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Confederate General · 1807–1870
Robert E. Lee: The Confederacy's General
A brilliant U.S. Army officer who chose Virginia over the Union in 1861. For three years his Army of Northern Virginia beat larger Union armies, until Gettysburg, a long siege and the surrender at Appomattox ended the war. His legacy is still argued over today.
Robert E. Lee, photographed by Julian Vannerson, 1864
Quick facts
Robert E. Lee at a glance
| Born | January 19, 1807, at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia | |
| Died | October 12, 1870, in Lexington, Virginia, aged 63, after a stroke | |
| Father | Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, a Revolutionary War cavalry hero and governor of Virginia | |
| Education | U.S. Military Academy at West Point, class of 1829, second in his class | |
| U.S. Army | 32 years, 1829–1861: engineer, Mexican War staff officer, superintendent of West Point | |
| Confederate command | Army of Northern Virginia, June 1862 to April 1865; general-in-chief of all Confederate armies from February 1865 | |
| Wife | Mary Anna Randolph Custis, Martha Washington's great-granddaughter, married June 30, 1831 | |
| Children | Seven: George Washington Custis, Mary, William Henry Fitzhugh (“Rooney”), Anne, Agnes, Robert Jr. and Mildred | |
| After the war | President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), 1865–1870 | |
| Buried | In the chapel at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia |
The big picture in 30 seconds
Why he matters
- He was the South's most successful general, and his victories kept the Confederacy alive far longer than its resources allowed.
- His defeat at Gettysburg in July 1863 was a turning point of the war.
- His surrender to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 effectively ended the Civil War.
- After the war he urged Southerners to accept defeat, but he opposed equal rights for freed people.
- His reputation was later built up by the “Lost Cause” myth, and memorials to him remain hotly debated.
32 years
in the U.S. Army before he resigned in 1861
34 months
in command of the Army of Northern Virginia
~23,000
Confederate casualties at Gettysburg, his worst defeat
April 9, 1865
the day he surrendered at Appomattox
Early years
Son of a Revolutionary hero
Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford Hall, his family’s plantation on the Potomac River, on January 19, 1807. His father, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, had been one of George Washington’s favorite cavalry officers, but he lost the family fortune in bad land deals and spent time in debtors’ prison. He left for the West Indies when Robert was six and never came home.
Robert grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, caring for his invalid mother. In 1825 he entered West Point. He graduated second in the class of 1829 without a single demerit, a record few cadets have matched, and joined the elite Corps of Engineers.
Arlington
In 1831 he married Mary Custis, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and the heir to Arlington, a hilltop plantation across the river from Washington. Arlington became the family home, and the Lees raised seven children there.
The U.S. Army
An engineer and a rising star
For his first 17 years in the army Lee built forts and harbor works, from Georgia to New York, and helped redirect the Mississippi River at St. Louis. His chance for battle came in the Mexican War (1846–1848). On General Winfield Scott’s staff he scouted routes through supposedly impassable ground at Cerro Gordo and around Mexico City. Scott called him the finest soldier he had ever seen.
Harpers Ferry
In October 1859 Lee, home on leave, was sent with a company of U.S. Marines to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where the abolitionist John Brown had seized the federal arsenal hoping to start a slave uprising. Lee’s men stormed the engine house and captured Brown in a few minutes.
Slavery at Arlington
Lee managed Arlington’s enslaved workers as executor of his father-in-law’s estate from 1857. The will ordered them freed within five years, but Lee kept them working to pay the estate’s debts. In 1859 three who tried to escape, including Wesley Norris, were caught and whipped; Norris later described the beating. Lee formally freed the Arlington slaves in December 1862.
The war years, 1861–1865
Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
Lee first served as an adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. On June 1, 1862, after General Joseph Johnston was wounded outside Richmond, Davis gave Lee command of the army defending the capital. He renamed it the Army of Northern Virginia and led it for the rest of the war.
June–Aug. 1862
Seven Days and Second Bull Run
Lee drove the Union army away from Richmond in a week of attacks, then routed another Union army at Second Bull Run.
September 1862
Antietam
His first invasion of the North ended at Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lincoln used the battle to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.
Dec. 1862–May 1863
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville
Two crushing victories. At Chancellorsville he split his army and beat a force twice his size, but lost Stonewall Jackson.
July 1–3, 1863
Gettysburg
His second invasion of the North failed. Pickett’s Charge on the third day was a disaster; Lee told his men, “It is all my fault.”
1864–1865
The Overland Campaign and Petersburg
Grant pressed him without letup. Lee’s army dug in around Petersburg for more than nine months until its lines broke in April 1865.
April 9, 1865
Appomattox
Trapped and starving, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant let his men keep their horses and go home.
“It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.”
Robert E. Lee
Watching his army repel Union attacks at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
After the war
Washington College and a disputed legacy
Lee was paroled and never tried for treason. In October 1865 he became president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, a small school he helped rebuild. He urged former Confederates to accept defeat and become loyal citizens, but he opposed giving Black men the vote. He died in Lexington on October 12, 1870, and the college was renamed Washington and Lee University.
Citizenship
Lee signed an amnesty oath in 1865, but it was misplaced and his citizenship was never restored in his lifetime. The oath was found in the National Archives in 1970, and Congress restored his citizenship in a law President Gerald Ford signed in 1975.
The Lost Cause
After his death, former Confederates turned Lee into a symbol of the “Lost Cause,” a version of history that played down slavery as the cause of the war. Many Lee statues were put up in the era of segregation. Since 2017 many, including the large statue in Richmond, have been taken down.
His life at a glance
Life timeline
People
Who's who in Lee's story
Mary Custis Lee
Wife
Raised their seven children at Arlington. Badly crippled by arthritis, she fled the house in 1861 and never lived there again.
Opponent
The Union general who wore Lee’s army down in 1864 and 1865, and offered generous surrender terms at Appomattox.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Most trusted general
Lee’s right arm until his death after Chancellorsville. “He has lost his left arm,” Lee said, “but I have lost my right.”
James Longstreet
“My old war horse”
Lee’s senior corps commander. He argued against the attack at Gettysburg and led Pickett’s Charge against his own judgment.
Jefferson Davis
Confederate president
Chose Lee to command in 1862 and trusted him throughout the war.
Winfield Scott
Mentor
The U.S. Army’s commanding general, who relied on Lee in Mexico and hoped Lee would lead the Union Army in 1861.
Visit
Arlington House and Stratford Hall
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, run by the National Park Service, stands in Arlington National Cemetery and tells the stories of the Lee family and the enslaved people who lived there. Stratford Hall, his birthplace on Virginia’s Northern Neck, is open for tours.
Go deeper
Sources and further reading
- Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters, by Elizabeth Brown Pryor (2007)
- Robert E. Lee: A Biography, by Emory M. Thomas (1995)
- R. E. Lee, by Douglas Southall Freeman (4 volumes, 1934–1935)
- Robert E. Lee and Me, by Ty Seidule (2021)