Robert Lee Biography

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Facts You Didn't Know About General Robert E. Lee

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He returned to Lawrence to join his wife. In , Frost moved with his wife and children to a farm in New Hampshire — property that Frost's grandfather had purchased for them—and they attempted to make a life on it for the next 12 years. Though it was a fruitful time for Frost's writing, it was a difficult period in his personal life, as two of his young children died.

During that time, Frost and Elinor attempted several endeavors, including poultry farming, all of which were fairly unsuccessful. Despite such challenges, it was during this time that Frost acclimated himself to rural life. In fact, he grew to depict it quite well, and began setting many of his poems in the countryside. Frost met his future love and wife, Elinor White, when they were both attending Lawrence High School. She was his co-valedictorian when they graduated in In , Frost proposed to White, who was attending St.

Lawrence University , but she turned him down because she first wanted to finish school. Frost then decided to leave on a trip to Virginia, and when he returned, he proposed again. By then, White had graduated from college, and she accepted. They married on December 19, White died in Diagnosed with cancer in and having undergone surgery, she also had had a long history of heart trouble, to which she ultimately succumbed. Frost and White had six children together.

Their first child, Elliot, was born in Daughter Lesley was born in Elliot died of cholera in After his death, Elinor gave birth to four more children: son Carol , who would commit suicide in ; Irma , who later developed mental illness; Marjorie , who died in her late 20s after giving birth; and Elinor , who died just weeks after she was born. He could not find any publishers who were willing to underwrite his other poems. In , Frost and Elinor decided to sell the farm in New Hampshire and move the family to England, where they hoped there would be more publishers willing to take a chance on new poets.

It was at this time that Frost met fellow poets Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas, two men who would affect his life in significant ways. Pound and Thomas were the first to review his work in a favorable light, as well as provide significant encouragement. Frost credited Thomas's long walks over the English landscape as the inspiration for one of his most famous poems, "The Road Not Taken. Apparently, Thomas's indecision and regret regarding what paths to take inspired Frost's work. The time Frost spent in England was one of the most significant periods in his life, but it was short-lived. I called my editor: Should we just put this manuscript in the freezer? My editor found my courage for me. No, he replied, we want to go ahead with this.

If anything, he assured me, a thorough, unflinching and humane biography of Lee is more important now, as the monuments to him have been removed from view. That put me back on the rails. There are some biographies that are almost impossible to write, but write them we must. Biography demands a close encounter with a subject, an entrance into motive, perception and explanation. Monsters on the order of Hitler are comparatively rare. But monsters are not the only problem for biographers. How do we write a biography of a Nearsighted like the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and explain how he could have misjudged Hitler so catastrophically?

How do we treat an Inconsistent like Ulysses Grant, fighting for the Union as a general in the Civil War but issuing an antisemitic order in , or Woodrow Wilson, making the world safe for democracy but endorsing Jim Crow? My examination of Robert E. Lee has posed many of these same questions. He raised his hand against the United States he had sworn to defend, and there is no other word for that but treason Lee was indicted on a charge of treason but never brought to trial. He fought with maddening skill during the Civil War in defense of a Confederacy openly devoted to the perpetuation of slavery. By some accounts, he even whipped an enslaved person who attempted to run away. Lee took the lack of response to mean that the government wished to retain the right to prosecute him in the future.

Lee's right to vote was restored in Elmer Oris Parker, an employee of the National Archives, found the oath of allegiance in among old State Department records. In , after a five-year campaign by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Senate vote and a , U. House of Representatives vote, with the resolution effective June 13, President Gerald R. Ford signed the resolution on August 5, on the portico of the Lee mansion, with a dozen of Lee's descendants attending including Robert E. Lee V, great-great-grandson. On September 28, , Lee suffered a stroke that left him without the ability to speak.

Lee died from the effects of pneumonia shortly after 9 a. According to J. Lee, his last words, on the day of his death, were "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the tent," but this is debatable because of conflicting accounts. Since Lee's stroke resulted in aphasia, last words may have been impossible. Lee was treated homeopathically for this illness. Among Southerners, Lee came to be even more revered after his surrender than he had been during the war when Stonewall Jackson had been the great Confederate hero, particularly after Jackson's death at Chancellorsville. Admirers pointed to his character and devotion to duty, not to mention his brilliant tactical successes in battle after battle against a stronger foe. Military historians continue to pay attention to his battlefield tactics and maneuvering, though many think he should have designed better strategic plans for the Confederacy.

However, it should be noted that he was not given full direction of the Southern war effort until very late in the conflict. His reputation continued to build and by his followers had spread into the North, signaling a national apotheosis. Arlington House, The Robert E. During the American Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site of Arlington National Cemetery, in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to return to his home. However, the United States has since designated the mansion as a National Memorial to Lee, a mark of widespread respect for him in both the North and South.

Civil War Confederate General. By the time young Robert arrived his father's financial irresponsibility had reduced the family to poverty and after Harry spent in debtor's prison the Lees moved to a small house in Alexandria where they were reduced to living on family charity. Harry was injured in an Baltimore political political riot and abandoned his family; Lee studied in Fauquier County and at Alexandria Academy and was to develop both studious habits and strong Christian faith, though he was not confirmed in the Episcopal Church until age He also developed an abiding shame over the actions of his father's later years; indeed it is said that Lee lived his own life in an attempt to atone for Light Horse Harry, and whether that be true or not he never named any of his own sons Henry or Harry.

In Lee received an appointment to West Point via the intervention of William Henry Fitzhugh, a relative who had often provided material aid. From the time he entered the Academy in he had an outstanding record, never being charged with a demerit and graduating second in the class of to Charles Mason, later a noted attorney but now remembered only as the answer to the trivia question "Who beat Robert E. Lee at West Point? Following graduation he was assigned to the Corps of Engineers, the norm for students with good academic records, duty carrying prestige but little promotion opportunity. While he was on leave he experienced the trauma of having his mother die in his arms in August of but he was soon off to build forts on the the Georgia coast.

In Lee was transferred to Fort Monroe, Virginia, and soon married Mary Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, whom he had been courting since The wedding took place only after the Custis family relaxed their opposition to Mary's romance with the disgraced Light Horse Harry's son; the Lees were devoted to each other and the union produded seven children though it was in some ways an unhappy match that Lee never objected to temporarily escaping when sent on assignment. Duty at Fort Monroe proved an unpleasant experience marked by staff conflicts and in Lee was posted to the Washington office of the Chief of Engineers.

In he was sent west where he distinguished himself by vastly improving Mississippi River navigation especially at St. Promoted to captain for his work along the Mississippi he was sent to Brooklyn in to become post engineer of Fort Hamilton where he worked on improving coastal defense. Lee made a number of structural improvements in the New York City area and earned praise but by he had 17 years in the Army and was still a captain with a family to support and little chance for advancement. Oportunity, however, was at hand and on August 19, , Lee received his orders to report to General John Wool in preparation for service in Mexico.

After traveling by ship to New Orleans he then moved on to Texas where he joined up with General Wool. Lee and a Captain Fraser were in charge of road building on the advance into Mexico and did their jobs well, though progress was made easier by the lack of enemy contact. When he arrived near Vera Cruz Lee was made a part of Scott's inner circle of officers; working for him were Lieutenants P. Lee participated in the battles of Vera Cruz, Contreras, and Churubusco, then was wounded at Chapultepec, his reconnaissance missions along the way proving essential to ultimate success. Along with Beauregard and McClellan he assisted in preparing for General Scott's entry into Mexico City; at the end, though he had been acclaimed and had earned three brevet promotions for gallantry, he still held the permanent rank of captain.

After the conflict he was sent to Baltimore as chief engineer then in returned to West Point as Superintendent with the rank of Brevet Colonel. Lee proved a popular and able executive while gaining experience that was to prove valuable in the post-Civil War years. He had a reputation for interacting well with the students and was to be a particular influence on Cadet and future General J. Though he was happy and successful he found himself recalled to Arlington upon the October 10, , death of his father-in-law George Washington Parke Custis.

As the health of Mary Lee had steadily declined Lee was stuck with sorting out the problems of the estate. Custis had large holdings but even larger debts and further had left a poorly drawn holographic will making financial bequests which there was no money to pay. Arlington Hall itself was left to Lee's eldest son George Washington Custis Lee, known as "Custis", who would one day serve as a Confederate Major General and who in would successfully sue the federal government and gain financial compensation for the taking of Arlington during the conflict. In the course of the settlement Lee was to make arrangements for the emancipation of Mr. Custis' slaves, though he was to also ensure that they would be able to support themselves once free. In October of Lee received a message via Lieutenant J.

Stuart calling him from Arlington to Washington to deal with the capture of the armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, by anti-slavery activists led by John Brown. Under orders from President Buchanan and taking with him J. On the morning of October 18th J. Cadets under the command of Mexican War veteran Major Thomas Jackson, then called behind his back 'Tom Fool' but one day to be written down in history as 'Stonewall'. Lee returned to his duties in Texas but storm clouds were brewing and after Texas seceeded from the Union and U. Army facilities were turned over to the Confederacy he was recalled by General Scott to Washington in February , there to be promoted to Colonel and offered general's stars along with command of the Union Army.

A staunch Unionist and not a defender of slavery, Lee wanted to see the nation preserved but he was unwilling to invade the South to accomplish that end. Virginia seceeded on April 17, ; Lee resigned his commission on April 20th and was appointed Brigadier General in the Confederate Army on May 14th then the next month was named the third senior of the original five officers of four star rank. Initially tasked with training and arming Virginia troops, Lee conducted the essentially failed expedition into the western counties today called the West Virginia Campaign, then was sent to take charge of preparing coastal defenses in the lower southeast, doing a good enough job that his forts essentially held throughout the war.

Returning to Richmond where he was already considered a failure after the western operation he supervised the digging of trenches around the capital, earning himself the derisive title "King of Spades". Command of the Army of Northern Virginia devolved upon General Gustavus Woodson Smith who suffered a nervous breakdown within 12 hours, leading Davis to place Lee in the top spot. He had his work cut out for him; the Confederacy had suffered multiple defeats, the public held no confidence in him, and McClellan was about four miles east of Richmond at roughly the present location of Richmond International Airport with an Army far larger and better equipped than anything Lee could muster.

He organized the Seven Days Battle, a series of six late June engagements that only contained one clear cut victory, John Bell Hood's June 27th assault at Gaines' Mill, and cost numerous lives but ended with General McClellan bottled-up on the James River and no longer a danger to Richmond. Lee next turned his attention to Northern Virginia where from August 28th to 30th, with much help from Longstreet and Jackson, he routed General John Pope at Second Manassas; during this operation Lee fell and injured his hands, limiting his riding ability. The time of Second Manassas also marks the first recorded appearance of Lee's chest pains, then called "rheumatism", but in retrospect symptoms of the coronary artery disease that was to mark the rest of his life. Lee then moved into Maryland hoping to gather supplies, recruit new troops, and perhaps strike a blow into the northeast that would dampen the North's willingness to fight; his efforts were derailed by the famous Lost Order No.

Withdrawing to Virginia after the drawn battle he organized his troops at Fredericksburg to meet the new Army of the Potomac commander Ambrose Burnside; on December 13, , Union troops were sent up the side of Mayre's Heights into a fortified position held by James Longstreet, thus ending thousands of lives and Burnside's brief tenure in command. Longstreet was soon sent to Southside Virginia on a foraging expedition and thus as spring came Lee was missing a third of his Army. In late April he moved toward Cancellorsville, just west of Fredericksburg; between April 30th and May 6th Lee stopped Joe Hooker in the series of conflicts known collectively as the Battle of Chancellorsville, though at the cost of the May 2nd mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson in a friendly fire incident.

The entire operation which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg was controversial at the time and will likely remain so forever, with whole books written about each day and questions asked as to whether he should have replaced Jackson with Richard Ewell, whether he should have followed Longstreet's suggestions, whether he should have ordered Pickett's Charge, and indeed whether he should have gone north in the first place. In the aftermath Meade was unable to persue as the victorious army was in virtually as bad a condition as the defeated one.

Once back in Virginia Lee's health was poor, and knowing he bore the onus of failure he offered to resign. The President, however, had nobody to replace him with. Interestingly, Gettysburg was not then seen as "final" in the way later generations viewed it thus Lee again reorganized and in the spring of staged the Wilderness Campaign, initially without Longstreet who after Gettysburg had been temporarily detached to General Braxton Bragg in Tennessee. Victories he won, albeit with the loss of men and supplies he could not replace; his main problem, however, was that the Union Army was now under the command of General U.

Grant, thus denying to Lee the advantage of fighting the timid or incompetent. Forced into a nine month siege at Petersburg, he held out until finally compelled to retreat on April 2, During the stalemate Lee was named General-in-Chief of the Confederate States Army on January 31, , and pushed for the integration of black soldiers into the Army. The Cause, however, was lost and Lee finally had to abandon the line at Petersburg.

Over the next week as he moved west he attempted to obtain food and supplies and to link up with what little was left of the Army of Tennessee, now under Joe Johnston in North Carolina. He delivered the surrender himself rather than send a subordinate as he knew of the sense of insult his father had felt when the British made their capitulation at Yorktown via the most junior officer present, and that only after a sergeant had been rejected by George Washington. After the war the men had to get back to whatever life they could salvage, the South had to be rebuilt, and Lee had to feed his family.

His respect in the South was undiminished and though he faced the threat of legal action job offers came in, some of which could have made him wealthy. Desiring, however, to help restore the country's prosperity in October he accepted the presidency of the then-small Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. Revered by students, faculty, and the local populace, he proved an effective administrator; in a move was made to have him run as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia.