The Army Made a Blind Black Soldier a Surrogate for Robert E. Lee NYT | Top Stories By: Carol Rosenberg 14 December 2025 at 18:00 For more than a century, this Black soldier from Virginia was remembered by nearly no one. Then this year, someone at the Pentagon found a use for him. © National Museum of African American History and CulturePvt. Fitz Lee in 1899, with his Medal of Honor on his jacket.