Anne Carter Lee Stewardship Plaque

Anne Carter Lee (1839–1862), the fourth child of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, died of typhoid fever on October 20, 1862, at White Sulphur Springs in Warren County, North Carolina. Just twenty-three years old, she was buried in a private cemetery belonging to the Jones family near Warrenton. Although her parents and siblings were eventually interred in the Lee family crypt beneath Lee Chapel, Annie remained in North Carolina for more than 130 years — the only one of Lee's children buried apart from the family.

For generations, the Jones family, the Warrenton chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), and other local residents maintained Annie's gravesite and its imposing granite monument. Repeated vandalism, including the toppling of her eleven-foot obelisk, prompted Lee's descendants, led by Anne Carter Lee Ely Zimmer, to pursue her reinterment in Lexington in 1993. As Zimmer explained, “the Lees always hoped that Annie could be with her parents and brothers and sisters.” The proposal nevertheless sparked considerable controversy among local residents, many of whom opposed removing Annie from the community that had cared for her grave since the Civil War.

Despite legal objections and local opposition, Annie's remains were reinterred in the Lee family crypt on September 29, 1994, under the supervision of university chaplain Thomas V. Litzenburg, Jr., ’58. Litzenburg also officiated at an October 29 memorial service featuring hymns beloved by the Robert E. Lee and his family.

Amid these commemorative efforts, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Smith-Hargrove Camp No. 311 of Louisburg, North Carolina, installed a brass plaque on the doors to the Lee family crypt honoring the people of Warren County for their longstanding care of Annie's original burial place.

Following the chapel's closure for renovations in 2025, university officials removed the plaque from the crypt doors and relocated it to the “Foundations and Frameworks” gallery of the chapel museum, where it has been on display since June 2026.

TO
THE JONES FAMILY,
THE WARRENTON UDC
AND THE PEOPLE OF
WARREN COUNTY
IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR YEARS OF
DEVOTION IN CARING FOR THE GRAVE OF
ANNE CARTER LEE
FROM 1862 UNTIL REMOVED TO
LEE CHAPEL
IN SEPTEMBER, 1994 BY TH
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS CAMP 311
LOUISBURG, NORTH CAROLINA

Washington and Lee University has not issued a public statement specifically explaining the removal of the Jones Family plaque from the doors of the Lee family crypt. Following the chapel's closure for renovations in 2025, university officials removed the memorial and relocated it to the Foundations and Frameworks exhibit of the chapel museum, which opened in June 2026.

The plaque was installed in a display case alongside other historical artifacts related to the chapel, without accompanying descriptions, interpretation, or historical context. In a July 16, 2023, statement concerning the removal of four other historical plaques, the university declared that its campus was “neither a museum nor an appropriate repository for Confederate artifacts.” The Jones Family plaque acknowledges the United Daughters of the Confederacy for its role in maintaining Anne Carter Lee's original gravesite, although the university has not indicated whether this association influenced its decision to relocate the memorial.

The university has not responded to recent TGR inquiries concerning the whereabouts and future exhibition of removed plaques. However, in September 2026 correspondence with The W&L Spectator, Museum Director Matt Davis stated: “Our storage facility is not open to the public, nor do we make a list of our collections inventory available to the public.” He further explained that “the size and weight of some of these artifacts are not conducive to public viewing.” Regarding their future exhibition, Davis wrote: “It is possible that some or all of these artifacts will eventually be incorporated into temporary or permanent exhibits once the new museum is open, and we hope to have online databases and viewing rooms in the future.”

1. https://digitalarchive.wlu.edu/islandora/ring-tum-phi-september-16-1994

2. https://digitalarchive.wlu.edu/islandora/ring-tum-phi-october-14-1994

3. “Lee, Annie,” Box 6, Folder 8, WLU-Coll-0668, Special Collections and Archives, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

4. Carlos Santos, “Lee’s Daughter Due Va. Reburial,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 10, 1994, B4.

5. https://columns.wlu.edu/statement-regarding-the-relocation-of-plaques-to-a-new-exhibit-in-university-chapel

6. https://columns.wlu.edu/university-chapel-renovations-nearing-completion/