Biography: General Robert E. Lee
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No man proved a more worthy opponent to Ulysses S. Grant than Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee was born the fourth child of Colonel Henry Lee and Ann Hill Carter on January 19, 1807. Lee's father, also known as "Light-Horse Harry," had been a cavalry leader during the Revolutionary War. Henry Lee had also served as governor of Virginia.
Despite their position in Virginia's ruling elite, the Lee family did not enjoy fantastic wealth. Without the money to attend a university, young Robert E. Lee instead entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. There, he quickly rose in the ranks and graduated second in the class of 1829.
Lee first saw battle in the Mexican War, fought in 1846-48. He served as captain under General Winfield Scott. Later, Scott would write about Lee's remarkable performance in that war, calling him "the very best soldier I ever saw in the field." In October of 1859, Lee was called upon to stop John Brown's attempted slave insurrection at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. It took Lee only an hour to put an end to Brown's raid.
Such early successes made Lee a leading candidate to command Union forces against the South once it decided to secede. Reluctant to engage in a war against the South, Lee turned down an offer of command of the Union forces. On April 18, 1861, the Virginia Secession Convention, made up of the state's ruling elite, voted to join the Southern states in secession. As practical issues, Lee did not oppose either slavery or secession. Although he felt slavery in the abstract was a bad thing, he blamed the national conflict on abolitionists, and accepted the pro-slavery policies of the Confederacy. He chose to fight to defend his homeland. He resigned from the army he had served for 36 years, and accepted the command of Virginia's forces.
After an initially unsuccessful foray as a field commander in western Virginia in 1861, Lee supervised the preparation of coastal defenses along the South Atlantic seaboard before being called to Richmond to serve as military advisor to President Jefferson Davis. He assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1862, replacing the seriously wounded Joseph E. Johnston, and immediately embarked on a series of skillful offensive operations that repelled the Union forces outside Richmond in the Seven Days Battles in June and July 1862. Lee followed this with an offensive drive northward that culminated in victory at Second Manassas in August 1862.
However, his effort to carry the war across the Potomac nearly led to disaster when he barely fended off Union assaults at Antietam. Retreating back to Virginia, Lee again displayed deft generalship by checking Union offensives at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville; in the latter battle he prevailed, despite being outnumbered two to one, by dividing his army, outflanking the enemy, and delivering a smashing attack.
Lee followed up this triumph with another invasion of the North, this time suffering a major defeat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from July 1 through July 3, 1863. Skilled as he was in repelling Union offensives and outfoxing his Northern counterparts, Lee's preference for battle cost his army dearly. By the time he confronted Ulysses S. Grant in 1864, the drain upon his manpower was noticeable. Despite waging an adroit defensive campaign, he was unable to halt Grant's drive southward or to prevent him from laying siege to Richmond and Petersburg by the summer of 1864. Efforts to divert Union forces with operations in the Shenandoah Valley, including several strikes northward across the Potomac, forced Lee to contemplate how best to continue the war by abandoning the Confederate capital.
By the beginning of April 1865, Grant's armies broke through what remained of the Confederate defenses, and Lee evacuated Richmond and Petersburg on the evening of April 2. A week later, he surrendered what remained of his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House. After the war, Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, where he died on October 12, 1870.
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Letters from Lee
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Painting of Lee & His Generals:
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Letter from Robert E. Lee to Winfield Scott, written two days after his meeting with Francis Blair where he refused command of the Union Army. In this letter Lee explains his reasoning behind his resignation from the U.S. Armed Forces.
Arlington, Washington City, P.O
20 Apr 1861
Lt. Genl Winfield Scott
Commd U.S. Army
#1 - Genl, Since my interview with you on the 18th Inst: I have felt that I ought not longer to retain any Commission in the Army. I therefore tender my resignation which I request you will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once but for the struggle it has Cost me to separate myself from a Service to which I have divoted all the best years of my life, & all the ability I possessed. During the whole of that time, more than a quarter of a century, I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors & the most Cordial friendships from any Comrades. To no one Genl have I been as much indebted as to yourself for kindness & Consideration & it has always been my ardent desire to merit your approbation. I shall carry with me, to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind Consideration, & your name & fame will always be dear to me. Save in the defense of my native state shall I ever again draw my sword. Be pleased to accept any more [illegible] wishes for "the Continuance of your happiness & prosperity & believe me.
Most truly yours,
R E Lee
#2 - The following is a letter penned by Lee to his youngest daughter Mildred, whom he called "Precious Life," near the end of the war. Many of Lee's letters to his children are published in Robert E. Lee Jr.'s book, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee.
Camp Petersburg, November 6, 1864
#3 - My Precious Life:
This is the first day I have had leisure to answer your letter. I enjoyed it very much at the time of its reception, and have enjoyed it since, but I have often thought of you in the meantime, and have seen you besides. Indeed, I may say, you are never out of my thoughts. I hope you think of me often, and if you could know how earnestly I desire your true happiness, how ardently I pray you may be directed to every good and saved from every evil, you would as sincerely strive for its accomplishment. Now in your youth you must be careful to discipline your thoughts, words, and actions. Habituate yourself to useful employment, regular improvement, and to the benefit of all those around your. You have had some opportunity of learning the rudiments of your education--not as good as I should have desired, but I am much cheered by the belief that you availed yourself of it-- and I think you are now prepared by diligence and study to learn whatever you desire. Do not allow yourself to forget what you have spent so much time and labour acquiring, but increase it every day by extended application. I hope you will embrace in your studies all useful acquisitions. I was much pleased to hear that while at 'Bremo' you passed much of your time in reading and music. All accomplishments will enable you to give pleasure, and thus exert a wholesome influence. Never neglect the means of making yourself useful in the world. I think you will not have to complain of Rob again for neglecting your schoolmates. He has equipped himself with a new uniform from top to toe, and, with a new and handsome horse, is cultivating a marvellous beard and preparing for conquest. I went down on the lines to the right, Friday, beyond Rowanty Creek, and pitched my camp within six miles of Fitzhugh's last night. Rob came up and spent the night with me, and Fitzhugh appeared early in the morning. They rode with me till late that day. I visited the battlefield in that quarter, and General Hampton in describing it said there had not been during the war a more spirited charge than Fitzhugh's division made that day up the Boydton plank road, driving cavalry and infantry before him, in which he was stopped by night. I did not know before that his horse had been shot under him. Give a great deal of love to your dear mother, and kiss your sisters for me. Tell them they must keep well, not talk too much, and go to bed early. Ever your devoted father.
R E Lee