General Lee
Born to the Revolutionary War hero, “Light-Horse Harry” Lee in Virginia, he gained an appointment at West Point and graduated in the class of 1829. Two years later, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, descendant of George Washington’s adopted son, John Parke Custis. He inherited with it, Arlington and a financial crisis of debts. He was humane to his slaves and offered freedom to as many of his slaves as could have a reasonable chance of success in a hostile nation. He served for 17 years as an officer in the Corps of Engineers, supervising and inspecting the construction of the nation's coastal defenses. In Mexico he served on Winfield Scott’s staff and was breveted three times for gallantry, emerging from the conflict as a colonel. But he felt that his career was ending, being given a desk job as superintendent at West Point. In 1855, he leaped at the opportunity of leaving the desk and entering the field again with the cavalry in Texas but found this too to be limiting. He was called upon in 1859 to put down John Brown’s insurrection at Harpers Ferry and was believed to be one of the finest officers in the army. Abraham Lincoln and Scott asked him to take command of the federal army in April 1861, but he turned it down and resigned with his state, not wanting to make a strike against his own people. He rather took command of Virginia’s army, organizing its defense, but losing most of his authority upon its assimilation into the Confederate army. He was appointed to yet another desk job as Davis’ military advisor, with little authority and little responsibility, until at Seven Pines, Joseph E Johnston was wounded, and he took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Under his direction it would become the most famous and successful Confederate army. Initially he was called “Granny” Lee for his use of the spade, but he would soon rise to be as revered as the cause itself. Despite several successful attempts to foil the Federal war effort, he saw that victory lay on Northern soil and began his Maryland campaign. While not suffering defeat at Sharpsburg, he was not able to pursue his goal and recrossed the Potomac to wait for the following year. In the meantime, he instituted two of the most lopsided Confederate victories of the war at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville. Again, attempting to secure victory in the North, he prepared a Confederate victory and peace negotiations to be placed on Lincoln’s desk the day after the close of Gettysburg. But despite initial success, Gettysburg would prove his most humiliating defeat of the war. He would never have a chance like it again and spent the next two years ferociously battling and blunting Grant’s offensive but was not able to defeat him. In the end, time won, and Lee was forced to surrender the Confederate army and cause at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Having suffered heart problems during the war, he spent the rest of his life trying to rebuild Virginia, dying in October of 1870.
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