Asheville man and his nine sons fought for the Confederacy

When he was 45 years old, Stephen Lee moved from Charleston, S.C. to Asheville, N.C. where he started a school for boys. He had attended the College of Charleston and West Point before starting his law practice with his father.

He married his first cousin, Caroline Lee, in 1824 and they had fifteen children. Caroline died in 1855 and Lee married Sara Morrison a year later and they had a daughter together.

He was so embarrassed when he won a case for a murder client who later admitted to Lee he was guilty, he gave up his practice and started teaching. He taught math at the College of Charleston before departing for Buncombe County in North Carolina.

Lee freed his slaves before the war, but was quick to sign on to serve the Confederacy after secession, despite being 60 years old. He was elected colonel of two regiments, but chose to serve in the 16th North Carolina, which was called the Sixth Regiment of Volunteers when it was formed.

While serving in Virginia, a winter bout of severe diarrhea and swelling of the legs sent him home. Eight of his sons enlisted to take his place.

Things did not go well for the Lee boys. By early 1865, four were dead from battle wounds or disease. Two more were in Union POW camps and another had lost an arm. A ninth son enlisted in March of 1865.

As the war wound down, Lee wrote President Jefferson Davis to be returned to duty to defend the state. He went back into service in the Silver Greys of the North Carolina Local Defense Troops. He trained his men well and on April 6, 1865, the 300 men under his command held off a Union attack of more than a thousand U.S. troops from Tennessee.

After the war, Lee returned to teaching and decided to try his hand at a growing new cash crop, tobacco. The school operated until Lee’s death in 1879.

Sources:

Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State, by Dr. H.G. Jones

“Stephen Lee,” NCPedia by William S. Powell