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| Leaders in The War Between The States Robert E. Lee |
| Confederate Robert E. Lee Stonewall Jackson P.T. Beauregard John Hood A.P. Hill Joe Johnston James Longstreet J.E.B. Stuart |
| Robert Edward Lee 1807-1870 Robert E. Lee , one of the most respected fiqures in American History, was born on January 19th, 1807, into a prominent Virginia family. The son of Revolutionary War commander Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, he was raised by his mother, Anna Carter Lee, after his father fled to the West Indies as a result of business setback. Robert Lee graduated second in his class from West Point in 1829 and was assigned to yjr Corps of Engineers, where he served for more then 15 years. He married Mary Ann Randolph Custis, Martha Washington's great-granddaughter, with whom he had seven children; all three of their sons became Confederate officers during the Civil War. Lee served on General Winfield Scott's personal staff during the Mexican War and played a key role in the capture of Veracruz. In 1852, Lee became the superintendent of West Point, where he expanded the curriculum to include courses in strategy. In 1855, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to the Texas frontier. Lee was visiting his family at Arlington, outside of Washington D.C., in 1859 when he was assigned to stop John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. After arresting Brown and successfully completeing his mission, Lee returned to Texas. After Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Lincoln, on Scott's recommendation, offered Lee command of the Union Army. Although Lee opposed both slavery and secession, his loyalty to Virginia led him to resign his commisiion and join the Confederate Arm, where he first served as a military advisor to Jefferson Davis. On Jun 1, 1862 after General Joesph E. Johnston was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, Lee took command of his army, which he renamed the Army of Northen Virginia. Outnumbered by Union troops on several fronts, Lee decided to consolidate hsi entire force and to move against one threat at a time. In June 1862, in the Battle of the Seven Days, Lee's army forced Union General George B. McClellan to retreat from Richmound, and, in August 1862, The Army of Northern Virginia defeated Union General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Lee continued to move northward, dividing his troops before reuniting for a final attack. Stonewall Jackson's division captured Harpers Ferry, but Lee's advance was halted at the bloody battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, and he retreated to Virginia. In December 1862, Lee won a decisive victory at Fredricksburg, Virginia, and again in the spring 1863, at Chancellorsville. Lee then moved north into Pennsylvannia, but the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg in July 1863 changed the course of the war. Lee fought General Ulysses Simpson Grant in the Wilderness campaign in the spring of 1864 and was forced to retreat to Richmound and Petersburg. Lee became general-in-choef of all Confederate armies in February 1865, but it was to late. Richmound fell in April, and Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9,1865. Barred from holfing public office under the terms of the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Lee applied for a complete individual pardon, but his written oath of allegiance to the United States was lost, and the pardon denied. Lee regained his right to vote in 1868, but his full citizenship was not restored until 1975, following the discovery of te missing oath at the National Archives fice years earlier. Lee became the president of Washington Collage in Lexington, Virginia where he established the first business and journalism schools in the country. Robert Edward Lee died on October 12, 1870. After his death, Washington Collage was renamed Washington and Lee University. |