Robert Edward Lee(January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was an AmericanConfederate generalduring theAmerican Civil War,toward the end of which he was appointed theoverall commanderof theConfederate States Army.He led theArmy of Northern Virginia—the Confederacy's most powerful army—from 1862 until its surrender in 1865, earning a reputation as a skilled tactician.
Robert E. Lee | |
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 Lee in March 1864 | |
| Birth name | Robert Edward Lee |
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| Born | January 19, 1807 Stratford Hall,Westmoreland County, Virginia,U.S. |
| Died | October 12, 1870(aged 63) Le xing ton, Virginia,U.S. |
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| Alma mater | United States Military Academy |
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| Relations | Lee family |
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| General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States | |
| In office February 6, 1865 – April 12, 1865 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 1stPresident of Washington and Lee University | |
| In office 1865–1870 | |
| Preceded by | George Junkin(Washington College) |
| Succeeded by | Custis Lee |
| Superintendent of the United States Military Academy | |
| In office 1852–1855 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Brewerton |
| Succeeded by | John G. Barnard |
A son of Revolutionary War officerHenry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III,Lee was a top graduate of theUnited States Military Academyand an exceptional officer andmilitary engineerin theUnited States Armyfor 32 years. He served across the United States, distinguished himself extensively during theMexican–American War,and wasSuperintendent of the United States Military Academy.He marriedMary Anna Custis,great-granddaughter ofGeorge Washington's wifeMartha.While he opposedslaveryfrom a philosophical perspective, he supported its legality and held hundreds of slaves. WhenVirginia declared its secessionfrom theUnionin 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, he served in minor combat operations and as a senior military adviser toConfederate PresidentJefferson Davis.
Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862 during thePeninsula Campaignfollowing the wounding ofJoseph E. Johnston.He succeeded in driving the UnionArmy of the PotomacunderGeorge B. McClellanaway from the Confederate capital ofRichmondduring theSeven Days Battles,but he was unable to destroy McClellan's army. Lee then overcame Union forces underJohn Popeat theSecond Battle of Bull Runin August. Hisinvasion of Marylandthat September ended with the inconclusiveBattle of Antietam,after which he retreated to Virginia. Lee won two major victories atFredericksburgandChancellorsvillebefore launching asecond invasion of the Northin the summer of 1863, where he was decisively defeated at theBattle of Gettysburgby the Army of the Potomac underGeorge Meade.He led his army in the minor and inconclusiveBristoe Campaignthat fall before GeneralUlysses S. Granttook command of Union armies in the spring of 1864. Grant engaged Lee's army in bloody but inconclusive battles at theWildernessandSpotsylvaniabefore the lengthySiege of Petersburg,which was followed in April 1865 by the capture of Richmond and the destruction of most of Lee's army, which he finally surrendered to Grant atAppomattox Court House.
In 1865, Lee became president of Washington College, nowWashington and Lee University,inLe xing ton, Virginia;as president of the college, he supported reconciliation between the North and South. Lee accepted the termination of slavery provided for by theThirteenth Amendment,but opposedracial equalityforAfrican Americans.After his death in 1870, Lee became a cultural icon in theSouthand is largely hailed as one of the Civil War's greatest generals. As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he fought most of his battles against armies of significantly larger size, and managed to win many of them. Lee built up a collection of talented subordinates, most notablyJames Longstreet,Stonewall Jackson,andJ. E. B. Stuart,who along with Lee were critical to the Confederacy's battlefield success.[1][2]In spite of his successes, his two major strategic offensives into Union territory both ended in failure. Lee's aggressive and risky tactics, especially at Gettysburg, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism.[3]His legacy, and his views on race and slavery, have been the subject of continuing debate and historical controversy.
Early life and education
Lee was born atStratford Hall PlantationinWestmoreland County, Virginia,toHenry Lee IIIandAnne Hill Carter Leeon January 19, 1807.[4]His ancestor,Richard Lee I,emigrated fromShropshire,England,to Virginia in 1639.[5]
Lee's father suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments[6]and was put indebtors' prison.Soon after his release the following year, the family moved to the city ofAlexandriawhich at the time was still part of theDistrict of Columbia,whichretroceded back to Virginiain 1847, both because there were then high quality local schools there, and because several members of Anne's extended family lived nearby. In 1811, the family, including the newly born sixth child, Mildred, moved to a house on Oronoco Street.[7]
In 1812 Lee's father moved permanently to theWest Indies.[8]Lee attended Eastern View, a school for young gentlemen, inFauquier County, Virginia,and then at the Alexandria Academy, free for local boys, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics. Although brought up to be a practicingChristian,he was not confirmed in theEpiscopal Churchuntil age 46.[9]
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 country homeRavensworth.Fitzhugh wrote toUnited States Secretary of War,John C. Calhoun,urging that Robert be given an appointment to theUnited States Military Academyat West Point. Fitzhugh had young Robert deliver the letter.[10]Lee entered West Point in the summer of 1825. At the time, the focus of the curriculum was engineering; the head of theUnited States Army Corps of Engineerssupervised the school and the superintendent was an engineering officer. Cadets were not permitted leave until they finished two years of study and were rarely allowed off the academy grounds. Lee graduated second in his class behindCharles Mason[11](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 only five of his 45 classmates. In June 1829, Lee was commissioned abrevetsecond lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.[12]After graduation, while awaiting assignment, he returned to Virginia to find his mother on her deathbed; she died at Ravensworth on July 26, 1829.[13]
Military engineer career
On August 11, 1829, Brigadier GeneralCharles Gratiotordered Lee toCockspur Island,Georgia.The plan was to build a fort on the marshy island which would command the outlet of theSavannah River.Lee was involved in the early stages of construction as the island was being drained and built up.[14]In 1831, it became apparent that the existing plan to build what became known asFort Pulaskiwould have to be revamped, and Lee was transferred toFort Monroeat the tip of theVirginia Peninsula(today inHampton, Virginia).[15]
While home in the summer of 1829, Lee had apparently courtedMary Custiswhom 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.[16]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.[17]She accepted him with her father's consent in September 1830, while he was on summer leave,[18]and the two were wed on June 30, 1831.[19]
Lee's duties at Fort Monroe were varied, typical for a junior officer, and ranged from budgeting to designing buildings.[20]Although Mary Lee accompanied her husband toHampton Roads,she spent about a third of her time at Arlington, though the couple's first son,Custis Leewas 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 switching from being a rich man's daughter to having to manage a household with only one or two enslaved people.[21]Beginning in 1832, Robert Lee had a close but platonic relationship with Harriett Talcott, wife of his fellow officerAndrew Talcott.[22]
Life at Fort Monroe was marked by conflicts between artillery and engineering officers. Eventually, the War Department transferred all engineering officers away from Fort Monroe, except Lee, who was ordered to take up residence on the artificial island ofRip Rapsacross the river from Fort Monroe, whereFort Woolwould eventually rise, and continue work to improve the island. Lee duly moved there, then discharged all workers and informed the War Department he could not maintain laborers without the facilities of the fort.[23] In 1834, Lee was transferred to Washington as General Gratiot's assistant.[24]Lee had hoped to rent a house in Washington for his family, but was not able to find one; the family lived at Arlington, though Lieutenant Lee rented a room at a Washington boarding house for when the roads were impassable.[25]In mid-1835, Lee was assigned to assist Andrew Talcott in surveying the southern border of Michigan.[26]While on that expedition, he responded to a letter from an ill Mary Lee, which had requested he come to Arlington, "But why do you urge myimmediatereturn, & tempt one in thestrongestmanner[?]... I rather require to be strengthened & encouraged to thefullperformance of what I am called on to execute. "[27]Lee completed the assignment and returned to his post in Washington, finding his wife ill at Ravensworth. Mary Lee, who had recently given birth to their second child, remained bedridden for several months. In October 1836, Lee was promoted to first lieutenant.[28]
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 betweenOhioandMichigan.As afirst lieutenantof engineers in 1837, he supervised the engineering work forSt. Louisharbor and for the upperMississippiandMissouririvers. Among his projects was the mapping of theDes Moines Rapidson the Mississippi aboveKeokuk, 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 tocaptain.Around 1842, Captain Robert E. Lee arrived asFort Hamilton's post engineer.[29]
Marriage and family
While Lee was stationed at Fort Monroe, he marriedMary Anna Randolph Custis(1807–1873), great-granddaughter ofMartha Washingtonby her first husbandDaniel Parke Custis,and step-great-granddaughter ofGeorge Washington,the first president of the United States. Mary was the only surviving child ofGeorge Washington Parke Custis,George Washington's stepgrandson, andMary Lee Fitzhugh Custis,daughter ofWilliam Fitzhugh[30]andAnn Bolling Randolph.Robert and Mary married on June 30, 1831, atArlington House,her parents' house just across the Potomac from Washington. The 3rd U.S. Artillery served as honor guard at the marriage. They eventually had seven children, three boys and four girls:[31]
- George Washington Custis Lee(Custis, "Boo" ); 1832–1913; served as major general in the Confederate Army and aide-de-camp to President Jefferson Davis, captured during the Battle of Sailor's Creek; unmarried
- Mary Custis Lee(Mary, "Daughter" ); 1835–1918; unmarried
- William Henry Fitzhugh Lee( "Rooney" ); 1837–1891; served as major general in the Confederate Army (cavalry); married twice; surviving children by second marriage
- Anne Carter Lee(Annie); June 18, 1839 – October 20, 1862; died oftyphoid fever,unmarried
- Eleanor Agnes Lee(Agnes); 1841 – October 15, 1873; died oftuberculosis,unmarried
- Robert Edward Lee, Jr.(Rob); 1843–1914; served in the Confederate Army, first as a private in theRockbridge Artillery,later as a Captain on the staff of his brother Rooney; married twice; surviving children by second marriage
- 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 theUniversity ChapelatWashington and Lee Universityin Le xing ton, Virginia.[32]
Lee was a great-great-great-grandson ofWilliam Randolphand a great-great-grandson ofRichard Bland.[33]Fitzhugh Lee(1835–1905), a Confederate general and later a United States Army general in theSpanish–American War,was Lee's nephew. Lee was a second cousin ofHelen Keller's grandmother,[34]and was a distant relative of AdmiralWillis Augustus Lee.[35]
On May 1, 1864, General Lee was present at the baptism of GeneralA. P. Hill's daughter, Lucy Lee Hill, to serve as her godfather. This is referenced in the paintingTender is the HeartbyMort Künstler.[36]He was also the godfather of actress and writerOdette Tyler,the daughter of Brigadier GeneralWilliam Whedbee Kirkland.[37]
Mexican–American War
Lee distinguished himself in theMexican–American War(1846–1848). He was one ofWinfield Scott's chief aides in the march fromVeracruzto Mexico City.[38]He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer; he found routes of attack that theMexicanshad not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable.
He was promoted tobrevetmajor after theBattle of Cerro Gordoon April 18, 1847.[39]He also fought atContreras,Churubusco,andChapultepecand 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 thecavalryin 1855.
For the first time, Robert E. Lee andUlysses S. Grantmet and worked with each other during the Mexican–American War. Close observations of their commanders constituted a learning process for both Lee and Grant.[40]The Mexican–American War concluded on February 2, 1848.
After the Mexican War, Lee spent three years atFort CarrollinBaltimoreharbor. During this time, his service was interrupted by other duties, among them surveying and updating maps in Florida. Cuban revolutionaryNarciso Lópezintended to forcibly liberate Cuba from Spanish rule. In 1849, searching for a leader for hisfilibusterexpedition, he approached Jefferson Davis, then a United States senator. Davis declined and suggested Lee, who also declined. Both decided it was inconsistent with their duties.[41][42]
Early 1850s: West Point and Texas
The 1850s were a difficult time for Lee, with his long absences from home, the increasing disability of his wife, troubles in taking over the management of a large slave plantation, and his often morbid concern with his personal failures.[43]
In 1852, Lee was appointed Superintendent of theMilitary Academy at West Point.[44]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 much 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.[45]
Lee was enormously relieved to receive a long-awaited promotion as second-in-command of the2nd Cavalry Regimentin Texas in 1855. It meant leaving the Engineering Corps and its sequence of staff jobs for the combat command he truly wanted. He served under ColonelAlbert Sidney JohnstonatCamp Cooper,Texas; their mission was to protect settlers from attacks by theApacheand theComanche.
Late 1850s: Arlington plantation and the Custis slaves
In 1857, his father-in-lawGeorge Washington Parke Custisdied, creating a serious crisis when Lee took on the burden ofexecutingthewill.Custis's estate encompassed vast landholdings and hundreds of slaves but also massive debts; the will required people formerly enslaved by Custis "to be emancipated by my executors in such manner as to my executors may seem most expedient and proper, the said emancipation to be accomplished in not exceeding five years from the time of my decease".[46]The estate was in disarray, and the plantations had been poorly managed and were losing money.[47] Lee tried to hire an overseer to handle the plantation in his absence, writing to his cousin, "I wish to get an energetic honest farmer, who while he will be considerate & kind to the negroes, will be firm & make them do their duty."[48]But Lee failed to find a man for the job, and had to take a two-year leave of absence from the army to run the plantation himself.
Lee's more strict expectations and harsher punishments of the slaves on Arlington plantation nearly led to a revolt, since many of the enslaved people had been given to understand that they were to be made free as soon as Custis died, and protested angrily at the delay.[49]In May 1858, Lee wrote to his son Rooney, "I have had some trouble with some of the people. Reuben, Parks & Edward, in the beginning of the previous week, rebelled against my authority—refused to obey my orders, & said they were as free as I was, etc., etc.—I succeeded in capturing them & lodging them in jail. They resisted till overpowered & called upon the other people to rescue them."[48]Less than two months after they were sent to theAlexandriajail, Lee decided to remove these three men and three female house slaves from Arlington, and sent them under lock and key to the slave-trader William Overton Winston inRichmond,who was instructed to keep them in jail until he could find "good & responsible" enslavers to work them until the end of the five-year period.[48]
By 1860, only one family of slaves was left intact on the estate. Some of the families had been together since their time at Mount Vernon.[50]
The Norris case
In 1859, three slaves at Arlington—Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin of theirs—fled for the North, but were captured a few miles from thePennsylvaniaborder and forced to return to the plantation. On June 24, 1859, the anti-slavery newspaperNew York Daily Tribunepublished two anonymous letters (dated June 19[51]and June 21[52]), each claiming to have heard that Lee had the Norrises whipped, and that the overseer refused to whip the woman but that Lee took the whip and flogged her personally. Lee privately wrote to his son Custis that "The N. Y. Tribune has attacked me for my treatment of your grandfather's slaves, but I shall not reply. He has left me an unpleasant legacy."[53]
Wesley Norris himself spoke out about the incident after the war, in an 1866 interview printed in an abolitionist newspaper, theNational Anti-Slavery Standard.Norris said that after they had been captured, and forced to return to Arlington, Lee told them that "he would teach us a lesson we would not soon forget". According to Norris, Lee had the overseer tie the three of them firmly to posts, and ordered them whipped: 50 lashes for the men and 20 for Mary Norris. Norris claimed that Lee encouraged the whipping, and that when the overseer refused to do it, called in the county constable to do it instead. Unlike the anonymous letter writers, he does not state that Lee himself whipped any of the enslaved people. According to Norris, Lee "frequently enjoined [Constable] Williams to 'lay it on well', an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs withbrine,which was done. "[49][54]
The Norris men were then sent by Lee's agent to work on the railroads in Virginia andAlabama.According to the interview, Norris was sent to Richmond in January 1863 "from which place I finally made my escape through the rebel lines to freedom". But Federal authorities reported that Norris came within their lines on September 5, 1863, and that he "left Richmond..with a pass from General Custis Lee."[55][56]Lee freed the people enslaved by Custis, including Wesley Norris, after the end of the five-year period in the winter of 1862, filing the deed ofmanumissionon December 29, 1862.[57][58]
Biographers of Lee have differed over the credibility of the account of the punishment as described in the letters in theTribuneand in Norris's personal account. They broadly agree that Lee sought to recapture a group of slaves who had escaped, and that, after recapturing them, he hired them out off of the Arlington plantation as a punishment; however, they disagree over the likelihood that Lee flogged them, and over the charge that he personally whipped Mary Norris. In 1934,Douglas S. Freemandescribed the incident as "Lee's first experience with the extravagance of irresponsible antislavery agitators" and asserted that "There is no evidence, direct or indirect, that Lee ever had them or any other Negroes flogged. The usage at Arlington and elsewhere in Virginia among people of Lee's station forbade such a thing."[59]
In 2000, Michael Fellman, inThe Making of Robert E. Lee,found the claims that Lee had personally whipped Mary Norris "extremely unlikely", but found it not at all unlikely that Lee had ordered the runaways whipped: "corporal punishment (for which Lee substituted the euphemism" firmness ") was [believed to be] an intrinsic and necessary part of slave discipline. Although it was supposed to be applied only in a calm and rational manner, overtly physical domination of slaves, unchecked by law, was always brutal and potentially savage."[60]
Lee biographer Elizabeth Brown Pryor concluded in 2008 that "the facts are verifiable", based on "the consistency of the five extant descriptions of the episode (the only element that is not repeatedly corroborated is the allegation that Lee gave the beatings himself), as well as the existence of an account book that indicates the constable received compensation from Lee on the date that this event occurred".[61][62]
In 2014, Michael Korda wrote that "Although these letters are dismissed by most of Lee's biographers as exaggerated, or simply as unfounded abolitionist propaganda, it is hard to ignore them [...] It seems incongruously out of character for Lee to have whipped a slave woman himself, particularly one stripped to the waist, and that charge may have been a flourish added by the two correspondents; it was not repeated by Wesley Norris when his account of the incident was published in 1866 [...] [A]lthough it seems unlikely that he would have done any of the whipping himself, he may not have flinched from observing it to make sure his orders were carried out exactly."[63]
Lee's views on race and slavery
Several historians have noted what they consider the contradictory nature of Lee's beliefs and actions concerning race and slavery. While Lee protested he had sympathetic feelings for blacks, they were subordinate to his own racial identity.[64]While Lee held slavery to be an evil institution, he also saw some benefit to blacks held in slavery.[65]While Lee helped assist individual slaves reach freedom in Liberia, and provided for their emancipation in his own will,[66]he believed slaves should be eventually freed in a general way only at some unspecified future date as a part of God's purpose.[64][67]Slavery for Lee was a moral and religious issue, and not one that would yield to political solutions.[68]Emancipation would sooner come from Christian impulse among slave masters before "storms and tempests of fiery controversy" such as was occurring in "Bleeding Kansas".[64]Countering Southerners who argued forslavery as a positive good,Lee in his well-known analysis of slavery from an 1856 letter (see below) called it a moral and political evil. While both Lee and his wife were disgusted with slavery, they also defended it againstabolitionistdemands for immediate emancipation for all enslaved.[69]
Lee argued that slavery was bad for white people,[70]claiming that he found slavery bothersome and time-consuming as an everyday institution to run. In an 1856 letter to his wife, he maintained that slavery was a great evil, but primarily due to adverse impact that it had on white people:[71]
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.[72]
Before leaving to serve in Mexico, Lee had written a will providing for themanumissionof the slaves he owned, "a woman and her children inherited from his mother and apparently leased to his father-in-law and later sold to him".[73]Lee's father-in-law,G. W. Parke Custis,was a member of theAmerican Colonization Society,which was formed to gradually end slavery by establishing a free republic inLiberiafor African-Americans, and Lee assisted several formerly enslaved people to emigrate there. Also, according to historian Richard B. McCaslin, Lee was a gradual emancipationist, denouncing extremist proposals for the immediate abolition of slavery. Lee rejected what he called evilly motivated political passion, fearing a civil and servile war from precipitous emancipation.[74]
HistorianElizabeth Brown Pryoroffered an alternative interpretation of Lee's voluntary manumission of slaves in his will, and assisting slaves to a life of freedom in Liberia, seeing Lee as conforming to a "primacy of slave law". She wrote that Lee's private views on race and slavery,
- "which today seem startling, were entirely unremarkable in Lee's world. No visionary, Lee nearly always tried to conform to accepted opinions. His assessment of black inferiority, of the necessity of racial stratification, the primacy of slave law, and even a divine sanction for it all, was in keeping with the prevailing views of other moderate slaveholders and a good many prominent Northerners."[75]
In 1857, George Custis died, leaving Robert Lee as the executor of his estate, which included nearly 200 slaves.[76]In his will, Custis said the enslaved people were to be freed within five years of his death. On taking on the role of administrator for the Parke Custis will, Lee used a provision to retain them in slavery to produce income for the estate to retire debt.[77]Lee did not welcome the role of planter while administering the Custis properties at Romancoke, another nearby the Pamunkey River and Arlington; he rented the estate's mill. While all the estates prospered under his administration, Lee was unhappy at direct participation in slavery as a hated institution.[78]
Even before what Michael Fellman called a "sorry involvement in actual slave management", Lee judged the experience of white mastery to be a greater moral evil to the white man than blacks suffering under the "painful discipline" of slavery which introduced Christianity, literacy and a work ethic to the "heathen African".[79]Columbia University historianEric Fonernotes that:
- Lee "was not a pro-slavery ideologue. But I think equally important is that, unlike some white southerners, he never spoke out against slavery"[80]
By the time of Lee's career in the U.S. Army, the officers of West Point stood aloof from political-party and sectional strife on such issues as slavery, as a matter of principle, and Lee adhered to the precedent.[81][82]He considered it his patriotic duty to be apolitical while in active Army service,[83][84][85]and Lee did not speak out publicly on the subject of slavery prior to the Civil War.[86][87]Before the outbreak of the War, in 1860, Lee voted forSouthern Democraticnominee and incumbentVice PresidentJohn C. Breckinridge,who was the pro-slavery candidate in the1860 presidential electionand had supported theLecompton ConstitutionforKansas,rather thanConstitutional Union PartynomineeJohn Bell,theSouthern Unionistcandidate who wonVirginiaand voted against theadmissionofKansas under the Lecompton Constitutionas theUnited States Senator from Tennessee.[88][a]
Lee himself enslaved a small number of people in his lifetime and considered himself a paternalistic master.[88]There are various historical and newspaper hearsay accounts of Lee's personally whipping a slave, but they are not direct eyewitness accounts. He was definitely involved in administering the day-to-day operations of a plantation and was involved in the recapture of runaway slaves.[89]One historian noted that Lee separated families of enslaved people, something that prominent enslaving families in Virginia such as Washington and Custis did not do.[70]On December 29, 1862, the last day he was allowed to legally retain them, Lee finally freed all the enslaved people his wife had inherited from George Custis (in accordance with the Custis will).[90]Before this, Lee had petitioned the courts to keep people enslaved by Custis longer than the five years allotted in Custis' will, since the estate was still in debt, but the courts rejected his appeals.[76]In 1866, one of the people formerly enslaved by Lee, Wesley Norris, charged that Lee personally beat him and other slaves harshly after they had tried to run away from Arlington.[91]Lee never publicly responded to this charge, but privately told a friend "There is not a word of truth in it... No servant, soldier, or citizen, that was ever employed by me can with truth charge me with bad treatment."[92]
Foner writes that "Lee's code of gentlemanly conduct did not seem to apply to blacks" during the War. He did not stop his soldiers from kidnapping free black farmers and selling them into slavery.[80]Princeton University historianJames M. McPhersonnoted that Lee initially rejected aprisoner exchange between the Confederacy and the Unionwhen the Union demanded that black Union soldiers be included.[70]Lee did not accept the swap until a few months before the Confederacy's surrender.[70]He also called theEmancipation Proclamation"a savage and brutal policy...which leaves us no alternative but success or degradation worse than death".[93]
As the war dragged on and Lee's losses mounted, he eventually advocated enlisting enslaved people in the Confederate army in exchange for freedom. However, he came to this position with great reluctance. In an 1865 letter to his friendAndrew Hunter,he wrote: "Considering the relation of master and slave, controlled by humane laws and influenced by Christianity and an enlightened public sentiment, as the best that can exist between the white and black races while intermingled as at present in this country, I would deprecate any sudden disturbance of that relation unless it be necessary to avert a greater calamity to both. I should therefore prefer to rely upon our white population to preserve the ratio between our forces and those of the enemy, which experience has shown to be safe. But in view of the preparations of our enemies, it is our duty to provide for continued war and not for a battle or a campaign, and I fear that we cannot accomplish this without overta xing the capacity of our white population."[94]
After the War, Lee told a congressional committee that blacks were "not disposed to work" and did not possess the intellectual capacity to vote and participate in politics.[90]Lee also said to the committee that he hoped that Virginia could "get rid of them", referring to blacks.[90]While not politically active, Lee defended Lincoln's successorAndrew Johnson's approach to Reconstruction, which according to Foner, "abandoned the former slaves to the mercy of governments controlled by their former owners".[95]According to Foner, "A word from Lee might have encouraged white Southerners to accord blacks equal rights and inhibited the violence against the freed people that swept the region during Reconstruction, but he chose to remain silent."[90]Lee was also urged to condemn the white-supremacy[96]organizationKu Klux Klan,but opted to remain silent.[88]
In the generation following the war, Lee, though he died just a few years later, became a central figure in theLost Causeinterpretation of the war. The argument that Lee had always opposed slavery, and freed the people enslaved by his wife, helped maintain his stature as a symbol of Southern honor and national reconciliation.[88]
Harpers Ferry and return to Texas, 1859–1861
BothHarpers Ferryand thesecession of Texaswere 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.[97]
Harpers Ferry
John Brownled a band of 21 abolitionists who seized thefederal arsenalatHarpers Ferry,Virginia, in October 1859, hoping to incite a slave rebellion. PresidentJames Buchanangave Lee command of detachments of militia, soldiers, andUnited States Marines,to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders.[98]By the time Lee arrived that night, the militia on the site had surrounded Brown and his hostages. At dawn, Brown refused the demand for surrender. Lee attacked, and Brown and his followers were captured after three minutes of fighting. Lee's summary report of the episode shows Lee believed it "was the attempt of a fanatic or madman". Lee said Brown achieved "temporary success" by creating panic and confusion and by "magnifying" the number of participants involved in the raid.[99]
Texas
In 1860, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee relieved MajorHeintzelmanatFort Brown,and the Mexican authorities offered to restrain "their citizens from making predatory descents upon the territory and people of Texas... this was the last active operation of theCortina War".Rip Ford,aTexas Rangerat the time, described Lee as "dignified without hauteur, grand without pride... he evinced an imperturbable self-possession, and a complete control of his passions... possessing the capacity to accomplish great ends and the gift of controlling and leading men".[100]
When Texas seceded from theUnionin February 1861, GeneralDavid E. Twiggssurrendered 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.Fort Mason, Texas,was Lee's last command with the United States Army.[101]
Civil War
Resignation from United States Army
Unlike many Southerners who expected a glorious war, Lee correctly predicted it as protracted and devastating.[102]He privately opposed the newConfederate States of Americain letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "nothing but revolution" and an unconstitutional betrayal of the efforts of theFounding Fathers.Writing to George Washington Custis in January, Lee stated:
The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the aggression, and am willing to take every proper step for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not individual or private benefit. As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any State if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for "perpetual union", so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled.[103]
Despite opposing secession, Lee said in January that "we can with a clear conscience separate" if all peaceful means failed. He agreed with secessionists in most areas, rejecting the Northern abolitionists' criticisms and their prevention of the expansion of slavery to the new western territories, and fear of the North's larger population. Lee supported theCrittenden Compromise,which would have constitutionally protected slavery.[104]
Lee's objection to secession was ultimately outweighed by a sense of personal honor, reservations about the legitimacy of a strife-ridden "Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets", and his duty to defend his native Virginia if attacked.[103]He was asked while leaving Texas by a lieutenant if he intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which Lee 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".[105][104]
Although Virginia had the most slaves of any state, it was more similar to Maryland, which stayed in the Union, than to the Deep South; a convention voted against secession in early 1861. Winfield Scott, commanding general of the Union Army and Lee's mentor, told Lincoln he wanted him for a top command, telling Secretary of WarSimon Cameronthat he had "entire confidence" in Lee. Lee accepted a promotion to colonel of the1st Cavalry Regimenton March 28, again swearing an oath to the United States.[106][104]Meanwhile, Lee ignored an offer of command from the Confederacy. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, a second Virginia convention in Richmond voted to secede[107]on April 17, and a May 23 referendum would likely ratify the decision. That night Lee dined with brotherSmithand cousinPhillips,naval officers. Because of Lee's indecision, Phillips went to the War Department the next morning to warn that the Union might lose his cousin if the government did not act quickly.[104]
In Washington that day,[102]Lee was offered by presidential advisorFrancis P. Blaira role as major general to command thedefense of the national capital.He replied:
Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state?[107]
Lee immediately went to Scott, who tried to persuade him that Union forces would be large enough to prevent the South from fighting, so he would not have to oppose his state; Lee disagreed. When Lee asked if he could go home and not fight, the fellow Virginian said that the army did not need equivocal soldiers and that if he wanted to resign, he should do so before receiving official orders. Scott told him that Lee had made "the greatest mistake of your life".[104]
Lee agreed that to avoid dishonor he had to resign before receiving unwanted orders. While historians have usually called his decision inevitable ( "the answer he was born to make", wroteDouglas Southall Freeman;another called it a "no-brainer" ) given the ties to family and state, an 1871 letter from his eldest daughter, Mary Custis Lee, to a biographer described Lee as "worn and harassed" yet calm as he deliberated alone in his office. People on the street noticed Lee's grim face as he tried to decide over the next two days, and he later said that he kept the resignation letter for a day before sending it on April 20. Two days later the Richmond convention invited Lee to the city. It elected him as commander of Virginia state forces before his arrival on April 23, and almost immediately gave him George Washington's sword as symbol of his appointment; whether he was told of a decision he did not want without time to decide, or did want the excitement and opportunity of command, is unclear.[11][104][102]
A cousin on Scott's staff told the family that Lee's decision so upset Scott that he collapsed on a sofa and mourned as if he had lost a son, and asked not to hear Lee's name. When Lee told family his decision, he said "I suppose you will all think I have done very wrong", as the others were mostly pro-Union; only Mary Custis was a secessionist, and her mother especially wanted to choose the Union, but told her husband that she would support whatever he decided. Many younger men like nephewFitzhughwanted to support the Confederacy, but Lee's three sons joined the Confederate military only after their father's decision.[104][102]
Most family members, like brother Smith, also reluctantly chose the South, but Smith's wife and Anne, Lee's sister, still supported the Union; Anne's son joined the Union Army, and no one in his family ever spoke to Lee again. Many cousins fought for the Confederacy, but Phillips and John Fitzgerald told Lee in person that they would uphold their oaths;John H. Upshurstayed with the Union military despite much family pressure;Roger Jonesstayed in the Union army after Lee refused to advise him on what to do; and two ofPhilip Fendall's sons fought for the Union. Forty percent of Virginian officers stayed with the North.[104][102]
Early role
At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, which then encompassed theProvisional Army of Virginiaand theVirginia State Navy.He was appointed a Major General by the Virginia Governor, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first fivefull 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.[108]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 theBattle of Cheat Mountainand was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks.[109]He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, appointed commander, "Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida" on November 5, 1861. Between then and the fall ofFort Pulaski,April 11, 1862, he put in place a defense of Savannah that proved successful in blocking Federal advance on Savannah. Confederate fort and naval gunnery dictated nighttime movement and construction by the besiegers. Federal preparations required four months. In those four months, Lee developed a defense in depth. Behind Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River,Fort Jacksonwas improved, and two additional batteries covered river approaches.[110]In the face of the Union superiority in naval, artillery and infantry deployment, Lee was able to block any Federal advance on Savannah, and at the same time, well-trained Georgia troops were released in time to meet McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. The city of Savannah would not fall untilSherman's approach from the interiorat the end of 1864.
At first, the press spoke to the disappointment of losing Fort Pulaski. Surprised by the effectiveness of large caliber Parrott Rifles in their first deployment, it was widely speculated that only betrayal could have brought overnight surrender to aThird System Fort.Lee was said to have failed to get effective support in the Savannah River from the three sidewheeler gunboats of the Georgia Navy. Although again blamed by the press for Confederate reverses, he was appointed military adviser toConfederate PresidentJefferson Davis,the formerU.S. Secretary of War.While inRichmond,Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches would later play a pivotal role in battles near the end of the war.[111]
Army of Northern Virginia commander (June 1862 – June 1863)
In the spring of 1862, during thePeninsula Campaign,the UnionArmy of the Potomacunder GeneralGeorge B. McClellanadvanced on Richmond fromFort Monroe.Progressing up the Peninsula, McClellan forced Gen.Joseph E. Johnstonand the Army of Virginia to retreat to a point just north and east of the Confederate capital.
Johnston was wounded at theBattle of Seven Pines,on June 1, 1862, giving Lee his first opportunity to lead an army in the field – the force he renamed theArmy ofNorthernVirginia,signalling confidence that the Union army could be driven away from Richmond. Early in the war, Lee had been called "Granny Lee" for his allegedly timid style of command.[112]Confederate newspaper editorials objected to him replacing Johnston, opining that Lee would be passive, waiting for Union attack. This seemed true, initially; for the first three weeks of June, Lee did not show aggression, instead strengthening Richmond's defenses.
However, on June 25, he surprised the Army of the Potomac and launched a rapid series of bold attacks: theSeven Days Battles.Despite superior Union numbers and some clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, Lee's attacks derailed McClellan's plans and drove back most of his forces. Confederate casualties were heavy, but an unnerved McClellan, famed for his caution, retreated 25 miles (40 km) to the lowerJames River,and abandoned the Peninsula completely in August. This success changed Confederate morale and the public's regard for Lee. After the Seven Days Battles, and until the end of the war, his men called him "Marse Robert", a term of respect and affection.[113]
The setback, and the resulting drop in Union morale, impelled Lincoln to adopt a new policy of relentless, committed warfare.[114][115]After the Seven Days, Lincoln decided he had to move to emancipate most Confederate slaves by executive order, as a military act, using his authority as commander-in-chief.[116]To make this possible, he needed a Union victory.
Wheeling to the north, Lee marched rapidly towards Washington, D.C. and defeated another Union army under Gen.John Popeat theSecond Battle of Bull Runin late August. He eliminated Pope before reinforcements from McClellan arrived, knocking out an entire field command before another could arrive to support it. In less than 90 days, Lee had run McClellan off the Peninsula, defeated Pope, and moved the battle lines 82 miles (132 km) north, from 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Richmond to 20 miles (32 km) south of Washington.
Lee chose to take the battle off southern ground and invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, hoping to collect supplies in Union territory, and possibly win a victory that would swaythe upcoming Union electionsin favor of ending the war. This was sent amiss when McClellan's men found a lost Confederate dispatch,Special Order 191,revealing Lee's plans and movements. McClellan always exaggerated Lee's numerical strength, but now he knew the Confederate army was divided and could be destroyed in detail. Still, in a characteristic manner, McClellan moved slowly; he failed to realize a spy had informed Lee that he possessed the plans. Lee quickly concentrated his forces west of Antietam Creek, nearSharpsburg, Maryland,where McClellan attacked on September 17. TheBattle of Antietamwas the single bloodiest day of the war, with both sides suffering enormous losses. Lee's army barely withstood the Union assaults, and retreated to Virginia the next day. The narrow Confederate defeat gave PresidentAbraham Lincolnthe opportunity to issue hisEmancipation Proclamation,[117]which put the Confederacy on the diplomatic and moral defensive.[118]
Disappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln namedAmbrose Burnsidethe commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside ordered an attack across theRappahannock RiveratFredericksburg, Virginia.Delays in bridging the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, andthe Union frontal assaulton December 13, 1862, was a disaster. There were 12,600 Union casualties to 5,000 Confederate, making the engagement one of the most one-sided battles in the Civil War.[119]After this victory, Lee reportedly said, "It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."[119]At Fredericksburg, according to historian Michael Fellman, Lee had completely entered into the "spirit of war, where destructiveness took on its own beauty".[119]
The bitter Union defeat at Fredericksburg prompted President Lincoln to appointJoseph Hookeras the next commander of the Army of the Potomac. In May 1863, Hooker maneuvered to attack Lee's army by crossing the Rapahannock further upriver and positioning himself at theChancellorsville crossroads.Doing this could give him an opportunity to strike Lee in the rear, but the Confederate General barely managed to pivot his forces in time to face an attack. Hooker's command was nearly twice the size of Lee's but he nonethelesswas beatenafter Lee performed a daring movement that broke all terms of conventional warfare: dividing his army. Lee sentStonewall Jackson's corps to attack Hooker's exposed flank, on the opposite side of the battlefield. The significant victory that followed came with a price. Among the heavy casualties was Jackson, his finest corps commander, accidentally fired on by his own troops.[120]
Even though he scored another impressive victory over an enemy army much larger than his own, Lee felt unsatisfied by the fact that he had made little territorial gains up to that point. Things were going poorly for the Confederacy in the West, and Lee started to grow restless; he devised a plan to once again invade the North, for similar reasons to before: relieve Virginia and its citizens of the weariness of battle, and potentially march on the Federal Capital and force terms of peace.
Battle of Gettysburg
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 GeneralUlysses S. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg. The top military advisers wanted to save Vicksburg, but Lee persuaded 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 significant 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.[121]
Lee launched theGettysburg Campaignwhen he abandoned his position on the Rapahannock and crossed the Potomac River into Maryland in June. Hooker mobilized his men and pursued, but was replaced by Gen.George G. Meadeon June 28, a few days before the two armiesclashedat the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in early July; the battle produced the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War. Some of Lee's subordinates were new and inexperienced to their commands, andJ.E.B. Stuart's cavalry failed to perform effective reconnaissance. The first day was a surprise affair for both sides, and the Confederates managed to rally their forces first, pushing the panicked Union troops away from town, and towards key terrain that should have been taken byGeneral Ewell,but was not. The second day unfolded differently for the Confederates. They took too much time to assemble, and launched repeated failed assaults against the Union left flank over difficult terrain. Lee's decision on the third day, going against the advice of his best corps commander, Gen.James Longstreet,to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line, was disastrous. It was carried out over a wide field, and has come to be known commonly asPickett's Charge.Easily repulsed, Pickett's Charge, named after thegeneralwhose division participated, resulted in severe Confederate losses. Lee rode out to meet the remains of the division and proclaimed, "All this has been my fault."[122]He had no choice but to withdraw, and he escaped Meade's ineffective pursuit, slipping back into Virginia.
Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to President Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's pleas to retire. That fall, Lee and Meade met again in two minor campaigns,BristoeandMine Run,that did little to change the strategic standoff. The Confederate Army never fully recovered from the substantial losses incurred during the three-day battle in southern Pennsylvania. Civil War HistorianShelby Footeonce stated, "Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Robert E. Lee as commander."[citation needed]
Ulysses S. Grant and the Union offensive
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 byattrition,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 theOverland Campaignincluded theWilderness,Spotsylvania Court HouseandCold Harbor.
Grant eventually was able to stealthily move his army across theJames River.After stopping a Union attempt to capturePetersburg, Virginia,a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg, a development which presaged thetrench warfareofWorld War I.Lee attempted to break the stalemate by sendingJubal A. Earlyon a raid through theShenandoah Valleyto Washington, D.C., but Early was defeated early on by the superior forces ofPhilip Sheridan.TheSiege of Petersburglasted 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
On February 6, 1865, Lee was appointedGeneral in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States.
As the South ran out of manpower, the issue of arming the slaves became paramount. Lee explained, "We should employ them without delay... [along with] gradual and general emancipation". The first units were in training as the war ended.[123][124]As the Confederate army was devastated by casualties, disease and desertion, the Union attack onPetersburgsucceeded on April 2, 1865. Lee abandoned Richmond and retreated west. Lee then made an attempt to escape to the southwest and join up with Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. However, his forces were soon surrounded and he surrendered them to Grant on April 9, 1865, at theBattle of Appomattox Court House.[125]Other Confederate armies followed suit and the war ended. The day after his surrender, Lee issued hisFarewell Addressto 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."[126]
Summaries of Lee's Civil War battles
The following are summaries of Civil War campaigns and major battles where Robert E. Lee was the commanding officer:[127]
| Battle | Date | Result | Opponent | Confederate troop strength | Union troop strength | Confederate casualties | Union casualties | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheat Mountain | September 11–13, 1861 | Defeat | Reynolds | 5,000 | 3,000 | c. 90 | 88 | Lee's first battle of the Civil War. Severely criticized, Lee was nicknamed "Granny Lee". Lee was sent to South Carolina and Georgia to supervise fortifications.[128] |
| Seven Days | June 25 – July 1, 1862 | Tactically inconclusive; strategic Confederate victory
|
McClellan | 95,000 | 91,000 | 20,614 | 15,849 | Tactically inconclusive; strategic Confederate victory, as McPherson's retreat to Harrison's Landing ended the Peninsula Campaign.[129]Lee acquitted himself well, and remained in field command for the duration of the war under the direction of Jefferson Davis. Union troops remained on the Lower Peninsula and at Fortress Monroe, which became a terminus on the Underground Railroad, and the site terming escaped slaves as "contribands", no longer returned to their rebel owners. |
| Second Manassas | August 28–30, 1862 | Victory | Pope | 50,000 | 77,000 | 7,298 | 14,462 | Union forces continued to occupy parts of northern Virginia but were unable to expand further. |
| South Mountain | September 14, 1862 | Defeat | McClellan | 18,000 | 28,000 | 2,685 | 2,325 | Confederates lost control of westernmost Virginian congressional districts which would later be the core counties of West Virginia. |
| Antietam | September 16–18, 1862 | Inconclusive | McClellan | 52,000 | 75,000 | 13,724 | 12,410 | Tactically inconclusive but strategically a Union victory. The Confederates lost an opportunity to gain foreign recognition; Lincoln moved forward on his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. |
| Fredericksburg | December 11, 1862 | Victory | Burnside | 72,000 | 114,000 | 5,309 | 12,653 | With Lee's troops and supplies depleted, Confederates remained in place south of the Rappahannock. Union forces did not withdraw from northern Virginia. |
| Chancellorsville | May 1, 1863 | Victory | Hooker | 60,298 | 105,000 | 12,764 | 16,792 | Union forces withdrew to ring of defenses around Washington, D.C. |
| Gettysburg | July 1, 1863 | Defeat | Meade | 75,000 | 83,000 | 23,231–28,063 | 23,049 | The Confederate army was physically and spiritually exhausted. Meade was criticized for not immediately pursuing Lee's army. This battle become known as the high water mark of the Confederacy.[130]Lee would never personally invade the North again after this battle. Rather he was determined to defend Richmond and eventually Petersburg at all costs. |
| Wilderness | May 5, 1864 | Inconclusive | Grant | 61,000 | 102,000 | 11,033 | 17,666 | Grant disengaged and continued his offensive, circling east and south advancing on Richmond and Petersburg. |
| Spotsylvania | May 12, 1864 | Inconclusive[131] | Grant | 52,000 | 100,000 | 12,687 | 18,399 | Although beaten and unable to take Lee's defenses, Grant continued the Union offensive, circling east and south advancing on Richmond and Petersburg |
| North Anna | May 23–26, 1864 | Inconclusive | Grant | 50,000–53,000 | 67,000–100,000 | 1,552 | 3,986 | North Anna had proved to be a relatively minor affair when compared to other Civil War battles. |
| Totopotomoy Creek | May 28–30, 1864 | Inconclusive | Grant | N/A | N/A | 1,593 | 731 | Grant continued his attempts to maneuver around Lee's right flank and lure him into a general battle in the open. |
| Cold Harbor | June 1, 1864 | Victory | Grant | 62,000 | 108,000 | 5,287 | 12,000 | Although Grant was able to continue his offensive, Grant referred to the Cold Harbor assault as his "greatest regret" of the war in his memoirs. |
| Fussell's Mill | August 14, 1864 | Inconclusive | Hancock | 20,000 | 28,000 | 1,700 | 2,901 | Union attempt to break Confederate siege lines at Richmond, the Confederate capital. |
| Appomattox Campaign | March 29, 1865 | Defeat | Grant | 56,000 | 114,000 | c. 25,000 General Lee surrenders | c. 9,700 | General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.[132]After the surrender Grant gave Lee's army much-needed food rations; they were paroled to return to their homes, never again to take up arms against the Union. |
Postbellum life
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotesinterview with Emory Thomas onRobert E. Lee: A Biography,September 10, 1995,C-SPAN |
After the war, Lee was not arrested or punished (although he was indicted),[133]but he did lose the right to vote as well as some property. Lee's prewar family home, theCustis-Lee Mansion,was seized by Union forces during the war and turned intoArlington National Cemetery,and his family was not compensated until more than a decade after his death.[134]
In 1866, Lee counseled Southerners not to resume fighting, which prompted Grant to say that Lee was "setting an example of forced acquiescence so grudging and pernicious in its effects as to be hardly realized".[135]Lee joined with Democrats in opposing theRadical Republicans,who demanded punitive measures against the South, distrusted the South's commitment to the abolition of slavery, and, indeed, distrusted the region's loyalty to the United States.[136][137]Lee supported a system of free public schools for black people but opposed allowing them 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."[138]Emory Thomassays Lee had become a suffering Christ-like icon for ex-Confederates. President Grant invited him to the White House in 1869, and he went. Nationally, Lee became an icon of reconciliation between the white people of the North and South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the national fabric.[139]
Lee hoped to retire to a farm of his own, but he was too much a regional symbol to live in obscurity. From April to June 1865, he and his family resided in Richmond at theStewart-Lee House.[140]He accepted an offer to serve as the president of Washington College (nowWashington and Lee University) inLe xing ton, 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, expanding its offerings significantly, adding programs in commerce and journalism, and incorporating theLe xing ton Law School.Lee was well liked by the students, which enabled him to announce an "honor system"like that of West Point, explaining that" we have but one rule here, and it is that every student be agentleman".To speed up national reconciliation, Lee recruited students from the North and made certain they were well treated on campus and in town.[141]
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."[142]
While at Washington College, Lee told a colleague that the greatest mistake of his life was taking a military education.[143]He also defended his father in a biographical sketch.[144]
President Johnson's amnesty pardons
On May 29, 1865, PresidentAndrew Johnsonissued a Proclamation ofAmnestyandPardonto persons who had participated in therebellionagainst 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.[145]
On October 2, 1865, the same day that Lee was inaugurated as president of Washington College, he signed his Amnesty Oath, thereby complying fully with the provision of Johnson's proclamation. Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored.[145]
Three years later, on December 25, 1868, Johnson proclaimed a second amnesty which removed previous exceptions, such as the one that affected Lee.[146]
Postwar politics
Lee, who had opposed secession and remained mostly indifferent to politics before the Civil War, supported PresidentAndrew Johnson's plan of PresidentialReconstructionthat 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 theJoint Congressional Committee on Reconstructionin Washington, where he expressed support for Johnson's plans for quick restoration of the former Confederate states, and argued that restoration should return, as far as possible, to thestatus quo antein the Southern states' governments (with the exception of slavery).[147]
Lee told the committee that "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." and that "Where I am, and have been, the people have exhibited a willingness that the blacks should be educated, and... that it would be better for the blacks and for the whites". However, when he was asked "General, you are very competent to judge of the capacity of black men for acquiring knowledge: I want your opinion on that capacity, as compared with the capacity of white men?" Lee replied "I do not think that he is as capable of acquiring knowledge as the white man is." 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."[148][149]
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."[150]
In 1868, Lee's allyAlexander H. H. Stuartdrafted a public letter of endorsement for theDemocratic Party'spresidential campaign,in whichHoratio Seymourran against Lee's old foe Republican 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.[151]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."[152]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."[153]
In his public statements and private correspondence, 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.[154]He privately chastised fellow ex-Confederates such as Davis andJubal Earlyfor 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."[155]
Illness and death
On September 28, 1870, Lee suffered astroke.Two weeks later, shortly after 9 a.m. on October 12, 1870, Lee died inLe xing ton, Virginia,frompneumonia.According to one account, Lee's last words the day of his death were, "TellHillhemustcome up! Strike the tent ",[156]but this is not fully confirmed because there are conflicting accounts and because Lee's stroke had resulted inaphasia,possibly rendering him unable to speak.[157]
At first no suitable coffin for the body could be located. The muddy roads were too flooded for anyone to get in or out of the town of Le xing ton. An undertaker had ordered three from Richmond that had reached Le xing ton, but due to unprecedented flooding from long-continued heavy rains, the caskets were washed down theMaury River.Two neighborhood boys, C.G. Chittum and Robert E. Hillis, found one of the coffins that had been swept ashore. Undamaged, it was used for the body, though it was a bit short for him. As a result, Lee was buried without shoes.[158]He was buried underneath the college chapel now known asUniversity ChapelatWashington and Lee University,where his body remains.[32][159]
Legacy
Among the supporters of the Confederacy, Lee came to be even more revered after his surrender than he had been during the war, whenStonewall Jacksonhad been the great Confederate hero. In an 1874 address before theSouthern Historical SocietyinAtlanta,Georgia,Benjamin Harvey Hilldescribed Lee in this way:
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 aCaesar,without his ambition;Frederick,without his tyranny;Napoleon,without his selfishness, andWashington,without his reward.[160]
By the end of the 19th century, Lee's popularity had spread to the North.[161]Lee's admirers have pointed to his character and devotion to duty, and his occasional tactical successes in battles against a stronger foe.
According to my notion of military history there is as much instruction both in strategy and in tactics to be gleaned from General Lee's operations of 1862 as there is to be found in Napoleon's campaigns of 1796.
— Field MarshalGarnet Wolseley[162]
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. He was not given full direction of the Southern war effort until late in the conflict.
HistorianEric Fonerwrites that at the end of his life
Lee had become the embodiment of the Southern cause. A generation later, he was a national hero. The 1890s and early 20th century witnessed the consolidation of white supremacy in the post-Reconstruction South and widespread acceptance in the North of Southern racial attitudes.[88]
Robert E. Lee has been commemorated on U.S. postage stamps at least five times, the first one being a commemorative stamp that also honoredStonewall Jackson,issued in 1936. A second "regular-issue" stamp was issued in 1955. He was commemorated with a 32-cent stamp issued in the American Civil War Issue of June 29, 1995. His horse Traveller is pictured in the background.[163]
Washington and Lee University in Le xing ton, Virginia was commemorated on its 200th anniversary on November 23, 1948, with a three-cent postage stamp. The central design is a view of the university, flanked by portraits of generals George Washington and Robert E. Lee.[164]Lee was again commemorated on a commemorative stamp in 1970, along with Jefferson Davis and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, depicted on horseback on the six-cent Stone Mountain Memorial commemorative issue, modeled after the actualStone Mountain Memorialcarving in Georgia. The stamp was issued on September 19, 1970, in conjunction with the dedication of the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia on May 9, 1970. The design of the stamp replicates the memorial, the largest high relief sculpture in the world. It is carved on the side of Stone Mountain 400 feet above the ground.[165]
Stone Mountain also led to Lee's appearance on acommemorative coin,the 1925Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar.During the 1920s and '30s dozens of specially designed half dollars were struck to raise money for various events and causes. This issue had a particularly wide distribution, with 1,314,709 minted. Unlike some of the other issues it remains a very common coin.
In 1865, after the war, Lee was paroled and signed anoath of allegiance,asking to have hiscitizenship of the United Statesrestored. However, his application was not processed by Secretary of StateWilliam Seward,and as a result Lee did not receive a pardon and his citizenship was not restored.[166][167]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 SenatorHarry F. Byrd Jr.(I-VA), the result of a five-year campaign to accomplish this. Proponents portrayed the lack of pardon as a mere clerical error. The resolution, which enacted Public Law 94–67, was passed, and the bill was signed by PresidentGerald Fordon August 5.[168][169][170]
World War II generalGeorge S. Pattonsaid he had prayed to a portrait of General Lee, as well as one ofStonewall Jackson,as a young child, believing them to be portraits of God and Jesus, and associating their features with his perceptions of the two men.[171]
Monuments, memorials and commemorations
Lee opposed the construction of public memorials to Confederate rebellion on the grounds that they would prevent the healing of wounds inflicted during the war.[172]Nevertheless, after his death, he became an icon used by promoters of "Lost Cause"mythology, who sought to romanticize the Confederate cause and strengthenwhite supremacyin the South.[172]Later in the 20th century, particularly following thecivil rights movement,historians reassessed Lee; his reputation fell based on his failure to support rights forfreedmenafter the war, and even his strategic choices as a military leader fell under scrutiny.[88][173]
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial,also known as the Custis–Lee Mansion,[174]is aGreek revivalmansion in Arlington, Virginia, that was once Lee's home. It overlooks thePotomac Riverand theNational Mallin Washington, D.C. During the Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site ofArlington National Cemetery,in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to return to his home. The United States designated the mansion as aNational Memorialto Lee in 1955, a mark of widespread respect for him in both theNorthandSouth.[175]
In Richmond, Virginia, alarge equestrian statue of Leeby French sculptorJean Antonin Merciéwas the centerpiece ofMonument Avenue,along with four other statues of Confederates. This monument to Lee was unveiled on May 29, 1890; over 100,000 people attended this dedication. That has been described as "the day white Virginia stopped admiring Gen. Robert E. Lee and started worshiping him".[176]The four other Confederate statues were removed in 2020, and the equestrian statue of Lee was removed on September 8, 2021, at the direction of the state government.[177]
Lee is also shown mounted on Traveller inGettysburg National Military Parkon top of the Virginia Monument; he is facing roughly in the direction ofPickett's Charge.Lee's portrayal on a mural on Richmond'sflood wallon theJames River,considered offensive by some, was removed in the late 1990s, but currently is back on the flood wall.
InBaltimore's Wyman Park, a large double equestrian statue of Lee and Jackson is located directly across from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and dedicated in 1948, 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 theBattle of Chancellorsville.[178]The Baltimore area ofMarylandis also home to a large nature park calledRobert E. Lee Memorial Park.
A statue of Robert E. Lee was one of the two statues (the other is George Washington) representingVirginiainStatuary Hallin theU.S. Capitolin Washington, D.C. It was removed from the Capitol on December 21, 2020, after a state commission voted to replace it with a statue of Civil Rights activistBarbara Rose Johns.[179]Lee is one of the figures depicted inbas-reliefcarved intoStone MountainnearAtlanta.Accompanying him on horseback in the relief are Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.[180]
The birthday of Robert E. Lee is celebrated or commemorated in several states. In Texas, he is celebrated as part ofConfederate Heroes Dayon January 19, Lee's birthday.[181]In Alabama and Mississippi, his birthday is celebrated on the same day as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day,[182][183]while in Georgia, this occurred on the day after Thanksgiving before 2016, when the state stopped officially recognizing the holiday.[184][185]In Virginia,Lee–Jackson Daywas celebrated on the Friday precedingMartin Luther King, Jr. Daywhich is the third Monday in January,[186]until 2020, when the Virginia legislature eliminated the holiday, making Election Day a state holiday instead.[187]
One United States college and one junior college are named for Lee:Washington and Lee Universityin Le xing ton, Virginia; andLee Collegein Baytown, Texas, respectively.University Chapelat Washington and Lee University marks Lee's final resting place. Throughout the South, many primary and secondary schools were also named for him as well as private schools such asRobert E. Lee Academyin Bishopville, South Carolina.
Lee is featured on the 1925Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar.
-
-
-
-
Statue of Lee at theConfederate War Memorial,Dallas, 1896 -
Statue of Lee inMurray, Kentucky -
University Chapelon the campus ofWashington and Lee University
In 1862, the newly formed Confederate Navy purchased a 642-ton iron-hulled side-wheel gunboat, built in at Glasgow, Scotland, and gave her the name ofCSSRobert E. Leein honor of this Confederate General. During the next year, she became one of the South's most famousConfederate blockade runners,successfully making more than twenty runs through the Union blockade.[188]
TheMississippi RiversteamboatRobert E. Leewas named for Lee after the Civil War. It was the participant in an 1870St. Louis–New Orleansrace with theNatchez VI,which was featured in aCurrier and Iveslithograph. TheRobert E. Leewon the race.[189]The steamboat inspired the 1912 songWaiting for the Robert E. LeebyLewis F. MuirandL. Wolfe Gilbert.[190]In more modern times, theUSSRobert E. Lee,aGeorge Washington-classsubmarinebuilt in 1958, was named for Lee,[191]as was theM3 Leetank, produced in 1941 and 1942.
The Commonwealth ofVirginiaissues an optionallicense platehonoring Lee, making reference to him as 'The Virginia Gentleman'.[192]In February 2014, a road atFort Blisspreviously named for Lee was renamed to honorBuffalo Soldiers.[193][194]
A recent biographer, Jonathan Horn, outlines the unsuccessful efforts in Washington to memorialize Lee in the naming of theArlington Memorial Bridgeafter both Grant and Lee.[195]
Unite the Right rally and removal of monuments
In February 2017, the City Council ofCharlottesville,Virginia,voted to remove asculpture of Lee,who has no historical link to the city, as well as one of Stonewall Jackson. This was temporarily stayed by court action, though the city did rename Lee Park: first to Emancipation Park, then later to Market Street Park.[196]The prospect of the statues being removed and the parks being renamed brought many out-of-towners, described aswhite supremacistandalt-right,to Charlottesville in theUnite the Right rallyof August 2017, in which 3 people died. As of July 2021, the statuehas been permanently removed.The statue was melted in October 2023.[197]
Several other statues and monuments to Lee were removed in the aftermath of the incident, including:
- A 60-foot (18 m)-tallmonumentin the center ofLee Circle(formerly Tivoli Circle) inNew Orleans.Installed in 1884, it featured a 16.5-foot (5.0 m) bronze statue of Lee on a marble column. Former Confederate soldierGeorge Washington Cabledescribed it in a tribute: "His arms are folded on that breast that never knew fear, and his calm, dauntless gaze meets the morning sun as it rises."[198]The statue was removed on May 19, 2017, the last of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans to be taken down.[199]
- Astained-glass windowin theWashington National Cathedral,showing Lee on horseback atChancellorsville,as well as one in honor of Stonewall Jackson.[200]Sponsored by theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy,they were installed in 1953 and removed in September 2017.[201]The cathedral plans to keep the windows and eventually display them in historical context.[200]
- A bust of Lee in theHall of Fame for Great Americans(the first Hall of Fame in the United States, completed 1900), in what is nowBronx Community College.[202][203]
- A bronze statue of Leewhich had been on display at theUniversity of Texas at Austin,[204][205]andanother,with his horse Traveller, in Robert E. Lee Park inDallas.[206]
Biographies
Douglas Southall Freeman's Pulitzer prize-winning four-volumeR. E. Lee: A Biography(1936), which was for a long period considered the definitive work on Lee, downplayed his involvement in slavery and emphasized Lee as a virtuous person. Eric Foner, who describes Freeman's volume as a "hagiography",notes that on the whole, Freeman" displayed little interest in Lee's relationship to slavery. The index to his four volumes contained 22 entries for 'devotion to duty', 19 for 'kindness', 53 for Lee's celebrated horse,Traveller.But 'slavery', 'slave emancipation' and 'slave insurrection' together received five. Freeman observed, without offering details, that slavery in Virginia represented the system 'at its best'. He ignored the postwar testimony of Lee's former slave Wesley Norris about the brutal treatment to which he had been subjected. "[88]
More recent biographies offer a broader variety of perspectives.Thomas L. Connelly'sThe Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society(1977) was an iconoclastic revision of Lee's mythical status in the South.Robert E. Lee: A Biography(1995) byEmory M. Thomasattempted a "post-revisionist" compromise between the traditional and more recent views.[207]Robert E. Lee: A Life(2021) byAllen C. Guelzofocuses on a study of Lee's character.[208]
Dates of rank
| Rank | Date | Unit | Component |
|---|---|---|---|
 Second lieutenant |
July 1, 1829[209] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
 First lieutenant |
September 21, 1836[210] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
 Captain |
August 7, 1838[210] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
 Brevet major§ |
April 18, 1847[210] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
 Brevet lieutenant colonel† |
August 20, 1847[210] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
 Brevet colonel‡ |
September 13, 1847[211] | Corps of Engineers | United States Army |
| Lieutenant colonel |
March 3, 1855[211] | 2nd Cavalry Regiment | United States Army |
| Colonel |
March 16, 1861[211] | 1st Cavalry Regiment | United States Army |
 Major general[b] |
April 22, 1861[212] | Provisional Army of Virginia | |
 Brigadier general |
May 14, 1861[213] | Confederate States Army | |
 [c]General |
June 14, 1861[214] | Confederate States Army |
- § Breveted for conduct in theBattle of Cerro Gordo
- † Breveted for conduct in Battles ofContrerasandChurubusco
- ‡ Breveted for conduct inBattle of Chapultepec
In popular culture
Lee is a main character in the Shaara Family novelsThe Killer Angels(1974),Gods and Generals(1996), andThe Last Full Measure(2000), as well as the film adaptations ofGettysburg(1993) andGods and Generals(2003). He is played byMartin Sheenin the former and by Lee's descendantRobert Duvallin the latter. Lee is portrayed as a hero in the historical children's novelLee and Grant at Appomattox(1950) byMacKinlay Kantor.His part in the Civil War is told from the perspective of his horse inRichard Adams's bookTraveller(1988).
Lee is an obvious subject forAmerican Civil War alternate histories.Ward Moore'sBring the Jubilee(1953),MacKinlay Kantor'sIf the South Had Won the Civil War(1960), andHarry Turtledove'sThe Guns of the South(1992), all have Lee ending up as president of a victorious Confederacy and freeing the slaves (or laying the groundwork for the slaves to be freed in a later decade). Although Moore and Kantor's novels relegate him to a set of passing references, Lee is more of a main character in Turtledove'sGuns.He is also the prime character of Turtledove's "Lee at the Alamo".[215]Turtledove's "War Between the Provinces"series is an allegory of the Civil War told in the language of fairy tales, with Lee appearing as aknightnamed "Duke Edward of Arlington". Lee is also a knight in "The Charge of Lee's Brigade" inAlternate Generalsvolume 1, written by Turtledove's friendS. M. Stirlingand featuring Lee, whoseVirginiais still a loyalBritishcolony, fighting for theCrownagainst theRussiansinCrimea.In Lee Allred's "East of Appomattox" inAlternate Generalsvolume 3, Lee is the Confederate Minister toLondoncirca 1868, desperately seeking help for a CSA which has turned out poorly suited to independence.Robert Skimin'sGrey Victoryfeatures Lee as a supporting character preparing to run for the presidency in 1867.
InConnie Willis' 1987 novelLincoln's Dreams,a research assistant meets a young woman who dreams about the Civil War from Robert E. Lee's point of view.
TheDodge Chargerfeatured in the CBS television seriesThe Dukes of Hazzard(1979–1985) was namedThe General Lee.[216][217]Inthe 2005 film based on this series,the car is driven past a statue of Lee, while the car's occupants salute him.
See also
References
- ^Bunting, Josiah (2004).Ulysses S. Grant.New York: Time Books. p.62.ISBN978-0-8050-6949-5.
- ^Jay Luvaas, "Lee and the Operational Art: The Right Place, the Right Time",Parameters: US Army War College,September 1992, vol. 22#3, pp. 2–18.
- ^Bonekemper, Edward (2014).Grant and Lee.Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. p. xiv.ISBN978-1-62157-302-9.
- ^Pryor, Elizabeth Brown (October 29, 2009)."Robert E. Lee (ca. 1806–1870)".Encyclopedia Virginia.Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ^Harrison Dwight Cavanagh,Colonial Chesapeake Families: British Origins and Descendants,vol. 2 (Dallas, Tex.: p. p., 2014), 118–125, esp. 119.
- ^Davis, William C.; Pohanka, Brian C.; Troiani, Don (1997).Civil War Journal, The Leaders.Rutledge Hill Press. p.135.ISBN978-0-517-22193-8.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 30–32.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 32–34.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 38–45.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 13–14.
- ^abDavis 1999,p. 21.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 48–54.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 56.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 57–58.
- ^Guelzo 2021,p. 53.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 57.
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 33.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 62.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 64–65.
- ^Guelzo 2021,p. 57.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 24–25.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 72.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 75.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 74–75.
- ^Guelzo 2021,p. 64.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 81.
- ^Guelzo 2021,p. 66.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 83–84.
- ^"Welcome to Fort Hamilton".United States Army Corps of Engineers. Archived fromthe originalon July 23, 2011.RetrievedOctober 16,2010.
- ^"William Fitzhugh".Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park,National Park Service.RetrievedJuly 13,2009.
- ^Pryor 2007,p. 95.
- ^ab"About the Chapel".Washington and Lee University. 2020. Archived fromthe originalon June 13, 2021.RetrievedJune 13,2021.
- ^Dillon, John Forrest,ed. (1903)."Introduction".John Marshall; life, character and judicial services as portrayed in the centenary and memorial addresses and proceedings throughout the United States on Marshall day, 1901, and in the classic orations of Binney, Story, Phelps, Waite and Rawle.Chicago: Callaghan & Company. pp. liv–lv.ISBN978-0722291474.
- ^Helen Keller (2005). Nielsen, Kim E. (ed.).Helen Keller: selected writings.New York: New York University Press.ISBN978-0814758298.
- ^"Willis Lee".Olympedia.Archived fromthe originalon March 27, 2021.RetrievedJune 14,2021.
- ^"Tender is the Heart".Mort Künstler. Archived fromthe originalon January 14, 2015.RetrievedJune 12,2014.
- ^"'The Gay Parisians' Leading Woman ".Munsey's Magazine.January 1896. p. 492.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. pages=118–121.
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 248.
- ^"Lee and Grant | Before the War".Virginia Historical Society. Archived fromthe originalon July 14, 2014.RetrievedOctober 15,2010.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 148.
- ^Thomson, Janice E. (1996).Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns.Princeton University Press. p. 121.
- ^Connelly, Thomas Lawrence (1977).The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American society.New York:Alfred A. Knopf.pp.176–82.ISBN978-0-394-47179-2.
- ^Davis 1999,p. 111.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 152–162.
- ^"Will of George Washington Parke Custis".ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes.
- ^Micki McElya (2016).The Politics of Mourning.Harvard University Press. pp. 24–.ISBN978-0-674-97406-7.
- ^abcFellman 2000,p. 65.
- ^abWesley Norris,interviewinNational Anti-Slavery Standard(April 14, 1866) 4, reprinted inBlassingame 1977,pp. 467–468.
- ^Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters.Penguin. 2007. p. 264.ISBN978-0670038299.
- ^Letter from "A Citizen",New York Tribune,June 24, 1859.Freeman 1934,p. 393.
- ^"Some Facts That Should Come To Light",New York Tribune,June 24, 1859.Freeman 1934,pp. 390–393.
- ^Freeman 1934,pp. 390–392.
- ^Wesley Norris,"Testimony of Wesley Norris",National Anti-Slavery Standard,April 14, 1866.
- ^War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,Series 1, volume 29, part 2, pp. 158–159 (Meade to Halleck, September 6, 1863, 4 p.m.).[1]
- ^Monte Akers,Year of Desperate Struggle: Jeb Stuart and His Cavalry, from Gettysburg to Yellow Tavern, 1863–1864,p.102[2]
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 476.
- ^List of Slaves Emancipated in the Will of George W. P. Custis, December 29, 1862 ( "Sally Norris [and] Len Norris and their three children: Mary, Sally and Wesley" )[3]ArchivedAugust 1, 2016, at theWayback Machine
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 390.
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 67.
- ^Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters (New York: Penguin, 2008), chapter 16.
- ^Ariel Burriss,"The Fugitive Slaves of Robert E. Lee: From Arlington to Westminster".
- ^Korda 2014,p. 208.
- ^abcFellman 2000,pp. 73–74.
- ^Cox, R. David.The Religious Life of Robert E. Lee2017,ISBN978-0-8028-7482-5,p. 157.
- ^McCaslin 2001,pp. 57–58.
- ^"Robert E. Lee, Slavery, and the Problem of Providence".EerdWord (publisher blog).May 18, 2017.RetrievedMay 15,2019.
- ^Korda 2014,p. 196.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 72–73.
- ^abcdSerwer, Adam."The Myth of the Kindly General Lee".The Atlantic.RetrievedAugust 29,2017.
- ^"Robert E. Lee was not the George Washington of his time. But a lot ties them together".Los Angeles Times.ISSN0458-3035.RetrievedAugust 29,2017.
- ^Thomas 1997,p. 173.
- ^McCaslin 2001,p. PT 66.
- ^McCaslin 2001,pp. 58–59.
- ^Pryor, Elizabeth Brown.Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee through his private letters(2008), p. 151.
- ^ab"Myths & Misunderstandings | Lee as a slaveholder".October 4, 2017.
- ^McCaslin 2001,p. 57.
- ^McCaslin 2001,p. 58.
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 73.
- ^abFortin, Jacey (August 18, 2017)."What Robert E. Lee Wrote toThe Timesabout Slavery in 1858 ".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedNovember 2,2017.
- ^Skelton, William B.,An American Profession of Arms: the Army Officer Corps, 1784–1861,1992, p. 285. "Officers developed a conception of the army as an apolitical instrument of public policy. As servants of the nation, they should stand aloof from party and sectional strife" and avoid taking public positions on controversial issues such as slavery.
- ^Davis, William.Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee(2015), p. 46. "From early manhood Lee held a low opinion of politicians, and believed military men should stay out of politics."
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 137. In 1863, even before Chancellorsville, Lee began to advance, "for the first time, a political understanding of the war, quite unlike his previous apolitical belief in duty".
- ^Taylor, John.Duty Faithfully Performed: Robert E. Lee and His Critics,1999, p. 223. "He epitomized the nonpolitical tradition in the U.S. military, and his lifelong attempt to remain aloof from the political turmoil about him would be emulated by twentieth-century soldiers..."
- ^Pryor, Elizabeth Brown.Reading the Man: A Portrait of Roberty E. Lee,2008, p. 284. Pryor notes in describing Lee's public silence on controversial sectional issues such as slavery, that the regular army "was an apolitical institution, which discouraged displays of partisan sentiment and muted any parochialism in its officers. At the military academy a cadet was 'taught that he belongs no longer to section or party but, in his life and all his faculties, to his country'."
- ^Foner, Eric quoted in Fortin, Jacey."What Robert E. Lee Wrote to the Times About Slavery in 1858",NYT Aug 18, "unlike some white southerners, [Lee] never spoke out against slavery".
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 76, 137. "Lee believed in God's time, not man's, and God's disposition, not human politics. So when it came to grappling with the issue of slavery, he could not comprehend why men could not leave well enough alone.... on major public conflicts, Lee had no active position."
- ^abcdefgFoner, Eric(August 28, 2017)."The Making and the Breaking of the Legend of Robert E. Lee".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.
- ^"Robert E. Lee was not the George Washington of his time. But a lot ties them together".Los Angeles Times.ISSN0458-3035.RetrievedNovember 2,2017.
- ^abcdFoner, Eric; Foner, Eric (May 30, 2014)."Book review: 'Clouds of Glory: the Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee' by Michael Korda".The Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.RetrievedAugust 29,2017.
- ^"Testimony of Wesley Norris. InNational Anti-slavery Standard(1866-04-14) ".April 14, 1866.
- ^"An Unpleasant Legacy – Arlington House, the Robert e. Lee Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)".
- ^"A Question of Loyalty: Why Did Robert e. Lee Join the Confederacy".April 27, 2017.
- ^"Letter to Andrew Hunter on Employing Negro Troops".
- ^Fortin, Jacey (August 18, 2017)."What Robert E. Lee Wrote toThe Timesabout Slavery in 1858 ".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedAugust 29,2017.
- ^"White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstructionby Allen W. Trelease ".Louisiana State University Press. 1995.
- ^Brian C. Melton (2012).Robert E. Lee: A Biography: A Biography.ABC-CLIO. pp. 38–41.ISBN978-0-313-38437-0.
- ^Freeman 1934,pp. 394–395.
- ^"Col. Robert E. Lee's Report Concerning the Attack at Harper's Ferry".University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law. October 18, 1959. Archived fromthe originalon July 22, 2010.RetrievedOctober 15,2010.
- ^Ford, John Salmon (1963).Rip Ford's Texas.Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 305–306.
- ^"Texas Forts Trails".Texas Monthly.June 1991. p. 72.
- ^abcdePryor, Elizabeth Brown (April 19, 2011)."The General in His Study".Disunion.RetrievedApril 19,2011.
- ^abJ. William Jones(1906)."Robert E. Lee to George Washington Custis Lee"(PDF).The Civil War: The First Year Told By Those Who Lived It.The Library of America, 2011.RetrievedNovember 19,2016.
- ^abcdefghPryor, Elizabeth Brown (2008)."Robert E. Lee's 'Severest Struggle'".American Heritage.
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 425.
- ^Freeman 1934,pp. 431–447.
- ^abGoodwin, Doris Kearns (2005).Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.New York: Simon and Schuster. p.350.ISBN978-1416549833.
- ^Davis 1999,p. 49.
- ^Fellman 2000,§ 6.
- ^Fort Pulaski's masonry was impervious to round shot, but it was penetrated in 30 hours byParrott rifleguns, much to the surprise of senior commanders of both sides. In the future, Confederate breastworks defending coastal areas were successfully protected against rifle-fired explosive projectiles with banks of dirt and sand such as at Fort McAllister. Later, holding the city of Savannah would allow two additional attempts at breaking the Union blockade with ironcladsCSS Atlanta(1862) andCSS Savannah(1863).
- ^Foot Soldier: The Rebels.Prod. A&E Television Network. Karn, Richard. The History Channel. 1998. DVD. A&E Television Networks, 2008.
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 602.
- ^Stiles, Robert (1903).Four Years under Marse Robert.New York: Neale Publishing Company. pp. 17–20.ISBN978-0722282922.RetrievedMarch 6,2022.
- ^McPherson 2008,p. 99.
- ^McPherson 2008,pp. 106–107.
- ^McPherson 2008,p. 108.
- ^McPherson 2008,p. 129.
- ^McPherson 2008,pp. 104–105.
- ^abcFellman 2000,pp. 124–125.
- ^Zongker, Brett."Surgeon: Stonewall Jackson death likely pneumonia".Associated Press. Archived fromthe originalon July 14, 2014.RetrievedJune 13,2014.
- ^Stephen W. Sears, "'We Should Assume the Aggressive': Origins of the Gettysburg Campaign",North and South: The Official Magazine of the Civil War Society,March 2002, vol. 5#4, pp. 58–66; Donald Stoker,The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War(2010) p. 295 says that "attacking Grant would have been the wiser choice" for Lee.
- ^Fremantle, Arthur James Lyon."Three Months in the Southern States".University of North Carolina.RetrievedOctober 15,2010.
- ^Nolan 1991,pp. 21–22.
- ^Davis 1999,p. 61.
- ^Davis 1999,p. 233.
- ^Nolan 1991,p. 24.
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- ^McPherson 2003, p.470
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- ^McFeely, William S. (1981).Grant: A Biography.New York: Norton. p.169.ISBN978-0-393-01372-6.
- ^"Appomattox Courthouse Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant".Americancivilwar.RetrievedOctober 15,2010.
- ^The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case against an American IcononYouTube,lecture given by historian John Reeves at theU.S. National Archives and Records Administrationon June 13, 2018
- ^In December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court returned the property to Lee's son because it had been confiscated without due process of law. In 1883, the government paid the Lee family US$150,000 (equivalent to $4,905,000 in 2023)."Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial".Arlington National Cemetery.(Official website).RetrievedMay 20,2008.
- ^Serwer, Adam (June 2017)."The Myth of the Kindly General Lee".The Atlantic.RetrievedAugust 27,2017.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 265–294.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 380–392.
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 268.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 391–392, 416.
- ^Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (October 1971)."National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Stewart-Lee House"(PDF).Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on September 27, 2012.RetrievedDecember 31,2013.
- ^Thomas 1997,pp. 374–402.
- ^Riley, Franklin Lafayette (1922).General Robert E. Lee After Appomattox.Macmillan. pp.18–19.
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- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 16–17.
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- ^"Proclamation 179 – Granting Full Pardon and Amnesty for the Offense of Treason Against the United States During the Late Civil War".The American Presidency Project.RetrievedJuly 12,2019.
- ^Fellman 2000,p. 265.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 267–268.
- ^"Robert E. Lee's Testimony before Congress (February 17, 1866)".
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 301.
- ^Freeman 1934,pp. 375–377.
- ^Freeman 1934,pp. 375–376.
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 376.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 258–263.
- ^Fellman 2000,pp. 275–277.
- ^Michael Fellman (2005)."Robert E. Lee: Myth and Man".In Peter Wallenstein; Bertram Wyatt-Brown (eds.).Virginia's Civil War.University of Virginia Press. p. 19.ISBN978-0-8139-2315-4.
- ^Southerland, Andrew (April 8, 2014)."Robert E. Lee's Last Stand: His Dying Words and the Stroke That Killed Him. (P1.294)".Neurology.82(10 Supplement): P1.294.doi:10.1212/WNL.82.10_supplement.P1.294.ISSN0028-3878.S2CID58575789.Archived fromthe originalon September 18, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 17,2018.
- ^Freeman 1934,p. 526.
- ^Ty Seidule (2021).Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 55.ISBN978-1-250-23927-3.
- ^"Benjamin Harvey Hill quotation".bartleby.RetrievedJune 11,2014.
- ^Weigley, Russell F. (February 2000)."Lee, Robert E".American National Biography.RetrievedMay 20,2008.
- ^Some sources add "but little studied" before the word "operations".
- ^"32c Robert E. Lee single", Arago: people, postage & the post, National Postal Museum online, viewed May 7, 2014. An image of the stamp is available at Arago,Robert E. Lee stampArchivedMay 8, 2014, at theWayback Machine.
- ^Rod, Steven J., "Landing of the Pilgrims Issue", Arago: people, postage & the post, National Postal Museum. Viewed March 19, 2014.
- ^"Stone Mountain Memorial Issue", Arago: people, postage & the post, National Postal Museum online, viewed March 16, 2014.
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- ^abcdCullum 1891,p. 420.
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Notes
- ^Bell would subsequently support the Confederacy after theBattle of Fort Sumter.
- ^During his brief tenure as commander of Virginia forces, Robert E. Lee was authorized to wear the insignia of a major general on the blue Union Army jacket, but continued to wear his U.S. Army colonel's uniform until the start of 1862. By this time he began wearing the familiar grey Confederate Army coat with colonel's insignia, signifying the last rank he held in the United States Army.
- ^Throughout the Civil War, with only a handful of exceptions, Robert E. Lee wore the insignia of a Confederate colonel, although he held the rank of full general. Lee would later state that he wore a colonel's insignia in homage to his original United States Army rank, which he considered to be the last permanent rank he had legally held. Lee also reportedly disliked the heavy braid and raised collar of the standard Confederate general's uniform.
Bibliography
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Historiography
- Foner, Eric. "The Making and the Breaking of the Legend of Robert E. Lee",New York TimesAug 28, 2017
Further reading
- Adam, Graeme Mercer (1905).The Life of General Robert E. Lee.New York:A. L. Burt.
- Connelly, Thomas L. (June 1969). "Robert E. Lee and the Western Confederacy: A Criticism of Lee's Strategic Ability".Civil War History.15(2): 116–32.doi:10.1353/cwh.1969.0030.ISSN0009-8078.S2CID143459607.
- Cox, David R. (2017).The Religious Life of Robert E. Lee.Grand Rapids, Mi.:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.Archived fromthe originalon August 5, 2020.RetrievedMay 15,2019.
- Guelzo, Allen C.(2021).Robert E. Lee: A Life.New York: Knopf.ISBN978-1101946220
- McCabe, James Dabney (1870).Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee.Atlanta, Ga. & Philadelphia, Pa.: National publishing Company.
- McGuire, Judith W. (1873).General Robert E. Lee, The Christian Soldier.Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger; Richmond: Woodhouse & Parham.
- Lee, Robert E. (1897). A. L. Long (ed.).Memoirs of Robert E. Lee: His Military and Personal History.New York & Philadelphia: J. M. Stoddart & Company.
- Reeves, John (2018).The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case Against an American Icon.Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Riley, Franklin L. (1922).General Robert E. Lee after Appomattox.New York: Macmillan Co.
- Seidule, Ty(2021).Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.New York:St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-1250239266.
External links
- Lee, Robert Edward (2000).Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee.Project Gutenberg.
- Biographical articlebyStanley L. Klos
- Obituary of Robert E. Lee,from a Northern point of view.The New York Times;October 13, 1870
- Robert E. Lee– AnAmerican Experiencedocumentary
- Letter from Dwight Eisenhower about LeeArchivedAugust 27, 2016, at theWayback Machine
Primary sources
- Original Historical Letters: Lincoln Refuses Lee's ArmisticeShapell Manuscript Foundation
- Interactive Animation of the Battle of Gettysburg– A chronicle of the 3-day battle, it also touches on Lee's tactical strategies during the American Civil War.
- Correspondences of Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War– held in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections, Miami University
- Works by Robert E. LeeatProject Gutenberg
- Works by or about Robert E. Leeat theInternet Archive
- Works by Robert E. LeeatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
- Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library,Emory University:Robert E. Lee collection, 1835–1869