Lt. Commander Edward Lea

His father's career explains the afternoon at Galveston. Albert Miller Lea, born in Knoxville in 1808, finished fifth in West Point's class of 1831 and worked as a topographical engineer in the Iowa country. His 1836 Notes on the Wisconsin Territory gave Iowa its name, and Albert Lea, Minnesota, bears his. In Texas he engineered railroads from 1857, then served the Confederacy. The Handbook says he was at the Battle of Galveston when his son died aboard the Harriet Lane, and that he conducted the funeral the next day.

What the plaque says

Lt. Commander Edward Lea (1837-1863) Maryland-born Edward Lea graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1855. At the onset of the Civil War, his father, Albert, unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to join the Confederacy. Edward became First Officer on the U.S.S. Harriet Lane. On Jan. 1, 1863, it was involved in the Battle of Galveston against Confederates under Gen. John B. Magruder, whose staff included Albert Lea. After the battle, Albert found, but could not help, his mortally wounded son, whose final words were reportedly, "My father is here." Recorded - 2005

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Moody Mansion — 1.0 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 1.2 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• The Strand — 1.4 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• Galveston Seawall and the 1900 Storm — 1.5 mi
  The concrete wall along the Gulf that Galveston built after the hurricane of September 8, 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in a city of 38,000.

More markers nearby

• Warren D. C. Hall — steps away
• Lent Munson Hitchcock — steps away
• Captain William S. Fisher — steps away
• Major John M. Allen — steps away