McKee, William R.

Born: 1808-09-29 Garrard County, Kentucky

Died: 1847-02-23 Buena Vista, Mexico

Flourished: Kentucky

William R. McKee was an army officer and railroad engineer. In July 1825, he received appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. He graduated in July 1829 twelfth in a class of forty-six cadets--a class that included Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston. The War Department commissioned McKee as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Third Artillery. From 1829 to 1833, he served garrison duty at Fort Preble, Maine. From 1833 to 1836, he was on engineering duty. In August 1836, McKee received promotion to first lieutenant. Faced with family obligations and dwindling prospects for advancement in the peacetime army, McKee resigned his commission in September 1836 and returned to Kentucky, settling in Lexington. From 1836 to 1838, he was an assistant engineer for a proposed railroad between Charleston, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. McKee also read law and earned admission to the Kentucky bar, opening a legal practice in Lexington. In addition to his law practice, McKee was chief engineer of the Frankfort and Lexington Railroad from 1844 to 1846. When the Mexican War commenced, he volunteered for military duty, accepting a commission as colonel of the Second Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers. He died in action at the Battle of Buena Vista.

George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, 3rd ed. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891), 1:420, 427; The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century (Cincinnati: J. M Armstrong, 1878), 275-76; Gravestone, Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY.