Lee County was named in 1870 for Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was born in 1807 and died in 1870. He was praised as fearless among men and, as a soldier, as having no superior and few equal. A West Point graduate in 1829, he declined command of the U.S. Army and resigned in 1861. In 1861 he became military adviser to CSA Pres. Davis, in 1862 commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, and in 1865 general-in-chief of the Confederate army. From 1865 to 1870 he served as president of Washington College, now Washington and Lee Univ.