This button was passed down through the Lee family. Robert E. Lee and two of his three sons served as US Army officers before the Civil War. George Washington Custis Lee graduated first in his class at West Point, 1854, and served for seven years in the Corps of Engineers before resigning his commission in May, 1861 to follow his father into the Army of Virginia.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee left Harvard to join the army in 1857 and served nearly two years as a lieutenant before resigning to marry. Both sons became major generals in the Confederate Army and survived the war.

Bronze. Diam 2.6 cm
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, ARHO 2345