With fellow Virginian Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee is one of the most studied figures of the Civil War. Virginia still memorializes the pair with a state holiday.
Lee was a gracious man, thoughtful, polite, and highly intelligent. Militarily he was aggressive, some believe too aggressive. His father was a Revolutionary War hero ("Light Horse Harry" Lee). The younger Lee went to West Point and graduated (1829) second in his class, but without a single demerit – something not matched until Douglas MacArthur. He became an engineer and worked on coastal defenses in New York, Virginia, and Georgia. He saw action in the Mexican War, serving on the staff and winning three brevets.
He returned to coastal duty, commanding the Baltimore defenses (including Fort McHenry). In 1852 he became Superintendent of West Point, staying for three years. With the Army needing more mounted troops for the expanding frontier, Congress paid for more cavalry, and Lee jumped at the chance to become Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Cavalry. That took him to west Texas for two years and he was home settling a relative’s estate in 1859. John Brown’s seizure of the Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry brought a swift reaction: a party of U.S. Marines, plus Virginia Militia, under Lee’s command brought the criminals to justice.
He went back to Texas until the secession crisis. Winfield Scott recalled Lee to Washington and offered him command of the U.S. Army. Lee contemplated it, but followed his state rather than his country, and resigned eight days after Virginia seceded. He became the commander of Virginia’s forces, land and naval. In the Confederacy he was made a Brigadier General, then quickly a full General. He had the unenviable task of organizing Virginia forces to defend the state on three sides, and went himself to the northwest. His record of service was spotty partly due to the bickering of his subordinates.
When the U.S. Navy seized blockade bases off the South Carolina coast he was sent down to organize coastal defenses. He devised a system that used a minimum of regular troops while still providing effective defense. With the threat contained, he was recalled to Richmond as military adviser to Jefferson Davis. There wasn’t too much for him to do, but he was in the right place to take the reins of command when Joe Johnston was wounded at Seven Pines. By nightfall of June 1, 1862 Lee was in command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
He was far more aggressive than Johnston and he concentrated Confederate forces from all over Virginia (especially Jackson’s Army of the Valley) to counter-attack McClellan’s larger force. He took huge risks, but he judged his opponents well, and McClellan was someone who would retreat if pushed. Lee didn’t win many of the Seven Days Battles, but McClellan withdrew, so Lee won the campaign.
With McClellan neutralized in the Peninsula, Lee reacted to John Pope’s threat in northern Virginia. Jackson went ahead, and worked himself into position as the anvil against which Lee beat Pope’s forces. With the Union in complete disarray and politically fragile, Lee decided to take the war to the enemy. He wanted to recruit Marylanders, spare the South the burden of supplying his men, and pressure Lincoln’s government. It might all have gone according to plan, but a copy of his plans was lost – and retrieved by Union scouts. It was the one time McClellan moved fast, and he almost beat Lee, first at South Mountain then at Antietam. At Antietam Lee had his back against the Potomac without enough bridges to retreat; his army was also scattered. He juggled his men from crisis to crisis, staving off defeat until late in the day, when Burnside’s final attack seemed about to succeed. A.P. Hill arrived at the critical moment, and the Army of Northern Virginia was saved. Lee licked his wounds and moved off, with McClellan not daring to follow too closely.
In the winter he beat Burnside (the new commander of the Army of the Potomac) at Fredericksburg, then in May 1863 beat Hooker (Burnside’s replacement in the hot seat) at Chancellorsville. By then things were looking worse for the South: the Emancipation Proclamation stopped prospects of European intervention; the western theater had seen another series of Confederate defeats. Lee had the one victorious Southern army, and he tried to win the war at a stroke. He moved north, around Hooker, and was moving to isolate Washington from the rest of the Union. He’d detached his cavalry, which meant when fighting developed outside the road junction of Gettysburg he didn’t know the Union strength. Dragged into a battle without knowing the ground, he adopted his customary aggressive tactics, and attacked three days running. Meade held his ground and his nerve, and Lee’s veterans were defeated.
He preserved the army during the painful retreat back to Virginia, then through the inconclusive Bristoe Station and Mine Run campaigns. He faced a more formidable foe in 1864: Ulysses Grant had come from the west to take command of all U.S. forces. He brought more method to the Union assaults around the Confederacy and more doggedness to the fighting in northern Virginia. He drove into The Wilderness and lost heavily, but didn’t withdraw. Lee wasn’t at his best, as the 57-year old had heart trouble. Lee needed breathing space, but Grant kept attacking, moving east and south, through Spotsylvania, the North Anna, Cold Harbor, to Petersburg. Lee’s army was too small for his former aggressive tactics, and he entrenched more and more.
Lee was pinned down at Richmond, a city that was politically and economically vital to the Confederacy. He couldn’t retreat, he could only dig and hope that Lincoln would lose the election before Grant found an open flank or broke through. He staved off Union attacks through ten months of gruesome siege, but in the spring of 1865 his lines collapsed with surprising speed. Grant opened the campaign on March 29; Lee evacuated Richmond and Petersburg on the night of April 2/3. It was then a race along the supply line (there was only one left to Lee) and the better fed, better mounted Union troops won.
After the war he became president of Washington College (afterwards Washington & Lee) in the Shenandoah. He died from heart problems.
Content provided by:
eHistory Staff
Selected sources:
Eicher, John H. & David J. Civil War High Commands. Stanford:
Stanford
University Press, 2001.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray - Lives of the Confederate Commanders.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.
