Undated signature in ink on card which measures 3 1/2” x 2”.  “Fitzhugh Lee / Virginia”. Overall excellent condition; mounting evidence on reverse.

Fitzhugh Lee (1835 – 1905), nephew of Robert E. Lee, was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish-American War.

He campaigned against the Comanche in Texas and later was an instructor at West Point when Virginia seceded in May, 1861. He immediately resigned his commission to serve his state. In the Civil War, Lee performed well in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, covering the Confederate infantry's withdrawal from South Mountain, delaying the Union Army advance to Sharpsburg, Maryland, before the Battle of Antietam, and covering his army's recrossing of the Potomac River into Virginia. He conducted the cavalry action of Kelly's Ford (March 17, 1863) with skill and success, where his 400 troopers captured 150 men and horses with a loss of only 14 men. In the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Lee's reconnaissance found that the Union Army's right flank was "in the air", which allowed the successful flanking attack by Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, a movement led by Lee's cavalry.

After Chancellorsville, Lee was incapacitated by inflammatory rheumatism, missing a month of action, which included the significant cavalry operations at the Battle of Brandy Station. He recovered in time to lead a brigade in Jeb Stuart's ride around the Union Army in the early days of the Gettysburg Campaign, with his most significant contribution being at the Battle of Carlisle. During the Battle of Gettysburg, his brigade fought unsuccessfully in the action at East Cavalry Field. Stuart's report singled out no officer in his command for praise except Fitz Lee, who he said was "one of the finest cavalry leaders on the continent, and richly [entitled] to promotion." Lee was promoted to major general on August 3, 1863.

In the Overland and Petersburg campaigns of 1864, he was constantly employed as a divisional commander under Stuart, and, after Stuart's death, under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton. Hampton, who had been Lee's peer for much of the war, was promoted to replace Stuart due to his seniority and greater level of experience; some observers at the time had cynically expected Robert E. Lee's nephew to receive the command. Despite Lee's abilities, in 1864 he was unable to break through United States Colored Troops defense of Fort Pocohontas in Charles City County.

Lee took part in Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early's campaign against Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and at Third Winchester (September 19, 1864) three horses were shot under him and he was severely wounded. When General Hampton was sent to assist General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the command of the whole of Robert E. Lee's cavalry devolved upon Fitzhugh Lee on March 29, 1865, but the surrender at Appomattox followed quickly upon the opening of the campaign. Fitzhugh Lee himself led the last charge of the Confederates on April 9 that year at Farmville, Virginia.

He was (1886-90) governor of Virginia, and in 1896 President Cleveland appointed him consul general at Havana. Lee won national approval by his conduct in the difficult period preceding the Spanish-American War, and in that conflict he was a major general of volunteers. He was military governor of Havana after the war and later commanded the Dept. of the Missouri. He wrote a biography of his uncle in 1894.  Lee died in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

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