1.1 Engineering

Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington from 1834 to 1837, but spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the state line between Ohio and Michigan. In 1837, he got his first important command. As a first lieutenant of engineers, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbour and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. His work there earned him a promotion to captain. In 1841, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton in New York harbour, where he took charge of building fortifications.

1.2 Mexican War, West Point, and Texas

Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican War 1846- 1848. He was one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City.

He was promoted to Major after the battle of Cerro Gordo in April, 1847. He also fought at Contreras , Cherubusco and Chapultepec, and was wounded at the latter. By the end of the war he had been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel.

After the Mexican War, he spent three years at Fort Carrol in Baltimore harbor, after which he became the superintendent of West Point in 1852. During his three years at West Point, he improved the buildings, the courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets.

In 1855, Lee became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Cavalry and was sent to the Texas frontier. There he helped protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and the Comanche.

These were not happy years for Lee as he did not like to be away from his family for long periods of time, especially as his wife was becoming increasingly ill. Lee came home to see her as often as he could.

He happened to be in Washington at the time of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859, 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.

2 Civil War

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, a publicist named Francis Blair, at the home of Blair's son in Washington. There was little doubt as to Lee's sentiments. He was opposed to secession. However 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, whom he knew from West Point.

2.1 Commander, Army of Northern Virginia

Following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the battle of Seven Pines , on June 1, 1862, he received the command of the Army of Northern Virginia and soon launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Campaign against General George B. McClellan's Union forces threatening Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. After McClellan's retreat, Lee defeated another Union army in the battle of Second Manassas. He then invaded Maryland, but retreated after evading destruction by McClellan's superior force at Antietam. 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 was fatally wounded.

Lee then proceeded to invade the North again, hoping for a Southern victory that would compel the North to grant Confederate independence. But his attempts to attack the Union forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania failed. Lee was compelled to retreat again and, 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 upon receipt.

In 1864, the new Union supreme commander Ulysses Grant sought to destroy Lee's army and capture Richmond. Lee and his men stopped each advance, but Grant had courage and enough men to keep trying again a bit further to the east. These battles included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Cold Harbor. After stopping a Union attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia, a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and stayed on the same lines from June 1864 until April 1865.

2.2 General-in-chief

On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to be general-in-chief of Confederate forces. In early 1865, he urged adoption of a scheme to allow slaves to join the Confederate army in exchange for their freedom. The scheme never came to fruition in the short time the Confederacy had left.

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 Courthouse, Virginia.

3 After the War

Following the war, Lee applied for, but was never granted, the official postwar amnesty. He and his wife had lived at his wife's family home prior to the Civil War, the Custis-Lee Mansion. It was confiscated by Union forces, and is today part of Arlington National Cemetery. Lee's example of applying for amnesty was an encouragement to many other former Confederates to accept being citizens of the United States once again.

He served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia from October 2, 1865. Under his leadership, Washington College became one of the first American colleges to offer courses in business, journalism and Spanish. He died in Lexington on October 12, 1870 from heart disease.

In 1975, Lee's full USA citizenship was restored posthumously by an act of the U.S. Congress, following the discovery of his oath of allegiance by an employee of the National Archives in 1970.

4 Quotes

• "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil."

• "It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we should grow too fond of it." (Battle of Fredericksburg, 13 Dec, 1862)

• "We must forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the war began that I have not prayed for them." (from "A Life of General Robert E. Lee", by J. E. Cooke)

• "My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them, or indisposed me to serve them; nor in spite of failures, which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge; or of the present aspect of affairs; do I despair of the future.

The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope."

• "My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable, abstinence from spiritous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health."

• Lee's definition of a gentleman:
  • "The forebearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others, is a test of a true gentleman. The power which the strong have over the weak, the magistrate over the citizen, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly; the forebearing and inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light. The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character, which imparts sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others"

• Lee's views on admitting defeat and rejoining the United States, in a letter to former Virginia governor Letcher after the war:
  • "The questions which for years were in dispute between the State and General Government, and which unhappily were not decided by the dictates of reason, but referred to the decision of war, having been decided against us, it is the part of wisdom to acquiesce in the result, and of candor to recognize the fact.
  • "The interests of the State are therefore the same as those of the United States. Its prosperity will rise or fall with the welfare of the country. The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling; qualify themselves to vote; and elect to the State and general Legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country, and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself."

5 External links

• Robert E. Lee, the biography by Douglas Freeman (4 vols., complete)
• Robert E. Lee Historical Preservation Site

Lee, Robert Edward Lee, Robert Edward Lee, Robert E. Lee, Robert E. Lee

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