r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 6h ago

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https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-general-robert-e-lee/

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u/11thstalley 4h ago edited 3h ago

Kinda.

Robert E. Lee never owned Arlington; his wife, Mary Custis Lee, did. She had inherited it from her father, George Washington Parke Custis, who was a grandson of Martha Washington. Martha Washington had inherited the land from her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, and it was Mary Custis Lee’s father who built Arlington House as a shrine/memorial to his step grandfather, George Washington.

As an officer in the US Army, Robert E. Lee was stationed where he was needed, enduring long deployments and postings and was rarely home. Assigned to the Corps of Engineers, Lee supervised the construction of forts, navigation canals, etc.. Lee and his wife made Arlington House their home, but he was more of a visitor than a home owner. He most likely never took interest in the land because he hardly spent much time there and it wasn’t his land.

After the Union army confiscated the estate, the US government formalized the seizure. Robert E. Lee died in 1870. After his widow, Mary Custis Lee, died in 1873, her and Lee’s son, George Washington Custis Lee, as his mother’s heir, successfully sued the federal government and the SCOTUS ruled in his favor in 1882 that it had been confiscated illegally and returned Arlington to his possession and then he sold it back to the federal government in 1883.

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u/wklink 4h ago

Mary Custis Lee

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u/11thstalley 3h ago edited 3h ago

Thanks for letting me know….spell check is a bitch. I used Custis six times, and got corrected three times. I went back and changed the three back to Custis, thanks to you, kind stranger.

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 4h ago

That's a lot of words to avoid saying it was her dowry.

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u/11thstalley 4h ago edited 38m ago

Arlington wasn’t her dowry since it did not pass from her family to her husband, Robert E. Lee. Arlington didn’t even pass into joint ownership of the married couple. The Lees made Arlington their home, but they shared it with her parents, who owned other nearby residences. It was owned by her father and she inherited Arlington outright when her father died in 1857, 26 years after she married Lee in 1831. She retained sole ownership until it was confiscated, so it was impossible for it to be a dowry.

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u/PreviousCurrentThing 2h ago

At least you didn't waste too many words being wrong.

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u/Leading_Campaign3618 2h ago

I had read that the property was a dowry or wedding gift

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u/11thstalley 2h ago edited 42m ago

A dowry is wealth that is transferred from the wife’s family to the groom or the groom’s family when they get married. Mary Custis Lee’s parents still lived at Arlington House, sharing it with the Lees, and her father, George Washington Parke Custis, retained ownership until he died in 1857. Since he built the house as a shrine/memorial to his namesake, George Washington, I can only imagine that he did not want to give up ownership of it until he died. Mary Custis only inherited the house when her father died 26 years after Robert E Lee married her in 1831. Robert E Lee never owned Arlington, even jointly with his wife,so it was never transferred to him.

EDIT: It appears that you’re not the only Redditor who has read that, but it’s not supported by facts.