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Lee was the fourth child of "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the Revolutionary War cavalry hero. Disaster struck the family when Lee's father was imprisoned for debt and later died of wounds suffered in suppressing a riot in Baltimore. The young Robert was reared by his widowed mother in Alexandria, where he attended private schools. Noted for his intellect and character, as well as his handsome appearance, he seemed born to command.
Appointed to West Point in 1825, he became corps adjutant, the chief post of honor for a cadet, and graduated 2d in his class, without a demerit on his record. He was commissioned a 2d Lieutenant in the elite Corps of Engineers and, 2 years later, married Mary Custis, the great granddaughter of Martha Washington and heiress of several estates. A devoted family man, Lee fathered 7 children.
Promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 1836 and to captain 2 years later, Lee undertook various civil and military engineering projects for the Corps of Engineers before the Mexican War, in which he was assigned to General Winfield Scott's staff. He was instrumental in the U.S. victory at Cerro Gordo and distinguished himself in the assault at Chapultepec, where, September 13, 1847, he was wounded. On his return to the U.S., he was promoted to brevet colonel for his heroism.
During a three-year term as superintendant of West Point, Lee not only revitalized the curriculum but formed lasting relationships with the students. His career for the next few years was overshadowed by concerns for the health of his wife and management of her estate. He served with the cavalry in Texas 1856-57, and was on leave at Mrs. Lee's family seat, "Arlington," when put in command of a contingent of marines to recapture Harpers Ferry from John Brown and his followers.
On cavalry duty in Texas, February 1861, when that state seceded, Lee returned to "Arlington" to await events. It was there that he received and declined Lincoln's offer of field command of U.S. armies. Lee, who considered duty "the most sublime word in the English language," chose loyalty to his beloved Virginia, though personally opposed to slavery and secession. Had he accepted Lincoln's offer, the Civil War might well have been ended earlier, with far less bloodshed, for Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia held off the ultimate Confederate defeat for months, if not years. Lee resigned his commission and, on April 23, accepted command of Virginia's defenses. On August 31 he was promoted to full general as special military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Though unable to prevent Federal seizure of the mountainous sections of western Virginia, he did carry out an important mission to oversee coastal defenses in South Carolina and Georgia. In March 1862 he returned to his position as adviser to Davis, whose confidence in him never slackened. Then, on May 31, with the 100,000-man Union army of Gen. George McClellan on the outskirts of Richmond, Lee replaced the wounded Gen. Joseph E. Johnston as commander of what he, Lee, named "The Army of Northern Virginia," and proceeded to create an unparalleled military record.
Lee quickly reorganized his new army, called Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson from the Shenandoah Valley, and on June 26, launched an offensive that came to be known as the Seven Days' Campaign. Though casualties were high, Lee drove McClellan back down the peninsula to the protection of his gunboats, then turned north and delivered a smashing blow to a second Union Army, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Pope, in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Thereupon he launched an invasion aimed at penetrating deep into Pennsylvania. Though Jackson captured Harpers Ferry and 12,000 Federals, the discovery of a copy of Lee's marching orders led him to take up defensive positions along Antietam Creek, just north of the Potomac. There, in the bloodiest day of the war, September 17, 1862, he won a tactical victory but a strategic defeat when he retired to Virginia.
On December 13th, Lee soundly defeated Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac in the bloody battle of Fredericksburg. Later, in May of 1863, Lee won an even more spectacular victory. He once again defeated the Army of the Potomac, this time under the command of Joseph Hooker. In three days of fighting at Chancellorsville, Lee defeated an army three times the size of his own. However, on May 2d, General "Stonewall" Jackson, Lee's chief lieutenant, was accidentally shot by his own troops. He contracted pneumonia and died on May 10th.
A few weeks after Chancellorsville, Lee reorganized his army, and went on the offensive. He marched his 75,000-man army into Pennsylvania, and by June was marching toward the state capitol at Harrisburg. On July 1st, units of Lee's army clashed with Federal cavalry near the town of Gettysburg. Lee concentrated his army and prepared to once again do battle with the Army of the Potomac, this time under the command of General George Meade. The following battle, which climaxed with a charge of 15,000 rebel soldiers against the center of Meade's lines, was the bloodiest of the war, and a disaster for Lee. 53,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. Lee's losses numbered more than 28,000. Lee began his retreat back to Virginia on July 4th, his numbers much depleted.
Lee's greatest test came in May of 1864, when, with only 60,000 men under his command, Lee faced Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant's 120,000-man army in an overland drive toward Richmond. Though Lee thwarted Grant's advance in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, inflicting over 50,000 Federal casualties, he nonetheless found himself that summer backed into defensive works protecting Petersburg and Richmond. With Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman marching through Georgia and morale on the homefront sinking, Lee knew it was only a matter of time before the North's overwhelming numbers would prevail.
Too late to save the Southern cause, Davis appointed Lee commander of all Confederate armies. During his brief command, Lee succeeded in convincing the Confederate Congress to authorize the recruitment of black slaves.
By now Lee's health had begun to fail. In Mar. 1865 he abandoned the defenses around Richmond and made a desperate attempt at uniting with Gen. Joseph E Johnston's army in North Carolina against Sherman. Grant caught up with Lee at Appomattox Court House where, on April 9, 1865, the proud Lee reluctantly surrendered his ragged army of only 28,000.
Lee ranks among the most able field commanders in American History. He had a rare ability to command respect from his soldiers, was imperturbable in battle, and possessed an uncanny ability to understand his opponents. He was quick to sieze the initiative, and also a master of field fortifications. His faults included a sometimes cavalier attitude toward supply and his habit of explaining his general plans for a battle or campaign, then leaving the execution to his subordinate generals--a practice that contributed to his defeat at Gettysburg.
His victories in the Seven Days', Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Cold Harbor were all won against superior numbers. Not until the final days of the war, at Five Forks, did his army leave the field in disorder. At both Antietam and Gettysburg his troops held their position until he chose to retreat.
Lee's greatest strength of character was demonstrated not until after the war. He spurned prestigious job offers for the post of President of Washington College in Lexington, Va., at a salary of $1,500 a year. He transformed the curriculum, creating the nation's first departments of journalism and commerce. Deprived of his citizenship, he nonetheless urged his fellow Southerners to put the bitterness of war behind them and become loyal Americans once again.
On October 12, 1870, the man that Winfield Scott said was "the best soldier I ever saw in the field," passed away at the age of 63. He died a genuine American hero, admired in the North and revered in the South.
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