Robert E. Lee Essay, Research Paper
The idol of the South to this day, Virginian Robert E. Lee
had some difficulty in adjusting to the new form of warfare
that unfolded with the Civil war, but this did not prevent
him from keeping the Union armies in Virginia at bay for
almost three years. The son of Revolutionary War hero
"Light Horse" Harry Lee-who fell into disrepute in his later
years attended West Point and graduated second in his
class. During his four years at the military academy he did
not earn a single demerit and served as the cadet corps’
adjutant. Upon his 1829 graduation he was posted to the
engineers. Before the Mexican War he served on
engineering projects in Georgia, Virginia, and New York.
During the war he served on the staffs of John Wool and
Winfield Scott. Particularly distinguishing himself scouting
for and guiding troops, he won three brevets and was
slightly wounded at Chapultepec.
Following a stint in Baltimore Harbor he became
superintendent of the military academy in 1852. When the
mounted arm was expanded in 1855, Lee accepted the
lieutenant colonelcy of the 2nd Cavalry in order to escape
from the painfully slow promotion in the engineers. Ordered
to western Texas, he served with his regiment until the
1857 death of his father-in-law forced him to ask for a
series of leaves to settle the estate.
In 1859 he was called upon to lead a force of marines, to
join with the militia on the scene, to put an end to John
Brown’s Harper’s Ferry Raid. Thereafter he served again in
Texas until summoned to Washington in 1861 by Winfield
Scott who tried to retain Lee in the U. S. service. But the
Virginian rejected the command of the Union’s field forces
on the day after Virginia seceded. He then accepted an
invitation to visit Governor John Letcher in Virginia. His
resignation as colonel, 1st Cavalry-to which he had recently
been promoted-was accepted on April 25, 1861.
His Southern assignments included: major general,
Virginia’s land and naval forces (April 23, 1861);
commanding Virginia forces (April 23 July 1861); brigadier
general, CSA (May 14, 186 1); general, CSA (from June
14, 186 1); commanding Department of Northwestern
Virginia (late July-October 1861); commanding
Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida
(November 8, 186 1-March 3, 1862); and commanding
Army of Northern Virginia June 1, 1862-April 9, 1865).
In charge of Virginia’s fledgling military might, he was
mainly involved in organizational matters. As a Confederate
brigadier general, and later full general, he was in charge of
supervising all Southern forces in Virginia. In the first
summer of the war he was given his first field command in
western Virginia. His Cheat Mountain Campaign was a
disappointing fizzle largely due to the failings of his
superiors. His entire tenure in the region was unpleasant,
dealing with the bickering of his subordinates-William W.
Loring, John B. Floyd, and Henry A. Wise. After this he
became known throughout the South as "Granny Lee. " His
debut in field command had not been promising, but
Jefferson Davis appointed him to command along the
Southern Coast.
Early in 1862 he was recalled to Richmond and made an
advisor to the president. From this position he had some
influence over military operations, especially those of
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. When
Joseph E. Johnston launched his attack at Seven Pines,
Davis and Lee were taken by surprise and rode out to the
field. In the confusion of the fight Johnston was badly
wounded, and that night Davis instructed Lee to take
command of what he renamed the Army of Northern
Virginia. He fought the second day of the battle but the
initiative had already been lost the previous day. Later in
the month, in a daring move, he left a small force in front of
Richmond and crossed the Chickahominy to strike the one
Union corps north of the river. In what was to be called the
Seven Days Battles the individual fights-Beaver Dam
Creek, Gaines’ Mill, Savage Station, Glendale, White Oak
Swamp, and Malvern Hill-were all tactical defeats for the
Confederates. But Lee had achieved the strategic goal of
removing McClellan’s army from the very gates of
Richmond.
This created a new opinion of Lee in the South. He
gradually became "Uncle Robert" and "Marse Robert."
With McClellan neutralized, a new threat developed under
John Pope in northern Virginia. At first Lee detached
Jackson and then followed with Longstreet’s command.
Winning at 2nd Bull Run, he moved on into Maryland but
suffered the misfortune of having a copy of his orders
detailing the disposition of his divided forces fall into the
hands of the enemy. McClellan moved with unusual speed
and Lee was forced to fight a delaying action along South
Mountain while waiting for Jackson to complete the
capture of Harpers Ferry and rejoin him. He masterfully
fought McClellan to a stand still at Antietam and two days
later recrossed the Potomac.
Near the end of the year he won an easy victory over
Burnside at Fredericksburg and then trounced Hooker in
his most creditable victory at Chancellorsville, where he
had detached Jackson with most of the army on a lengthy
flank march while he remained with only two divisions in
the immediate front of the Union army. Launching his
second invasion of the North, he lost at Gettysburg. On the
third day of the battle he displayed one of his major faults
when at Malvern Hill and on other fields-he ordered a
massed infantry assault across a wide plain, not recognizing
that the rifle, which had come into use since the Mexican
War, put the charging troops under fire for too long a
period. Another problem was his issuance of general
orders to be executed by his subordinates.
Returning to Virginia he commanded in the inconclusive
Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns. From the Wilderness to
Petersburg he fought a retiring campaign against Grant in
which he made full use of entrenchments, becoming known
as "Ace of Spades" Lee. Finally forced into a siege, he held
on to Richmond and Petersburg for nearly 10 months
before beginning his retreat to Appomattox, where he was
forced to surrender. On January 23, 1865, he had been
named as commander in chief of the Confederate armies
but he found himself too burdened in Virginia to give more
than general directives to the other theaters.
Lee returned to Richmond as a paroled prisoner of war,
and submitted with the utmost composure of an altered
destiny. He devoted the rest of his life to setting an example
of conduct for other thousands of ex-Confederates. He
refused a number of offers, which would have secured
substantial means for his family. Instead, he assumed the
presidency of Washington College (now Washington and
Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, and his reputation
revitalized the school after the war. Lee’s enormous
wartime prestige, both in the North and South, and the
devotion inspired by his unconscious symbolism of the
"Lost Cause" made his a legendary figure even before his
death. He died on October 12 1870, of heart disease
which had plagued him since the spring of 1863, at
Lexington, Virginia and is buried there. Somehow, his
application for restoration of citizenship was mislaid, and it
was not until the 1970’s that it was found and granted.
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