1. ROBERT E. LEE
By: Chrysen Park, Owen Murphy and Josh
Holbrook

2. Early Life
1. Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in
Westmoreland County, Virginia on January 19,
1807.
2. Lee entered West Point in the summer of
1825. At the time, the focus of his curriculum
was engineering.
3. Robert Lee attended school at Eastern View.

3. Marriage and Family
1. Robert was married to Mary Anne
Curtis Lee on June 30, 1831
2. Robert had 7 children:
George Washington Custis Lee
Mary Custis Lee
William Henry Fitzhugh Lee
Anne Carter Lee
Eleanor Agnes Lee
Robert Edward Lee, Jr.

4. View on Slavery
1. Since the end of the Civil War, it has often been
suggested Lee was in some sense opposed to
slavery. Lee supported civil rights for all, as well as
a system of free public schools for blacks, but
dissented regarding black suffrage.
2. "In this enlightened age, there are few I believe,
but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an
institution, is a moral & political evil in any
Country. It is useless to expatiate on its
disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to
the white man than to the black race, & while my
feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter,
my sympathies are more strong for the former. The
blacks are immeasurably better off here than in
Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful
discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for
their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare &
lead them to better things. How long their
subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered
by a wise Merciful Providence." - Robert E. Lee

5. Civil War
1. Lee wanted all peaceful ways of
resolving the differences between
North and South.
2.The commanding general of the
Union Army, Winfield Scott, told
Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top
command. Lee accepted a promotion to
colonel on March 28, 1863
3.Lee turned down an April 18 offer by
presidential aide Francis P. Blair to
command the defense of Washington
D.C. as a major general, as he feared
that the job might require him to
invade the South.

6. Civil War Continued
1. Lee resigned from the Army on April 20 and took
up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23
2. At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to
command all of Virginia's forces
3. Lee's first field assignment was commanding
Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was
defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was
widely blamed for Confederate setbacks.
4. Early in the war, his men called him "Granny Lee"
because of his allegedly timid style of command.

7. Civil War Continued...
1. Lee then launched a series of attacks,
the Seven Days Battles, against
McClellan's forces. Lee's assaults
resulted in heavy Confederate
casualties.
2. Lee defeated another Union army at the
Second Battle of Bull Run. Within 90 days
of taking command, Lee had run McClellan
off the Peninsula, defeated Pope at Second
Manassas.
3. In the summer of 1863, Lee invaded the
North again, marching through western
Maryland and into south central
Pennsylvania. He encountered Union forces
under George G. Meade at the three-day
Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in
July; the battle would produce the largest
number of casualties in the American Civil
War.

8. After the War
1. Lee supported President Johnson's
plan of Reconstruction, but joined
with Democrats in opposing the
Republicans who demanded
measures against the South,
distrusted its commitment to the
abolition of slavery.
2. Lee hoped to retire to a farm of his
own, but he accepted an offer to serve
as the president of Washington
College (Washington and Lee
University) in Lexington, Virginia,
and served from October 1865 until
his death.

9. Illness and Death
1. On September 28, 1870, Lee suffered a
stroke. He died two weeks later, shortly
after 9 a.m. on October 12, 1870, in
Lexington.
2. His last words on the day of his death,
were "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the
tent".
3. He was buried underneath Lee Chapel at
Washington and Lee University, where his
body remains.

10. Impact on the War
1. His brilliant military leadership
brought the Confederacy as close as it
ever came to battlefield victory.
2. Lee's armies won several decisive
victories early in the conflict, even
though they were always outnumbered by
opposing forces.
3. However, the southern armies could
not stand up to the North resources and
pursuit later in the war. For many, his
surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court
House on April 9, 1865 signified the end
of the war.