Lee, Robert E. (1807–70)

Civil War General

Robert E. Lee exemplified the best in the first generation of Army officers trained at the U.S. Military Academy during and after the reforms of the school's superintendent, Sylvanus Thayer. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he sided with the Confederate States of America, becoming not only its preeminent general but also a major cult figure associated with the Southern “Lost Cause.”

Born in Stratford Hall, Virginia, on January 19, 1807, Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1825, graduating second in his class four years later with no demerits, a rare achievement. His strong academic record and obvious leadership ability brought him his choice of branch assignments; in 1829, he entered the Corps of Engineers. Lee's early assignments involved not only military tasks, such as the construction of coastal forts, but also important civilian missions, such as an authoritative survey of the disputed state boundary between Ohio and Michigan and a critical rechanneling of the Mississippi River to preserve St. Louis as a major port.

During the War with Mexico in 1847, Lee served as a captain on the staff of Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, who regarded his service in the campaign against Mexico City as invaluable. Thereafter, Lee's military career progressed rapidly. In 1852 he was appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, where he presided over the expansion of its four-year curriculum to five. Three years later Lee was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and in October 1859 he commanded a detachment of U.S. Marines sent to quell an abortive slave insurrection mounted by John Brown at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Lee captured Brown and seized or killed a number of his followers without losing any of the 18 hostages Brown was holding.

In March 1861 he was promoted to full colonel. After the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the next month, Pres. Abraham Lincoln offered him command of the U.S. forces being assembled to suppress the South's rebellion. Lee declined the offer and, when his native Virginia seceded on April 19, accepted command of its military forces.

Lee's first year in the Civil War was undistinguished. He performed well in the organization of Virginia's troops but had no success in an autumn campaign to regain the western part of the state from Union occupation. A brief stint on the South Atlantic coast gave way in March 1862 to an appointment as senior military adviser to Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Lee played a significant behind-the-scenes role, ultimately gaining Davis's full confidence. When Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, was seriously wounded on May 31, 1862, Davis named Lee to replace him. Lee held the post for the rest of the war. (In February 1865 he was also appointed commander of all Confederate armies, but this occurred too late in the war for it to be a significant aspect of his career.)

When Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Union Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, had advanced to within seven miles of Richmond. Firm in the belief that no purely defensive campaign could halt the Union Army, Lee quickly organized a counteroffensive. In the Seven Days battles (June 25–July 1, 1862), his troops surprised and ultimately pushed back the Union forces, an outcome that disappointed Lee as he had aimed at nothing less than the destruction of the enemy.

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