What was Lee's last victory?

Answer 1

Lee's last unequivocal, clear victory was at Chancellorsville, in early May, 1863, the battle in which Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men. There were moments of brilliance after that, and some days of tactical success, but these came in the context of overall campaigns that were going against the Rebels. If the Battle of Gettysburg had ended after the first day it would have been a clear Rebel victory, but Lee chose to continue for two more days to assail the Yankees on the high ground south of town, where they had fled after the drubbing of the first day. Later in 1863 there was the Mine Run Campaign, where Lee turned back an advance by the Yankees through maneuvering, without a battle. As the campaigning opened in 1864 Lee managed a serious mauling of the Union troops under their new commander, Grant, on the same battlefield as where Chancellorsville had been fought almost exactly one year earlier. This second battle at that place was called The Wilderness, and Lee inflicted such damage on the Yankees as had always previously caused whoever was in command of northern troops to withdraw back over the river to regroup and lick his wounds. Grant, though very shaken, refused to do this, and pressed on, trying to turn Lee's flank. This was the beginning of The Overland Campaign, six weeks during which Grant lost more men than Lee had in his Army, but Grant kept on doggedly driving ahead despite these tremendous losses. At Malvern Hill, near the end of the Campaign, Grant tried a frontal attack on Rebels dug in on high ground, with ample artillery support. In barely half an hour the Rebels inflicted thousands of casualties. (This was on practically the same ground where in 1862, in a Battle called Cold Harbor, Lee, new to command, had tried a frontal attack on Yankees dug in on the high ground with ample artillery, and was also badly mauled. It only took once for both Lee and Grant to learn this lesson, something generals of the First World War NEVER learned). But still Grant kept on, and at the end of the Overland Campaign Lee was forced back into the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg. Lee himself had said months earlier that is this ever happened, it would just "be a matter of time". Being stuck in fixed defenses robbed Lee of his ability to maneuver, which he had used to confound, confuse, and surprise his opponents repeatedly, and also magnified the advantage the north had in men and material. Lee still managed occasional flashes of brilliance. The last was at Fort Stedman, a strongpoint in the ever more elaborate Yankee lines confronting his thin ranks. These lines were a preview of WWI. Barbed wire had not yet been invented, but there were abatis - rows of wooden stakes, sharpened to a point, with one end buried in the ground and the pointy end aimed toward the enemy. Picked men went forward with axes to chop through the abatis and open paths, and more picked men made a rush, in the hours just before dawn on March 25, 1865, and captured Fort Stedman. But with dawn Yankees in neighboring strongpoints were able to bring their cannon to bear on Fort Stedman, which was a three-sided affair, with no back wall. What Rebels were able to ran the gauntlet back to their own lines, but most were captured. President Lincoln was in the area visiting General Grant, and went to the POW enclosure where these starved Rebels were held, to gaze upon them, in his own last month on earth. One week later Lee had to give up the defense of Richmond and Petersburg, his lines finally stretched past the breaking point, as he had predicted.

Futher to the excellent points made above, it is worth noting that Lee's last victory was indeed at Cold Harbor. It was a defensive victory as Union forces incurred heavy losses in this prelude to the near end of the War.

Grant in his own words regretted he took so many losses as he could not easily surrmount the defensive tactics of General Lee.