Samuel Phillips Lee

Background

Samuel Phillips Lee, the son of Francis Lightfoot and Jane (Fitzgerald) Lee, was the grandson of Richard Henry Lee and the grandnephew of Francis Lightfoot Lee. He was born at "Sully, " Fairfax County, Virginia.

Career

Lee was appointed a midshipman in the United States navy on November 22, 1825. After service on board the Hornet in the West Indies and on the Delaware and the Java in the Mediterranean, he was sent to the Pacific on the Brandywine but was later transferred to the Vincennes in 1834. From 1842 to 1855 he was chiefly employed in coast-survey duty.

During the Mexican War he was in command of the coast-survey brig Washington and assisted in the capture of Tabasco on the east coast of Mexico. In 1851, in command of the Dolphin, he was sent to make deep-sea soundings, try currents, and search for shallow spots which had been reported by mariners. In performing this duty he cruised all over the Atlantic. His report was published by the direction of Congress and was of considerable assistance to Maury in his oceanographic work.

When news of the outbreak of the Civil War reached Lee, he was in charge of the Vandalia at the Cape of Good Hope, bound for the East Indies. He immediately returned without waiting for orders and was sent to the Charleston blockade. In 1862 he participated in the attack on New Orleans as commander of the Oneida, one of the three fast gunboats which were sent ahead to destroy the Confederate fleet above the forts. Lee drove off two rams that had attacked a Union ship, the Varuna, and received the surrender of Beverly Kennon, commander of the Confederate steamer Governor Moore. Later, in both passages of Vicksburg by the Union fleet under Farragut, the Oneida was second in line.

In September 1862, just after Lee had been made a captain, he was appointed an acting rear admiral and ordered to command the North Atlantic blockading squadron off Virginia and North Carolina. He is credited with beginning the system of placing a cordon of ships far out at sea to intercept blockade runners who had escaped the ships nearer shore. As his territory included Wilmington, his prize money was considerable, and is estimated by Gideon Welles to have amounted to $150, 000, the largest received by any officer. But in 1864, when the attack on Wilmington was contemplated, Welles displaced him because he did not consider him a fighting admiral or a man of prompt action.

Lee was accordingly sent to command the Mississippi Squadron and did good work there on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers in supporting Thomas against Hood and in preventing Hood from crossing the latter river at the most favorable point. After the war Lee served for a year as the head of the Signal Service, was made a rear-admiral in 1870, and commanded the North Atlantic Squadron from 1870 to 1872.

He reached the retiring age in 1873 and spent the remaining years of his life in Washington, dying at Silver Spring, Maryland, of a stroke of paralysis. He was buried in Arlington. Though never a popular hero, Lee seems to have been one of the most conscientious and efficient officers of his time.

Achievements

• Lee served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War and American Civil War. He took part in the New Orleans campaign, before commanding the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, covering the coastlines and inland waters of Virginia and North Carolina, and finally the Mississippi River Squadron.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Report and Charts of the Cruise of the U. S. Brig. Dolphin: Made Under Direction of the Navy Department, by Lieut. S. P. Lee, United States Navy (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Report and Charts of the Cruise of the U. S....)

Connections

On April 27, 1843, Lee had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Francis P. Blair. A son, Francis Preston Blair Lee, represented Maryland in the United States Senate from 1913 to 1917.

Father:

Francis Lightfoot

Mother:

Jane (Fitzgerald) Lee

Spouse:

Elizabeth Blair

Uncle:

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Grandfather:

Richard Henry Lee

Son:

Francis Preston Blair Lee

References

• Lincoln's Lee: The Life of Samuel Phillips Lee, United States Navy, 1812-1897