Virginia of Virginia

Amélie Louise Rives was born in 1863 in Richmond, Virginia to noted engineer Alfred L. Rives and the former Sadie MacMurdo. The younger son of a titled Englishman emigrates to America to establish a stud-farm in post-Civil War Virginia. He meets and falls in love with the daughter of the farm's caretaker. She was named after her aunt Amélie, a goddaughter of French Queen Marie-Amélie. She was a goddaughter of Robert E. Lee and a granddaughter of the engineer and Senator William Cabell Rives, who had also been American ambassador to France.