four years did he incur even a single demerit--a record that still
remains practically unique in the history of West Point. This and
his good scholarship won him high rank; first, as cadet officer of
his class, and finally, as adjutant of the whole battalion, the
most coveted honor of the Academy, from which he graduated in 1829,
standing second in a class of forty-six.

Men of the highest rating at West Point may choose whatever arm
of the service they prefer, and Lee, selecting the Engineer Corps,
was appointed a second lieutenant and assigned to fortification
work at Hampton Roads, in his twenty-second year. The work there
was not hard but it was dull. There was absolutely no opportunity
to distinguish oneself in any way, and time hung heavy on most of
the officers' hands. But Lee was in his native state and not far
from his home, where he spent most of his spare time until his mother
died. Camp and garrison life had very little charm for him, but
he was socially inclined and, renewing his acquaintance with his
boyhood friends, he was soon in demand at all the dances and country
houses at which the young people of the neighborhood assembled.

Among the many homes that welcomed him at this time was that of
Mr. George Washington Parke Custis (Washington's adopted grandson),
whose beautiful estate known as "Arlington" lay within a short
distance of Alexandria, where Lee had lived for many years. Here
he had, during his school days, met the daughter of the house and,
their boy-and-girl friendship culminating in an engagement shortly
after his return from West Point, he and Mary Custis were married
in his twenty-fifth year. Lee thus became related by marriage to
Washington, and another link was formed in the strange chain of
circumstances which unite their careers.