Robert E. Lee 's Life and Achievements

Robert E. Lee was the best General for the South, and out smarted every Union General that was put against him. To The South, Lee is like a godly figure to them. He inspired The South even when the North controlled the battlefield, and is still thought highly of by some people in the confederate states. To the North, Lee was a traitor and even lost his citizenship. Although he lost, Lee is still a giant face in history.

Lee was born in Stratford, Virginia. Lee was the fourth child of General Henry Lee III, Governor of Virginia, and his mother, Anne Hill Carter, Lee was raised by his mother who taught him about authority, tolerance, and order. Lee was exposed to Christianity at an early age and devoted his life to god. In 1825, Lee was accepted into West Point. There he learned about warfare and how to fight. In 1829, Lee graduated 2nd of 46 in his class, but even more surprising is that he didn’t get a single demerit while attending West Point. Afterward, Lee was appointed as Superintendent of West Point from 1852 to 1855. After he served his term, Lee left West Point to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the 2nd Cavalry of Texas.

Lee’s first military campaign was in West Virginia during the Civil War. There he took command of the Eastern Army of Virginia but, only after General Johnson was injured. Lee was greatly outnumbered by the Union Army. Lee came up with a plan to make up for his numbers by attacking General McClellan’s army. In the next days there were a number of skirmishes between Lee’s advancing forces and against McClellan’s army which became know as the Days Battle. After Lee’s success at the Days Battle, Lee gained control of the Army of North Virginia, the biggest army in Virginia.

The battle of Chancellorsville...

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...e Confederate forces. A Union attack on Petersburg on April 2, 1865 forced Lee to retreat from Richmond and go west. His forces were surrounded. Lee with overwhelming odds surrendered to Grant on April 9th 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. After Lee surrendered to Grant other Confederate armies followed and the war came to an end.

After the war, Lee was tried as a traitor by the Union but after his trial he only got his civil rights taken from him. Lee took the post at Washington University, where he served until his death in 1870. The school is now renamed Washington and Lee. On Sept. 28,1870, Lee suffered a stroke that made him unable to speak. On October 12, 1870, two weeks after Lee’s stroke, Lee died at Lexington, Virginia due to effects of pneumonia. Lee was buried underneath Lee’s Chapel at Washington and Lee University where his body remains today.