 to 1899. He served as lieutenant general of the Confederate States Army in the Eastern and Western theaters of the American Civil War.
Stephen Dill Lee was born in Charleston, South Carolina on September 22, 1833, the son of Thomas Lee and his wife Caroline Allison. Lee was raised in Abbeville, South Carolina. He possibly volunteered for service with the United States Army during the Mexican–American War. Lee entered the United States Military Academy in 1850, graduating four years later the 17th out of 46 cadets.
On July 1, 1854, Lee was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Regiment. Lee was promoted to first lieutenant on October 31, 1856. He served as the regiment's quartermaster from September 18, 1857, to February 8, 1861. He was an adjutant of Florida as well as his regiment's quartermaster in 1857 during the Seminole Wars. From 1858 to 1861, he was assigned to the western frontier, posted in the Kansas Territory and then in the newly created Dakota Territory. Lee then resigned his U.S. Army commission twelve days later to join the Confederate States Army.
On March 6, he was assigned as the assistant adjutant general and assistant inspector general of the Forces at Charleston. On March 16, he was appointed a captain in the Regular Confederate States Artillery. Beginning on April 11, Lee was aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. That same day, he delivered an ultimatum from Beauregard to U.S. Maj. Robert Anderson, demanding the evacuation of Fort Sumter, which was refused, and after Battle of Fort Sumter, the fort fell on April 14, precipitating the start of the Civil War. According to Carl Sandburg (Abraham Lincoln, vol. 3, pp. 208–209), Captain Lee and three other men with full power from Beauregard to decide what to answer Anderson heard him say he would be starved out in a few days. Anderson offered to "evacuate Fort Sumter in 3 days and avoid the useless effusion of blood." They could have taken Anderson's reply back to Beauregard and have it telegraphed to Jefferson Davis to see if they would wait three days more to see if Anderson would surrender after his food was gone. "It seemed almost as though the 4 men had decided before they came what they would say, which was: "Beauregard will open fire on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." This probably was not, as it seems, the last opportunity to avoid war because "Sumter was a symbol, a Chip on the Shoulder." It was "framed" by Lincoln, and the South was eager to meet the challenge. (ibid, p. 206) Sandburg calls this war "the Second American Revolution." (ibid, p. vii, p. 26). In the end, Lee cleared South Carolina Confederate soldiers to fire upon the fort, effectively beginning the Civil War.
When Beauregard received permission to organize two regular artillery companies on May 11, Lee was assigned to command one; the other went to Capt. Charles Sidney Winder. Lee's company was assigned to Castle Pinckney until May 30, when it was sent to Fort Palmetto on Cole's Island, arriving June 1.
In June 1861, Lee resumed his position in the South Carolina Militia, and then in November, he was promoted to the rank of major in the Confederate Army. Lee commanded a light battery in Hampton's Legion in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army later in 1861. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1862 and was the artillery chief for Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws's division of the Army of Northern Virginia from April to June 17, and then in the same role under Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder until July.
Lee participated in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, notably during the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1, the Battle of Savage's Station on June 29, during the Seven Days Battles from June 25 to July 1, and the Battle of Malvern Hill also on July 1. He briefly served in the 4th Virginia Cavalry in July, was promoted to colonel on July 9, and assumed command of an artillery battalion of Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's Corps that same month. Under Longstreet, Lee fought in the Second Battle of Manassas that August and then Battle of Antietam on September 17, where his guns played a prominent role in defending the ground near the famed Dunker Church. The following is a summary of Lee's involvement at Sharpsburg:
...he deployed late on the 15th on the West side of Antietam Creek. He exchanged fire with the U.S. batteries [across] the creek on the 16th the fight becoming more intense as sundown approached. On the morning of the 17th he positioned his batteries on the high ground near the Dunkard Church, and was heavily engaged against the assaults of the U.S. I and XII Corps through the Cornfield and to the West Woods. About 10 am, he was ordered to the vicinity of Sharpsburg in the face of Burnside's afternoon drive from the Lower Bridge and was furiously engaged there as well.
On November 6, 1862, Lee was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Leaving the artillery branch, Lee briefly led an infantry division during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou from December 26–29, where he repulsed the attacks of U.S. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. Beginning in January 1863, he led a brigade in the Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana until that May when he was ordered to take command of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's artillery defending access to the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Lee fought notably during the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, where he was wounded in the shoulder. Military historian Jon L. Wakelyn praises Lee's performance in this action, saying, "he was the hero of the battle of Champion Hills."
Lee served throughout the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg until Pemberton's surrender to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, becoming a prisoner of war. While on parole, he was promoted to the rank of major general on August 3, 1863. Beginning on August 16, Lee was assigned to command the Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana cavalry, and he was officially exchanged on October 13. During that time, General Joseph E. Johnston sent Lee's small cavalry force of 2,500 men to Tennessee to reinforce General Braxton Bragg, who was beginning to lay siege to Chattanooga. Lee rode from northern Mississippi into northern Alabama, where he met Confederate cavalry commander Joseph Wheeler who had just conducted a raid through central Tennessee and convinced Lee his plans would be hopeless against the great number of U.S. soldiers in the region.
Lee was then given command of the Department of Alabama & East Louisiana on May 9, 1864. Troops in Lee's department under Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest scored a victory at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads on June 10 and seriously threatened U.S. supply lines supporting Sherman in Georgia. Lee personally reinforced Forrest, but the combined Confederate force was defeated at the Battle of Tupelo, ensuring the safety of Sherman's supply lines.
Lee was promoted to lieutenant general on June 23, 1864, making Lee the youngest at this grade in the Confederate States Army. On July 26 he was assigned to lead the Second Corps, Army of Tennessee, commanded by John Bell Hood. During the Atlanta campaign, Lee fought at the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28 and was in command of the extended line in southwest Atlanta in August 1864. His troops, with the attachment of William B. Bate's Division and a Brigade of Georgia militia, defeated Schofield's movement to break the railroad lines at East Point at the Battle of Utoy Creek. For this action, he published a general order recognizing Bate's Division for defeating the attack of the combined U.S. XXIII Corps and XIV Corps. He also commanded his corps at the Battle of Jonesborough on August 31 and September 1. Lee fought in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign and was severely wounded in the foot at the Battle of Spring Hill on November 29, but did not give up the command until an organized rearguard took over the post of danger. Regarding the confused and disappointing fight at Spring Hill, Lee considered it "one of the most disgraceful and lamentable occurrences of the war, one that is in my opinion unpardonable." He then participated in the Battle of Franklin on November 30. Lee's men arrived at Franklin at 4:00 pm with orders from Hood to support Benjamin F. Cheatham's force if necessary. Meeting with Cheatham, Lee decided the situation was dire and attacked at 9:00 pm, taking serious losses from the U.S. position and Confederate artillery. Following the campaign's Battle of Nashville on December 15–16, Lee kept his troops closed up and well in hand despite the general rout of the rest of the Confederate forces. For three consecutive days, they would form the fighting rearguard of the otherwise disintegrated Army of Tennessee. Lee was wounded in the foot by shell fragments on December 17.