{{short description|United States Navy admiral}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox military person | name = Samuel Phillips Lee | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Samuel Phillips Lee.jpg | caption = Samuel Phillips Lee, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral | birth_date = {{Birth date|1812|2|13}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1897|6|5|1812|2|13}} | birth_place = Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S. | death_place = Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. | burial_place = | burial_label = | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | birth_name = | allegiance = {{flagu|United States|1865}} | branch = {{Naval|United States|navy-1864}} | service_years = 1825–1873 | rank = border|23px Rear admiral | service_number = | unit = | commands = {{Plainlist | * {{USS|Vandalia|1828|6}} * {{USS|Oneida|1861|6}} * North Atlantic Blockading Squadron * Mississippi River Squadron }} | battles = {{Plainlist | * Mexican–American War * American Civil War }} | battles_label = | awards = | spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Blair|1843}} | relations = Lee family | other_work = | signature = Signature of Samuel Phillips Lee.png }} '''Samuel Phillips Lee''' (February 13, 1812 – June 5, 1897) was an officer of the United States Navy. In the American Civil War, he took part in the New Orleans campaign before commanding the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, covering the coastlines and inland waters of Virginia and North Carolina, and finally the Mississippi River Squadron. As a cousin of Robert E. Lee, his refusal to join the Confederates' side by remaining loyal to the Union demonstrated how the war had divided families. Lee married Elizabeth Blair the daughter of Francis P. Blair Sr., and their house in Washington is now the president's official guest house.
==Early life and education== Lee was born on February 13, 1812,<ref name="NHC">{{NHC|article=Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee, USN, (1812-1897)|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-l/sp-lee.htm}} [https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-people/l/lee-samuel-phillips.html direct link]</ref> at the Sully Plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, to Francis Lightfoot Lee II and Jane Fitzgerald.<ref name="Tyler">{{Cite book |last=Tyler |first=Lyon Gardiner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvdov5YWXUkC&pg=PA199 |title=Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Under the Editorial Supervision of Lyon Gardiner Tyler |date=1915 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |pages=199–200 |language=en}}</ref> He was the grandson of Richard Henry Lee,<ref name="Tyler" /> great-nephew of Francis Lightfoot Lee I, brother-in-law of Francis Preston Blair Jr., and of Montgomery Blair, and was third cousin of Robert E. Lee.
==Career== [[File:Samuel Phillips Lee in 1845.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Lee by Thomas Sully, 1845]] He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in November 1825 and subsequently saw extensive service at sea, including combat action during the Mexican–American War and exploration, surveying, and oceanographic duty.<ref name="NHC" />
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Lee held the rank of commander and was captain of the sloop-of-war {{USS|Vandalia|1828|2}}<ref>Blair Family Papers. Blair Family Papers: Family Correspondence, -1924; Lee, Samuel Phillips, 1845 to 1886. - 1886, 1845. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Images 12 & 13. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mss129300088/>. [https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss12930.mss12930-008_0344_0372/?sp=12&r=-0.927,0.098,2.854,1.37,0 Library of Congress website] Retrieved 16 February 2024.</ref> in the East Indies, sailing her home on his own initiative to join the blockade of the Southern coast.<ref name="NHC" /> Commander Lee commanded the new steam sloop {{USS|Oneida|1861|2}} during the New Orleans campaign and subsequent operations on the Mississippi River in the first half of 1862.<ref name="NHC" /> David Farragut had given Commander Lee<ref>Loyall Farragut. (1891). ''The life of David Glascow Farragut, first admiral of the United States navy, embodying his journal and letters''. New-York: D. Appleton. p. 250 and p. 263. Google Books and [https://civilwarnavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Farragut_The-Life-of-David-Glasgow-Farragut_First-Edition.pdf Civil War Navy website] Retrieved 11 February 2024.</ref> smaller vessels to ascend the Mississippi River as far as Vicksburg shortly after the naval battle at New Orleans to cut off Confederate supplies from the west and then later the command of five larger vessels to effect the surrender of Vicksburg which Farragut and others assumed would be forthcoming. The Confederates rebuffed Lee's offer of surrender and ordered civilians to evacuate the river city in view of a naval bombardment which never came. Lee was replaced by Captain James Palmer.<ref>Michael B. Ballard. (2011). ''The Civil War in Mississippi: Major Campaigns and Battles.'' Heritage of Mississippi Series. Vol. 5. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi for the Mississippi Historical Society and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. pp. 37 ff. ISBN 9781604738421.</ref>
When asked about his loyalty, Lee famously replied, "When I find the word Virginia in my commission I will join the Confederacy."<ref>{{cite book|title=Thunder at Hampton Roads|author=Adolph A. Hoehling|page=6|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1993}}</ref> This quote is often referenced by historians in contrast to the actions of his cousin Robert E. Lee, to show how the war divided families.
In September 1862, Lee was ordered to Norfolk and assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron with the rank of Acting rear admiral. Initially, he noted that the Union blockade of the ports of Norfolk and upriver Richmond seemed effective, and recommended` the Army consolidate its posts on the Peninsula. However, the army maintained garrisons from Fort Monroe to Williamsburg and Union boats patrolled the James River.<ref>David F. Riggs, Embattled Shrine: Jamestown in the Civil War p. 87</ref> Adm. Lee continued in command for over two years, including during CSA General Longstreet's advance against Suffolk in 1863. This forces were responsible for the blockade of the North Carolina coast and operations on North Carolina and Virginia inland waters, all areas of very active combat between Union and Confederate forces. In September 1863 with some supplies being scarce, the admiral advised the naval station at Wilmington, North Carolina that a single small vessel could be used for patrols of that port.<ref>Still, William N. “A Naval Sieve: The Union Blockade in the Civil War.” ''Naval War College Review'', vol. 36, no. 3, 1983, pp. 38–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44636370. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.</ref> Acting Rear Admiral Lee transferred to the command of the Mississippi River Squadron in October 1864 and led it to the end of the Civil War in 1865.<ref name="NHC" />
Reverting to his permanent rank of captain after the Civil War, Lee extensively served in the Washington, D.C., area. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1870 and retired from active service in February 1873.<ref name="NHC" />
==Personal life== [[File:Elizabeth Blair Lee.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Blair Lee, portrait by Thomas Sully, when she was 19]] Lee married Elizabeth Blair on April 27, 1843. During the Civil War, he was away for long periods. Elizabeth's letters to her husband describe wartime life in her homes of Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Maryland. Her letters are published in the book ''Wartime Washington : the Civil War letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee''.<ref name="WW">{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Elizabeth Blair |url=http://archive.org/details/wartimewashingto0000leee |title=Wartime Washington : the Civil War letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee |date=1991 |publisher=Urbana : University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-01802-2 | pages=2, 5}}</ref> Lee became well known in Washington society due to the influence of his wife, the former Elizabeth Blair of Maryland.
In 1859, Lee's father-in-law, Francis Preston Blair, built a house for Lee and his wife Elizabeth next door to his own. These two houses, within a block of the White House in Washington, D.C., were later combined into one house and became the property of the U.S. government. Today they are the Blair-Lee House, used by the president as his guest house. Upon retirement, he moved to the family home in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he died on June 5<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66998702/admiral-samuel-phillips-lee/ |title=Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee |newspaper=The Pittsburg Post |location=Washington |page=6 |date=1897-06-06 |access-date=2021-01-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66998501/retired-naval-officer-dies/ |title=Retired Naval Officer Dies |newspaper=The Green Bay Gazette |location=Washington |page=1 |date=1897-06-07 |access-date=2021-01-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> or June 7, 1897.<ref name="NHC" />
==Legacy== Two U.S. Navy ships have been named in honor of Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee, the destroyer {{USS|S. P. Lee|DD-310|3}}, which was commissioned in October 1920 and lost by stranding in September 1923, and the research vessel {{Ship|USNS|S. P. Lee|T-AGS-31}} (later T-AG-192), which was in naval service between 1968 and 1974.<ref name="NHC" />
==References== {{reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{S-mil}} {{succession box|title=Commander-in-Chief, North Atlantic Squadron|before=Charles H. Poor|after=Gustavus H. Scott|years=June 1870–May 1873}} {{S-end}} {{Richard Henry Lee|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Samuel Phillips}} Category:1812 births Category:1897 deaths Category:Union navy admirals Category:United States Navy admirals Samuel Category:People from Chantilly, Virginia Category:People of Virginia in the American Civil War Category:Blair family (United States)