Lee, Robert E
Achievements: Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, the most successful of the Confederate armies in the American Civil War.
Born: January 19, 1807; Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: October 12, 1870; Lexington, Virginia (Aged 63)
Field & Discipline: Military; Soldier
Language: English.
Father: Major General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee
Mother: Ann Hill Carter
Siblings: Algernon Sidney; Charles Carter; Ann Kinloch; Sidney Smith; Catherine Mildred; Philip (half-sibling, son of ); Lucy Grymes (half-sibling); Henry (half-sibling)
Spouse: Mary Anne Randolph Custis (m. 1831)
Children: George Washington Custis; Mary Custis; William Henry ("Rooney"); Annie Carter; Eleanor Agnes; Robert E. Jr.; Mildred Childe
Education: Carter School at Eastern View, Fauquier County; Alexandria Academy (1820-23); US Military Academy, West Point (1825-29)
Major Work:
Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862)
Life & Times:
Robert Edward Lee was born on the Stratford estate in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of Ann Hill Carter and Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, a famous cavalry leader during the American Revolution and Governor of Virginia from 1792 to 1795.
In 1825, Lee entered the US Military Academy at West Point. His success as a graduate allowed him to select service in the Corps of Engineers, the most prestigious branch of the army and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 1st ^July 1829. After his mother died on July 10, 1829, he spent time visiting relatives and frequently called at 'Arlington', the home of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of [married granddaughter of] Washington*. There, Lee courted Custis' daughter, Mary Anne Randolph Custis, whom he was to marry two years later.
Lee finally saw active service, when he joined Major General Winfield Scott in January 1847, during the Mexican War of 1846 to 1848. By June 1848, now a brevet colonel, Lee emerged from the Mexican War a proven combat leader and returned to Washington, where he continued to supervise army engineering projects. In May 1852, he was made superintendent of West Point, where he stayed until March 1855.
Now a Lieutenant Colonel, he left the Academy to take command of the Second Cavalry, with which he did several tours of duty in the South, especially in Texas and Mexico. In October 1859, while on leave at Arlington, he was ordered to suppress the slave insurrection led by the abolitionist [captured] John Brown*, at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Lee was back in Texas and commissioned full colonel and commander of the First Cavalry on March 16, 1861. The month before, Texas had become the seventh Southern state to secede from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America and, with the rest of the Union forces, he was ordered out of the state. On April 18, he was called to Washington and offered command of a new army being formed to force the Confederate states back into the Union. On the same day, Virginia seceded and Lee, out of loyalty to his family and homeland, resigned from the army after 36 years of service.
Four days later, he was made commander of the military and naval forces of Virginia, with the rank of Major General. During this period, Confederate troops joined the Virginia forces and subdued the Federal Army at the first major battle of the war, at Bull Run in June 1861. Between July 1861 and June 1862, Confederate President Jefferson [military adviser to] Davis* appointed Lee to several unrewarding positions, the last of which was as military adviser to the president. Working independently of Davis, however, Lee introduced a coherent strategy into the Confederate army, and was able to reinforce Major General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson's army sufficiently to undertake a surprise attack on Federal troops in the Shenandoah Valley, May 8-June 9, 1862. This action had the strategic advantage of diverting essential troops from Army of the Potomac Major General [fought] McClellan's* offensive against Richmond, the Confederate capital.
On May 31, the leader of the Confederate troops opposing McClellan, General Johnston, was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks, seven miles east of Richmond and Lee took over field command. Within three weeks Lee had organized Confederate troops into what became the famed Army of Northern Virginia. He tightened command and discipline, improved morale and applied his principles of concentrating force and seizing the initiative. Combining with Jackson's Valley Army, Lee conducted a series of successful attacks against McClellan, just outside Richmond, in the Seven Days battles of June 25-July 1.
He subsequently inflicted several severe defeats on the enemy, most strikingly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, August 29-30, 1862, but his strategic invasion of the North, over the Potomac River into Maryland, resulted in defeat near Sharpsburg, at Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest single day of the war, when he lost nearly a third of the army, 10,318 men.
Forced back over the Potomac the next day, he reorganized his army and won two notable victories while on the defensive, at Fredericksburg in December and at Chancellorsville, on May 1-4, 1863. Although outnumbered two to one, Lee won a great victory by splitting his army and encircling the enemy in one of the classic moves of military history. In order to resupply his troops and to draw the invading armies out of Virginia, Lee again crossed the Potomac into Pennsylvania, in early June 1863, but this time without Jackson, who had died on May 10 from wounds suffered at Chancellorsville. The Pennsylvania campaign climaxed at Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, with massive defeat for Lee's forces and 28,000 soldiers lost.
In May 1864, a newly appointed Union commanding general [fought] Grant*, drove against the Confederate forces. Lee's skill and tactical initiatives meant that Grant could neither defeat nor outmanoeuvre the Confederate forces and during May and June the superb army Grant had inherited sustained losses of 50,000 men.
At the same time, Lee’s forces suffered about 25,000 casualties and Lee, his soldiers too weakened physically and his officers too inexperienced to attempt counter-manoeuvres, gradually lost the initiative. Lee himself was physically declining and frequently ill. Lee could only place his starving men in defensive lines in front of Petersburg and Richmond. On Sunday April 2, his lines broke under massive assaults and Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg, retreating, then surrendering to Grant, at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
Both to earn money and to set an example for his unemployed fellow officers, he accepted the post of president of [was President of] Washington College*, in Lexington, VA, where he was formally installed as head of the school on 2nd October 1865. Lee succeeded in restoring the college as a model for higher education in the South. On September 28, 1870, Lee suffered what was probably a heart attack and died at daybreak on October 12.
Extra Connections: A descendant was Helen [descendant was] Keller*
Assessment: During the Civil War, Lee showed himself to be a great military tactician and, in the aftermath, became a symbol of Southern heritage.
Oneliner: Robert E Lee, Confederate General
Bibliography:
Thomas, Emory M., Robert E. Lee: A Biography, New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1995.
Weigley, Russell F., "Lee, Robert E.” in Dictionary of American National Biography, New York & Oxford: OUP, 1999.