President John Tyler Appoints Robert E. Lee’s Cousin the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

Philip R. Fendall was a Virginian and an aide to his uncle Richard Bland, who was placed by President Madison as an overseer in charge of reconstructing the new Capital after the British burned the city during the War of 1812. He was afterwards Editor of the newspaper The National Journal. Fendall was a friend of Henry Clay, who gave him a position in the State Department during Clay’s term as Secretary of State. President Tyler named him U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1841, and he again held the post under President Fillmore. Fendall was a pallbearer at Dolley Madison’s funeral.

Document signed, as President, Washington, July 3, 1841, appointing Fendall U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for the term of four years.

Fendall’s family was a textbook illustration of the split in families caused by the Civil War. He was an anti-slavery Virginian. His cousins, General Robert E. Lee and Colonel Richard Bland Lee, resigned their commissions in the U.S. Army and took up with the Confederacy. Fendall had one son who fought for the Confederacy and two others who sided with the Union. One was a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps., and another son was in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, responsible for drafting maps for the Union Army.