At the beginning of the Civil War, Lieutenant Commander Edward Lee was a promising young

officer in the U.S. Navy.

His father, Albert Miller Lee, was a West Point graduate.

Born in Tennessee, Albert Lee had no difficulty in deciding to serve the Southern cause.

He urged his son to do likewise, warning him that, quote,

if you decide to fight for the old flag, it is not likely we will meet again, except

face to face on the battlefield.

Edward Lee ignored his father's prophetic warning, and stayed with the union.

He told his mentor, David Dixon Porter, that he didn't desire his family's love if

he could only possess it by becoming a traitor to his country.

Edward rose rapidly in rank and became first officer onboard the USS Harriet Lane.

Harriet Lane was one of the first federal ships to steam into Galveston Bay when the

union Navy captured the port in October 1862.

Unknown to Edward, his father Albert had recently begun serving as a volunteer on the staff

of Confederate General John B. McGruder, with whom he had been a classmate at West Point.

As McGruder's Confederates launched their bid to recapture Galveston on January 1, 1863,

Albert Lee was posted at the top of one of the town's tallest residences to observe the

progress of the operation.

From his vantage point, Lee could see that the turning point in the battle came when the

two rebel cotton clads attacked Harriet Lane, his son's ship.

After the battle ended in the Confederates' favor, Albert Lee revealed to McGruder for

the first time that his 26-year-old son had been serving on Harriet Lane and asked permission

...