Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee was known as an exemplary military commander during the Civil War.

By his achievements he won a high place amongst the great generals of history. He was

born on January 19, 1807, and he lived his youth in Alexandria Virginia. He was appointed

to West Point in 1825 and graduated with honors in 1829. After graduation, he joined the

Corps of Engineers, and assisted in a variety of projects and construction of military bases

and ports.

Robert E. Lee supported Virginia in the April of 1861. Jefferson Davis appointed him

a General in the Confederate Army. While a general, he failed to stop the invasion of Virginia,

and was put in charge of Coastal Defenses.

Lee then won a number of victories in the following months. In June of '62, Lee

drove the Union army away from the Richmond area in the Seven Days' Battle. Lee then

drove the northern army back into Washington D.C. after the second Battle of Bull Run.

Antietam soon followed on September 17, 1862, where he won a costly battle with northern

general McClellan. Soon after, Lee began his with drawl through Virginia, where again he

won a costly battle on the Union at Fredericksburg in December. In May of 1863, battle of

Chancellorsville, which he lost one of his most useful and bold commanders, Lieutenant

Stonewall Jackson. In the summer of 1863, he led his forces to Gettysburg Pennsylvania,

where he engaged the north in the largest Battle of the war, and the turning point of the war.

After this battle, he was forced back into Virginia in a series of bloody skirmishes. He was

hindered by the loss of a number of his leading officers, such as James Longstreet, and J.E.B.

Stuart. Although weakened, he brilliantly held off Grant, and inflicted heavy loses on the northerners. Although brilliantly maneuvering, he was unable to seize the initiative and take

the offensive. Lee was forced to retreat into Richmond and Petersburg. In April of 1865,