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General Lee, however, is not at the top of the greatest American field commanders. [[George Patton]], [[Stonewall Jackson]], and [[Ulysses Grant]] would rank higher.
| battles =[[Seven Days]]<br/>[[Second Battle of Bull Run]]<br/>[[Battle of Antietam]]<br/>[[Battle of Fredericksburg]]<br/>[[Battle of Chancellorsville]]<br/>[[Battle of Gettysburg]]<br/>[[Battle of the Wilderness]]<br/>[[Petersburg]]<br/>[[Appomattox]]
}}
'''Robert Edward Lee''', was the leading general of the [[Confederate States of America]] during the [[American Civil War]], and an icon of heroism and brilliant leadership. He was a career officer in the [[United States Army]] before resigning his commission at the outbreak of war and joining the Confederacy, where he commanded of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] to great effect, so much so that his tactics are still being studied today. The life he led after his More than 600,000 Americans died in the short space of four years; Lee's formal surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 stopped the killing for which he is regarded by many as a hero. The life he led after his surrender set an example for others to follow, and did much for reconciliation between North and South. General Lee, however, is not at the top of the greatest American field commanders. [[George Patton]], [[Stonewall Jackson]], and [[Ulysses Grant]] would rank higher.
==Early life==
In October 1859, a crisis erupted at the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in northern Virginia; a fanatical abolitionist named John Brown and a small force of 21 men held some sixty hostages; there was the threat that Brown was hoping for a general slave revolt. As the nearest ranking officer, Lee was ordered to the area, where he commanded U.S. Marines in the storming of the arsenal, wounding Brown and capturing or killing the rest.
Robert E. Lee believed slavery to be a political and moral evil.<ref>https://civilwarhome.com/leepierce.htm</ref><ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/robert-e-lee-slaves.html</ref> "I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union," Lee said in a letter to his son. "I will sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation." Such thoughts went through his mind during the sixteen months following John Brown's raid; by April, 1861 seven states had seceded over the longs years of the slavery and states rights questions. On April 18, 1861, four days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Lieutenant General Winfield Scott offered Lee command of all Union forces assembling for the insurrection. "I could take no part in an invasion of the southern states," was his reply, and Lee resigned his commission, ending more than thirty years of service (Smith, pp. 84–87). A fortnight later, Virginia herself seceded, and Lee, feeling a duty to his "native state", offered his services.
==The Civil War==
Lee was appointed commander in chief of all Confederate forces in Virginia, and among his tasks were to concentrate troops and logistics at places to repel any expected invasion. During this time, Lee was driven out of western Virginia by a Union force under Major General George B. McClellan, thus holding the area for the Union (it would eventually become the state of West Virginia in 1863). He was also among the few on both sides to realize that, instead of a short, decisive, and relatively bloodless conflict, this would be a long, bloody affair. Lee served several rather unrewarding positions between July 1861 and June 1862, the last of which was military adviser to President Jefferson Davis; despite this he was able to work out a coherent strategy for the Confederate defense.
During McClellan’s McClellan's Peninsular Campaign in May 1862, troops under Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston were being driven towards Richmond by the heavily equipped and organized Army of the Potomac. To relieve the pressure on Johnston, Lee collaborated with Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson to turn several minor garrisons into a superb force which then struck at targets in the Shenandoah Valley; the surprised Federals were forced into retreating, leaving Washington under threat. This in turn caused Lincoln to withhold from McClellan a large corps by which McClellan had planned to attack Richmond; on May 31, McClellan was attacked by Johnston’s Johnston's forces at Fair Oaks. Although inconclusive, Johnston was wounded and had to withdraw from active duty. Davis then gave command to Lee.
====Field command====
[[Image:Trav1.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Lee and Traveller were a familiar sight on the battlefield.]]
:''"It is well war is so frightful, otherwise we should become too fond of it"'' Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Within three weeks Johnston’s Johnston's former command had been transformed into a new Army of Northern Virginia. Lee transferred his headquarters to the field so as to be near his men. When Jackson arrived with his men from the valley, Lee struck at McClellan on the north bank of the Chickhominy River, defeating the right wing and descending on McClellan’s McClellan's supply line from his York River base. This was the start of the Seven Days battles, which in a series of encounters McClellan was forced to withdraw his army to the wharves of Berkley Plantation, getting aid from vessels of the U.S. Navy. The Seven Days was the first Confederate victory since First Bull Run, and Lee became a major hero.
He then inflicted several defeats on the Union - some very severe – especially on August 29–30, 1862 at Manassas, Virginia in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Lee then crossed into Maryland, in part to gather Southern sympathizers in that state, and also to carry the fight to enemy territory, with which he planned on drawing the enemy out of Virginia.
In May 1864, Lee faced a proved fighter: [[Ulysses S. Grant]], just appointed as commanding general of all Union forces, who went after Lee with enormous superiority in men, cavalry, and logistics. For his part, Grant could neither defeat nor outmaneuver Lee during the next several months. Starting with the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee and Grant met in a series of battles that made up the Overland Campaign. Marked by heavy entrechment that would culminate in the Siege of Petersburg, the Campaign began with the Battle of the Wilderness and continued with a series of redeployments southward as Grant attempted to continuously move around Lee's right flank. At the battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, Grant sustained heavy losses of 50,000 men. Lee would also suffer heavy losses, as well as the death of his cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, at the battle of Yellow Tavern, and the temporary loss of James Longstreet, wounded by friendly fire at the Wilderness.
But Grant kept after him, his losses replaced by new recruits, while Lee’s Lee's army was draining in both men and supplies. Grant realized that his current line of attack was not working, and made a large redeployment to Petersburg, an important rail junction South of Richmond. Lee had no other choice but to place his starving men in defensive positions and endure a long siege; due to Lee’s Lee's mastery of engineering his field fortifications were able to hold the Federals back from June 1864, to April 1865. As his army began to dissipate due to lack of supplies and desertions, Lee realized it would only be a matter of time before the lines broke. By the end of March, the final supply connections to Lee's armies were broken, and on April 2, Lee was forced to retreat from Petersburg.
Forced to abandon Petersburg and Richmond, Lee attempted to escape to the west and join forces with [[Joseph E. Johnston]]'s Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. Several days later, his army was finally surrounded at Appomattox Court House. On the morning of April 9, he ordered one last attempt to break out, but found he had no choice but to surrender [http://www.civilwarhome.com/grantlee.htm][http://www.civilwarhome.com/surrender.htm]; the pain of the surrender considerably lessened by the generous terms offered by Grant, who not only allowed the surrendered officers to retain their swords and side arms, but allowed the men to take with them their horses and mules to get a badly-needed spring crop planted if the country was to rebound from the years of war (Lee, pg. 153). Lee conceded this would have the best possible effect on the men, and would do much to reconciliate the country. With the formalities of surrender over, there was one order left to pass on to his men:
==External links ==
*[http://home.wlu.edu/~stanleyv/pentrans.htm Washington and Lee University: collection of Lee's letters]
*[httphttps://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2323 ''Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee'', By R.E. Lee Jr., via Project Gutenburg]
*[http://www.civilwarhome.com/leeorder.htm Lee's General Order number 9]
*[http://www.civilwarhome.com/grantlee.htm Correspondence between Grant and Lee for the surrender]
