Mary married Robert E. Lee in 1831 at her parents' home, Arlington House in Virginia.

She was never able to return to Arlington House, as it was seized by the United States federal government at the end of the war.

[3] Lee was descended from several prominent southern colonial families, including those of Parke Custis, Fitzhugh, Dandrige, Randolph, Rolfe, and Gerard.

[9] Lee taught her female slaves to read and write and was an advocate of eventual emancipation.

With the advent of the U.S. Civil War, Mary Custis Lee delayed evacuating Arlington House until May 15, 1861.

She left many family heirlooms (including items owned by George Washington) in the hands of Selina Grey, her enslaved housekeeper.

[6] Early that month, Robert wrote to his wife saying: War is inevitable, and there is no telling when it will burst around you ... You have to move and make arrangements to go to some point of safety which you must select.

In May 1862, she was caught at her son Rooney's White House plantation in New Kent County behind the Federal lines, as Union forces moved up the York and the Pamunkey rivers toward Richmond.

Lee attempted to regain ownership of her family home by writing to "friends, relatives, newspaper editors, and politicians," to no avail.

She was unable to leave her horse carriage due to her debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, hardly recognizing the estate except for a few old oaks and some of the trees that she and Robert had planted.

[13][6] Mary Anna Custis Lee died at the age of 66 in 1873, surviving her husband by three years.

[16] Mary Custis Lee is a major supporting character in The Guns of the South, a 1992 science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove.

[17] Mary Anna Custis Lee plays a minor role in Jeff Shaara’s 1996 novel Gods and Generals.