Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee and Anne Carter Lee. From 1825 to 1830 he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating second in his class and as the only cadet to never receive a demerit. On June 30, 1831, he married Mary Custis and lived at Arlington House, Virginia. From 1846 to 1848 he served in the United States Army during the Mexican War, after which Gen. Winfield Scott called him "The very best soldier I ever saw in the field." From September 1, 1852, to March 31, 1855, he served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and on April 1, 1855, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Second United States Cavalry. In 1861 he was offered command of all United States troops, but declined, saying, "I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children." On June 1, 1862, he was given command of the Confederate forces he would name the Army of Northern Virginia, and on January 31, 1865, he was appointed General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army. On April 12, 1865, he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. On October 2, 1865, he was named president of Washington College, later Washington and Lee, in Lexington, Virginia, where he died on October 12, 1870, at age sixty-three. In 1907, Lee County, North Carolina, was formed and named in honor and memory of General Robert E. Lee.