FORT LEE, Va. — Fort Lee marked Buffalo Soldier Day by unveiling a portrait of Private Fitz Lee, the Medal of Honor recipient and Buffalo Soldier for whom the base is named.
A Dinwiddie native, Fitz Lee entered the Army in 1889 and served with the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the famed Buffalo Soldier units, during the Spanish-American War. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism during a daring rescue mission in Cuba in June 1898.
Fort Lee is the first U.S. Army base to be named after a Buffalo Soldier.
The newly unveiled portrait depicts Lee in the period uniform he would have worn during his rescue mission, filling a gap left by history.
"So 1898, as you can imagine, there's only one photo of Fitz Lee, and he was in civilian uniform. So we wanted to depict a photo of him in the period uniform that he would have been wearing when he rescued those soldiers on the beach of Takoba," CASCOM Commanding General MG Sean Paul Davis said.
Nina Amos, National President of the Buffalo Soldiers 9th and 10th, spoke to the broader significance of the Buffalo Soldiers' legacy.
"It's who we are. It's who America is. I said, and without the Buffalo Soldiers and the history that we actually shared in every single war that has gone on in the United States, the nation would actually not be here," Amos said.
Fitz Lee died just one year after his heroic rescue mission at 33 years old. He was buried with military honors at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas.
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