Robert Edward Lee
Biography
(1807-1870), 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, lieut.-colonel for Contreras-Churubusco and colonel for
Chapultepec.
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Robert E. Lee
Later in Life
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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 G. W. Custis Lee, his nephew, Fitzhugh Lee and J.
E. B. Stuart, all of whom became general officers in the Civil War. In 1855
he was appointed as lieut.-colonel to the 2nd Cavalry, commanded by Colonel
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 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 defense 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 which he stopped
McClellan's advance; this
was quickly followed up by the crushing defeat of the Federal army under
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 maneuver against General Meade. The tremendous struggle of 1864 between
Lee and
Grant included the battles of the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, 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 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
he 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 defense, 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.
See A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee (New
York, 1886) ; Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee (New York, 1894, " Great Commanders
" series) ; R. A. Brock, General Robert E. Lee (Washington, 19o4); R. E. Lee,
Recollections and Letters of General R. E. Lee (London, 19o4); H. A. White,
Lee (" Heroes of the Nations") (1897) ; P. A. Bruce, Robert E. Lee (1907) ;
T. N. Page, Lee (1909) ; W. H. Taylor, Four Years with General Lee; J. W. Jones,
Personal Reminiscences of Robert E. Lee (1874).
From Encyclopedia Brt., 11th
edition, Volume 16
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