George Washington Custis Lee - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

In late 1865, Lee was hired as a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Lee held this position until the death of his father. Between 1871 and 1897, Lee served as the ninth president of Washington and Lee University. In 1877, after his father's death, Custis Lee sued in a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court to regain title to the family mansion, Arlington House and plantation, which had become Arlington Cemetery. Lee's case, United States v. Lee (106 U.S. 196), was decided in his favor by a 5–4 vote, in 1882. Lee won both the house and the 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) surrounding the mansion. In 1883, Lee sold Arlington House to the United States Government for $150,000. In 1897, Lee resigned as president of Washington and Lee University. He then moved to the home of his late brother, Major General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, Ravensworth Mansion. Lee died on February 18, 1913 in Alexandria, Virginia, and is buried in the Lee Chapel, near his family members.