Robert E. Lee

Lee at age 31 in 1838, as a Lieutenant of Engineers in the U.S. Army

Robert E. Lee, around age 38, and his son William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, around age 8, c.1845

Robert E. Lee around age 43, when he was a brevet lieutenant-colonel of engineers, c. 1850

Lee mounted on Traveller (September 1866)

Battle of Gettysburg, by Thure de Thulstrup

Lee with son Custis (left) and aide Walter H. Taylor (right) by Brady, April 16, 1865

General Lee and his Confederate officers in their first meeting since Appomattox, August 1869.

Oath of amnesty submitted by Robert E. Lee in 1865

Robert E. Lee, oil on canvas, Edward Calledon Bruce, 1865. Virginia Historical Society

Robert Edward Lee in art at the Battle of Chancellorsville in a stained glass window of the Washington National Cathedral

Facade view of Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial — at Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia, pictured in 2006

Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Robert E. Lee, May 29, 1890, Richmond, Virginia

The removal of Lee's statue from a monument in New Orleans

Stained glass of Lee's life in the National Cathedral

Robert E. Lee, National Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C. Edward Virginius Valentine, sculptor, 1909

Robert E Lee, Virginia Monument, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Frederick William Sievers, sculptor, 1917

Robert E. Lee Monument by Mercié, Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, 1890

Statue of Lee at the Confederate War Memorial, Dallas, 1896

University Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University

Confederate general who served the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War, during which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army.

- Robert E. Lee

500 related topics

Confederate States Army

The military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces in order to uphold the institution of slavery in the Southern states.

Battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia

Private Edwin Francis Jemison, whose image became one of the most famous portraits of the young soldiers of the war

A cartoon from the war, showing the Confederates forcibly drafting a Unionist man into the Confederate army. The Unionist man objects, with the Confederates threatening to lynch him if he does not comply.

An 1861 Confederate recruiting poster from Virginia, urging men to join the Confederate cause and fight off the U.S. Army, which it refers to as a "brutal and desperate foe"

General Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy's most famous general

An 1895 illustration showing the uniforms of the Confederate Army contrasted with those of the U.S. Army

A painting of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fighting the U.S. Army at Spotsylvania in 1864

A group of Confederate soldiers-possibly an artillery unit captured at Island No. 10 and taken at POW Camp Douglas (Chicago); photograph possibly by D. F. Brandon

Confederate troops marching south on N Market Street, Frederick, Maryland, during the Civil War

A Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903

Jackson McCurtain, Lieutenant Colonel of the First Choctaw Battalion in Oklahoma, CSA

1862 illustration showing Confederates escorting kidnapped African American civilians south into slavery. A similar instance occurred in Pennsylvania when the Army of Northern Virginia invaded it in 1863 to fight the U.S. at Gettysburg.

An 1862 illustration of a Confederate officer forcing slaves at gunpoint to fire a cannon at U.S. soldiers in battle. A similar instance occurred at the first Battle of Bull Run, where slaves were forced by the Confederates to load and fire a cannon at U.S. forces.

An 1864 cartoon lampooning the Confederacy's deliberating on the use of black soldiers, showing them defecting en masse towards U.S. lines if such proposals were adopted.

"Marlboro", an African-American body servant to a white Confederate soldier

Julian Scott's 1873 painting, Surrender of a Confederate Soldier

Corporal of the Artillery division of the Confederate Army

Confederate mortar crew at Warrington, Florida in 1861, across from Fort Pickens

Confederate artillery at Charleston Harbor, 1863

Lt Col. E. V. Nash, 4th Georgia Infantry Doles-Cook Brigade, who was killed in 1864

<Center>Colonel (Infantry shown)</Center>

<Center>Lieutenant-colonel (Headquarters shown)</Center>

<Center>Major (Medical Corps shown)</Center>

<Center>Captain (Marine Corps shown)</Center>

<Center>1st Lieutenant (Artillery shown)</Center>

<Center>2nd Lieutenant (Cavalry shown)</Center>

The main Confederate armies, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee and the remnants of the Army of Tennessee and various other units under General Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered to the U.S. on April 9, 1865 (officially April 12), and April 18, 1865 (officially April 26).

Seven Days Battles

The Seven Days Battles were a series of seven battles over seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War.

George B. McClellan and Robert E. Lee, respective commanders of the Union and Confederate armies in the Seven Days

Seven Days Battles: map of events (left side)

Map of Southeastern Virginia (additional map)

<center>Brig. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. William B. Franklin</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. James Longstreet</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes</center>

Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, away from Richmond and into a retreat down the Virginia Peninsula.

United States Military Academy

United States service academy in West Point, New York.

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, center, with the U.S. Corps of Cadets senior leadership and Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, far left, Commandant of the Corps of Cadets, after the congressional retirement review of the Corps of Cadets for Rep. Dave Hobson, center right, and Rep. Jim Saxton, center left, 2008

Artillery cadet in 1805, wearing a mixture of commissioned and non-commissioned uniforms prescribed for artillery cadets

West Point, from Phillipstown (1831) engraving by W. J. Bennett showing the original buildings of the United States Military Academy

Robert E. Lee, American Civil War general who graduated from West Point and later served as its superintendent from 1852 to 1855

West Point Cadet C. Benek by Mathew Brady

United States Military Academy uniform in 1882

Class of 1980 Cadets Carol A. Young, Gregory Stephens, and Kathryn A. Wildey at West Point, December 1976

The Corps of Cadets assembled with facemasks for the 2020 Army-Navy game.

The Trophy Point Amphitheater hosts cadet ceremonies as well as free summer concerts.

One of the six wings of Washington Hall during lunchtime

Nininger Hall, part of the original Cadet Barracks

The 57th & 58th Superintendents, LTG Franklin L. Hagenbeck (L) & LTG David H. Huntoon (R)

West Point in a New York Central Lines ad

Graduates of the Class of 2008 toss their hats after "class dismissed"

Cadets cross a rope bridge during summer training

Class of '57 honor memorial on which the honor code is inscribed

Cadet collar and shoulder sleeve insignia

Cadet captains' shoulder sleeve insignia

Rwandan President Paul Kagame visits his son's room during Plebe-Parent Weekend

A cadet in action during the 2009 Army–Navy lacrosse game

Its alumni and students are collectively referred to as "The Long Gray Line," the former include: U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ulysses S. Grant; Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy; Confederate general Robert E. Lee; American poet Edgar Allen Poe; U.S. general George Patton; presidents of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Philippines; and 76 Medal of Honor recipients.

Joseph E. Johnston

American career army officer, serving with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars.

Portrait by Benjamin Franklin Reinhart (c. 1860)

Johnston's map Reconnoissances [sic.] of Routes from San Antonio de Bexar to El Paso del Norte, 1849

The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton to Kennesaw Mountain

The surrender of Gen. Joe Johnston - Currier & Ives lithograph

Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee in 1869–1870

Johnston statue in Dalton, Georgia, where he took command of the Army of Tennessee

Johnston statue at the location of the Battle of Bentonville, in North Carolina

Johnston was trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in the same class as Robert E. Lee.

Maryland campaign

The Maryland campaign (or Antietam campaign) occurred September 4–20, 1862, during the American Civil War.

Union General George B. McClellan and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the principal commanders of the campaign

Northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania (1861-1865)

Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), September 17, 1862

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North was repulsed by the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who moved to intercept Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia and eventually attacked it near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Battle of Antietam

Lincoln with McClellan and staff at the Grove Farm after the battle. Notable figures (from left) are 1. Col. Delos Sackett; 4. Gen. George W. Morell; 5. Alexander S. Webb, Chief of Staff, V Corps; 6. McClellan;. 8. Dr. Jonathan Letterman; 10. Lincoln; 11. Henry J. Hunt; 12. Fitz John Porter; 15. Andrew A. Humphreys; 16. Capt. George Armstrong Custer.

Battlefield of Antietam, situation September 15 to 16, 1862

Assaults by the I Corps, 5:30 to 7:30 a.m.

Dead Confederate soldiers from Starke's Louisiana Brigade, on the Hagerstown Turnpike, north of the Dunker Church. Photograph by Alexander Gardner.

Assaults by the XII Corps, 7:30 to 9:00 a.m.

The Dunker Church after September 17, 1862. Here, both Union and Confederate dead lie together on the field.

Assaults by the XII and II Corps, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Confederate dead lie in the "Bloody Lane" after the Battle of Antietam, 1862.

Assaults by the IX Corps, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Confederate dead gathered for burial after the battle. Photograph by Alexander Gardner.

Photograph by Alexander Gardner of Lincoln and McClellan near the Antietam battlefield, October 3, 1862

{{center|Charge of the 51st New York and 51st Pennsylvania across Burnside's Bridge, by Edwin Forbes}}

{{center|Battle of Antietam by Kurz and Allison}}

{{center|Confederate guns on the hill above poured fire into the Union ranks at Burnside's bridge. Photo taken just after the Battle of Antietam, 1862.}}

Union positions below the Confederates at Burnside Bridge

{{center|Confederate soldiers on the Antietam battlefield as they fell inside the fence on the Hagerstown road, September 1862 by Alexander Gardner}}

{{center|Harper's Weekly drawing of dead soldiers on Antietam battlefield, based on Gardner photograph}}

{{center|Confederate horses lay dead and artillery caissons destroyed on Antietam battlefield<ref>Site identified by Frassanito, pp. 168–70.</ref>}}

{{center|Dead on Antietam battlefield<ref>Site identified by Robert Kalasky, "Military Images" Volume XX, Number 6 May–June 1999, pp. 24–29.</ref>}}

{{center|Confederate dead at Bloody Lane, looking east from the north bank. Alexander Gardner photograph.}}

{{center|Confederate dead at Bloody Lane, looking northeast from the south bank. Alexander Gardner photograph.<ref>The Union soldiers looking on were likely members of the 130th Pennsylvania, who were assigned burial detail</ref>}}

{{center|"Confederate soldier who after being wounded had evidently dragged himself to a little ravine on the hillside where he died". Photograph by Alexander Gardner.}}

{{center|Federal burial party, by Alexander Gardner<ref>Site identified by Frassanito, pp. 144–47.</ref>}}

{{center|Burying Union dead on the Antietam battlefield}}

{{center|"A Lonely Grave"—Federal grave at Antietam, by Alexander Gardner<ref>Site identified by Frassanito, pp. 171–74.</ref>}}

{{center|Antietam Battlefield photograph, by Alexander Gardner<ref>Original description claimed "Battlefield of Antietam on the Day of the Battle" September 17, 1862; however, see Frassanito, pp. 70–73.</ref>}}

{{center|"Artillery Hell", by James Hope (Dunker Church at the far left)}}

{{center|"A Fateful Turn"—Late morning looking east toward the Roulette Farm", by James Hope}}

{{center|"The Aftermath at Bloody Lane", by James Hope}}

{{center|"Wasted Gallantry", by James Hope}}

{{center|"A Crucial Delay", by James Hope}}

{{center|The Lutheran Church just east of Sharpsburg marks the extent of the Union offensive during the Battle of Antietam, 1862.}}

The Battle of Antietam, or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek.

General officers in the Confederate States Army

The general officers of the Confederate States Army (CSA) were the senior military leaders of the Confederacy during the American Civil War of 1861–1865.

Confederate States Army general officers collar badge

Robert E. Lee, the best known CSA general. Lee is shown with the insignia of a Confederate colonel, which he chose to wear throughout the war.

P.G.T. Beauregard, the Confederacy's first brigadier general, later the fifth-ranking general

Joseph Reid Anderson in a CSA brigadier general's uniform.

By war's end the Confederacy had at least 383 different men who held this rank in the PACS, and three in the ACSA: Samuel Cooper, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston.

Peninsula campaign

Major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater.

Peninsula campaign, map of Southeastern Virginia

Peninsula campaign, map of Southeastern Virginia (additional map)

Federal Battery # 4 with 13 in seacoast mortars, Model 1861, during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, 1862

Movements and battles in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, up through the start of the Battle of Seven Pines

Engagement Near Hanover Court-House, Virginia

The Chickahominy - Sumner's Upper Bridge: 1862 watercolor by William McIlvaine

Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher at the Battle of Fair Oaks, June 1, 1862

<center>Lt. Gen. James Longstreet</center>

McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat.

Second Battle of Bull Run

Fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War.

Second Bull Run Campaign, August 17–30, 1862 (Additional map).

August 29, 12 noon: Longstreet arrives, Porter stalls

August 29, 5–7 p.m., Kearny's attack, Hood vs. Hatch

Stonewall Jackson's cannons on Henry House Hill

August 30, 4 p.m.: Start of Longstreet's attack

August 30, 4:30 p.m.: Union defense of Chinn Ridge

August 30, 5 p.m.: Final Confederate attacks, beginning of the Union retreat

Bridge crossed by the Union troops retreating to Centreville

Soldiers stand next to a completely destroyed Henry House in 1862

<center>Soldiers stand next to a completely destroyed Henry House in 1862</center>

<center>Virginia, Bull Run. Ruins of Stone Bridge, 1862</center>

<center>A group of men stand near the Manassas Railroad Junction railroad tracks in 1862 with a train in the background</center>

<center>A group of men near Manassas Railroad Junction in 1862</center>

<center>Men sit near the Manassas Junction railroad in 1862</center>

<center>Picking up debris of trains after Pope's retreat</center>

<center>Bull Run, Va. Dedication of the battle monument; Judge Abram B. Olin of the District of Columbia Supreme Court, who delivered the address, stands by the rail.</center>

Battle map drafted by Sneden, Robert Knox, with notes on Union and Confederate strengths, casualties, done in pen and ink and water color

It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas) fought on July 21, 1861 on the same ground.

American Civil War

Civil war in the United States between the Union (states that remained loyal to the federal union, or "the North") and the Confederacy (states that voted to secede, or "the South").

Clockwise from top: Battle of Gettysburg

Union Captain John Tidball's artillery

Confederate prisoners

ironclad USS Atlanta (1861)

Ruins of Richmond, Virginia

Battle of Franklin

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, aroused public opinion about the evils of slavery. According to legend, when Lincoln was introduced to her at the White House, his first words were, "So this is the little lady who started this Great War."

Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a leading abolitionist

Marais des Cygnes massacre of anti-slavery Kansans, May 19, 1858

Mathew Brady, Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1860

The first published imprint of secession, a broadside issued by the Charleston Mercury, December 20, 1860

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865)

Bombardment of the Fort by the Confederates

Rioters attacking a building during the New York anti-draft riots of 1863

Clashes on the rivers were melees of ironclads, cottonclads, gunboats and rams, complicated by naval mines and fire rafts.

Battle between the USS Monitor and USS Merrimack (1855)

General Scott's "Anaconda Plan" 1861. Tightening naval blockade, forcing rebels out of Missouri along the Mississippi River, Kentucky Unionists sit on the fence, idled cotton industry illustrated in Georgia.

Gunline of nine Union ironclads. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston. Continuous blockade of all major ports was sustained by North's overwhelming war production.

A December 1861 cartoon in Punch magazine in London ridicules American aggressiveness in the Trent Affair. John Bull, at right, warns Uncle Sam, "You do what's right, my son, or I'll blow you out of the water."

County map of Civil War battles by theater and year

"Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname at Bull Run.

The Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight.

Confederate dead overrun at Marye's Heights, reoccupied next day May 4, 1863

By 1863, the Union controlled large portions of the Western Theater, especially areas surrounding the Mississippi River

The Battle of Chickamauga, the highest two-day losses

Nathaniel Lyon secured St. Louis docks and arsenal, led Union forces to expel Missouri Confederate forces and government.

These dead soldiers—from Ewell's May 1864 attack at Spotsylvania—delayed Grant's advance on Richmond in the Overland Campaign.

Map of Confederate territory losses year by year

Burying Union dead on the Antietam battlefield, 1862

Through the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau, northern teachers traveled into the South to provide education and training for the newly freed population.

Beginning in 1961 the U.S. Post Office released commemorative stamps for five famous battles, each issued on the 100th anniversary of the respective battle.

The Battle of Fort Sumter, as depicted by Currier and Ives.

In 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg.