Robert Edward Lee was born in Stradford in January 19, 1807.
Hisfather was Light Horse Henry. He had three brothers and two sisters, yet hewas the youngest. His family was also was very rich. Robert E. Lee went to United States Military Academy.
He spent muchof his time in his library. His classmates admired him because of his leadershipand devotion. He graduated in 1829. He had a high honor at West Point, heeven became a superintendent at West Point.
He improved the buildings andcourses. Robert married Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee. His children’s namesare Major General Custis Lee, W. H.
F. Lee, Captain Robert E. Lee Jr. , MaryLee, Mildred Lee was the youngest, and Agnes Lee. Robert E.
Lee marriedtwo years after he graduated in 1829 and married in 1831. Mary is GeorgeWashington’s granddaughter. Lee was away so much of the time they almost never got to see eachother. They had to write letters to keep in touch. Lee mostly traveled alone.
Mary inherited many slaves and they stayed with her while she was alone. After the war Lee went home and nursed his sick wife. Mary had arthritis andwas put in a wheelchair. Lee was a very brave, honest, and smart man.
He was a soldier, yet anurturer. Lee wouldn’t allow anything said bad about Grant. War broke out on the border of Texas between United States andMexico. The Generals were impressed with Lee’s supervised buildings ofbridges. In 1855 Lee became a lieutenant cournal of the calvary and wasassigned Texas frontier. He protected settlers from attacks from the Apacheand Comanche Indians.
Lee hated slavery like the North, but he lived in the South. The Southhated Lincoln and the North and the South started to separate. AbrahamLincoln asked Lee if he wanted to be a general for the North, but Lee said?No. ? He wanted to stay in his home state, Virginia. Lee was the first militaryadvisor to President Jefferson Davis.
On May 1861 Lee became a General. He helped draw plans for the Confederate forces in Virginia. In the Spring of 1864 Lee first met Grant in battle. There was a seriesof bloody battles called the Wilderness campaign. Grant destroy theConfederates with large forces and guns.
Finally in 1865 Lee became generaland chief of all Confederate forces. After General Johnston waswounded, Lee became a General. Lee helped plan many battles such as whenthey fought General Burnside. Richmond fell in April 1865,Lee’s army retreated west ward.
Thenorth surrounded the Confederates. Lee surrendered on April 9th, 1865. Grant tried to make the surrender easy. Grant allowed the Confederate soldiersto take their horses home for spring plowing. Lee said, ?It is well that war is soterrible or we would grow to fond of it.
Lee made his last ride down enemylines on his horse Traveler. Lee won but he also lost. Lee lost because he lostthe war, but he won because the war was over. Lee became a private citizen for first time in forty years. He could havebeen rich, but he came president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. This school was named Washington and Lee University.
Lee urged studentsand friends to keep the peace and to accept the outcome of the war. Hisattitude was extremely important a time when bitterness and hatred sweptacross the North and the South. In Lee’s home in Lexington Virginia on October 12, 1870. He diedfrom an illness. Some people felt his death as a personal loss. He is buried inthe chapel he built on campus in Lexington, along with other members of hisfamily.
They call this chapel ?The Shrine of the South. ? It is visited bythousands of people. Lee’s home is preserved in Arlington National Cemetery. Lee’s is a legal holiday in most of the southern states near Washington D. C. January 19.
Lee’s tombstone is called Valentine statue.
