Lee, Robert E. (Edward) 1807 -- 1870 Essay -- Essays Papers

lee, Robert E. (Edward) 1807 -- 1870 General in important of the participator armies in the American Civil War. Born in Virginias Westmoreland County on January 19, 1807, the third gear son of Henry (Light Horse Harry) and Ann Hill Carter Lee. Declining fortunes constrained the familys removal to Alexandria, where Robert distinguished himself in local schools. His fathers death in 1811 increase responsibilities on all(prenominal) the sons Robert, especially, cared for his invalid mother. Lee graduated number dickens in his class from the U.S. Military honorary society in 1829. Commissioned a brevet lieutenant of engineers, he spent a few years at Fort Pulaski, Georgia, and Fort Monroe, Virginia. At Fort Monroe on June 30, 1831, he married Mary Ann Randolph Custis, with whom he had seven children. Lee worked in the chief engineers office in Washington, D.C., from 1834 to 1837. He was transferred to Fort Hamilton, New York, where he remained until 1846. In August 1846 Lee joine d General John E. Wools army in Texas. In the scrap of Buena Vista, Lees boldness drew his superiors attention. Transferred to General Winfield Scotts Veracruz expedition, in the battle at Veracruz and in the advance on Mexico he won additive acclaim. Following American occupation of the Mexican capital, he worked on maps for possible future campaigns. Already a captain in the regular service, he was made brevet colonel for his gallantry in the war. Lee returned to engineer commerce at Baltimores Fort Carroll until 1852, when he reluctantly became superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. In 1855 he was made lieutenant colonel of the second Cavalry, one of the Armys elite units. The years 1857-1859 were bleak. Lee had to take several furloughs to rent with family business and seriously thought of resigning his commission. However, in 1859 he and his men successfully put down John Browns insurrection at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. In 1860 he became commander of the Depa rtment of Texas. Talk of secession in the South grew spirant during Lees Texas sojourn. No secessionist, he was loyal to the Union and the U.S. Army yet he had no doubts about his loyalties if Virginia departed the Union. Ties of blood bound him to the South. Lee genuine a commission as colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry in abut 1861. But offered command of the entire U.S. Army a month later, he hesitated. If he accepted... ...in chief of all Confederate armies in February 1865, could give and general direction to lingering disaster. Sherman marched upward through the Carolinas, threatening Petersburg. Lee failed to split Grants front. On April 2, Grants attack snapped Lees lines the Confederates began evacuating Petersburg and Richmond. Lee was compelled to surrender his shadow multitude of no more than 9,000 soldiers at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Arlington, the Custis family seat, was gone now the Lees had no real home. They remained in Richmond, well treated by the Federals. In kinfolk Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College, in Lexington, Virginia, where he remained until his death. devoted to education and to resurrecting the South, Lee became a symbol of reunification. He refused to abandon his dysphoric country, hoped for Southern reassimilation, and set a lofty example. Without bitterness, he obeyed the law and counseled all Southerners to do the same. Indicted for treason, he never stood trial and although never granted a pardon, he lived in comfort and in great honor. In family 1870 he was stricken, probably with an acute attack of angina, and died on October 12.