Lee, Robert E(dward) 1807-70
US soldier, one of the greatest of the Confederate generals in the American Civil War

Robert E Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and educated at the US Military Academy at West Point. He received a commission in the Engineer Corps, fought in the Mexican War (1846-48), and later became Superintendent of West Point. He commanded the US troops that captured John Brown at Harpers Ferry. When the Southern states seceded from the Union, he resigned from the US army so he would be free to serve his native state of Virginia, and in 1861 he accepted the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Army of Virginia.

Lee's achievements are central to the history of the American Civil War (1861-65). He was in charge of the defences at Richmond, and halted Federal forces in the Seven Days Battles (1862). His forces were victorious in the second Battle of Bull Run (1862). At the Battle of Antietam (1862) his first northern invasion was stopped, but his troops repulsed the Union side in the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862) and were victorious at the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863). However his second northern invasion ended in defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), and in the Wilderness Campaign (1864) Lee's forces were badly battered.

In February 1865 Lee became Commander-in-Chief of all of the Southern armies, but the Confederate cause was hopeless at that point and two months later he surrendered his army to General Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. After the war, Lee became president of Washington College at Lexington.

Bibliography: Gene Smith, Lee and Grant (1984); Clifford Dowdey, Lee (1965); D S Freeman, R E Lee (4 vols, 1935-36).