Robert E. Lee

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Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870) - Born 19 Jan 1807, died 12 Oct 1870 was a career army officer and the most successful general of the Confederate forces during the U.S. Civil War. He eventually commanded all Confederate armies as general-in-chief. After the war, he urged reconciliation, and spent his final years as a progressive college president.

Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the fourth child of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee ("Lighthorse Harry") and Anne Hill (Carter) Lee. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1825. When he graduated (second in his class of 46) in 1829 he had not only attained the top academic record but was the first cadet (and so far the only) to graduate the Academy without a single demerit. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

While he was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1808-1873), the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, at Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, where she had been born. They lived in the Custis-Lee Mansion, which today is a Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial on the banks of the Potomac River in Arlington County, Virginia, just across from Washington, D.C. They eventually had three sons and four daughters: George Washington Custis Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee , Robert Edward, Mary, Agnes, Annie, and Mildred.

Mexican War

Lee's service during the Mexican War (1846-1848) was so outstanding that he was promoted twice and served as one of Gen. Winfield Scott's chief aides. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer. He was promoted to major after the Battle of Cerro Gordo in April, 1847. He also fought at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec, and was wounded at the latter. By the end of the war he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Superintendent of the United States Military Academy

During his three years at West Point(1852-1855), he improved the buildings and the courses. Lee's oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during his tenure. Custis Lee graduated in 1854, first in his class.

Harper's Ferry

Lee happened to be in Washington in 1859 at the time of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia and was sent there to arrest Brown and to restore order. He did this very quickly and then returned to his regiment in Texas. When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Lee was called to Washington, DC to wait for further orders.

U.S. Civil War

The beginning (1861-1862)

On April 18, 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, through Secretary of War Simon Cameron, offered Lee command of the United States Army (Union Army) through an intermediary. Lee's sentiments were against secession but his loyalty to his native Virginia led him to join the Confederacy.

At the outbreak of war he was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, and then as one of the first five full generals of Confederate forces. After commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, and then in charge of coastal defenses along the Carolina seaboards, he became military adviser to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, who he knew at West Point.

Commander, Army of Northern Virginia (1862-1865)

Following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, his first opportunity to lead an army in the field. He soon launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against General George B. McClellan's Union forces threatening the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Lee's attacks resulted in heavy Confederate casualties and they were marred by clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, but his aggressive actions unnerved McClellan. After McClellan's retreat, Lee defeated another Union army at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He then invaded Maryland, hoping to replenish his supplies and possibly influence the Northern elections that fall in favor of ending the war. McClellan obtained a lost order that revealed Lee's plans and brought superior forces to bear at Antietam before Lee's army could be assembled. In the bloodiest day of the war, Lee withstood the Union assaults, but withdrew his battered army back to Virginia.

Disappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln named Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside ordered an attack across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Delays in getting bridges built across the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, and the attack on December 12, 1862, was a disaster for the Union. Lincoln then named Joseph Hooker commander of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker's advance to attack Lee in May, 1863, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, was defeated by Lee and Stonewall Jackson's daring plan to divide the army and attack Hooker's flank. It was an enormous victory over a larger force, but came at a great cost as Jackson, Lee's best subordinate, was mortally wounded.

In the summer of 1863, Lee proceeded to invade the North again, hoping for a Southern victory that would compel the North to grant Confederate independence. But his attempts to defeat the Union forces under George G. Meade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, failed. His subordinates did not attack with the aggressive drive Lee expected, J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry was out of the area, and Lee's decision to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line—the disastrous Pickett's Charge—resulted in heavy losses. Lee was compelled to retreat again but, as after Antietam, was not vigorously pursued. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request.

In 1864, the new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant sought to destroy Lee's army and capture Richmond. Lee and his men stopped each advance, but Grant had superior reinforcements and kept pushing each time a bit further to the southeast. These battles in the Overland Campaign included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. Grant eventually fooled Lee by stealthily moving his army across the James River. After stopping a Union attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia, a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg. He attempted to break the stalemate by sending Jubal A. Early on a raid through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington, D.C., but Early was defeated by the superior forces of Philip Sheridan. The Siege of Petersburg would last from June 1864 until April, 1865.

General-in-chief (1865)

On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to be general-in-chief of Confederate forces. As the Confederate army was worn down by months of battle, a Union attempt to capture Petersburg on April 2, 1865, succeeded. Lee abandoned the defense of Richmond and sought to join General Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina. His forces were surrounded by the Union army and he surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lee resisted calls by some subordinates (and indirectly by Jefferson Davis) to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war.

Assignments:

• 1825-1829 - United States Military Academy (West Point)
• 1829-1831 - (2nd Lt.) Fort Pulaski
• 1832-1834 - (2nd Lt.) Fort Monroe
• 1834-1837 - (2nd Lt.) Washington, assistant to chief engineer
• 1837-1841 - (1st Lt.) First command supervising engineering work on St. Louis Harbor & Upper Mississippi River.
• 1841-1846 - (Captain) Fort Hamilton in charge of building fortifications.
• 1846-1848 - (Captain) Mexican War
• 1848-1852 - (Lt. Col.) Fort Carroll
• 1852-1855 - (Lt. Col.) Superintendent of West Point
• 1855-1861 - (Lt. Col.) Second Cavalry on the Texas Frontier protecting settlers.
• 1861-1865 - Confederate Army

Links:

• Wikipedia
• R. E. Lee, the biography by Douglas Southall Freeman (4 vols., complete online version)
• Robert E. Lee Historical Preservation Site
• Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University where Robert E. Lee is buried
• Notice of Robert E. Lee's Assignment to Command of Confederate Forces on the Coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, 1861 From the State Library & Archives of Florida.