This ca. 1830 portrait of Sidney (or Sydney) Smith Lee attributed to John Neagle hangs in the Visitors Center at Stratford Hall in Montrose, Virginia. Mary Chesnut wrote in her diary in April of 1864, “We went to Lucy Haxall's wedding. Ours was a distinguished party, as far as good looks are concerned; Captain Smith Lee was with me, and he is handsome enough to bring up the average.”
Smith Lee, as he was known, was the older brother of Robert E. Lee, the father of Fitzhugh Lee and the son of 'Light Horse' Harry Lee. He served in the U.S. Navy from his appointment as a midshipman at age 18 until he resigned to join the Confederacy.
During the Fillmore administration. Commander Lee commanded Commodore Perry's flag ship the Mississippi on the expedition that opened Japan to the West.
Here Commander Sydney Smith Lee of the U.S. Navy is shown, on the left, as one of the commissioners for the first Japanese embassy to the United States, in 1860.
Lee resigned as a Commander in the U.S. Navy on the day Virginia seceded from the Union, April 17, 1861. His resignation was rejected and he was dismissed. On April 22, 1861 he took up a commission as Commander in the Confederate Navy. This photo shows him in Confederate Uniform:
He was promoted to Captain in 1864. Five of his sons including Major General Fitzhugh Lee served in the Confederate Army or Navy.
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