A Short Introduction to Robert E. Lee (Illustrated)

---

Lee is an idiosyncratic book. The biographical half of the book is good. Blount even ascribes to Lee an oedipal complex at least twice--about which more shortly. The longest section, as in most Lee bios, is that on the Civil War. This section is very good given its brevity. Given the constraints of space and a general readership, Blount has to pick and choose and--mostly--chooses well. He avoids bogging down in the nitty gritty of the Civil War campaigns and includes a lot of telling personal details throughout--Lee's heart problems, his pet chicken, his self-abnegation, his platonic fondness for ladies, his affection for his children and his concern for their discipline and morality--drawing a decent sketch of Lee as a man.

Blount may be no historian but the book is, again, readable, often witty, and only occasionally marred by errors of fact. That dubious distinction belongs to the three-day Battle of Gettysburg; Antietam was the bloodiest single day of the war. An understandable slip, but a slip nonetheless. The book has two serious flaws. To win his war or lose it, to resolve his oedipal conflict or not Fortunately this kind of thing is sparse within the body of the biography itself, but its presence is silly and pulls the narrative up short whenever it intrudes.

Tied to the psychoanalytic strains of the biography are the strangest parts of the book, the three appendices that make up the last forty pages. It shows a more human side of Lee, a man capable of joking and acting silly with his family. This is material that should have been incorporated into the main text. Lee had small feet, Blount notes.

He liked it when his children tickled them. He requested fresh socks a lot in letters. Could it be, Blount suggests, and one involuntarily imagines a wry grin, that Lee had a foot fetish? Could it have been an oedipal thing too? When Blount rises to the level of his subject, the book is excellent. Some of the discursive passages provide enlightening new angles from which to view Lee.

Recommended only to those already familiar with Lee and seeking a little distraction. Nov 04, Daniel rated it liked it Shelves: Having heard Roy Blount on NPR discussing his new book on onomatopoeia in prose, this little volume called to me from my shelf. It is an entertaining and fair appraisal by an intelligent Southerner about one of the region's major personalities. I had always heard that Lee freed his slaves before the war, but this book has taught me Lee's gradualist-abolitionist tendencies put far too much emphasis on the gradual. It is hard not to think of the carnage that would have been avoided if this one man Having heard Roy Blount on NPR discussing his new book on onomatopoeia in prose, this little volume called to me from my shelf.

It is hard not to think of the carnage that would have been avoided if this one man had rated liberty of all people above defense of his state. All in all, this is pleasantly written human portrait of a large figure from a morally confused time. Nov 02, Jacob Lines rated it liked it Shelves: Why do so many Americans consider Robert E. It is a phenomenon that started right after the Civil War and continues today. Probably because he was not personally offensive.

Personally, he was kind and genuinely religious and disliked slavery, etc. But his actions in the battlefield were responsible for prolonging the Civil War, advancing the cause of slavery, immiserating thousands, and causing untold destruction. At the same time, his military successes ensu Why do so many Americans consider Robert E. At the same time, his military successes ensured that the war would drag on, the South would be ravaged and impoverished by the war, and slavery would end.

This excellent short biography wrestles with those questions. If you are interested in the military history of the Civil War, you should look elsewhere. Sep 04, Julene rated it liked it. Mixed feelings on this. Clearly not intended to be an all-inclusive history of the man, I appreciated the short form but so much of Blount's offering is but speculation. Presenting Lee as a 'decent' slave owner and conflicted defender of the succession doesn't change who he fought for; the why is interesting, sure, but anyone wh Mixed feelings on this. Presenting Lee as a 'decent' slave owner and conflicted defender of the succession doesn't change who he fought for; the why is interesting, sure, but anyone who didn't think there was a fallible human being behind the legend ultimately created in his image has forgotten how much America prefers a good story to the full one.

Sep 09, Bill rated it liked it. This book has been part of my larger foray into reading about Lee, and with that context, I would say this was a helpful short biography. Blount gives plenty of facts, but also lots of opinion, which is fine, especially as he is fairly upfront about his occasional psychoanalyzing. My take on Lee is Perhaps coming up with more questions than answers! Oct 28, Sean Chick rated it really liked it.

This book is more about Lee the man than Lee the general, and in this regard it works well. Oct 22, L. Those who know me know I'm usually pretty hard on short biographies, since they generally require little from the author other than a brief synthesis of longer books by earlier, more thorough researchers. The only way a short bio can really stand out is if it is notable for some other feature of its writing. As a biography of Robert E. Lee, this book is probably bound to disappoint, particularly if the reader is hoping to come off with any major insights about Lee's generalship in the Civil War Those who know me know I'm usually pretty hard on short biographies, since they generally require little from the author other than a brief synthesis of longer books by earlier, more thorough researchers.

Lee, this book is probably bound to disappoint, particularly if the reader is hoping to come off with any major insights about Lee's generalship in the Civil War you know, the man's main claim to fame, outside of his generally successful postbellum stint as a college president. As a lengthy essay with an unusual perspective, though, it's a very interesting read.

Even the list of cited sources and references contains a lot that's off the beaten path--a lot more literature, for one! His natural proclivities are out in full force here, but the result is a rather different Lee portrait than one is likely to get from the more irritating partisans of either the North or the South. There are a million books about Gettysburg, but I can't think of any that stop to address any major military figure's sense of humor.

Blame Blount's way with words, but I laughed out loud, multiple times. How often can one say that about a Civil War book? Well, one that doesn't involve General McClellan, anyway I wouldn't advise it as a book to read to learn anything about the military or historical side of the Civil War, but for a brief peek behind the curtain into the foibles, flaws, fussiness, and finesse of one of the war's major players off of the battlefield, it's worth a look. Oct 16, Mbcrowe rated it really liked it. This biography has a fundamental strength lacked by so many biographies; it focuses on an interesting human being.

The biography dives deeper than his actions as a civil war general, his family life, worldview, personal habits, military actions be This biography has a fundamental strength lacked by so many biographies; it focuses on an interesting human being. The biography dives deeper than his actions as a civil war general, his family life, worldview, personal habits, military actions before the war and various other aspects of his life receive full converge.

Lee is fundamentally portrayed as a capable and dedicated commander, all around solemn figure with a deep sense of honor and dedicated family man. There we can see Lee as more than the solemn general yet as a human being. These letters teach us of things from his dedication too his children to his open flirting with women other than his wife. Blount moves speculation on Lee and accounts of his humor and attitudes towards slavery to appendixes in the back of the book. This allows him to have the main narrative move fast. The book is only a little over pages and provides a fell for the man without getting bogged down.

I have to admit, I bought this book more because of it's author, than it's subject. When I saw it on the book store shelf, I thought to myself, "Robert E. Lee, by Roy Blount, Jr Unsurprisingly, this book is an unconventional look at Robert E. Blount focuses on plumbing the depths of the complexity of Lee's character. The Marble Man so often portrayed in other works is eschewed for a subtler portrait of a man with all too human I have to admit, I bought this book more because of it's author, than it's subject.

The Marble Man so often portrayed in other works is eschewed for a subtler portrait of a man with all too human failings and surprising humor. As a humorist, Blount maybe dwells too much on Lee's humor, but it is nice to see some color added to the all too grave picture that's usually presented of Lee. While this book explores territory that isn't the usual focus of studies of R. Lee, it is also a relatively short book, and somewhat lacking in depth.

The history that serves as a background to the biography is a particularly weak point. Much of Blount's coverage of wider events is oversimplified or even inaccurate. I would say, however, that Blount has written an interesting supplement to wider study of Lee or the Civil War in general. Nov 26, Maxwell Miller rated it liked it. This biography describes Robert E. Lee by comparison to contemporaries.

While this tactic is interesting and useful, I felt like I learned more about some of those people, particularly Lee's family members, than I did about R. Some of the other reviews criticize this book for being anti-Lee. I didn't find the book necessarily anti-Lee. By no means was it pro-Lee. Nor did I find it to be objective. I think the best way to describe the books view on Lee is that the author doesn't at This biography describes Robert E.

I think the best way to describe the books view on Lee is that the author doesn't attempt to shed modern morality. He looks at Lee through critical modern eyes. The book is also a little confusing at times. The author uses a tremendous amount of references and spends very little time providing context and explanation. Anyone who isn't already a Civil War scholar and learned in literature might not understand everything said. I also was confused by the author's somewhat sporadic writing style. All in all I learned that Robert E. Lee is a fascinating man who is well worth learning about.

But perhaps it is best to start with a different biography. Jun 05, Mickey rated it really liked it. Like all of the Penguin Lives biography series, this biography is short to the point of fitting somewhere between a long summary and a proper biography. I've read several books in the series now, and this installment fits in with the others, but I feel that it is missing a layer of cohesive opinion about the subject. To me, Blount focuses on the charming anecdotes involving Lee, which are interesting, but he doesn't give enough space to the man's overall influence and effect on his times.

This b Like all of the Penguin Lives biography series, this biography is short to the point of fitting somewhere between a long summary and a proper biography. This biography was great in the specifics, but failed to draw back and look at the big picture. Its focus on the domestic and social side of Lee was refreshing, but if you are going to condense so much of Lee's life, that would've been the part to cut.

Blount definitely followed the common trend of refraining from romanticizing or mythologizing people who have historically gotten that treatment in earlier biographies, but does not do it in the usual ways by discussing his faults and mistakes, as with Napoleon's biography as much as trying to humanize him by showing him engaging in frivolity. Oct 10, Shawn Thrasher rated it really liked it. I wish I could adequately describe or capture Roy Blount's style - subtle and droll but never glibly so.

Here's just one delightful example, talking about the ever complaining and mostly unpleasant sounding for good reason though Mary Lee and the Yankees taking over their house at Arlington. That spring, George Meigs, an angry Georgian who had served under Lee before the war but had remained with the Union and become quartermaster general, had turned her old homeplace into a national cemetery.

Blount's asides and punctures of humor are carefully dropped here, there - and really everywhere - throughout the book, but they never get in the way. Jun 21, Bahramo rated it it was amazing. He was against keeping the confederate flag Or any kind of memorial on the civil war.

Very loyal to his home But with very strong anti-war beliefs, which is odd given how many battles he was responsible for. The author paints a picture of a man who was not comfortable with slavery McCaslin, Lee was a gradual emancipationist, denouncing extremist proposals for immediate abolition of slavery.

Lee rejected what he called evilly motivated political passion, fearing a civil and servile war from precipitous emancipation. Historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor offered 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,. 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.

While all the estates prospered under his administration, Lee was unhappy at direct participation in slavery as a hated institution. 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".

By the time of Lee's career in the U. 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 principle. Breckinridge , who was the extreme pro-slavery candidate in the presidential election, not John Bell , the more moderate Southerner who won Virginia. Lee himself owned a small number of slaves in his lifetime and considered himself a paternalistic master.

He was definitely involved in administering the day-to-day operations of a plantation and was involved in the recapture of runaway slaves. Lee claimed that he found slavery bothersome and time-consuming as an everyday institution to run. In an letter to his wife, he maintained that slavery was a great evil, but primarily due to adverse impact that it had on white people: It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.

Foner writes that "Lee's code of gentlemanly conduct did not seem to apply to blacks" during the War, as he did not stop his soldiers from kidnapping free black farmers and selling them into slavery. McPherson noted that Lee initially rejected a prisoner exchange between the Confederacy and the Union when the Union demanded that black Union soldiers be included.

Liddell , which noted Lee would be hard-pressed in the interior of Virginia by spring, and the need to consider Patrick Cleburne 's plan to emancipate the slaves and put all men in the army who were willing to join. Lee was said to have agreed on all points and desired to get black soldiers, saying "he could make soldiers out of any human being that had arms and legs. 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.

In the generation following the war, Lee, though he died just a few years later, became a central figure in the Lost Cause interpretation of the war. The argument that Lee had always somehow opposed slavery, and freed his wife's slaves, helped maintain his stature as a symbol of Southern honor and national reconciliation. A Biography , 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. Lee was at both events.

Lee initially remained loyal to the Union after Texas seceded. John Brown led a band of 21 abolitionists who seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry , Virginia, in October , hoping to incite a slave rebellion. President James Buchanan gave Lee command of detachments of militia, soldiers, and United States Marines , to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders. 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. Lee relieved Major Heintzelman at Fort Brown , and the Mexican authorities offered to restrain "their citizens from making predatory descents upon the territory and people of Texas Rip Ford , a Texas Ranger at the time, described Lee as "dignified without hauteur, grand without pride Twiggs surrendered all the American forces about 4, men, including Lee, and commander of the Department of Texas to the Texans.

Twiggs immediately resigned from the U. Army and was made a Confederate general. 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.

Unlike many Southerners who expected a glorious war, Lee correctly predicted it as protracted and devastating. 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.

Robert E. Lee by Roy Blount Jr.

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. 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, such as dislike of Northern anti-slavery criticisms and prevention of expanding slavery to new territories, and fear of its larger population.

Lee supported the Crittenden Compromise , which would have constitutionally protected slavery. 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 duty to defend his native Virginia if attacked. Although Virginia had the most slaves of any state, it was more similar to Maryland, which stayed in the Union, than the Deep South; a convention voted against secession in early Scott, commanding general of the Union Army and Lee's mentor, told Lincoln he wanted him for a top command, telling Secretary of War Simon Cameron that he had "entire confidence" in Lee.

He accepted a promotion to colonel of the 1st Cavalry Regiment on March 28, again swearing an oath to the United States. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, a second Virginia convention in Richmond voted to secede [] on April 17, and a May 23 referendum would likely ratify the decision. That night Lee dined with brother Smith and cousin Phillips , 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.

In Washington that day, [] Lee was offered by presidential advisor Francis P. Blair a role as major general to command the defense of the national capital. 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? 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 he had made "the greatest mistake of your life". 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", wrote Douglas Southall Freeman ; another called it a "no-brainer" given the ties to family and state, an 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 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.

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 to not 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 nephew Fitzhugh wanted to support the Confederacy, but Lee's three sons joined the Confederate military only after their father's decision. Most family members like brother Smith reluctantly also 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.

Upshur stayed with the Union military despite much family pressure; Roger Jones stayed in the Union army after Lee refused to advise him on what to do; and two of Philip Fendall 's sons fought for the Union. Forty percent of Virginian officers stayed with the North. At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full 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. Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. Between then and the fall of Fort Pulaski , April 11, , he put in place a defense of Savannah that proved successful in blocking Federal advance on Savannah.

Confederate fort and naval gunnery dictated night time 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 Jackson was improved, and two additional batteries covered river approaches. The City of Savannah would not fall until Sherman's approach from the interior at the end of 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 a Third 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 to Confederate President Jefferson Davis , the former U. While in Richmond , 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. McClellan advanced on Richmond from Fort Monroe to the east. Johnston and the Army of Virginia to retreat to just north and east of the Confederate capital.

Early in the war, Lee had been called "Granny Lee" for his allegedly timid style of command. And for the first three weeks of June, he did not attack, instead strengthening Richmond's defenses. Despite superior Union numbers, and some clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, Lee's attacks derailed McClellan's plans and drove back part of his forces. This success completely 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 simply "Marse Robert", a term of respect and affection.

The setback, and the resulting drop in Union morale, impelled Lincoln to adopt a new policy of relentless, committed warfare. Meanwhile, Lee defeated another Union army under Gen. In less than 90 days after taking command, Lee had run McClellan off the Peninsula, defeated Pope, and moved the battle lines from 6 miles 9. Lee now invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, hoping to collect supplies in Union territory, and possibly win a victory that would sway the upcoming Union elections in favor of ending the war.

See a Problem?

McClellan always exaggerated Lee's numerical strength, but now he knew the Confederate army was divided and could be destroyed in detail. The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the war, with both sides suffering enormous losses. Lee's army barely withstood the Union assaults, then retreated to Virginia the next day. This narrow Confederate defeat gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue his Emancipation Proclamation , [] which put the Confederacy on the diplomatic and moral defensive. Burnside ordered an attack across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Delays in bridging the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, and the Union frontal assault on December 13, was a disaster. There were 12, Union casualties to 5, Confederate; one of the most one-sided battles in the Civil War. But Hooker was defeated by Lee's daring maneuver: Lee won a decisive victory over a larger force, but with heavy casualties, including Jackson, his finest corps commander, who was accidentally killed by his own troops. The critical decisions came in May—June , after Lee's smashing victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The western front was crumbling, as multiple uncoordinated Confederate armies were unable to handle General Ulysses 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. In the summer of , Lee invaded the North again, marching through western Maryland and into south central Pennsylvania. He encountered Union forces under George G. Meade at the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in July; the battle would produce the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War.

With some of his subordinates being new and inexperienced in their commands, J.

Stuart 's cavalry being out of the area, and Lee being slightly ill, he was less than comfortable with how events were unfolding. While the first day of battle was controlled by the Confederates, key terrain that should have been taken by General Ewell was not. The second day ended with the Confederates unable to break the Union position, and the Union being more solidified. Lee's decision on the third day, against the judgment of his best corps commander General Longstreet , to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line turned out to be disastrous.

The assault known as Pickett's Charge was repulsed and resulted in heavy Confederate losses. The general rode out to meet his retreating army and proclaimed, "All this has been my fault. Despite flooded rivers that blocked his retreat, he escaped Meade's ineffective pursuit. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to President Davis on August 8, , but Davis refused Lee's request. That fall, Lee and Meade met again in two minor campaigns that did little to change the strategic standoff.

The Confederate Army never fully recovered from the substantial losses incurred during the 3-day battle in southern Pennsylvania. In the new Union general-in-chief, Lt. Grant , sought to use his large advantages in manpower and material resources to destroy Lee's army by attrition , 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. Grant eventually was able to stealthily move his army across the James River. After stopping a Union attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia , a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg, a development which presaged the trench warfare of World War I. Lee attempted to break the stalemate by sending Jubal A. Early on a raid through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington, D. The Siege of Petersburg lasted from June until March , with Lee's outnumbered and poorly supplied army shrinking daily because of desertions by disheartened Confederates.

As the South ran out of manpower the issue of arming the slaves became paramount. Lee explained, "We should employ them without delay 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, , at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.

The day after his surrender, Lee issued his Farewell Address to 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. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. The following are summaries of Civil War campaigns and major battles where Robert E. Lee was the commanding officer: President Grant invited him to the White House in , and he went. Nationally he became an icon of reconciliation between the North and South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the national fabric.

Lee hoped to retire to a farm of his own, but he was too much a regional symbol to live in obscurity. 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 the Lexington 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 a gentleman.

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. While at Washington College, Lee told a colleague that the greatest mistake of his life was taking a military education.

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, I graduated at the Mil. Academy at West Point in June Resigned from the U. Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored. Three years later, on December 25, , Johnson proclaimed a second amnesty which removed previous exceptions, such as the one that affected Lee.

However, he opposed the Congressional Republican program that took effect in In February , he was called to testify before the Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction in 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 the status quo ante in the Southern states' governments with the exception of slavery. Lee told the Committee, " 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.

In an interview in May , Lee said: 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. Stuart drafted a public letter of endorsement for the Democratic Party's presidential campaign , in which Horatio Seymour ran against Lee's old foe Republican Ulysses S.

Lee signed it along with thirty-one other ex-Confederates. The Democratic campaign, eager to publicize the endorsement, published the statement widely in newspapers. They have grown up in our midst, and we have been accustomed from childhood to look upon them with kindness.

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. 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.

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. On September 28, , Lee suffered a stroke. He died two weeks later, shortly after 9 a. According to one account, his last words on the day of his death, were "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the tent", [] but this is debatable because of conflicting accounts and because Lee's stroke had resulted in aphasia , possibly rendering him unable to speak.

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 Lexington. An undertaker had ordered three from Richmond that had reached Lexington, but due to unprecedented flooding from long-continued heavy rains, the caskets were washed down the Maury River.

Two neighborhood boys, C. Chittum and Robert E. Hillis, found one of the coffins that had been swept ashore. Undamaged, it was used for the General's body, though it was a bit short for him. As a result, Lee was buried without shoes. Among the supporters of the Confederacy, Lee came to be even more revered after his surrender than he had been during the war, when Stonewall Jackson had been the great Confederate hero. 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 a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward. By the end of the 19th century, Lee's popularity had spread to the North. 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 as there is to be found in Napoleon's campaigns of 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. Historian Eric Foner writes that at the end of his life,. Lee has been commemorated on U. A second "regular-issue" stamp was issued in His horse Traveller is pictured in the background. An image of the stamp is available at Arago online at the link in the footnote. Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia was commemorated on its th anniversary on November 23, , with a 3-cent postage stamp. The central design is a view of the university, flanked by portraits of generals George Washington and Robert E.

The stamp was issued on September 19, , in conjunction with the dedication of the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia on May 9, The design of the stamp replicates the memorial, the largest high relief sculpture in the world.

Robert E. Lee

It is carved on the side of Stone Mountain feet above the ground. Stone Mountain also led to Lee's appearance on a commemorative coin , the Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar. During the s 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,, minted. Unlike some of the other issues it remains a very common coin. The auction included more than documents of Lee's from the estate of the parents of Willcox that had been in the family for generations.

South Carolina sued to stop the sale on the grounds that the letters were official documents and therefore property of the state, but the court ruled in favor of Willcox. Lee was introduced into the Senate by Senator Harry F. I-VA , the result of a five-year campaign to accomplish this. The resolution, which enacted Public Law , was passed, and the bill was signed by President Gerald Ford on September 5.

Lee Circle is situated along New Orleans's famous St. Around the corner from Lee Circle is New Orleans's Confederate museum , which contains the second-largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the world. In Tivoli Circle, New Orleans, from the centre and apex of its green flowery mound, an immense column of pure white marble rises in the On its dizzy top stands the bronze figure of one of the world's greatest captains. Not one of his mighty lieutenants stand behind, beside or below him.

His arms are folded on that breast that never knew fear, and his calm, dauntless gaze meets the morning sun as it rises, like the new prosperity of the land he loved and served so masterly, above the far distant battle fields where so many thousands of his gray veterans lie in the sleep of fallen heroes.

Arlington House, The Robert E. During the Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site of Arlington 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 a National Memorial to Lee in , a mark of widespread respect for him in both the North and South.

This monument to Lee was unveiled on May 29, ; over , people attended this dedication. That has been described as "the day white Virginia stopped admiring Gen. Lee and started worshiping him". Lee's portrayal on a mural on Richmond's Flood Wall on the James River , considered offensive by some, was removed in the late s, but currently is back on the flood wall. They did rename Lee Park, Emancipation Park.

The prospect of the statues being removed and the parks being renamed brought many out-of-towners, described as white supremacist and alt-right , to Charlottesville in the Unite the Right rally of August , in which 3 people died. For several months the monuments were shrouded in black. As of October , the fate of the statue of Lee is unresolved. The cathedral plans to keep the windows and eventually display them in historical context. An equestrian statue of Lee was installed in Robert E. A statue of Robert E.

Lee is one of the figures depicted in bas-relief carved into Stone Mountain near Atlanta. Accompanying him on horseback in the relief are Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. The birthday of Robert E. Lee is celebrated or commemorated in several states. Day which is the third Monday in January. Day, [] [] [] while in Georgia, this occurred on the day after Thanksgiving before , when the state stopped officially recognizing the holiday. One United States college and one junior college are named for Lee: Throughout the South, many primary and secondary schools were also named for him as well as private schools such as Robert E.

Lee Academy in Bishopville, South Carolina. Edward Virginius Valentine , sculptor, Lee in honor of this Confederate General. During the next year, she became one of the South's most famous Confederate blockade runners , successfully making more than twenty runs through the Union blockade. The Mississippi River steamboat Robert E.

Lee was named for Lee after the Civil War.

It was the participant in an St. Lee won the race. Lee by Lewis F. Lee , a George Washington -class submarine built in , was named for Lee, [] as was the M3 Lee tank, produced in and The Commonwealth of Virginia issues an optional license plate honoring Lee, making reference to him as 'The Virginia Gentleman'. A recent biographer, Jonathan Horn, outlines the unsuccessful efforts in Washington to memorialize Lee in the naming of the Arlington Memorial Bridge after both Grant and Lee.

His part in the Civil War is told from the perspective of his horse in Richard Adams 's book Traveller Lee is an obvious subject for American Civil War alternate histories. Although Bring and If relegate him to a set of passing references, Lee is more of a main character in the Guns. He is also the prime character of Turtledove's "Lee at the Alamo," which can be read on-line, [] and sees the opening of the Civil War drastically altered so as to affect Lee's personal priorities considerably. 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 a knight named "Duke Edward of Arlington.

Stirling and featuring Lee, whose Virginia is still a loyal British colony, fighting for the Crown against the Russians in Crimea. Robert Skimin 's Grey Victory features Lee as a supporting character preparing to run for the presidency in From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article is about the Confederate general. For other uses, see Robert E. Lee Chapel , Washington and Lee University. Military Academy Army of Northern Virginia. Mary Anna Randolph Custis m. Stratford Hall , Westmoreland County the family seat, Lee's birthplace. Ancestors of Robert E.

Richard Lee II 8. Henry Lee I Henry Lee II Henry Lee III Robert "King" Carter Edward Hill III Anne Hill Carter Anne Butler Moore Anne Catherine Spotswood Fort Monroe , Hampton Lee's early duty station. Fort Des Moines , Montrose Lee's hand-drawn sketch. Arlington House , Arlington Mary Custis's inheritance in

• Lesson Plan Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell
• Detti latini - proverbi e qualche poesia rallegrano la vita (Italian Edition)
• Selected Works of Toussaint Louverture
• KDPPS-1
• Don Pendletons Science Fiction Collection, 3 Books Box Set, (The Guns of Terra 10; The Godmakers; The Olympians)