Robert Edward Lee was born January 19, 1807, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of Henry and Ann Hill Carter Lee. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1829 and chose the corps of engineers as his department of service. Lee was commissioned second lieutenant of engineers in July 1829. In the summer of 1837, Lee traveled to St. Louis to superintend a project to protect the St. Louis harbor from shifts in the channel of the Mississippi River. While working on the project he rose to the rank of captain in July 1838. He remained in St. Louis until October 1840. In April 1861, Lee resigned his commission in the U.S. Army upon learning of the secession of Virginia from the Union. He was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate army in May 1861. He led the Army of Virginia and became general in chief of the Confederate army in February 1865. In April 1865, he accepted the terms of surrender of his armies at Appomattox, Virginia. Lee died October 12, 1870 in Lexington, Virginia. Henry Kayser was born August 9, 1811, at St. Goarshausen, Germany. Kayser studied architecture and higher mathematics at Darmstadt before making the journey to the United States with his brother Alexander. In 1834, he opened a drawing school in St. Louis and made maps of the Indian reservations for the superintendent of Indian affairs. Later he served in the U.S. surveyor-general of public land office before being appointed as assistant engineer under Lieutenant Robert E. Lee. Kayser surveyed the Mississippi River and reported on the harbor improvement project to Lee. He acted as a government surveyor until 1839, when he was selected to serve as the first city engineer for the city of St. Louis. He held this position off and on until 1857. In 1871 and 1873, he was elected city comptroller. Henry Kayser died October 16, 1884, in Hoboken, New Jersey.