AKA Robert Edward Lee

Born: 19-Jan-1807
Birthplace: Stratford, VA
Died: 12-Oct-1870
Location of death: Lexington, VA
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Remains: Buried, Lee Chapel Museum, Lexington, VA

Gender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian [1]
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Military

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Confederate General

Military service: US Army (1829-61); Confederate Army (1861-65)

American soldier, general in the Confederate States Army, was the youngest son of major-general Henry Lee, called "Light Horse Harry." He was born at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 19th of January 1807, and entered West Point in 1825. Graduating four years later second in his class, he was given a commission in the U.S. Engineer Corps. In 1831 he married Mary, daughter of G.W.P. Custis, the adopted son of Washington and the grandson of Mrs. Washington. In 1836 he became first lieutenant, and in 1838 captain. In this rank he took part in the Mexican War, repeatedly winning distinction for conduct and bravery. He received the brevets of major for Cerro Gordo, lieutenant-colonel for Contreras-Churubusco and colonel for Chapultepec.

After the war he was employed in engineer work at Washington and Baltimore, during which time, as before the war, he resided on the great Arlington estate, near Washington, which had come to him through his wife. In 1852 he was appointed superintendent of West Point, and during his three years here he carried out many important changes in the academy. Under him as cadets were his son George Washington Custis Lee, his nephew, Fitzhugh Lee and Jeb Stuart, all of whom became general officers in the Civil War. In 1855 he was appointed as lieutenant-colonel to the 2nd Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, with whom he served against the Indians of the Texas border. In 1859, while at Arlington on leave, he was summoned to command the United States troops sent to deal with the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry. In March 1861 he was made colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry; but his career in the old army ended with the secession of Virginia in the following month. Lee was strongly averse to secession, but felt obliged to conform to the action of his own state. The Federal authorities offered Lee the command of the field army about to invade the South, which he refused. Resigning his commission, he made his way to Richmond and was at once made a major-general in the Virginian forces. A few weeks later he became a brigadier-general (then the highest rank) in the Confederate service.

The military operations with which the great Civil War opened in 1861 were directed by President Jefferson Davis and General Lee. Lee was personally in charge of the unsuccessful West Virginian operations in the autumn, and, having been made a full general on the 31st of August, during the winter he devoted his experience as an engineer to the fortification and general defence of the Atlantic coast. Thence, when the well-drilled Army of the Potomac was about to descend upon Richmond, he was hurriedly recalled to Richmond. General Johnston was wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) on the 31st of May 1862, and General Robert E. Lee was assigned to the command of the famous Army of Northern Virginia which for the next three years "carried the rebellion on its bayonets." Little can be said of Lee's career as a commander-in-chief that is not an integral part of the history of the Civil War. His first success was the "Seven Days' Battle" in whihc he stopped George B. McClellan's advance; this was quickly followed up by the crushing defeat of the Federal army under John Pope, the invasion of Maryland and the sanguinary and indecisive battle of the Antietam. The year ended with another great victory at Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville, won against odds of two to one, and the great three days' battle of Gettysburg, where for the first time fortune turned decisively against the Confederates, were the chief events of 1863.

In the autumn Lee fought a war of manoeuvre against General George Gordon Meade. The tremendous struggle of 1864 between Lee and Grant included the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor and the long siege of Petersburg, in which, almost invariably, Lee was locally successful. But the steady pressure of his unrelenting opponent slowly wore down his strength. At last with not more than one man to oppose to Ulysses S. Grant's three he was compelled to break out of his Petersburg lines (April 1865). A series of heavy combats revealed his purpose, and Grant pursued the dwindling remnants of Lee's army to the westward. Headed off by the Federal cavalry, and pressed closely in rear by Grant's main body, General Lee had no alternative but to surrender. At Appomattox Court House, on the 9th of April, the career of the Army of Northern Virginia came to an end. Lee's farewell order was issued on the following day, and within a few weeks the Confederacy was at an end. For a few months Lee lived quietly in Powhatan county making his formal submission to the Federal authorities and urging on his own people acceptance of the new conditions. In August he was offered, and accepted, the presidency of Washington College, Lexington (now Washington and Lee University), a post which he occupied until his death on the 12th of October 1870 He was buried in the college grounds.

By his achievements Lee won a high place amongst the great generals of history. Though hampered by lack of materials and by political necessities, his strategy was daring always, and he never hesitated to take the gravest risks. On the field of battle he was as energetic in attack as he was constant in defence, and his personal influence over the men whom he led was extraordinary. No student of the American Civil War can fail to notice how the influence of Lee dominated the course of the struggle, and his surpassing ability was never more conspicuously shown than in the last hopeless stages of the contest. The personal history of Lee is lost in the history of the great crisis of America's national life; friends and foes alike acknowledged the purity of his motives, the virtues of his private life, his earnest Christianity and the unrepining loyalty with which he accepted the ruin of his party.

Father: Henry Lee (major general, b. 29-Jan-1756, d. 25-Mar-1818)
Mother: Ann Hill Carter (b. 1773, d. 1829)
Brother: Custis
Brother: Charles Carter Lee
Wife: Mary Anna Rudolph Custis (m. 30-Jun-1831)
Daughter: Anne Carter Lee ("Annie", b. 1839, d. 1862)
Daughter: Eleanor Agnes Lee (b. 1841, d. 1873)
Son: Robert Edward Lee
Daughter: Mildred Lee
Daughter: Mary Lee
Son: William H. Fitzhugh Lee
Son: George Washington Custis Lee (educator, b. 16-Sep-1832, d. 18-Feb-1913)

    University: US Military Academy, West Point (1829)
    Administrator: Superintendent, US Military Academy, West Point (1852-55)

    Taken Prisoner of War
    Surrendered to Enemy Appomattox Court House (9-Apr-1865)
    Treason charges dropped
    Pardoned by Gerald Ford (1975)
    Stroke 28-Sep-1870
    National Statuary Hall (1934)
    Birthday Is Holiday 16-Jan Lee-Jackson Day (VA)
    Slaveowners

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