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Robert E Lee Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of Major General Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry", Governor of Virginia, and Anne Hill Carter.

Lee started at West Point in 1825. He graduated in 1829 at the top of his class and with no demerits. Lee distinguished himself as a military officer in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He was one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Veracruz to Mexico City. “He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal scouting as a staff officer; he found routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable”. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met for the first time in the Mexican-American War. Both Lee and Grant participated in Scott's march from the coastal town of Vera Cruz to Mexico City

In early 1861, President Abraham Lincoln invited Lee to take command of the entire Union Army. Lee declined because his home state of Virginia was considering seceding from the USA. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, after the attack from Ft. Sumter, Lee chose to follow his home state. Lee's first role in the Confederacy was to serve as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Lee soon emerged as a bold and aggressive General, after he assumed command of the Confederate armies in the eastern theatre. Lee was put in command after the wounding of Joseph Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines. His abilities, and boldness as a General were quickly made evident in the Army of Northern Virginia’s main victories such as the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862), Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30- May 6th 1863), Battle of the Wilderness (May 5th- 7th 1864) Battle of Cold Harbor (May 31st- June 12th, 1864), Seven Days Battles (June 25th- July 1st, 1862), and the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28th- 30th, 1862). Lee also made some very poor moves that were very costly to the South’s morale and overall victory. After a bloody stalemate at Antietam (September 17th, 1862) and a disaster at the battle of Gettysburg (July 1st-3rd, 1863), hopes for victory were all but dashed and defeat for the South was inevitable. However, due to the lack of a pursuit by the commander of the Union forces, General Lee was able to escape after both defeats back across the Potomac River and into Virginia without any more destruction to his already demoralized army. His decision in 1863 to invade the North, rather than send troops to protect the fall of Vicksburg (July 4th, 1863), proved a major strategic blunder and cost the Confederacy control of the Mississippi river, and cut off the state of Texas from the rest of the Confederate states. Nevertheless Lee's brilliant defensive maneuvers stopped the Union offenses one after another, as he defeated a series of Union commanders in Virginia.

In the spring of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant and George Sherman began a series of campaigns to wear down Lee's army. In the Overland Campaign of 1864 and the Siege of Petersburg in 1864–1865, Lee inflicted heavy casualties on Grant's larger army, but was forced back into trenches; the Confederacy was unable to replace their losses or even provide adequate rations to the soldiers that stayed loyal to Lee and continued to fight on. Sherman went on a march from the city of Atlanta to the sea in Savannah. This march was known as Sherman’s march and it destroyed much of the South’s will to fight, and a majority of its already low morale. In early April 1865, Lee's depleted forces were overwhelmed at Petersburg; he abandoned Richmond and retreated west as Union forces encircled his army. Lee had no other choice but to surrender his forces to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, marking the end of the bloodiest war in American History. After the war Lee took up the position as President of Washington College (now known as Washington and Lee College) in Lexington, Virginia. He remained there until his death on October 12th, 1870. He is buried underneath Lee chapel at Washington and Lee. //[|www.civilwarhome.com/**lee**bio.htm]// //[|www.americancivilwar.com/south/**lee**.html]// //Ben Holden//