Robert E. Lee

From his previous comments and actions, it seems likely that Lee joined the Confederacy because he felt a greater loyalty to his home state of Virginia than to the United States as a whole (this was, at the time, a quite common sentiment). Lee actually turned down offers of a command in the Confederate armed forces before the secession of Virginia began to look inevitable.

1955 out of a series from 1954-1961 called The Liberty Issue

source: http://www.1847usa.com/identify/1950s/1954LibertyIssue.htm

Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

The terms of the agreement signed at Appomattox on April 9th 1865 were:

- The delivery of the Army of Northern Virginia's armaments materials and flags, with exception of the officers' individual weapons, the horses belonging to the cavalry troopers and those of the artillery men, which were considered private property because they had to be compulsory furnished by those soldiers.

- After having sworn, pledging their owns word, they would have never more fought against the USA, Confederates' officers and soldiers were free to return back to their homes and remaining there undisturbed.

- The supplying of 25.000 ration of food to the Army of Northern Virginia, whose

soldiers were starving.

- The agreement provided the surrender of only The Army of Northern Virginia.

Robert E. Lee's abilities as a tactician have been praised by many military historians and using these abilities he was able to win battles against greatly superior Union forces. His greatest ability was to assess the character of his opposition. He worked McClellan's fears against him, and Burnside's' inexperience, and Hooker's bluster. He was a master at the aggressive-elastic defence. He attacked the opposition as a means of blunting their offensives. He as less successful when he himself was on the offensive in Maryland and Pennsylvania. His greatest attribute was Stonewall Jackson.

Yes. General Robert Edward Lee had two sisters. The General's sister Anne married William Louis Marshall. His sister Catharine Mildred married Edward Vernon Childe. In order of birth, the children of Henry Lee and Anne Hill Carter were Algernon Sydney Lee, Sydney Smith Lee, Charles Carter Lee, Anne Kinloch Lee, Robert Edward Lee, and Catharine Mildred. General Lee also had one half-sister through his father's first marriage to cousin Matilda Ludwell Lee. The General's half-sister Lucy married Bernard Moore Carter. In order of birth, his half-siblings were Nathaniel Green Lee, Philip Ludwell Lee, Lucy Grymes Lee, and Henry Lee.

Major General Henry Lee III, aka "Light Horse Harry", (1756–1818), who was a general in the American Revolution and Governor of Virginia.

The offer was made by General Winfield Scott, who had been Commanding General of the US Army since 1839. Lee had served with great distinction on Scott's staff during the Mexican War, and Scott well knew Lee's ability. Both Scott and Lee were from Virginia. In 1861 Scott was 75 years old and had been in the Army for 53 years (there was no system of retirement then). Scott also weighed over 400 pounds, and could not mount a horse, except by being hoisted into the saddle with a block and tackle. Scott was obviously unable to take command of the army in the field, so he turned to the best soldier in the army for the position. But the offer was made almost at the same time as Virginia was voting on secession. When Virginia voted to secede, Lee could not bring himself to make war on his home state. Scott reached a different conclusion and stayed with the "old flag". Despite the respect and affection Lee had for Scott, and despite Scott's telling Lee that he was making the biggest mistake of his life, Lee resigned from the army he had served in for 36 years, as a cadet and an officer, and offered his services to the state of Virginia. Soon the new Confederate national government made Lee an officer in their new army.

After Lee's victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lee believed that a major victory in the East would help to bring the Union to lose faith in their war efforts. By marching in the Union territory Lee would threaten Washington DC, and prevent any Union assault into Virginia. He also hoped his move North might relive the Union pressure on Vicksburg. He also believed that the pursuing Union army could fall into a trap and by using a tactical defense, destroy or at least severely damage the Army of the Potomac. By occupying the capital of Pennsylvania, Northern peace movements would be strengthened, and the panic caused by capturing Harrisburg, Pennsylvania would be devastating to the North and might also bring Great Britain to intervene and call for peace talks.

His rank was that of General, the highest rank attainable in the army of the Confederacy during the Civil War. He held the rank of Colonel in the United States Army before he resigned his commission.

No-one.

Lee was one of many respected senior Virginians who did not approve of secession, and were hoping Virginia would not vote Confederate.

When it did, he felt he should resign from the US Army, as he could not take up arms against his own state. But he actually asked Winfield Scott if he could stay neutral. (The old man snarled "We don't want any fence-sitters!")

Only with reluctance did Lee join the Confederates. Nobody inspired him. But of course, he himself inspired many thousands of young Southerners.

Robert E Lee wore a uniform and was in command since 1862, and wore gray in the battle of Gettysburg.

Lee went north twice, in 1862 and again in 1863. In 1862 the movement culminated in the Battle of Antietam, and in 1863 at Gettysburg. When Lee went north in 1862 Britain and France were considering intervening in the war on behalf of the Confederacy, which would have meant an end to the war, a Confederate victory in the war and southern independence. Lee hoped to win a great battle on northern soil and encourage Britain and France to intervene. There was also a practical reason for the movement north in 1862. The Rebels had just won a tremendous victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). This battlefield was about 25 miles west of Washington DC. But the Rebels could not stay there. The railroads to the south had been destroyed, and so the Rebels had no way of obtaining sufficient supplies of ammunition and especially food if they stayed at Manassas. The area around Manassas had been devastated, the farmers fled, no crops were planted there, there was no food to go get from the people still living around there. The army had to move. If it went back south, it would look like a retreat, when they had just won a smashing victory. If they went west, there was food, but that would be taking the army away from the crucial area of action, and would leave open the road to Richmond to the Yankees. If they went east they would swiftly run into the extensive ring of earthworks and forts the Yankees had built around Washington. That left moving north, feeding the army from the food of Maryland farmers, as the best alternative.

In 1863 Lee hoped to "conquer a peace" (win the war) by moving into the north and fighting the Union Army of the Potomac and destroying it. Lee knew it was just a matter of time before attrition would so reduce southern manpower that the Yankees would win, so he hoped to win the war by active measures before that could happen. By this time the hope of foreign intervention was gone. Lee also wanted to "transfer the seat of war" (the area where the fighting was happening) into the north, to get the war away from the Virginia farmers long enough for them to harvest their crops, which fed his army. Lee was probably also motivated by the fact that there was talk of taking a large portion of his army and sending it west, to help lift the Yankee siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Lee is said by some to have had "tunnel vision" when it came to Virginia. Rather than stand idle, which would give him few excuses to resist this large transfer, Lee proposed to do something. This was quite a gamble, because going as far north as Lee did in 1863 meant that, if he did not win the war while he was there, sooner or later he was going to have to go back south of the Potomac, again because he would have no reliable means of obtaining supplies in the north. And when he did go back south, no matter what had happened in the north it would look like a retreat. Because the Rebels could not count on being able to remain in the north and sustain themselves, the movement in 1863 was really a gigantic raid rather than a true invasion.

I saw a painting that was signed by lee supposedly and was appraised for 40,000. It was of a cabin in winter in Virginia at night with a town in the background. It was awful. I'm not an artist, but it was pretty bad.

Stonewal Jackson, killed at Chancellorsville - after which neither Lee nor his army was quite the same again.

Another answer could be cavalry leader Jeb Stewart who was Lee's eyes and ears at many battles, but helped him to lose Gettysburg, and was killed at Spotsylvania.

he was a German chemist, and philology professor

He was a general in the confederat army that played an important role in the civil war and one of the most celebrated generals of the civil war.

The 'Seven Days' Battles, June 25-July 1, 1862. Second Manassas-August 29-30, 1862.Sharpsburg-September 17, 1862. Fredericksburg-December 13, 1862. Chancellorsville-May 1-4, 1863.Gettysburg-July 1-3, 1863. The Wilderness and Spottsylvania Courthouse(multiple clashes)-May, 1864. Cold Harbor- June 4, 1864.Siege of Petersburg-(about 9 months duration-dates unknown to writer).

General Robert E. Lee was appointed commander in chief of all Confederate forces February 6, 1865.

Source: Recollections and Letters of General Lee, by his son, Robert E. Lee Jr. Broadfoot Publishing edition, 1988.

answer

He was awarded the National Medal of Technology for inventing the first cordless phone.

No, Lee and his army simply retreated back to Virginia. He would not surrender until April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House.

On April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House (Virginia), Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant. This was effectively the end of the US Civil War. Lee and his men were "paroled" or released, as they had insufficient supplies and weapons to continue fighting.

The South had much riding on the raid into Pennsylvania by Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. He took full responsibility for the assault of the "Little Round Top". A charge that his General Longstreet had advised against.Back in Virginia he offered his resignation to Jefferson Davis who refused to accept it.

General Grant allowed Confederate officers and men immediate parole. They were allowed to return home. Confederate forces were fed from Union rations and CSA supplies that had been captured in the weeks before the surrender. Also, Grant issued orders for Union rations to be delivered.

As an aside, Grant was able to have 25,000 ration meals delivered to the Appomattox Court House.

The Union soldiers paid respect to General Lee as he rode away.

Lee's own troops saluted him with tears in their eyes. Most of the men could now return home in time for planting season.