Robert E. Lee

This article is about the Confederate general. For other uses, see Robert E. Lee (disambiguation).

Robert Edward Lee
[[Image:File:Robert Edward Lee.jpg File:Robert E Lee Signature.svg|center|200px|border]]'Robert E. Lee, General of the Confederate Army. (1863, Julian Vannerson)'
Personal Information
Born:	January 19, 1807 (1807-01-19)
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Died:	Template:Death-date and age
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Allegiance:	United States of America Confederate States of America
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Rank:	Colonel (USA) General (CSA)
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Commands:	Army of Northern Virginia
Battles:	Mexican–American War Harpers Ferry Raid American Civil War
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Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a career United States Army officer and combat engineer. He became the commanding general of the Confederate army in the American Civil War and a postwar icon of the South's "lost cause."

A top graduate of West Point, Lee distinguished himself as an exceptional soldier in the U.S. Army for thirty-two years. He is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.

In early 1861, President Abraham Lincoln invited Lee to take command of the entire Union Army. Lee declined because his home state of Virginia was, despite his wishes, seceding from the Union. When Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state. Lee's eventual role in the newly established Confederacy was to serve as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis.

Lee soon emerged as the shrewdest battlefield tactician of the war, after he assumed command of the Confederate eastern army (soon christened "The Army of Northern Virginia") after the wounding of Joseph Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines. His abilities as a battlefield tactician were quickly made evident in his many victories such as the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862), Battle of Chancellorsville (1863), Battle of Cold Harbor (1864), Seven Days Battles, and the Second Battle of Bull Run. His strategic vision was more doubtful--his invasions of the North in 1862 and 1863 were based on the untested assumption that Northern morale was weak and could be shattered by rebel victories. They produced a defeat at Antietam (1862) and disaster at Gettysburg (1863), so a victory after invasion of the North was never realized. However, due to ineffectual pursuit by the commander of Union forces, Lee escaped after both defeats to Virginia. His decision in 1863 to overrule his advisers and invade the North, rather than protect Vicksburg, proved a major strategic blunder and cost the Confederacy control of its western regions. Nevertheless Lee's brilliant defensive maneuvers stopped the Union offenses one after another, as a series of Union commanders failed to win a single major battle in Virginia.

In the spring of 1864, the new Union commander, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, began a series of campaigns to wear down Lee's army. In the Overland Campaign of 1864 and the Siege of Petersburg in 1864–1865, Lee inflicted heavy casualties on Grant's larger army, but was unable to replace his own losses. In early April 1865, Lee's depleted forces were turned from their entrenchments near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and he began a strategic retreat. Lee's subsequent surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865 represented the loss of only one of the remaining Confederate field armies, but it was a psychological blow from which the South could not recover. By June 1865, all of the remaining Confederate armies had capitulated.

Lee's numerous victories against superior forces won him enduring fame as a crafty and daring battlefield tactician, but some of his strategic decisions, such as invading the North in 1862 and 1863, have been criticized by many military historians.

In the final months of the Civil War, as manpower reserves drained away, Lee adopted a plan to arm slaves to fight on behalf of the Confederacy, but this came too late to change the outcome of the war. After Appomattox, Lee discouraged Southern dissenters from starting a guerrilla campaign to continue the war, and encouraged reconciliation between the North and the South.

After the war, as a college President, Lee supported President Andrew Johnson's program of Reconstruction and inter-sectional friendship, while opposing the Radical Republican proposals to give freed slaves the vote and take the vote away from ex-Confederates. He urged them to re-think their position between the North and the South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the nation's political life. Lee became the great Southern hero of the war, and his popularity grew in the North as well after his death in 1870. He remains an iconic figure of American military leadership.

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Stained glass of Lee's life in the National Cathedral, depicting his time at West Point, his service in the Army Corps of Engineers, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and his death

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Farewell address by Lee to the Army of Northern Virginia, Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 10, 1865

Early life and career

Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of Major General Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry" (1756–1818), Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter (1773–1829). The family was famous. Lee's paternal ancestors were among the earliest settlers in Virginia. His mother grew up at Shirley Plantation, one of the most elegant homes in Virginia. Lee's father, a tobacco planter, suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments. Unable to exercise self-control or take care of his family, he abandoned them. Lee's father died when the boy was 11 years old, leaving the family deeply in debt. Since an older brother inherited the Stratford Hall Plantation, Lee and his family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where Lee grew up in a series of relatives' houses. Lee attended Alexandria Academy, where he studied Greek, Latin, algebra and geometry; he was a top student. His mother, a devout Christian, oversaw his religious instruction at Christ Episcopal Church in Alexandria.

He entered the United States Military Academy in 1825 and became the first cadet to achieve the rank of sergeant at the end of his first year. When he graduated in 1829 he was at the head of his class in artillery and tactics, tying with Charles Mason for highest marks in that field, and he shared the distinction with five other cadets of having received no demerits during the four-year course of instruction. In his class of 46, he ranked second overall, surpassed by only Mason due to the latter's better performance in other disciplines. He was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

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Combat engineer career

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Portion of a map drawn by Robert E. Lee of the head of the Des Moines Rapids, 1837, showing Fort Des Moines No. 1, later Montrose, Iowa.

Lee served for just over 17 months at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, Georgia. In 1831 he was transferred to Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula and played a major role in the final construction of Fort Monroe and its opposite, Fort Calhoun. Fort Monroe was completely surrounded by a moat. Fort Calhoun, later renamed Fort Wool, was built on a man-made island across the navigational channel from Old Point Comfort in the middle of the mouth of Hampton Roads. When construction was completed in 1834, Fort Monroe was referred to as the "Gibraltar of Chesapeake Bay." While he was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married.

Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington, D.C. from 1834 to 1837, but spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the state line between Ohio and Michigan. As a first lieutenant of engineers in 1837, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbor and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Among his projects was blasting a channel through the Des Moines Rapids on the Mississippi by Keokuk, Iowa, where the Mississippi's mean depth of 2.4 feet (0.7 m) was the upper limit of steamboat traffic on the river. His work there earned him a promotion to captain. Circa 1842, Captain Robert E. Lee arrived as Fort Hamilton's post engineer.[1]

Marriage and family

While he was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1808–1873), great-granddaughter of Martha Washington by her first husband Daniel Parke Custis, and step-great-granddaughter of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Mary was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington's stepgrandson, and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, daughter of William Fitzhugh and Ann Randolph. They were married on June 30, 1831 at Arlington House, her parents' house just across from Washington, D.C. The 3rd U.S. Artillery served as honor guard at the marriage. They eventually had seven children, three boys and four girls:

1. George Washington Custis Lee (Custis, "Boo"); 1832–1913; served as Major General in the Confederate Army and aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis; unmarried
2. Mary Custis Lee (Mary, "Daughter"); 1835–1918; unmarried
3. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee ("Rooney"); 1837–1891; served as Major General in the Confederate Army (cavalry); married twice; surviving children by second marriage
4. Anne Carter Lee (Annie); June 18, 1839 – October 20, 1862; died of typhoid fever, unmarried
5. Eleanor Agnes Lee (Agnes); 1841 – October 15, 1873; died of tuberculosis, unmarried
6. Robert Edward Lee, Jr. (Rob); 1843–1914; served as Captain in the Confederate Army (Rockbridge Artillery); married twice; surviving children by second marriage
7. Mildred Childe Lee (Milly, "Precious Life"); 1846–1905; unmarried

All the children survived him except for Annie, who died in 1862. They are all buried with their parents in the crypt of the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Lee is also related to Helen Keller, through Helen's mother, Kate. On May 1, 1864, General Lee was at General A.P. Hill's daughters baptism, Lucy Lee Hill, to serve as her Godfather. This is referenced in the painting Tender is the Heart by Mort Künstler.

Mexican-American War

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American Occupation of Mexico City

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Robert Edward Lee, as a U.S. Army Colonel before the Civil War

Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He was one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Veracruz to Mexico City. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer; he found routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable.

He was promoted to brevet major after the Battle of Cerro Gordo on April 18, 1847. He also fought at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec, and was wounded at the last. By the end of the war, he had received additional brevet promotions to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel, but his permanent rank was still Captain of Engineers and he would remain a Captain until his transfer to the cavalry in 1855.

For the first time Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met and worked with each other during the Mexican-American War. Both Lee and Grant participated in the Scott's march from the coastal town of Vera Cruz to Mexico City. Grant gained wartime experience as a quartermaster, Lee as an engineer who positioned troops and artillery. Both did their share of actual fighting. At Vera Cruz, Lee earned a commendation for "greatly distinguished" service. Grant was among the leaders at the bloody assault at Molino del Rey, and both soldiers were among the forces that entered Mexico City. Close observations of their commanders constituted a learning process for both Lee and Grant. The Mexican-American War concluded on February 2, 1848.

After the Mexican War, Lee spent three years at Fort Carroll in Baltimore harbor. During this time his service was interrupted by other duties, among them surveying/updating maps in Florida. Lee declined an offer from Cuban rebels to lead their fight against Spain.

The 1850s

The 1850s were a difficult time for Lee, with his long absences from home, the increasing disability of his wife, and his often morbid concern with his personal failures.

In 1852 was appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point; he was reluctant to enter what he called a "snake pit" but the War Department insisted and he obeyed. His wife occasionally came to visit. During his three years at West Point, Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee improved the buildings and courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets. Lee's oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during his tenure. Custis Lee graduated in 1854, first in his class . .

Lee was greatly relieved to receive a long-awaited promotion as second-in-command of the Second Cavalry regiment in Texas in 1855. It meant leaving the Engineering Corps and its sequence of staff jobs for the combat command he really wanted. He served under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston at Camp Cooper, Texas; their mission was to protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and the Comanche.

The death in 1857 of his father in law George Washington Parke Custis created a major crisis, as Lee had to assume the main burden of executing the will. The Custis estate was in disarray, with vast landholdings and hundreds of slaves balanced against huge debts. The plantations had been poorly managed and were losing money. Lee took several leaves of absence from the army and became a planter and eventually straightened out the estate. On June 24, 1859 Lee was accused by the New York Tribune of having three run away slaves whipped; himself personally whipping a female slave. Lee did not respond to the attack until 1866, claiming in a letter the accusation was not true. The Custis will called for emancipating the slaves within five years, but state law required they be funded in as livelihood outside Virginia, and that was impossible until the debts were paid off. They were all emancipated by 1862

Lee's views on slavery

Since the end of the Civil War, it has often been suggested that Lee was in some sense opposed to slavery. In the period following the Civil War and Reconstruction, and after his death, Lee became a central figure in the Lost Cause interpretation of the war, and as succeeding generations came to look on slavery as a terrible immorality, the idea that Lee had always somehow opposed it helped maintain his stature as a symbol of Southern honor and national reconciliation.

The evidence cited in favor of the claim that Lee opposed slavery included his direct statements and his actions before and during the war, including Lee's support of the work by his wife and her mother to liberate slaves and fund their move to Liberia, the success of his wife and daughter in setting up an illegal school for slaves on the Arlington plantation, the freeing of Custis' slaves in 1862, and his insistence in 1864-1865 that the Confederacy enroll slaves in Lee's Army, with manumission offered as an eventual reward for good service.

In December 1864, Lee was shown a letter by Louisiana Senator Edward Sparrow, written by General St. John R. Liddell, which noted that Lee would be hard-pressed in the interior of Virginia by spring, and the need to consider Patrick Cleburne's plan to emancipate the slaves and put all men in the army that were willing to join. Lee was said to have agreed on all points and desired to get black soldiers, saying that "he could make soldiers out of any human being that had arms and legs."

A key source on Lee's views is his 1856 letter to his wife:

“

... In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.

”

Freeman's analysis puts Lee's attitude toward slavery and abolition in historical context:

“

This [letter] was the prevailing view among most religious people of Lee's class in the border states. They believed that slavery existed because God willed it and they thought it would end when God so ruled. The time and the means were not theirs to decide, conscious though they were of the ill-effects of Negro slavery on both races. Lee shared these convictions of his neighbors without having come in contact with the worst evils of African bondage. He spent no considerable time in any state south of Virginia from the day he left Fort Pulaski in 1831 until he went to Texas in 1856. All his reflective years had been passed in the North or in the border states. He had never been among the blacks on a cotton or rice plantation. At Arlington the servants had been notoriously indolent, their master's master. Lee, in short, was only acquainted with slavery at its best and he judged it accordingly. At the same time, he was under no illusion regarding the aims of the Abolitionist or the effect of their agitation.

”

Harpers Ferry and Texas, 1859-61

Both Harpers Ferry and the secession of Texas were monumental events leading up to the Civil War. Robert E. Lee was at both events. Lee initially remained loyal to the Union after Texas seceded.

Harpers Ferry

When John Brown led a band of 21 men (including five African Americans) and seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in October 1859, Lee was given command of detachments of Maryland and Virginia militia, soldiers, and United States Marines, to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders. By the time Lee arrived later that night, the militia on the site had surrounded Brown and his hostages. When on October 18 Brown refused the demand for surrender, Lee attacked and after three minutes of fighting, Brown and his followers were captured.

Robert E. Lee made a summary report of the events that took place at Harpers Ferry to Colonel Samuel Cooper, the U. S. Army Adjutant General. According to Lee's notes Lee believed John Brown was insane,"...the plan [raiding the Harpers Ferry Arsenal] was the attempt of a fanatic or mad­man". Lee also believed that the African Americans used in the raid were forced to by John Brown himself. "The blacks, whom he [John Brown] forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance." Lee attributed John Brown's "temporary success" by creating panic and confusion and by "magnifying" the number of participants involved in the raid.

Texas

When Texas seceded from the Union in February 1861, General David E. Twiggs surrendered all the American forces (about 4,000 men, including Lee, and commander of the Department of Texas) to the Texans. Twiggs immediately resigned from the U. S. Army and was made a Confederate general. Lee went back to Washington, and was appointed Colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry in March 1861. Lee's Colonelcy was signed by the new President, Abraham Lincoln. Three weeks after his promotion, Colonel Lee was offered a senior command (with the rank of Major General) in the expanding Army to fight the Southern States that had left the Union.

Civil War

Main article: American Civil War

Lee privately ridiculed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the founders. The commanding general of the Union Army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top command. Lee accepted a promotion to colonel on March 28. Lee had earlier been asked by one of his lieutenants if he intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which he replied, "I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Meanwhile, Lee ignored an offer of command from the CSA. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, it was obvious that Virginia would quickly secede. So Lee turned down an April 18 offer to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned on April 20 and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23.

Early role

At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank. He did not intend to wear a general's insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.

Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, where he was hampered by the lack of an effective Confederate navy. Once again blamed by the press, he became military adviser to Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Secretary of War. While in Richmond, Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches would later play an important role in battles near the end of the war.

Commander, Army of Northern Virginia

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Lee mounted on Traveller (September 1866)

In the spring of 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan advanced upon Richmond from Fort Monroe, eventually reaching the eastern edges of the Confederate capital along the Chickahominy River. 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. Newspaper editorials of the day objected to his appointment due to concerns that Lee would not be aggressive and would wait for the Union army to come to him. Early in the war his men called him "Granny Lee" because of his allegedly timid style of command. After the Seven Days Battles until the end of the war his men called him simply "Marse Robert." He oversaw substantial strengthening of Richmond's defenses during the first three weeks of June and then launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against McClellan's forces. 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, who retreated to a point on the James River where Union naval forces were in control. These successes led to a rapid turn-around of public opinion and the newspaper editorials quickly changed their tune on Lee's aggressiveness.

After McClellan's retreat, Lee defeated another Union army at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Within 90 days of taking command, Lee had run McClellan off the Peninsula, defeated Pope at Second Manassas, and the battle lines had moved from 6 miles outside Richmond, to 20 miles outside Washington. Instead of a quick end to the war that the Peninsula Campaign had promised in its early stages, the war would go on for almost another 3 years and claim a half million more lives. He then invaded Maryland, hoping to replenish his supplies and possibly influence the Northern elections to fall in favor of ending the war. McClellan's men recovered a lost order that revealed Lee's plans. McClellan always exaggerated Lee's forces, but now he knew the Confederate army was divided and could be destroyed by an all-out attack at Antietam. Yet McClellan was too slow in moving, not realizing Lee had been informed by a spy that McClellan had the plans. Lee urgently recalled Stonewall Jackson and in the bloodiest day of the war, Lee withstood the Union assaults. He withdrew his battered army back to Virginia while President Abraham Lincoln used the reverse as sufficient pretext to announce the Emancipation Proclamation to put the Confederacy on the diplomatic and moral defensive.

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 a victory over a larger force, but it also came with a great cost; Jackson, one of Lee's best subordinates, was accidentally wounded by his own troops, and soon after died of pneumonia.

Battle of Gettysburg

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Battle of Gettysburg, by Currier and Ives

The critical decisions came in May-June 1863, after Lee's smashing victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The western front was crumbling, as multiple uncoordinated Confederate armies were unable to handle General Ulysses S. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg. The top military advisers wanted to save Vicksburg but Lee convinced Davis to overrule them and authorize yet another invasion of the North. The immediate goal was to acquire urgently needed supplies from the rich farming districts of Pennsylvania; a long-term goal was to stimulate peace activity in the North by demonstrating the power of the South to invade. Lee's decision proved a major strategic blunder and cost the Confederacy control of its western regions, and nearly cost Lee his own army as Union forces cut him off from the South. Lee had to fight his way out at Gettysburg.

In the summer of 1863, Lee invaded the North again, marching through western Maryland and into south central Pennsylvania. He encountered Union forces under George G. Meade at the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in July; the battle would produce the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War. Some of his subordinates were new and inexperienced in their commands, J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry was out of the area, slightly ill, and thus Lee was less than comfortable with how events were unfolding. While the first day of battle was controlled by the Confederates, key terrain which should have been taken by General Ewell was not. The Second day ended with the Confederates unable to break the Union position, and the Union more solidified. Lee's decision on the third day, against the sound judgment of his best corps commander General Longstreet, to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line was disastrous. The assault known as Pickett's Charge was repulsed and resulted in heavy Confederate losses. The general rode out to meet his retreating army and proclaimed, "All this has been MY fault." Lee was compelled to retreat. Despite flooded rivers that blocked his retreat, he escaped Meade's ineffective pursuit. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Pres. Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request. That fall, Lee and Meade met again in two minor campaigns that did little to change the strategic standoff. The Confederate Army never fully recovered from the substantial losses incurred during the 3-day battle in southern Pennsylvania. The historian Shelby Foote stated, "Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Robert E. Lee as commander."

Ulysses S. Grant and the Union offensive

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William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant and Philip H. Sheridan Postage, 1937 Issue

In 1864 the new Union general-in-chief, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, sought to use his large advantages in manpower and material resources to destroy Lee's army by attrition, pinning Lee against his capital of Richmond. Lee successfully stopped each attack, but Grant with his superior numbers kept pushing each time a bit farther to the southeast. These battles in the Overland Campaign included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor.

Grant eventually was able to stealthily move 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. (This development presaged the trench warfare of World War I, exactly 50 years later.) He attempted to break the stalemate by sending Jubal A. Early on a raid through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington, D.C., but was defeated early on by the superior forces of Philip Sheridan. The Siege of Petersburg lasted from June 1864 until March 1865, with Lee's outnumbered and poorly supplied army shrinking daily because of desertions by disheartened Confederates.

General-in-chief

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Lee with son Custis (left) and aide Walter H. Taylor (right) by Brady, April 16, 1865.

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Lee photographed in 1865

On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to general-in-chief of Confederate forces.

As the South ran out of manpower the issue of arming the slaves became paramount. By late 1864 the army so dominated the Confederacy that civilian leaders were unable to block the military's proposal, strongly endorsed by Lee, to arm and train slaves in Confederate uniform for combat. In return for this service, slave soldiers and their families would be emancipated. Lee explained, "We should employ them without delay ... [along with] gradual and general emancipation." The first units were in training as the war ended. As the Confederate army was devastated by casualties, disease and desertion, the Union attack on Petersburg succeeded on April 2, 1865. Lee abandoned Richmond and retreated west. His forces were surrounded and he surrendered them to Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Other Confederate armies followed suit and the war ended. The day after his surrender, Lee issued his Farewell Address to his army.

Lee resisted calls by some officers to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war. He insisted the war was over and energetically campaigned for inter-sectional reconciliation. "So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South."

Lee's Civil War battle summaries

The following are summaries of Union and Confederate battles where Robert E. Lee is the Commanding Officer. Battles that did not end in a decisive victory are labeled "Inconclusive" or "Draw".

1861

Cheat Mountain

September 11–13 - Union victory (Lee's first battle of the Civil War. Lee was severely criticized for the defeat and named "Granny Lee". Lee was sent to South Carolina to supervise fortifications.)

Lee's troop strength - 15,000, casualties - 100

Reynolds's troop strengths - 2,000, casualties - 21

1862

Seven Days

6/25/1862 to 7/1/1862 - Inconclusive

Lee's troop strength - 95,000, casualties - 20,614

McClellan's troop strengths - 91,000, casualties - 15,849

• Oak Grove - Draw (Union withdrawal.)
• Beaver Dam Creek - Union victory
• Gaine's Mill - Confederate victory
• Savage's Station - Draw
• Glendale - Draw (Union withdrawal.)
• Malvern Hill - Union victory

Second Manassas

8/28/1862 to 8/30/1862 Confederate victory

Lee's troop strength - 49,000, casualties - 9,197

Pope's troop strengths - 76,000, casualties - 16,054

South Mountain

9/14/1862 Union victory

Lee's troop strength - 18,000, casualties - 2,685

McClellan's troop strength - 28,000, casualties - 1,813

Antietam

9/16/1862 to 9/18/1862 - Inconclusive (Union strategic victory.)

Lee's troop strength - 52,000, casualties - 13,724

McClellan's troop strength - 75,000, casualties - 12,410

Fredericksburg

12/11/1862 - Confederate victory (Lee's troops and supplies depleted.)

Lee's troop strength - 72,000, casualties - 5,309

Burnside's troop strength - 114,000, casualties - 12,653

1863

Chancellorsville

5/1/1863 - Confederate victory

Lee's troop strength - 57,000, casualties - 12,764

Hooker's troop strength - 105,000, casualties - 16,792

Gettysburg

7/1/1863 - Union Victory (The Confederate army that returned from the fight at Gettysburg was physically and spiritually exhausted. Lee would never again attempt an offensive operation of such monumental proportions. Meade, who had forced Lee to retreat, was criticized for not immediately pursuing Lee's army. This battle become known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy. Lee would never personally invade the North again after this battle. Rather he was determined to defend Richmond and eventually Petersburg at all costs.)

Lee's troop strength - 75,000, casualties - 28,063

Meade's troop strength - 83,000, casualties - 23,049

1864

Wilderness

5/5/1864 - Inconclusive (Grant continued his offensive.)

Lee's troop strength - 61,000, casualties - 11,400

Grant's troop strength - 102,000, casualties - 18,400

Spotsylvania

5/12/1864 - Inconclusive (Although beaten and unable to take Lee's staunch line defenses, Grant continued the Union offensive.)

Lee's troop strength - 52,000, casualties - 12,000

Hancock's troop strength - 100,000, casualties - 18,000

Mathew Brady portrait of Lee on April 16, 1865, Richmond, Virginia. (detail)

Cold Harbor

6/1/1864 - Confederate victory

Lee's troop strength - 62,000, casualties - 2,500

Grant's troop strength - 108,000, casualties - 12,000

Deep Bottom

8/14/1864 Confederate victory (Union attempt to attack Richmond, the Confederate Capital.)

Lee's troop strength - 20,000, casualties - 1,700

Hancock's troop strength - 28,000, casualties - 2,901

1865

Appomattox campaign

3/29/1865 - Union victory -- General Robert E. Lee Surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant. Casualties on Confederate side are enormous. After the surrender Grant gave Lee's army much-needed food rations, made them lay down their arms and return to their homes, never to take up arms against the Union again.

Lee's troop strength - 50,000, casualties - No Record Available

Grant's troop strength - 113,000, casualties - 10,780

After the war

After the war, Lee was not arrested or punished, but he did lose the right to vote as well as some property. Lee supported President Johnson's plan of Reconstruction, but joined with Democrats in opposing the Radical Republicans who demanded punitive measures against the South and distrusted its commitment to the abolition of slavery and, indeed, distrusted the region's loyalty to United States. Lee supported civil rights for all, as well as a system of free public schools for blacks, but dissented regarding black suffrage. Most of all he became an icon of reconciliation between the North and South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the national fabric.

File:Robert Edward Lee - elder years.jpg

President of Washington College, Lexington VA. From a photograph by Boude and Miley, late 1869.

Lee's prewar family home, the Custis-Lee Mansion was seized by Union forces during the war and turned into Arlington National Cemetery. The family was compensated in 1883)

Lee hoped to retire to a farm of his own, but he was too much a regional symbol to live in obscurity. He accepted an offer to serve as the president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, and served from October 1865 until his death. The Trustees used his famous name in large-scale fund-raising appeals and Lee transformed Washington College into a leading Southern college. Lee was well liked by the students, which enabled him to announce an "honor system" like West Point's, explaining "We have but one rule here, and it is that every student be a gentleman." To speed up national reconciliation Lee recruited students from the North and made certain they were well treated on campus and in town.

Several glowing appraisals of Lee's tenure as college president have survived, depicting the dignity and respect he commanded among all. Previously, most students had been obliged to occupy the campus dormitories, while only the most mature were allowed to live off-campus. Lee quickly reversed this rule, requiring most students to board off-campus, and allowing only the most mature to live in the dorms as a mark of privilege; the results of this policy were considered a success. A typical account by a professor there states that "the students fairly worshipped him, and deeply dreaded his displeasure; yet so kind, affable, and gentle was he toward them that all loved to approach him... No student would have dared to violate General Lee's expressed wish or appeal; if he had done so, the students themselves would have driven him from the college." Elsewhere, the same professor recalls the following:

To a recalcitrant student, who was contending for what he thought his rights as a man, I once heard General Lee say: "Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character," in those very words.

President Johnson's amnesty pardon

President Andrew Johnson, in a proclamation dated December 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 711), gave an unconditional pardon to those who "directly or indirectly" rebelled against the United States.

... unconditionally, and without reservation, to all and every person who directly or indirectly participated in the late insurrection or rebellion, a full pardon and amnesty for the offense of treason against the United States, or of adhering to their enemies during the late civil war, with restoration of all rights, privileges, and immunities under the Constitution and the laws which have been made in pursuance thereof.

Lee, with this full amnesty pardon by President Johnson, could not be held liable for treason or insurrection against the United States. Lee was posthumously officially reinstated as a United States citizen by President Gerald Ford in 1975.

Postwar politics

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Robert E. Lee, oil on canvas, Edward Calledon Bruce, 1865. Virginia Historical Society

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Lee in 1867

Lee, who had opposed secession and remained mostly indifferent to politics before the Civil War, supported President Johnson's plan of Presidential Reconstruction that took effect in 1865–66. However, he opposed the Congressional Republican program that took effect in 1867. In February 1866, he was called to testify before the Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction in Washington, where he expressed support for President Andrew Johnson's plans for quick restoration of the former Confederate states, and argued that restoration should return, as far as possible, the status quo ante in the Southern states' governments (with the exception of slavery).

Lee told the Committee, "...every one with whom I associate expresses kind feelings towards the freedmen. They wish to see them get on in the world, and particularly to take up some occupation for a living, and to turn their hands to some work." Lee also expressed his "willingness that blacks should be educated, and ... that it would be better for the blacks and for the whites." Lee forthrightly opposed allowing blacks to vote: "My own opinion is that, at this time, they [black Southerners] cannot vote intelligently, and that giving them the [vote] would lead to a great deal of demagogism, and lead to embarrassments in various ways." Lee also recommended the deportation of African Americans from Virginia and even mentioned that Virginians would give aid in the deportation. "I think it would be better for Virginia if she could get rid of them [African Americans]. ... I think that everyone there would be willing to aid it."

In an interview in May 1866, Lee said, "The Radical party are likely to do a great deal of harm, for we wish now for good feeling to grow up between North and South, and the President, Mr. Johnson, has been doing much to strengthen the feeling in favor of the Union among us. The relations between the Negroes and the whites were friendly formerly, and would remain so if legislation be not passed in favor of the blacks, in a way that will only do them harm."

In 1868, Lee's ally Alexander H. H. Stuart drafted a public letter of endorsement for the Democratic Party's presidential campaign, in which Horatio Seymour ran against Lee's old foe Republican Ulysses S. Grant. Lee signed it along with thirty-one other ex-Confederates. The Democratic campaign, eager to publicize the endorsement, published the statement widely in newspapers. Their letter claimed paternalistic concern for the welfare of freed Southern blacks, stating that "The idea that the Southern people are hostile to the negroes and would oppress them, if it were in their power to do so, is entirely unfounded. They have grown up in our midst, and we have been accustomed from childhood to look upon them with kindness." However, it also called for the restoration of white political rule, arguing that "It is true that the people of the South, in common with a large majority of the people of the North and West, are, for obvious reasons, inflexibly opposed to any system of laws that would place the political power of the country in the hands of the negro race. But this opposition springs from no feeling of enmity, but from a deep-seated conviction that, at present, the negroes have neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to make them safe depositories of political power."

In his public statements and private correspondence, however, Lee argued that a tone of reconciliation and patience would further the interests of white Southerners better than hotheaded antagonism to federal authority or the use of violence. Lee repeatedly expelled white students from Washington College for violent attacks on local black men, and publicly urged obedience to the authorities and respect for law and order. In 1869-70 he was a leader in successful efforts to establish state-funded schools for blacks. He privately chastised fellow ex-Confederates such as Jefferson Davis and Jubal Early for their frequent, angry responses to perceived Northern insults, writing in private to them as he had written to a magazine editor in 1865, that "It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay passion, give full scope to reason and to every kindly feeling. By doing this and encouraging our citizens to engage in the duties of life with all their heart and mind, with a determination not to be turned aside by thoughts of the past and fears of the future, our country will not only be restored in material prosperity, but will be advanced in science, in virtue and in religion."

Illness and death

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Lee's death mask

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So-called "Recumbent Statue" of Robert E. Lee in Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia, of Lee asleep on the battlefield, sculpted by Edward Valentine. It is often mistakenly thought to be a tomb or sarcophagus, but Lee is actually buried elsewhere in the chapel.

On September 28, 1870, Lee suffered a stroke that left him without the ability to speak.

Lee died from the effects of pneumonia shortly after 9 a.m. on October 12, 1870, in Lexington, Virginia. He was buried underneath Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, where his body remains today.

According to J. William Jones' Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee, his last words, on the day of his death, were "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the tent", but this is debatable because of conflicting accounts. Since Lee's stroke resulted in aphasia, last words may have been impossible.

Legacy

Among Southerners, Lee came to be even more revered after his surrender than he had been during the war (when Stonewall Jackson had been the great Confederate hero, particularly after Jackson's death at Chancellorsville). Admirers pointed to his character and devotion to duty, not to mention his brilliant tactical successes in battle after battle against a stronger foe. Military historians continue to pay attention to his battlefield tactics and maneuvering, though many think he should have designed better strategic plans for the Confederacy. However, it should be noted that he was not given full direction of the Southern war effort until very late in the conflict. His reputation continued to build and by 1900 his followers had spread into the North, signaling a national apotheosis. Today among the devotees of "The Lost Cause", General Lee is referred to as "The Marble Man."

He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.

— Benjamin Harvey Hill of Georgia
referring to Robert Edward Lee during an address before the Southern Historical Society in Atlanta, Georgia on February 18, 1874

Civil War-era letters

On September 29, 2007, General Lee's three Civil War-era letters were sold for $61,000 at auction by Thomas Willcox, much less than the record of $630,000 for a Lee item in 2002. The auction included more than 400 documents of Lee's from the estate of the parents of Willcox that had been in the family for generations. South Carolina sued to stop the sale on the grounds that the letters were official documents and therefore property of the state, but the court ruled in favor of Willcox.

Citizenship restored

On May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to persons who had participated in the rebellion against the United States. There were fourteen excepted classes, though, and members of those classes had to make special application to the President. Lee sent an application to Grant and wrote to President Johnson on June 13, 1865:

“

Being excluded from the provisions of amnesty & pardon contained in the proclamation of the 29th Ulto; I hereby apply for the benefits, & full restoration of all rights & privileges extended to those included in its terms. I graduated at the Mil. Academy at West Point in June 1829. Resigned from the U.S. Army April '61. Was a General in the Confederate Army, & included in the surrender of the Army of N. Virginia 9 April '65.

”

Lee's lost oath

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Oath of amnesty submitted by Robert E. Lee in 1865.

On October 2, 1865, the same day that Lee was inaugurated as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, he signed his Amnesty Oath, thereby complying fully with the provision of Johnson's proclamation. Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored. The fact that he had submitted an amnesty oath at all was soon lost to history.

Apparently Secretary of State William H. Seward had given Lee's application to a friend as a souvenir, and the State Department had pigeonholed the oath. More than a hundred years later, in 1970, an archivist at the National Archives discovered Lee's Amnesty Oath among State Department records (reported in Prologue, Winter 1970). For 110 years Lee remained without a country, as the Confederacy had dissolved and Lee's United States application and oath were lost and disregarded. It is probable that someone at the State Department did not want Robert E. Lee to regain citizenship while Lee was alive. One can only speculate as to whether Secretary of State Seward was involved in the matter of Lee's citizenship reinstatement.

U.S. Congress resolution

On January 30, 1975, Senate Joint Resolution 23, A joint resolution to restore posthumously full rights of citizenship to General R. E. Lee was introduced into the Senate by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. VA. The resolution was to restore the U.S. citizenship to Robert E. Lee effective June 13, 1865. This resolution was the result of a 5 year campaign to posthumously restore Robert E. Lee's U.S. citizenship.

Congressional summary:

• 1/30/1975 S. J. Res. 23 introduced.
• 3/19/1975 Reported to Senate from the Committee on the Judiciary, S. Rept. 94-44.
• 4/10/1975 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Measure passed Senate.
• 6/24/1975 Reported to House from the Committee on the Judiciary, H. Rept. 94-324.
• 7/22/1975 Passed/agreed to in House: Measure passed House, roll call #415 Vote: 407 Yea 10 Nay
• 7/22/1975 Cleared for White House

Signed by President Ford

On July 24, 1975, after passing the Senate and House of Representatives the resolution was presented to President Gerald Ford. The resolution, S.J. Res. 23, was signed on August 5, 1975 by the President and became Public Law 94-67 (89 Stat. 380). The signing took place at a ceremony at Arlington House, Arlington, Virginia. The house was formerly known as the Custis-Lee Mansion, and was the home of General Lee. The ceremony was attended by a dozen of Lee's descendants including Robert E. Lee V, Robert E. Lee's great-great-grandson. Also attending were: Governor Godwin, Senator Byrd, Congressman Butler, Congressman Harris, Congressman Satterfield, Congressman Downing, and Congressman Daniel.

President summary:

• 7/24/1975 Measure presented to President.
• 8/5/1975 Signed by President.
• 8/5/1975 Public law 94-67

Before signing President Ford spoke at 2:12 p.m. at the signing ceremony:

“

I am very pleased to sign Senate Joint Resolution 23, restoring posthumously the long overdue, full rights of citizenship to General Robert E. Lee. This legislation corrects a 110-year oversight of American history. It is significant that it is signed at this place. Lee's dedication to his native State of Virginia charted his course for the bitter Civil War years, causing him to reluctantly resign from a distinguished career in the United States Army and to serve as General of the Army of Northern Virginia. He, thus, forfeited his rights to U.S. citizenship. Once the war was over, he firmly felt the wounds of the North and South must be bound up. He sought to show by example that the citizens of the South must dedicate their efforts to rebuilding that region of the country as a strong and vital part of the American Union. In 1865, Robert E. Lee wrote to a former Confederate soldier concerning his signing the Oath of Allegiance, and I quote: "This war, being at an end, the Southern States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue between them and the Northern States having been decided, I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony.... As a soldier, General Lee left his mark on military strategy. As a man, he stood as the symbol of valor and of duty. As an educator, he appealed to reason and learning to achieve understanding and to build a stronger nation. The course he chose after the war became a symbol to all those who had marched with him in the bitter years towards Appomattox. General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride. In approving this Joint Resolution, the Congress removed the legal obstacle to citizenship which resulted from General Lee's Civil War service. Although more than a century late, I am delighted to sign this resolution and to complete the full restoration of General Lee's citizenship.

”

Monuments, memorials and commemorations

Monuments

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Jefferson Davis, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson
at Stone Mountain

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Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Robert E. Lee, May 29, 1890. Richmond, Virginia.

• Since it was built in 1884, the most prominent monument in New Orleans has been a 60-foot (18 m)-tall monument to General Lee. A sixteen and a half foot statue of Lee stands tall upon a towering column of white marble in the middle of Lee Circle. The statue of Lee, which weighs more than 7,000 pounds, faces the North. Lee Circle is situated along New Orleans' famous St. Charles Avenue. The New Orleans streetcars roll past Lee Circle and New Orleans' best Mardi Gras parades go around Lee Circle (the spot is so popular that bleachers are set up annually around the perimeter for Mardi Gras). Around the corner from Lee Circle is New Orleans' Confederate Museum, which contains the second largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the world. In a tribute to Lee Circle (which had formerly been known as Tivoli Circle), former Confederate soldier George Washington Cable wrote:

"In Tivoli Circle, New Orleans, from the centre and apex of its green flowery mound, an immense column of pure white marble rises in the ... majesty of Grecian proportions high up above the city's house-tops into the dazzling sunshine ... On its dizzy top stands the bronze figure of one of the worlds greatest captains. He is alone. Not one of his mighty lieutenants stand behind, beside or below him. His arms are folded on that breast that never knew fear, and his calm, dauntless gaze meets the morning sun as it rises, like the new prosperity of the land he loved and serve so masterly, above the far distant battle fields where so many thousands of his gray veterans lie in the sleep of fallen heroes." (Silent South, 1885, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine)

• A large equestrian statue of Lee by French sculptor Jean Antonin Mercié is the centerpiece of Richmond, Virginia's famous Monument Avenue, which boasts four other statues to famous Confederates. This monument to Lee was unveiled on May 29, 1890. Over 100,000 people attended this dedication.

• Robert E. Lee is also featured in the carving on Stone Mountain.

• Robert E. Lee is shown mounted on Traveller in Gettysburg National Park on top of the Virginia Monument

• A large double equestrian statue of Lee and Jackson in Baltimore's Wyman Park, directly across from the Baltimore Museum of Art, was dedicated in 1948. Designed by Laura Gardin Fraser, Robert E. Lee is depicted astride his horse Traveller next to Stonewall Jackson who is mounted on "Little Sorrel." Architect John Russell Pope created the base, which was dedicated on the anniversary of the eve of the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Holidays

The birthday of Robert E. Lee is celebrated or commemorated in:

• The state of Virginia as part of Lee-Jackson Day, which was separated from the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday there in 2001. The King holiday falls on the third Monday in January while the Lee-Jackson Day holiday is celebrated on the Friday preceding it.
• The state of Texas celebrates, as part of Confederate Heroes Day on January 19, Lee's actual birthday.
• The states of Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi on the third Monday in January, along with Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The state of Georgia on the day after Thanksgiving.
• The state of Florida, as a legal holiday and public holiday, on January 19.

Geographic features

• Robert Lee, Texas
• The Leesville half of Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina.
• Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia.
• Lee County, Alabama; Lee County, Arkansas; Lee County, Florida; Lee County, Kentucky; Lee County, Mississippi; Lee County, North Carolina; Lee County, South Carolina; Lee County, Texas.
• Lee Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana—one of the city's major streets, it is located near the Louisiana State University. Robert E. Lee High School is located on the street.
• Lee Highway, a National Auto Trail in the United States connecting New York City and San Francisco, California via the South and Southwest.
• Lee Avenue, in Manassas, Virginia, was named after Robert E. Lee and intersects with Grant Avenue in front of the old Prince William County Courthouse. Grant Avenue was named after General Ulysses S. Grant.
• Robert E. Lee Memorial Park, Baltimore, MD
• Robert E. Lee is on the carving on Stone Mountain in Georgia
• Robert E. Lee Blvd. in New Orleans
• Lee Circle, New Orleans, with doric column surmounted by a statue of Lee

Schools and universities

• Robert E. Lee Academy, Bishopville, South Carolina
• Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia
• Lee College, Baytown, Texas
• Several high schools and middle schools. See Robert E. Lee High School.
  • Lee High School, Houston, Texas
  • Lee-Davis High School, Mechanicsville, Virginia
  • Southern Lee High School, Sanford, North Carolina
  • Lee County High School, Sanford, North Carolina
  • Robert E. Lee High School, Baytown, Texas
  • Upson-Lee High School, Thomaston, Georgia
  • Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, Virginia
  • Robert E. Lee Junior High School, Monroe, Louisiana
  • Robert E. Lee Junior High School, San Angelo, Texas
  • Robert E. Lee Middle School, Orlando, Florida
• Several elementary schools. See Robert E. Lee Elementary School.

Memorials

• Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion and located in present-day Arlington National Cemetery, is maintained by the National Park Service as a memorial to Lee.
• The Virginia State Memorial at Gettysburg Battlefield is topped by an equestrian statue of Lee by Frederick William Sievers, facing roughly in the direction of Pickett's Charge.
• Lee is one of the figures depicted in bas-relief carved into Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia. Accompanying him on horseback in the relief are Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.
• A statue of Lee on horseback, located in Robert E. Lee Park, in Dallas, Texas.
• Despite his presidential pardon by Gerald Ford and his continuing to being held in high regard by many Americans, Lee's portrayal on a mural on Richmond's Flood Wall on the James River was considered offensive by some, was removed in the late 1990s, but currently is back on the flood wall.
• The USS Robert E. Lee was a submarine named for Lee, built in 1958
• The Mississippi River steamboat, Robert E. Lee, was named for Lee after the Civil War. It was the participant in an 1870 St. Louis - New Orleans race with the Natchez VI, which was featured in a Currier and Ives lithograph. The Robert E. Lee won the said race. The steamboat also inspired a song Waiting for the Robert E. Lee (Lewis Muir-L. Wolfe Gilbert).
• In 1900, Lee was one of the first 29 individuals selected for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans (the first Hall of Fame in the United States), designed by Stanford White, on the Bronx, New York, campus of New York University, now a part of Bronx Community College.
• On September 21, 1955, the United States Postal Service released a 30¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Lee.

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Robert E Lee Monument, Charlottesville, Virginia, Leo Lentilli, sculptor, 1924

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Robert E Lee, Virginia Monument, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Frederick William Sievers, sculptor, 1917

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Lee by Mercié, Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, 1890

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Statue of Lee in Dallas, Texas

In other media

Robert E. Lee serves as a main character in the Shaara novels The Killer Angels, Gods and Generals, and The Last Full Measure, as well as the film adaptations of The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals. He is played by Martin Sheen in the former and his descendent Robert Duvall in the latter. Lee is portrayed as a hero in the historical children's novel Lee and Grant at Appomattox by MacKinlay Kantor.

References

• Blassingame, John W. (July 1977). Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0807102733 
• Connelly, Thomas Lawrence (1977). The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-47179-2 .
• Davis, William C.; Pohanka, Brian C.; Troiani, Don (1997). Civil War Journal, The Leaders. Rutledge Hill Press. ISBN 0-517-22193-4 .
• Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Fellman, Michael (2000). The Making of Robert E. Lee. Random House. ISBN 0-679-45650-3 .
• Freeman, Douglas S. (1934). R. E. Lee, A Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Robert_E_Lee/FREREL/home.html. Retrieved 2008-05-20 
• Fuller, J. F. C. (1957). Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-13400-5 .
• Hughes, Nathaniel C., Jr.; Liddell, St. John R. (1997). Liddell's Record. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2218-1 .
• Lee, Edmund Jennings (1983). Lee of Virginia 1642-1892. Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8063-0604-1 .
• Lee, Robert Edward (2000). Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee. Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2323. Retrieved 2008-05-20 
• Nolan, Alan T. (1991). Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4587-6 .
• Warner, Ezra J. (1959). Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 .

Further reading

Biographical

• Blount, Roy, Jr. Robert E. Lee Penguin Putnam, 2003. 210 pp., short popular biography
• Carmichael, Peter S., ed. Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
• Connelly, Thomas L., "The Image and the General: Robert E. Lee in American Historiography." Civil War History 19 (March 1973): 50-64.
• Connelly, Thomas L., The Marble Man. Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
• Connelly, Thomas L., "Robert E. Lee and the Western Confederacy: A Criticism of Lee's Strategic Ability." Civil War History 15 (June 1969): 116-32
• Cooke, John E., "A Life of General Robert E. Lee" Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
• Dowdey, Clifford. Lee 1965.
• Fellman, Michael (2000), The Making of Robert E. Lee. New York: Random House (ISBN 0-679-45650-3).
• Fishwick, Marshall W. Lee after the War 1963.
• Flood, Charles Bracelen. Lee — The Last Years 1981.
• Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee, (4 vol. 1935); abridged one-volume edition, edited by Richard Harwell (1961); the standard biography
• Gallagher; Gary W. Lee the Soldier. University of Nebraska Press, 1996
• Gary W. Gallagher; Lee & His Army in Confederate History. University of North Carolina Press, 2001
• McCaslin, Richard B. Lee in the Shadow of Washington. Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
• Nolan, Alan T. Lee Considered, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC (1991)
• Pryor, Elizabeth Brown; Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters. New York: Viking, 2007.
• Reid, Brian Holden. Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005.
• Smith, Eugene O. Lee and Grant: a Dual Biography, McGraw-Hill, New York (1991)
• Thomas, Emory Robert E. Lee W.W. Norton & Co., 1995 (ISBN 0-393-03730-4) full-scale scholarly biography

Military campaigns

• Bonekemper, III, Edward H. How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War. Sergeant Kirkland's Press, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 1997. ISBN 1-887901-15-9
• Bowden, Scott and Ward, Bill. Last Chance For Victory: Robert E. Lee And The Gettysburg Campaign. DaCapo Press, 2003.
• Brown, Kent Masterson. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
• Cagney, James. "Animations of the Campaigns of Robert E. Lee" Click Here for the Animations (2008)
• Cavanaugh, Michael A., and William Marvel, The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater: "The Horrid Pit", June 25-August 6, 1864 (1989)
• Davis, William C. Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg (1986).
• Dowdey, Clifford. The Seven Days 1964.
• Dugard, Martin. The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (2009) and text search
• Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 volumes), Scribners, 1946, ISBN 0-684-85979-3.
• Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C., Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, Indiana University Press, 1957, ISBN 0-253-13400-5.
• Glatthaar, Joseph T. General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse (2009) excerpt and text search
• Grimsley, Mark, And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May-June 1864 University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
• Harmon, Troy D. Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg Stackpole Books, 2001
• Harsh, Joseph L. Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 Kent State University Press, 1999
• Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York, 1887–88; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
• McWhiney, Grady, Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (1995)
• Maney, R. Wayne, Marching to Cold Harbor. Victory and Failure, 1864 (1994).
• Marvel, William. Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
• Matter, William D. If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (1988)
• Miller, J. Michael. The North Anna Campaign: "Even to Hell Itself", May 21–26, 1864 (1989).
• Rafuse, Ethan S. Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865 (2008) excerpt and text search
• Rhea, Gordon C. and Chris E. Heisey. In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness Through Cold Harbor (2007)
• Rhea, Gordon C. The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8071-1873-7.
• Rhea, Gordon C. The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7–12, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8071-2136-3.
• Rhea, Gordon C. To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8071-2535-0.
• Rhea, Gordon C. Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 – June 3, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8071-2803-1.

Primary sources

• Dowdey, Clifford. and Louis H. Manarin, eds. The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee. (1961).
• Freeman, Douglas Southall. ed. Unpublished Letters of General Robert E. Lee, C.S.A. to Jefferson Davis and the War Department of the Confederate States of America, 1862-65. Rev. ed. with foreword by Grady McWhiney. (1957).
• Lee, Robert E. Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (2008 edition) excerpt and text search
• Johnson, R. U. and Buel, C. C. eds. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 vols. 1887-88; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
• Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters ed. by Elizabeth Brown Pryor (2008) excerpt and text search
• Taylor, Walter H. Four Years with General Lee (1877). full text online
• Taylor, Walter H. General Lee — His Campaigns in Virginia, 1861-1865. (1906) online complete edition

External links

Primary sources

• Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son
• A Leadership Walk Across Gettysburg, DVD that reflects on Lee's leadership decisions that unfolded during the three-day long battle at Gettysburg

Biographies

• Robert E. Lee by Elizabeth Brown Pryor in Encyclopedia Virginia
• Freeman's biography of Lee
• Biographical article in Appleton's Encyclopedia
• Obituary of Robert E. Lee, with a retrospective from a Northern point of view. The New York Times; October 13, 1870

Monuments and memorials

• Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University where Robert E. Lee is buried
• Robert E Lee / Virginia Monument at Gettysburg
• Robert E. Lee at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2008-10-18

Sister projects

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•  "Lee, Robert Edward". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

Template:Start box |- ! colspan="3" style="background: #CF9C65;" | Military offices

|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align:center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
Henry Brewerton |width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|Superintendent of the United States Military Academy
1852–1855 |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
John Gross Barnard |- |- style="text-align:center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston |width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|Commander, Army of Northern Virginia
June 1, 1862– April 12, 1865 Template:S-non |- style="text-align:center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
None, position was created with Lee's appointment |width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|General-in-Chief of the Confederate States Army
January 31, 1865 – April 12, 1865 |}

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