John Augustine Washington

John Augustine Washington III (3 May 1821 – 12 September 1861) was a Confederate lieutenant and aide-de-camp to Robert E. Lee. Washington was also George Washington's great grandnephew and the last member of the Washington family to own Mount Vernon.

Early life Washington was born on May 3, 1821, in Jefferson County, West Virginia—then Virginia—to John Augustine Washington II and Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington. Washington's father inherited Mount Vernon from Bushrod Washington in 1829, which his mother inherited after his father died of heart disease 3 years later. Washington graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840. Washington initially wanted to sell Mount Vernon to Virginia or the United States government. After selling Mount Vernon, Washington and his family moved to the Waveland estate in Fauquier County, Virginia. Washington's wife, Nelly, died due to childbirth in 1860.

In the 1900s, the Randolph County Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy set up a stone monument where Washington was killed. The Shepherdstown Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a Confederate Iron Cross on Washington's grave.