The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Lee, Robert Edward - Wikisource, the free online library (2024)

LEE, Robert Edward, an American soldier,son of Col. Henry Lee, born at Stafford,Westmoreland co., Va., Jan. 19, 1807, died inLexington, Va., Oct. 12, 1870. He entered WestPoint in 1825, and graduated second in hisclass in 1829. During his whole course he wasnever reprimanded or received a single markof demerit. He was appointed lieutenant inthe corps of engineers, and from 1829 to 1834served as assistant engineer in the constructionof Forts Monroe and Oalhoun at Hamptonroads; from 1834 to 1837 as assistant to thechief engineer at Washington; and in 1835 asassistant astronomer for establishing the boundarybetween Ohio and Michigan. From 1837to 1841 he was superintending engineer of theimprovements of the harbor of St. Louis andof the Missouri and upper Mississippi rivers,having also during 1840 and 1841 the generalcharge of the improvements in the lowerMississippi and Ohio rivers, below Louisville, Ky.He was made captain in 1838. After 1841,among other services, he superintended theconstruction and repair of the fortresses at theentrance of the harbor of New York, wasassistant to the chief engineer at Washington,and member of the board of the Atlantic coastdefences. When the Mexican war broke outhe was assigned to duty as chief engineer ofthe army under Gen. Scott, and served withgreat distinction during the whole war. Hewas successively brevetted as major, lieutenantcolonel, and colonel, for gallant and meritoriousconduct at Cerro Gordo, Contreras andChurubusco, and at Chapultepec, where he waswounded. He afterward served as engineerin various departments, and was superintendentof the military academy at West Pointfrom 1852 to 1855. In 1855 two new regimentsof cavalry were formed. Of the secondregiment Albert Sidney Johnston was madecolonel, Lee lieutenant colonel, Hardee andThomas majors, Van Dorn and Kirby Smithcaptains; and among the lieutenants wereHood, Fields, Fitzhugh Lee, Palmer, andStoneman. Lee served with this regiment inTexas till 1857, when he received leave ofabsence, and returned to his home in Virginia.Through his marriage in 1832 with Mary,daughter of G. W. P. Custis, the grandson ofMartha Custis and adopted son of Washington,he came in 1857 into possession of theestates of Arlington House on the Potomacand the White House on the Pamunkey. InOctober, 1859, he was put in command ofthe forces to suppress the John Brown raidat Harper's Ferry. From February toDecember, 1860, he was in command of thedepartment of Texas, and afterward receivedleave of absence. The Virginia conventionhaving on April 17, 1861, passed an ordinanceof secession, Lee on the 20th resigned hiscommission in a letter to Gen. Scott, in which hesaid: “Save in defence of my native state, Inever desire again to draw my sword.” Tohis sister he wrote on the same day: “Thewhole south is in a state of revolution, intowhich Virginia, after a long struggle, has beendrawn; and though I recognize no necessityfor this state of things, and would haveforborne and pleaded to the end for redress ofgrievances, real or supposed, yet in my ownperson I had to meet the question whether Ishould take part against my native state. Withall my devotion to the Union, and the feelingof loyalty and duty of an American citizen, Ihave not been able to make up my mind toraise my hand against my relatives, my children,my home. I have therefore resigned mycommission in the army, and, save in defenceof my native state, with the sincere hope thatmy poor services may never be needed, I hopeI may never be called on to draw my sword.”Although Virginia had seceded from the Union,the state had not as yet acceded to theconfederacy; and Lee, who at once repaired toRichmond, was appointed major general of theforces of the state. In formally accepting thisoffice, he said: “Trusting in Almighty God,an approving conscience, and the aid of myfellow citizens, I devote myself to the serviceof my native state, in whose behalf alone willI ever again draw my sword.” Early in MayVirginia joined the confederacy, the capitalof which was removed to Richmond, and thesouthern congress passed a law appointing fivegenerals, their commissions to rank in theorder in which these officers had ranked in theUnited States army. The commissions as madeout by the government were in the followingorder: S. Cooper, A. S. Johnston, R. E. Lee,J. E. Johnston, and P. T. Beauregard. J. E.Johnston remonstrated against this, claimingthat he should have stood first, because he hadbeen a brigadier general in the United Statesarmy, while none of the others had rankedhigher than colonel. Apparently in consequenceof this, Lee was not for a whileappointed to any separate command in the field,A. S. Johnston being assigned to the west,and J. E. Johnston to the command inVirginia. Cooper, manifestly unfit to lead anarmy, remained at Richmond as adjutantgeneral. For more than a year Lee filled noimportant place in the war. He was nominallymerely superintendent of fortifications at Richmondand elsewhere, and seems also to haveacted as military adviser to President Davis,and to have performed many of the duties pertaining to the office of secretary of war. Thereare only occasional glimpses of him in theunsuccessful operations of the summer andautumn of 1861 in western Virginia. J. E. Johnston,who commanded the confederate forces inVirginia, was wounded at the battle of SevenPines, May 31, 1862; A. S. Johnston had beenkilled at the battle of Shiloh, April 6; and thecommand of the confederate army of northernVirginia, having been held for three days byG. W. Smith, who was disabled by a paralyticstroke, was given to Lee, June 3. The confederatearmy at Richmond was soon augmented soas to be about equal in numbers to the Unionarmy under McClellan, and on June 26 Leecommenced that series of operations known asthe seven days' battles. The result was, thatafter the concluding battle at Malvern Hill,McClellan fell back to Harrison's Landing, andthe siege of Richmond was virtually raised.(See Chickahominy.) Meanwhile thescattered Union forces in northern Virginia hadbeen united under Gen. Pope, under the nameof the army of Virginia; and to prevent thesefrom aiding McClellan, Lee moved againstthem. The result of the operations was thesecond battle of Bull Run, Aug. 29 and 30,in which Pope was defeated. Lee thereuponentered upon the invasion of Maryland, whichwas brought to a close by the indecisive battleof Antietam, Sept. 16, 17. He then recrossedthe Potomac into Virginia, and movedleisurely up the valley of the Shenandoah intothat of the Rappahannock, finally taking upa strong position near Culpeper Court House.McClellan followed after considerable delay,and early in November the two armies wereclose together. McClellan seems to have beenpreparing to attack, when on Nov. 7 he wassuperseded by Burnside, who proposed a newplan of operations, by which the Union armywas to move up the Rappahannock toFredericksburg, cross the river there, and thencemove directly toward Richmond. But whenBurnside reached Falmouth, oppositeFredericksburg, he found that the bridges had beendestroyed, and before pontoons could be broughtup Lee had arrived and taken up a positionon the opposite bank. Burnside at lengthcrossed the Rappahannock, attacked Lee in hispositions, Dec. 13, and was signally defeated.Hooker, Burnside's successor, instead ofassailing Lee in front, turned his left flank,and gained his rear. Then ensued the battleof Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863, in whichHooker was worsted. After this battle Leegathered all the available forces in the Carolinasand Virginia, and moving northwardentered upon what proved an invasion ofPennsylvania. The Union army was nowcommanded by Meade, and the positions andstrength of the two armies were such that aconflict soon became inevitable. By mereaccident the encounter took place at Gettysburg,July 1-3, 1863. On the first day, when onlyparts of each army were present, the confederates gained decided advantages. On thesecond day they appeared to have the best of it,although their advantages were apparent ratherthan real. On the third day they met a signalrepulse, but were not routed; and Leeretreated in good order to the Potomac, intendingto cross at once into Virginia. But theriver had been swollen by rains so that it wasnow unfordable, and he intrenched himselfupon the northern bank, where Meade after acircuitous march came upon him. On the12th Meade was inclined to make an attack atonce, but yielding to the opinion of a councilof war postponed it until the next day.During the night Lee, who had succeeded in buildinga bridge, crossed the river, which had inthe mean while become fordable in places, andwas again safe in Virginia. He fell back tothe Rapidan, followed closely and occasionallyannoyed by Meade, and the two armies took uppositions confronting each other. During theautumn and winter of 1863 there were noimportant operations in Virginia, and considerableportions of both armies were sent to thewest. In October Lee undertook a movementapparently threatening Washington, and tocounteract this Meade fell back as far asCentreville, a few miles from the twice-foughtbattle field of Bull Run, where he made astand. Lee saw that his force was too smallto carry out his design, and he returned to hisold position, followed by Meade. Late inNovember Meade undertook an offensive operation,directed against Lee's right, which laynear a little stream called Mine run, almostwithin the borders of the region known as theWilderness. This proved unsuccessful, andclosed the active operations in Virginiaduring the winter of 1863 and the early springof 1864. Gen. Grant, having been madecommander-in-chief, as lieutenant general, decidedto conduct in person the campaign in Virginia.Lee's army had lain in winter quarters on thesouth bank of the Rapidan, their lines, stronglyintrenched, covering a space of about 20 m.When the spring campaign opened Lee hadabout 60,000 men; to oppose these Grant hadabout 140,000. Grant, while perceiving thatthe confederate army, rather than anygeographical point, was the main object of thecampaign, thought it advisable not to assail itin front, but to turn it by the right. Themovement commenced on May 4. The Rapidanwas crossed without opposition, and thearmy headed southward. The line of march laythrough the western verge of the Wilderness.Grant seems to have assumed that Lee, findinghis flank fairly turned by a greatly superiorforce, would fall back toward Richmond. ButLee resolved to attack the enemy while movingthrough this wooded region, in which thesuperiority of the federal force would be ina great measure neutralized by the characterof the country. The attack was skilfullyconceived and boldly executed. The result wasthe bloody but indecisive battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 6. (See Wilderness, Battle of the.)The armies were now in an apparentdeadlock. Each threw up intrenchments in itsfront, which, though apparently slight, weresufficient to give a great advantage to the onereceiving the attack, which neither commanderwas inclined to venture. To remove thisdeadlock Grant undertook to outflank Lee by marchingupon Spottsylvania Court House. Leeperceived the movement, and, though mistakingGrant's objective point, reached that placefirst, where his forces intrenched themselves,and severe fighting ensued, culminating in abloody but indecisive battle on May 12. Onthe 18th Grant moved southward fromSpottsylvania, proposing to outflank Lee's right,thus compelling him to fall back towardRichmond, and the campaign took the form whichit maintained as long as operations were carriedon in the open field. The two commanderswere so constituted that either was able todivine the intent of the other, and to take thebest measures to thwart it. Grant, having agreat preponderance of force, undertook tostrike wherever there was any likelihood thatthe blow would be effective; and, wheneverhe found the enemy posted too strongly to bedirectly dislodged, to manœuvre him out ofhis position by turning it. Lee stood moredirectly upon the defensive, but was always uponthe alert for an opportunity to strike an offensiveblow. The general result was that eachcommander failed in every directly offensiveeffort; but Lee was gradually forced backtoward Richmond until the close of May, when theconfederates stood at bay on the Chickahominy,occupying essentially the ground which theUnion army had held two years before, butstrongly intrenched. If the confederate armycould be defeated here, its ruin was certain,for the Chickahominy interposed an insuperablebarrier to further retreat. Grant made anattack on June 3, which was signally repulsed.(See Chickahominy.) For ten days more thetwo armies confronted each other, both beingstrongly intrenched, and neither venturingany attack in force. At length, on June12, Grant broke from his position, marcheddown the Chickahominy to the James, whichhe crossed, and took up a position nearPetersburg, from which Richmond could beassailed on the south. Lee crossed theChickahominy and the James, and undertook thedefence of the confederate capital. Richmonditself was so strongly fortified that no directattack upon it was feasible; but Petersburg, 22m. S. of Richmond, commanded the railroadsby which supplies must be mainly brought to thearmy at the capital, and the capture of Petersburgwould involve the necessity of theabandonment of Richmond. The subsequent operationsin Virginia thereupon resolved themselvesmainly into the siege and defence of Petersburg.This lasted until April, 1865, when, Granthaving fairly passed around the extreme right ofthe confederate defences, and having brokenthrough the lines, Lee abandoned Petersburgand Richmond, April 2. He had sufferedheavy losses within the last few days; but hestill had, if all could be concentrated, about40,000 men, with which he hoped to be ableto reach the mountainous region of the valleyof Virginia, where the contest might beprolonged indefinitely; or perhaps to effect ajunction with J. E. Johnston in North Carolina,and thence transfer the seat of war to thegulf states. But a series of disasters markedthe retreat. The confederate army movedalmost without provisions, and the supplieswhich Lee had ordered to await him at AmeliaCourt House were by some accident carried onto Richmond, which had been given up to theenemy. Grant in the mean while took upa vigorous pursuit. The confederates wereobliged to scatter through the poor country inquest of food, a great portion of the menthrowing away their arms. When on the 8ththe small part which still retained a militaryorganization had reached the neighborhood ofAppomattox Court House, they found theirway barred by a superior federal force, whichhad outstripped them. Grant had on theprevious day sent a message to Lee to the effectthat the result of the operations of the lastweek evinced that there was no hope of anyfurther successful resistance on the part of thearmy of northern Virginia, and demanded itssurrender, in order to avoid any further sheddingof blood. Lee replied that he was farfrom being convinced that resistance wasuseless, but asked to know the terms upon whicha surrender would be received. Grant namedas the sole condition that “the men and officerssurrendered shall be disqualified fortaking up arms again against the government ofthe United States until properly discharged.”Lee hesitated until the 9th, hoping for somefavorable turn; but none occurring, and yieldingto the opinion of his best officers, he onthat day met Grant, and the terms ofsurrender were formally agreed upon, thesubstance being that the officers and the menunder their command “shall not hereafterserve in the armies of the Confederate Statesor in any military capacity against the UnitedStates of America, or render aid to theenemies of the latter, until properly exchanged insuch manner as shall be mutually approvedby the respective authorities;” and that they“will not be disturbed by the United Statesauthorities so long as they observe their paroleand the laws in force where they reside.”The list of paroled prisoners contained 27,805names, but of these hardly a third had arms intheir hands. Although Lee had in Februarybeen appointed general-in-chief, with thecommand of all the forces of the confederacy, thecapitulation only applied to the army inVirginia; but the surrender of this army virtuallybrought the war to a close. After the warLee retired into private life, refusing even toattend public gatherings of any description.His own fortune had been almost entirelyswept away during the war, and in October,1865, he accepted the presidency of Washingtoncollege at Lexington, Va., where in ashort time the students numbered nearly 500.In March, 1866, he appeared as a witnessbefore the reconstruction committee of congress.His testimony was to the effect that, as far ashe knew, the people of the south did notcontemplate any resistance or opposition to thegovernment of the United States, and were infavor of the reconstruction policy of PresidentJohnson; that they expected to pay theirportion of the national debt, and would probably,if able, be willing also to pay their share ofthe confederate debt; and that the people ofVirginia looked upon the action of the statein withdrawing itself from the government ofthe United States as carrying the individualsof the state along with it; that the state, notindividuals, was responsible, and that the statewas merely using a lawful reserved right. Onthe evening of Sept. 28, 1870, while apparentlyin his usual health, he was struck with paralysis,and never fully recovered, although he liveda fortnight longer. His wife, Mary Custis,great-granddaughter of Martha Custis (afterwardthe wife of Washington), born at ArlingtonHouse in 1806, died at Lexington, Nov. 6,1873.—Gen. Lee had three sons and four daughters.One of the daughters died during the war.His sons all served in the confederate army.G. W. Custis Lee, born about 1833, graduatedat West Point in 1854, resigned his commissionas lieutenant of engineers in May, 1861,entered the confederate service, became aide-de-campto President Davis, and subsequently ageneral of infantry, and succeeded his fatheras president of Washington college, now calledWashington and Lee university. The secondson, W. H. F. Lee, became a general ofcavalry; and the third, Robert E. Lee, servedas a member of the cavalry staff. A nephew,Fitzhugh Lee, born about 1835, graduated atWest Point in 1856, served as lieutenant ofcavalry, mainly in Texas, till 1861, when heresigned his commission, entered the confederateservice, and rose to be a general of cavalry.—See“Life of Robert E. Lee,” by JohnEsten Cooke (New York, 1872); Le généralLee, by Edward Lee Childe (Paris, 1874); and“Personal Reminiscences of Gen. Robert E.Lee,” by Rev. J. W. Jones (New York, 1874).