On May 1, 1864, a high-ranking group of Confederate officers gathered at the Mayhurst located in Orange, Virginia. Chief among them was General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and one of his three corps commanders, General Ambrose Powell Hill. The purpose of the meeting was not wartime strategy: Instead, Lee and his lieutenants were assembled for the baptism of an infant. The child’s name was Lucy Lee Hill. She was the daughter of General Hill and his wife, Kitty. They had named her in honor of General Lee, who had agreed to be the child’s godfather and joined the parents at her baptism. Lee’s participation reflected a key character trait: humility. Although faced with a multitude of duties as army commander, Lee took time to participate in a child’s baptism. The Reverend Richard Davis of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Orange conducted the ceremony, dedicating tiny Lucy Lee to the Lord’s service as he baptized her with water from a silver bowl -- in the name of “the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Throughout the baptism ceremony, General Lee gently held baby Lucy Lee in his arms. It was undoubtedly a comfortable and pleasant experience for Lee, who was a devout Christian and the father of seven children. Although his duties had called him from home during much of his child-rearing years, Lee was a devoted father who doted on his children – and all of them revered him in return. Did he ponder similar moments in his own family life as he held the Hill infant at her baptism? It was a tender but fleeting moment for Lee, Hill and all the others present that memorable day in May. Soon, the spring campaigns would draw Lee and his army into a series of savage and bloody contests – the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor. Within a year, General Hill would fall mortally wounded at the battle of Five Forks; Lee would surrender his tattered and battered army at Appomattox; and little Lucy Lee Hill – like countless other children in the North and the South – would be left fatherless. She would eventually become a revered figure in the South – a symbol of Southern courage and sacrifice – would be known regionally as the “Daughter of the Confederacy.” As for Lee, his legacy would become greater than simply military genius: It would become a legacy of character – and foremost among those traits was humility.