Robert E.
Lee
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This article is about the Confederate general. For other uses, see Robert E. Lee (disambiguation).
Robert E. Lee
Lee in March 1864
Birth name Robert Edward Lee
Nickname(s) Bobby Lee, Uncle Robert, Marse Robert,
Granny Lee, King of Spades, Old Man,
Marble Man
Born January 19, 1807
Stratford Hall, Virginia, U.S.
Died October 12, 1870 (aged 63)
Lexington, Virginia, U.S.
Buried Lee Chapel, Washington and Lee University
United States of America
Allegiance
Confederate States of America
Commonwealth of Virginia
Branch United States Army
Confederate States Army
Service years 1829–1861 (U.S.)
1861–1865 (C.S.)
Rank Colonel (U.S.)
General in Chief (C.S.)
Commands U.S. Military Academy
held Army of Northern Virginia
Wars Mexican–American War
John Brown's raid
American Civil War
Mary Anna Randolph Custis(m. 1831)
Spouse(s)
Children Custis Lee
Rooney Lee
Robert E. Lee Jr.
Relations Henry Lee III (father)
Anne Hill Carter Lee (mother)
Other work President of Washington and Lee University
Signature
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was an American and Confederate
soldier, best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army. He commanded the Army of
Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until its surrender in 1865.
A son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, Lee was a top graduate of
the United States Military Academy and an exceptional officer and military engineer in the United
States Army for 32 years. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished
himself during the Mexican–American War, and served as Superintendent of the United States
Military Academy.
When Virginia's 1861 Richmond Convention declared secession from the Union, Lee chose to follow
his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union
command.[1] During the first year of the Civil War, he served as a senior military adviser
to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the Army of Northern
Virginia in 1862, he soon emerged as an able tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of
his battles, nearly all against far larger Union armies.[2][3]
Lee's two major strategic offensives into Union territory ended in defeat.[4][5][6] His aggressive tactics,
especially at the Battle of Gettysburg, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the
Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism in recent years.[7]
Lee surrendered the remnant of his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9,
1865. Since Confederate Congress had appointed him supreme commander of Confederate armies,
the remaining Confederate forces capitulated after his surrender. Lee rejected the proposal of a
sustained insurgency against the Union and called for national reconciliation.
In 1865, Lee became president of Washington College (later Washington and Lee University)
in Lexington, Virginia; in that position, he supported reconciliation between North and South.[8] He
accepted "the extinction of slavery" provided for by the Thirteenth Amendment, but publicly
opposed racial equality and granting African Americans the right to vote and other political
rights.[9][10][11] Lee died in 1870. In 1975, the U.S. Congress posthumously restored Lee's citizenship
effective June 13, 1865.[12]
Contents
1Early life and career
2Military engineer career
3Marriage and family
4Mexican–American War
5Early 1850s: West Point and Texas
6Late 1850s: Arlington plantation and the Custis slaves
o 6.1The Norris case
o 6.2Lee's views on race and slavery
7Harpers Ferry and Texas, 1859–1861
o 7.1Harpers Ferry
o 7.2Texas
8Civil War
o 8.1Resignation from United States Army
o 8.2Early role
o 8.3Commander, Army of Northern Virginia (June 1862 – June 1863)
o 8.4Battle of Gettysburg
o 8.5Ulysses S. Grant and the Union offensive
o 8.6General in Chief
9Summaries of Lee's Civil War battles
10Postbellum life
o 10.1President Johnson's amnesty pardons
o 10.2Postwar politics
11Illness and death
12Legacy
o 12.1Monuments, memorials and commemorations
13Dates of rank
14In popular culture
15See also
16References
17Bibliography
o 17.1Historiography
18Further reading
19External links
o 19.1Primary sources
o 19.2Monuments and memorials
Early life and career
Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County
the family seat, Lee's birthplace
Oronoco Street, Alexandria, Virginia
"Lee Corner" properties
Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Major General Henry
Lee III (Light Horse Harry) (1756–1818), Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill
Carter (1773–1829). His birth date has traditionally been recorded as January 19, 1807, but
according to the historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor, "Lee's writings indicate he may have been born the
previous year."[13]
One of Lee's great grandparents, Henry Lee I, was a prominent Virginian colonist of English
descent.[14] Lee's family is one of Virginia's first families, descended from Richard Lee I, Esq., "the
Immigrant" (1618–1664), from the county of Shropshire in England.[15]
Lee's mother grew up at Shirley Plantation, one of the most elegant homes in Virginia.[16] Lee's
father, a tobacco planter, suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments.[17]
Little is known of Lee as a child; he rarely spoke of his boyhood as an adult.[18] Nothing is known of
his relationship with his father who, after leaving his family, mentioned Robert only once in a letter.
When given the opportunity to visit his father's Georgia grave, he remained there only briefly; yet,
during his time as president of Washington College, he defended his father in a biographical sketch
while editing Light Horse Harry's memoirs.[19]
Coat of Arms of Robert E. Lee
In 1809, Harry Lee was put in debtors prison; soon after his release the following year, Harry and
Anne Lee and their five children moved to a small house on Cameron Street in Alexandria, Virginia,
both because there were then high quality local schools there, and because several members of her
extended family lived nearby.[20] In 1811, the family, including the newly born sixth child, Mildred,
moved to a house on Oronoco Street, still close to the center of town and with the houses of a
number of Lee relatives close by.[21]
In 1812, Harry Lee was badly injured in a political riot in Baltimore and traveled to the West Indies.
He would never return, dying when his son Robert was eleven years old.[22] Left to raise six children
alone in straitened circumstances, Anne Lee and her family often paid extended visits to relatives
and family friends.[23] Robert Lee attended school at Eastern View, a school for young gentlemen,
in Fauquier County, and then at the Alexandria Academy, free for local boys, where he showed an
aptitude for mathematics. Although brought up to be a practicing Christian, he was not confirmed in
the Episcopal Church until age 46.[24]
Anne Lee's family was often supported by a relative, William Henry Fitzhugh, who owned the
Oronoco Street house and allowed the Lees to stay at his home in Fairfax County, Ravensworth.
When Robert was 17 in 1824, Fitzhugh wrote to the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, urging that
Robert be given an appointment to the United States Military Academyat West Point. Fitzhugh wrote
little of Robert's academic prowess, dwelling much on the prominence of his family, and erroneously
stated the boy was 18. Instead of mailing the letter, Fitzhugh had young Robert deliver it.[25] In March
1824, Robert Lee received his appointment to West Point, but due to the large number of cadets
admitted, Lee would have to wait a year to begin his studies there.[26][citation not found]
Lee entered West Point in the summer of 1825. At the time, the focus of the curriculum was
engineering; the head of the Army Corps of Engineers supervised the school and the superintendent
was an engineering officer. Cadets were not permitted leave until they had finished two years of
study, and were rarely allowed off the Academy grounds. Lee graduated second in his class, behind
only Charles Mason[27] (who resigned from the Army a year after graduation). Lee did not incur any
demerits during his four-year course of study, a distinction shared by five of his 45 classmates. In
June 1829, Lee was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.[28] After
graduation, while awaiting assignment, he returned to Virginia to find his mother on her deathbed;
she died at Ravensworth on July 26, 1829.[29]
showAncestors
of Robert E.
Lee
Military engineer career
Lee at age 31 in 1838, as a Lieutenant of Engineers in the U.S. Army
On August 11, 1829, Brigadier General Charles Gratiot ordered Lee to Cockspur Island, Georgia.
The plan was to build a fort on the marshy island which would command the outlet of the Savannah
River. Lee was involved in the early stages of construction as the island was being drained and built
up.[30] In 1831, it became apparent that the existing plan to build what became known as Fort
Pulaski would have to be revamped, and Lee was transferred to Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia
Peninsula (today in Hampton, Virginia).[31][citation not found]
While home in the summer of 1829, Lee had apparently courted Mary Custis whom he had known
as a child. Lee obtained permission to write to her before leaving for Georgia, though Mary Custis
warned Lee to be "discreet" in his writing, as her mother read her letters, especially from
men.[32] Custis refused Lee the first time he asked to marry her; her father did not believe the son of
the disgraced Light Horse Harry Lee was a suitable man for his daughter.[33] She accepted him with
her father's consent in September 1830, while he was on summer leave,[34] and the two were wed on
June 30, 1831.[35]
Lee's duties at Fort Monroe were varied, typical for a junior officer, and ranged from budgeting to
designing buildings.[36][citation not found] Although Mary Lee accompanied her husband to Hampton Roads,
she spent about a third of her time at Arlington, though the couple's first son, Custis Lee was born at
Fort Monroe. Although the two were by all accounts devoted to each other, they were different in
character: Robert Lee was tidy and punctual, qualities his wife lacked. Mary Lee also had trouble
transitioning from being a rich man's daughter to having to manage a household with only one or two
slaves.[37] Beginning in 1832, Robert Lee had a close but platonic relationship with Harriett Talcott,
wife of his fellow officer Andrew Talcott.[38]
