Lee, Robert E(dward)

Lee, Robert E[dward] (1807–70), son of Henry Lee, was born in Virginia, graduated from West Point (1829), and served as an army engineer and as an officer in the Mexican War. He was superintendent of West Point (1852–55), and commanded a cavalry regiment in Texas, although he spent much time at his Virginia home, Arlington, and commanded the troops that suppressed John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Although he sympathized with the Union cause and hoped for a successful compromise, Lee was determined not to fight against his own state. He was offered the field command of the Union army by Lincoln, but declined, resigned his post, and became commander of the Virginia troops in the Confederate army. He shortly became a general and military adviser to President Davis. He was successful in the Seven Days Battles which checked McClellan, and in the second Battle of Bull Run and the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. His second attempt to invade the North was checked in the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863), following which he attempted to resign but was persuaded to continue in command. Thereafter he fought courageously in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor. Appointed commander in chief of the Confederate forces in February 1865, he was forced to surrender at Appomattox. After the war he served as president of Washington College (Virginia), which was renamed Washington and Lee in his honor (1871). Lee has won universal admiration for his sincerity, chivalry, and courage. The best‐known biography is that by D.S. Freeman (4 vols., 1934–35), but he figures in much literature, Northern as well as Southern, e.g. Masters's Lee: A Dramatic Poem (1926) and MacKinlay Kantor's novel Long Remember (1934); John Reuben Thompson's poem Lee to the Rear and Mary Johnston's novel Cease Firing (1912).